Using Meta Data Services
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Meta Data Services is a technology that you use with other tools. The tools that you use vary depending on whether you are designing meta data, programming with meta data, or accessing meta data at run time.
The following diagram shows the ways you can interact with Meta Data Services. It shows design time, development time, and run time phases. In practice, the distinction between these phases is not so precise. However, making these distinctions can help you understand the various ways you can work with Meta Data Services.
During design, the focus is on model creation. You can use modeling tools and the Meta Data Services Software Development Kit (SDK) to create meta data to store in a repository database.
Development begins after you have model information in the database. You can then use the API to program against it, or you can use XML encoding to exchange meta data with other repositories.
At run time, you can use browser tools that work directly with repository contents. At every level, you can create custom solutions that are based on Meta Data Services.
See Also
Designing Meta Data Types Using Information Models
Developing Applications Using Meta Data