2019.2

Table Of Contents
Metadata API
The "Metadata" on page76 is a hierarchical structure describing the data in a job. It is
composed of 5 basic levels, from top to bottom: Job, Group, Document, Datapage, and Page.
There is a set of plugins that allow to edit the Metadata during a Workflow process (see
"Metadata tasks" on page582), but you can also manipulate the Metadata in your process via
scripts using the Metadata API.
In the Metadata API, each unit, on all levels in the hierarchy, is represented by an object called
a "Node" on page216.
A Node item is a collection of its lower level node type items. At the top of this tree sits a single
Node object named "MetaJob" on page201. The MetaJob is a collection of "MetaGroup" on
page204 objects, where each MetaGroup is a collection of one or more "MetaDocument" on
page207 objects. In turn, MetaDocument objects hold "MetaDatapage" on page210 objects,
which have "MetaPage" on page214 objects.
In addition, a Node contains a collection of "Attributes" on page232 and can contain any
number of "Fields" on page241.
All of these objects are contained in a "MetaFile" on the facing page object, and they are
obtained, directly or indirectly, through methods of this object.
Note
In an OLConnect job, only the first three levels in the Metadata hold information about the job:
Job, Group and Document. A Group has information about a record set in the Connect
database and a Document has information about one record in that set. This information appears in
the Fields collection of the respective Node object. (When viewing the Metadata file, this
information is visible under 'User defined information'.) The Data Model fields are added into the
Document level.
Note
Be aware that changing the order and location of the various Node objects (except for the Page
object) within the Metadata structure, and/or setting the "Selected" on page219 property of a Node,
may affect the output of a job (see "Including or excluding nodes from the output" on page216 and
"How Metadata affects the output" on page81).
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