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Metadata - (advanced ⚠)

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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.

Example: File Metadata

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.

Example: User 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.

How 2sxc/EAV uses Metadata

Most internal configuration of 2sxc works as Metadata.

  1. 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.
  2. Content-Types just have some internal IDs and names.
    Any additional information like description, icon, help-text etc. is stored as Metadata.
  3. App Configuration is treated as Metadata and most of the stored values are available on the App object
  4. Various Apps like the Fancybox Gallery App allow the editor to add more information to uploaded images

How 2sxc Metadata Works

Every Entity in 2sxc can be assigned to any other Target data. This happens through a Target Identifier which consists of 2 parts:

  1. The Target ID which can be a number, guid or string
  2. 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

  1. most entities don't have Target Identifiers so most of the data is not Metadata
  2. assigning an entity to a target can only be done when the Entity is created and not later on
  3. 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

Discover More

  1. Create Metadata - (advanced ⚠)
  2. Read / Access Metadata - (advanced ⚠)
  3. Metadata Target Types
  4. ToSic.Eav.Metadata

History

  1. Introduced in 2sxc v2
  2. Continuously improved in 2sxc 7, 8, 10 and 11

Shortlink: https://go.2sxc.org/metadata

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