Metadata Workspace
The ADO.NET provides the MetadataWorkSpace class as a central runtime API that you can use to interact with the Entity Data Model (EDM) metadata in the context of an application. The MetadataWorkSpace class aggregates metadata from specific item collections.
Item collections reflect the different types of models in an application that uses the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The models are the object model, the conceptual model, the storage (database) model, and the mapping model between the conceptual and storage models. For more information about the models, see Metadata Workspace Overview.
There are two ways to retrieve an instance of the MetadataWorkSpace class: from the instance of the EntityConnection class or from the instance of the specialized ObjectContext class.
The topics listed below give detailed information about the overall metadata workspace architecture, the item collections that are enclosed in the metadata workspace, and the MetadataWorkSpace class.
In This Section
- Metadata Workspace Overview
Describes the overall metadata workspace architecture.
- Item Collections (Metadata)
Describes the item collections enclosed in the metadata workspace.
- Entity Connection and Metadata Workspace
Describes how to use the MetadataWorkSpace class together with the EntityConnection class and the specialized version of the ObjectContext class.
- Advanced Metadata Workspace
Describes the advanced usage of the MetadataWorkspace class to retrieve metadata information.