MetaType class

The MetaType class represents for instance the field type declarations string, HTML text, number, enums, file, and image. MetaType includes all common types and can also be extended with UI friendly types. For example, instead of using one type of string, BusinessMeta Model has Short String, Long String, HTML, Email, Phone and number. You can easily create a new MetaType based on system type or create acustom one.

Business Foundation(BF) is designed to enable you to easily use a number of different meta types for your .NET applications. You can use the included meta types, or you can implement your own custom meta type.

Default meta types

Call the RegisteredTypes method of MetaClassManager class to get all registered meta types. Business Foundation has a number of ready-to-use meta types listed below.

Creating a meta type based on system type

You can easily create a new meta type based on system type. You can find a complete list of system types in the McDataType enumerators.

To create a meta type, for example Geolocation based on the String system type, open the edit scope and add a new MetaFieldType object to the MetaClassManager.RegisteredTypes collection.

// Open Meta model edit scope
using (MetaClassManagerEditScope scope =
DataContext.Current.MetaModel.BeginEdit())
{
// Add a new meta type
MetaFieldType geoLocation = new MetaFieldType("Geolocation",
"Geolocation", McDataType.String);
DataContext.Current.MetaModel.RegisteredTypes.Add(geoLocation);
// Save Changes
scope.SaveChanges();
}

Or, add a new record to the mcmd_MetaFieldType table and restart the application.

*INSERT INTO mcmd_MetaFieldType ([Name], [FriendlyName], [McDataType]) VALUES ('Geolocation', 'Geolocation ', 6

After registration, you can add a geolocation field to the meta class. Using the meta type name you can load a new gelolocation view, and edit the UI control.

Creating a custom meta type

When implementing a custom meta type, you need to create the Meta field installer and Meta field property binder. When you create a meta field, BF calls the meta field installer to process meta field into SQL columns. When you load an entity object, BF calls the meta object property binder to convert values from an SQL column to a meta field value.

To create a custom Meta field installer, you create a class that implements the IMetaFieldInstaller interface, and implement the AssignDataSource, AssignValidators, UpdateDataSource, UpdateValidators, RemoveDataSource, RemoveValidators methods.

To create a custom Meta object property binder, you create a class that implements the IMetaObjectPropertyBinder interface, and implement the PostLoad, PostLoad, PreSave, PostSave, Delete, InitTableConfig methods.

The custom meta field installer and meta object property binder should be registered in the mediachase.businessFoundation.data/metaObject/types section of the application config file.

 <mediachase.businessFoundation.data>
<metaObject>
<types>
<add name="CustomType" installer="" binder="" />*
</types>