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Basics.Metadata.Index |
Metadata is Data which describes or adds information to other data. In 2sxc/EAV we talk about Metadata being Data which has a Target that it applies to.
The 2sxc-EAV system has had extensive Metadata functionality built in since v2 but we haven't talked about it much yet.
Imagine you have a file system containing images and the file system has standard functionality to store data like file name
, path
, file size
and created
/ modified
.
Sometimes we need more.
Let's assume you wanted to show a gallery with images and you want to manage additional information like Tags
and a short Description
.
In this scenario the File is the Target and the additional Tags/Description data is the Metadata.
Let's say you have a system which stores basic user data like UserId
, UserName
and Password
and you want to manage additional information like Biography
.
IF the platform (Dnn) already offers features to manage such additional info, it is not Metadata. But if the information is added on top like with a third-party system (like 2sxc) then this is Metadata.
Most internal configuration of 2sxc works as Metadata.
- Fields on a Content-Type is stored as just the technical Name (which is used in code).
Any additional information for the Edit-UI like description, default-value, etc. is stored as Metadata. - Content-Types just have some internal IDs and names.
Any additional information like description, icon, help-text etc. is stored as Metadata. - App Configuration is treated as Metadata and most of the stored values are available on the App object
- Various Apps like the allow the editor to add more information to uploaded images
Every Entity in 2sxc can be assigned to any other Target data. This happens through a Target Identifier which consists of 2 parts:
- The Target ID which can be a number, guid or string
- The Target Type which is important to ensure that an ID like
5027
is pointing to the person 5027, not the page 5027
Noteworthy to know
- most entities don't have Target Identifiers so most of the data is not Metadata
- assigning an entity to a target can only be done when the Entity is created and not later on
- In the data-lists of the Admin-UI you can see if an item is Metadata - it will have a tag-icon in the ID column
- Introduced in 2sxc v2
- Continuously improved in 2sxc 7, 8, 10 and 11
Shortlink: https://go.2sxc.org/metadata