Common metadata object properties

Each metadata object has a set of common properties and metadata object-specific properties. The common properties are used to identify the metadata object instances, to describe the usage or role of the metadata object instances, and to track metadata object instance changes.

The metadata objects are named by using a schema in the same way that other DB2® objects are named. If you do not want to use the default user ID schema for a metadata object, you can specify the schema name that you want.

Best practice: For future extensions and compatibility, use a single schema for all of your OLAP objects.

The following table describes the common properties that exist for all metadata objects.

Table 1. Common metadata object properties
Property	Description	Example
Name	Name of the metadata object.	Sales Model
Schema	Schema that owns the metadata object.	GSDB
Business name	Label presented to the user. This label can be used in graphical user interfaces as a more meaningful way to identify the object to the user.	Sales cube model
Comments	Textual description or comment on the nature or usage of the metadata object.	Sales Model cube model is a representation of a GSDB schema that groups Retailer, Product, and Time dimensions around a central Sales facts object.
Create time	Time that the metadata object was created.	12/9/04 6:02PM
Creator	User (schema) that defined the metadata object.	SLOOMIS
Modify time	Time the metadata object was last modified.	3/8/05 10:07AM
Modifier	User (schema) that performed the modification.	SLOOMIS

In addition to a common set of properties, each metadata object has a set of specific properties. These specific properties describe the components and qualities that define the metadata object. For information about properties that are specific to each metadata object, see the topic for that metadata object.

Metadata object naming conventions

DB2 provides two different object naming conventions: ordinary and delimited. For metadata objects, the delimited convention is used when naming objects and referring to DB2 tables and columns. The delimited convention allows mixed case names, spaces, and special characters, such as national language characters. The complete set of characters is determined by the code page of the database in which the metadata objects are stored.

The following conventions apply to the metadata objects:

Table 2. Naming conventions for metadata objects
Object	Convention
Schema	Length: 1-30 bytes Restricted names: schema names must not be SESSION or begin with SYS. Only the uppercase names are restricted.
Name of metadata object	Length: 1-128 bytes
Business name of metadata object	Length: 1-128 bytes
Comments for metadata objects	Length: 0-2048 bytes
Table schema that is used in referencing columns	Length: 128 bytes
Table name that is used in referencing columns	Length: 1-128 bytes
Column Name that is used in referencing columns	Length: 1-128 bytes

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