topic Re: How to access "item description" metadata? in ArcGIS Pro SDK Questions

How to access "item description" metadata?

Anonymous User — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 13:14:44 GMT

Hi all,

I was hoping someone could tell me how I can use the ArcGIS Pro SDK to access the item description metadata (abstract/keywords/description etc…) of a feature class?

The example on the Pro Snippets Github page shows how to get a definition object which contains metadata – which I'm doing using the code below:

var featureClass = layer.GetTable() As FeatureClass;

var definition = featureClass.GetDefintion();

But I'm looking at the API page for FeatureClassDefinition – and there doesn't seem to be any way to access the "item description" metadata properties (for example in ArcObjects SDK we used the IMetadata and IXmlPropertySet interfaces).

Can anyone help me out?

Many thanks,

Luke

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

CharlesMacleod — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 18:42:37 GMT

Hi Luke, currently access to the item metadata you describe is not supported. We are targeting support in the API for 2016.

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

Anonymous User — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 09:03:53 GMT

Hi Charles. That's a shame, but glad to hear it's planned for this year. Thanks for your reply.

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

Anonymous User — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 09:25:55 GMT

Hi Charles Macleod,

Can you tell me if this is still targetted for this year? We're quite eager to see support for this.

Regards,

Luke

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

CharlesMacleod — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:00:50 GMT

Hi Luke, yes, metadata is still planned for 1.4 however it will be off the layer and not the feature class.

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

Anonymous User — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 09:45:45 GMT

Yikes, so no access to metadata stored in gdb tables? Will that come later?

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

SreevatsaSreeraman — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 16:56:57 GMT

Hi Luke,

We are looking at the design for providing access to the metadata from the ArcGIS.Core.Dataset.Definition class. Just as an FYI... out initial thoughts are going towards returning the metadata as an XML Document.

This will be on our backlog for 1.4, but we are not sure if this will be completed by 1.4 or not.

Thanks for the feedback though.

-Sree

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

Anonymous User — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 10:05:27 GMT

Thanks Sree - any way that provides access to table metadata via the SDK is a big plus for us in terms of building a commercial application on top of Pro. I'll keep an ear out for updates in 1.4 and beyond.

Regards,

Luke

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

Anonymous User — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 15:06:01 GMT

Hi Sree, just wondering if there are any updates on metadata access using the SDK? Haven't seen anything in 1.4, is it still in the roadmap?

Cheers,

Luke

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

AletaVienneau — Thu, 04 May 2017 16:26:01 GMT

Just to be clear, it is possible to get the basic metadata content associated with the "Item Description" from any item in the Pro SDK using the Item class' properties. Abstract is available from the Description property. Purpose is available via the Snippet property. Use limitations are available via the AccessConstraints property. Tags, Title, and Thumbnail are also available from the obviously named properties on that class. The content returned by these properties is derived from the item's metadata.

The work that is coming is would support accessing the full metadata content by adding this capability to the Item class. This work is still in the roadmap for 2017, planned for release 2.1.

- Aleta

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

curtvprice — Fri, 05 May 2017 22:30:30 GMT

This work is still in the roadmap for 2017, planned for release 2.1.

Hurray!

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

RichPriem — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:58:47 GMT

What is the status now at version 2.4.1?

Where in the SDK Data Model can you find/update Metadata for a Layer (including group layer)?

Item.GetXml seems to be result of above discussion, and will retrieve the full Metadata for a Dataset, which can then be modified and saved with Item.SetXml.

However, there is also a Metadata section on the Property Sheet for a generic layer, including Group layers, which do not reference any DataSet. There are six fields (Title, Tags, Summary, Description, Credits, and Use Limitations) displayed on this Property Sheet. Note that for Data Layers, select "layer has its own metadata" from the combo box.

CIMBaseLayer has Description and Attribution (Credits), but these do not seem to work.

Core.Item appears to have all six of the above fields, but they do not seem to be populated with the values displayed on the Property Sheet.

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

AletaVienneau — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 20:11:21 GMT

We still have work to do to provide access to a map layer's metadata in the .NET SDK. It hasn't been completed yet in 2.4.x or 2.5. The issue is in our current product plan for a future release. However, what will be coming in 2.5 is the ability to script metadata workflows via a new arcpy.metadata module, and with that module you will be able to access full metadata for a layer in a map.

- Aleta

Re: How to access "item description" metadata?

LesleyBross1 — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 17:37:55 GMT

We also used the metadata API in ArcMap. As suggested for Pro, I am using the Item class to retrieve the Tags from the metadata. However, I have found a shortcoming with the Tags member. The string in my Tags metadata looks like this when editing in Pro: 'BAGIS Tag < Please do not modify: ZUnitCategory|Elevation; ZUnit|Meters; > End Tag, elevation, blah'. When I use the Tags member through the SDK, it returns this: 'BAGIS Tag < Please do not modify: ZUnitCategory|Elevation, ZUnit|Meters, > End Tag'. Obviously not the same content.

Instead I am using the getXML member to get all of the metadata and then parsing it with the .NET XML library like I did with ArcMap. I know that I am using some special characters in my tags string but it worked under ArcMap so I have to handle legacy metadata. For anyone else wanting to try this, the XPATH string to get at the Tags element is '/metadata/dataIdInfo/searchKeys/keyword'. Fortunately this did not change between versions. I realize that there is a risk here as ESRI could change the XML schema.