MetaType class

The MetaType class represents the field type declarations string, HTML text, number, enums, file, and image. MetaType includes common types and you can extend it with UI-friendly types. For example, instead of using one type of string, Business Meta-Model has Short String, Long String, HTML, Email, Phone and number. You can create a new MetaType based on system type or create a custom one.

Business Foundation (BF) lets you 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. The following table shows ready-to-use BF meta-types.

Creating a meta type based on system type

You can 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, such as 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 geolocation 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 following methods.

To create a custom Meta-object property binder, you create a class that implements the IMetaObjectPropertyBinder interface, and implement the following methods.

You should register the custom meta-field installer and meta-object property binder in the mediachase.businessFoundation.data/metaObject/types section of the application config file.

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