Metadata Layer

The metadata layer, generated as metadata.g.ts, contains a minimal set of metadata to represent your data model on the front-end. Because Vue applications are typically statically compiled, it is necessary for the frontend code to have a representation of your data model as an analog to the ReflectionRepository available at runtime to Knockout apps that utilize .cshtml files.

Concepts

The following is a non-exhaustive list of the general concepts used by the metadata layer. The source code of coalesce-vue provides the most exhaustive set of documentation about the metadata layer:

Metadata

All objects in the metadata layer that represent any kind of metadata have, at the very least, a name, the name of the metadata element in code (type names, property names, parameter names, etc). and a displayName, the human-readable form of the name that is suitable for presentation when needed. Names follow the casing convention of their corresponding language elements - types are PascalCased, while other things like properties, methods, and parameters are camelCased.

Type

All custom types exposed by your application's data model will have a Type metadata object generated. This includes both C# classes, and C# enums. Class types include model (for EF Entity Models and Custom DTOs) and object (for External Types).

Value

In the metadata layer, a Value is the usage of a type. This could be any type - strings, numbers, enums, classes, or even void. Values can be found in the collection of an object's properties, a method's parameters or return value, or as a data source's parameters.

All values have a:

type

Type could be a language primitive like string or number, a non-primitive JavaScript type (date, file), or in the case of a custom Type, the type kind of that type (model, enum, object). For custom types, an additional property typeDef will refer to the Type metadata for that type.

role

Role represents what purpose the value serves in a relational model. Either value (the default - no relational role), primaryKey, foreignKey, referenceNavigation, or collectionNavigation.

Property

A Property is a more refined Value that contains a number of additional fields based on the role of the property. k

Domain

The type of the default export of the generated metadata. Serves as a single root from which all other metadata can be accessed. Contains fields types, enums, and services as organizing structures for the different kinds of custom types.