Take me to your metadata

[EdCarter]

From the map pane, view metadata/ item description takes me to a workflow dead end/ warning message. It would be most helpful if the view metadata button were smart and would show me the existing metadata in its authored format (FGDC, Item Description, etc.) rather than showing erroneous blank fields. As long as I am wishing, if the metadata is only editable from the catalog pane, please have the 'edit metadata' button on the map pane, open catalog and the layer source location. Second best would be to include 'this must be edited from the catalog pane' in the warning message. 

[NaicongLi]

Hello @EdCarter, 

We think that your suggestion is the same as expressed in this user idea: https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/link-from-layer-properties-source-to-catalog-view/idi... , but we would like to confirm it with you before merging your idea into the existing one. Were you trying to edit the metadata for a map layer? The warning message you mentioned - is it this one?

Note that a map layer can assume (and display) the metadata of its data source (e.g. a feature class in a geodatabase). In that case when you want to edit "its" metadata, currently you need to browse to that data source item and edit that item's metadata.  Any changes you make there will automatically show up when you view the map layer's metadata.  The exiting user idea above is about making it easier to get from a map layer to its data source to edit the data source's metadata.

(A map layer can also have its own metadata independent of that of its data source. You can set it up this way in the layer's Properties dialog, Metadata tab. Once set up, if you want to edit the map layer's metadata, you can simply right click the map layer and click Edit Metadata in the context menu.)