Meta Data Services Overview

Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Meta Data Services is an object-oriented repository technology that can be integrated with enterprise information systems or with applications that process meta data.

A number of Microsoft technologies use Meta Data Services as a native store for object definitions or as a platform for deploying meta data. One of the ways in which SQL Server 2000 uses Meta Data Services is to store versioned Data Transformation Services (DTS) packages. In Microsoft Visual Studio®, Meta Data Services supports the exchange of model data with other development tools.

You can use Meta Data Services for your own purposes: as a component of an integrated information system, as a native store for custom applications that process meta data, or as a storage and management service for sharing reusable models. You can also extend Meta Data Services to provide support for new tools for resale or customize it to satisfy internal tool requirements.

Meta Data Services documentation contains the following sections.

Section	Description
Meta Data Services Fundamentals	Describes fundamental concepts and strategies for using Meta Data Services.
Meta Data Services Architecture	Explains the components of Meta Data Services and how they relate to each other.
OIM in Meta Data Services	Describes the Open Information Model (OIM) and how it is used in Meta Data Services.
Using Meta Data Browser	Introduces Meta Data Browser and explains how to use it.
Programming Meta Data Services Applications	Provides information about programming against meta data in a repository.
Repository API Reference	Describes the classes, interfaces, and objects that you can use to program the repository engine and information models.
XML Encoding Reference	Describes the classes, interfaces, and objects that you can use to implement Extensible Markup Language (XML) encoding in your tool or application.

See Also

What's New in Meta Data Services