topic Re: How do you programmatically update the metadata "summary" and "description" items in ArcObjects SDK Questions

How do you programmatically update the metadata "summary" and "description" items?

WilliamKirchhoff — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:07:12 GMT

Is there a way to programmatically update the Summary / Description / Credits and Use Limitations items that appear at the beginning of a metadata description in ArcCatalog? I use IMetadata & IXMLPropertyset to update many of the other elements of a metadata record for a featureclass I have created, but I am unable to figure out how to get at these items. I have searched through the XML output from the ArcCatalog metadata Export function, but I can not find elements relating to these items.

Re: How do you programmatically update the metadata "summary" and "description" items

NeilClemmons — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:01:41 GMT

I'm not sure exactly which metadata elements you are referring to but a good way to find them is to use the metadata editor dialog to set the values to something unique and then switch the stylesheet to xml and find the values.

Re: How do you programmatically update the metadata "summary" and "description" items

WilliamKirchhoff — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:34:12 GMT

Neil,

Thanks for the reply, your suggestion is the logical one I have been trying for some time without success. Unfortunately, heres what happens when I use this approach:
1. I open a newly created featureclass ( arcgis desktop 10 SP3) using the Catalog Item Description context menu choice in ArcMap.
2. The Item Description dialog pops up and I select the description tab and click "Edit"
3. In the ensuing editor I enter text into the Description, Summary, and Credits fields.
4. I save my changes then select "Export" back in the Item description display window.
5. Once the export has successfully completed I open the resulting xml file in XML editor and look for my entries.
Shazam! There they are:
The string I entered into the Summary field in the editor shows up under:
   "identificationInfo/MD_dataIdentification/<purpose>
The description string appears under:
   "identificationInfo/MD_dataIdentification/<abstract><gco:characterString>description_String </gco:CharacterString>
and the string I entered under Credits appears under :
   "identificationInfo/MD_dataIdentification/<credit> element.
BUT...
In my code I try to load my new featureclass specific data for these elements using the following example for the description field:
pXMLPropertyset.SetpropertyX("identificationInfo/MD_DataIdentification/abstract", <description_string>,esriXMLPropertyType.esriXPTText,esrimlSetPrpertyAction.esriAddOrReplace, False")
which runs, but the <description_string> does not appear in the esri Data Identification display window instead there is this entry:
identificationInfo/MD_dataIdentification/<abstract gco:nilReason="Missing"/>

Given that my understanding level of the metadata system esri now has in place is minimal, I could be making a very simple mistake and wouldn't know it. Any further thoughts?