Internal metadata is a part of a graph, it is contained in a graph and can be seen in its source tab.
Internal metadata can be created in the following ways:
Outline In the Outline pane, you can select the Metadata item and open the context menu by right-clicking and selecting New metadata.
Graph Editor — Edge In the Graph Editor, you must open the context menu by right-clicking any of the edges. There you can see the New metadata item.
Graph Editor — Component To create metadata using a component, fill in the required properties first. After that, right click on the component and select Extract metadata.
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In both cases, after selecting New metadata, a new submenu appears. There you can select the way how to define metadata.
Now you have three possibilities for either case mentioned above: If you want to define metadata yourself, select the User defined item; if you want to extract metadata from a file, select the Extract from flat file or Extract from xls(x) file items, if you want to extract metadata from a database, select the Extract from database item. This way, you can only create internal metadata.
If you define metadata using the context menu, the metadata is assigned to the edge as soon as it is created.
Many readers and writers allow to extract metadata using components' properties. Based on a type of the component, metadata is extracted from a file, database table or other sources.
Supported components are: FlatFileReader, DatabaseReader, FlatFileWriter, DatabaseWriter.
The Extract metadata context menu is available only if the required file, connection or database properties are set on the component.
Externalization of internal metadata is a conversion from internal metadata to external metadata being linked.
After you have created internal metadata as a part of a graph, you may want to convert it to external (shared) metadata. In such a case, you would be able to use the same metadata in other graphs (other graphs would share it).
To externalize any internal metadata item into external (shared) file, right-click an internal metadata item in the Outline pane and select Externalize metadata from the context menu. After that, a new wizard will open in which the meta folder of your project is offered as the location for this new external (shared) metadata file; now you can click OK. You can also rename the offered metadata filename.
After that, the internal metadata item disappears from the Outline pane Metadata group, but, at the same location, already linked, the newly created external (shared) metadata file appears. The same metadata file appears in the meta subfolder of the project and it can be seen in the Project Explorer pane.
You can even externalize multiple internal metadata items at once. To do this, select them in the Outline pane and, after right-click, select Externalize metadata from the context menu. After doing that, a new wizard will open in which the meta folder of your project will be offered as the location for the first of the selected internal metadata items and then you can click OK. The same wizard will open for each of the selected metadata items until they are all externalized. If you want (a file with the same name may already exist), you can change the offered metadata filename.
You can choose adjacent metadata items when you press Shift and move the Down Cursor or the Up Cursor key. If you want to choose non-adjacent items, use Ctrl+Click at each of the desired metadata items instead.
Export of metadata creates new external metadata as a copy of internal metadata.
This case is somewhat similar to that of externalizing metadata. Now you create a metadata file that is outside the graph in the same way as that of externalized file, but such a file is not linked to the original graph. Only a metadata file is being created. Subsequently you can use such a file for more graphs as an external (shared) metadata file as mentioned in the previous sections.
To export internal metadata into external (shared) one, right-click some of the internal metadata items in the Outline pane, click Export metadata from the context menu, select and expand the project you want to add metadata into, select the meta folder, rename the metadata file, if necessary, and click Finish.
After that, the Outline pane metadata folder remains the same, but in the meta folder in the Project Explorer pane, the newly created metadata file appears.
