How to access "item description" metadata?

[Anonymous User]

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

[CharlesMacleod]

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

[Anonymous User]

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

[Anonymous User]

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

[CharlesMacleod]

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

[Anonymous User]

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

[SreevatsaSreeraman]

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

[Anonymous User]

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

[Anonymous User]

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

[AletaVienneau]

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