Starting in AX-3.5, the metadata browser view is available for working exclusively with metadata properties on components and histories. The interface provides a convenient way to add metadata slots to one or more components or histories. Although you can add metadata slots directly to a component or a history from the slot view, the metadata browser has the ability to add metadata slots to thousands of objects in one batch job.
The interface (shown in the following image) is a view on the root station component. It allows you to filter and navigate through your histories or components so that you can selectively batch-add metadata to all the desired objects. The view runs a job for the metadata operation and reports the results in a job log. If a job runs and is unsuccessful at any point, the job log displays the reason for the failure.
An example of a failure might be that you try to add a slot type to an object that does not support that particular slot type.
This exception should be indicated in the job log.
The following areas comprise the main parts of the metadata browser view:
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Job Log pane
This pane displays after you run any of the editing control jobs to add, edit, or remove metadata. Click the >> icon to view the job log or click the x icon to remove the most recent job log record.
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Metadata Properties table
This table has two adjustable-width columns as follows:
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Navigation
This column provides a navigation tree with root nodes at the Config (station) level and at the History level. The navigation column displays an expandable tree structure representation of the selected station. Expanding a parent node displays additional rows that you can select for editing metadata.
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Metadata Properties
This column displays a summary string of the properties. The metadata property name and its corresponding value are separated by a colon (:) and individual metadata properties are separated by a bar (│). For example:
country:USA│state:Alaska│city:FairbanksThe history “device” object always displays an “n/a” in this column because it does not support the use of properties.
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Editing controls pane
This pane contains the following buttons that open dialog boxes that you can use to add, edit, and remove metadata, as desired:
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button
Click this button to open the Add Metadata dialog box. Fields available in this dialog box vary according to the type of property that you select. The following fields are available for the default “string” type property:
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New Name:
Enter the desired name of the property.
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New Type:
Select the property type that you want to add. The default is string type.
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Set if exists
This option box allows you to choose to edit an existing property value, if it already is present in or under the selected object(s). If this option is not selected, a new property may be added but an existing property is not edited when the Add Metadata job runs.
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Apply to descendants of selected nodes
This option, when selected, allows you to run the Add Metadata job on the selected object and all of its descendant objects. If the option is not selected, only the selected object is edited.
You can select multiple rows in the Metadata Browser table by using the Shift or Ctrl keys to select a range or a non-contiguous set of rows, respectively.
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New Value:
This field allows you to set an appropriate value for the property type. For example, a string field displays for the default string type and allows you to enter the string value that is used for the property.
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Flags:
In addition to the default (required)
Metadataflag option, other flags are available. -
Facets
Use this field to add facets to the slot, if needed, for the chosen property type and use.
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button
This button is available only when you select an object that already has one or more metadata properties. Clicking the button opens the Edit Metadata dialog box with the following property options:
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Property option list
This is an option list that displays all metadata properties assigned to the object and allows you to select the property that you want to edit.
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Apply to descendants of selected nodes
Selecting this option applies any edits you make to this property to all descendant objects under the selected object.
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New Value:
This field allows you to edit the selected metadata property by specifying a new value for it.
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button
This button is available only when you select an object that already has one or more metadata properties. Clicking the button opens the Edit Metadata dialog box with the following property options:
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Property option list
This is an option list that displays all metadata properties assigned to the object and allows you to select the property that you want to remove.
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Apply to descendants of selected nodes
Selecting this option removes this property from all descendant objects under the selected object.
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