Metadata

The Metadata subsystem of the Microsoft Business Framework creates and filters detailed information about the classes, attributes, methods, and data types used by an application. The Query Web Service utilizes the information provided by the Metadata subsystem to determine things like the following:

• Can this entity be used directly in a query?
• What display names should be used for this entity and its attributes?
• Does this entity have associations to other entities?
• Is there an orderly way to group entities and their attributes when displayed in a user interface?

The BusinessFramework profile for Rational XDE defines several properties that allow you to specify characteristics of model elements, like classes, attributes, and methods, created for your application. The information created and filtered by the Metadata subsystem is captured directly from the properties set on the elements in a model. For more information about setting properties in a model, refer to Modeling for Query Web Service.