ArcObjects Library Reference (GeoDatabase)  

IMetadataSynchronizer Interface

Provides access to members that control what happens when synchronization occurs.

Product Availability

Available with ArcGIS Engine, ArcGIS Desktop, and ArcGIS Server.

Description

Allowing ArcCatalog to automate the metadata process both minimizes work when creating metadata and ensures that metadata is current with changes in the data set properties

With the automatic updating option enabled (available at the Tools > Options > Metadata Tab), metadata is updated when a user selects a dataset in the ArcCatalog tree view while the Metadata Tab is active. In cases where metadata does not exist, metadata will be created rather than updated.  Metadata may also be updated for a currently selected dataset when the Create/Update metadata button is clicked or programmatically by calling the IMetadata::Synchronize method.

Since the 9.0 release, ArcCatalog has shipped with three default metadata synchronizers, the FGDCSynchronizer, the ISOSynchronizer and the GNSynchronizer metadata synchronizer. It is also possible to develop a custom metadata synchronizer. Custom synchronizers must be registered before they can be used. The collection of registered metadata synchronization objects is managed by the synchronization manager.  When metadata is synchronized, the synchronization manager passes the data property set to the Update method of each active metadata synchronizer. Each active metadata synchronizer then writes to the data set's metadata. Writing instructions are held within the code for each specific metadata synchronizer.

When To Use

The IMetadataSynchronizer defines the properties of a metadata synchronizer and is used to develop a custom synchronizer. The IMetadataSynchronizer interface and the IMetadataSynchronizerManager are the two interfaces that must be created when developing a custom metadata synchronizer.

Members

Description
Read-only property ClassID The class ID of the metadata synchronizer.
Read-only property Name The name of the metadata synchronizer.
Method Update Updates the metadata item using the value passed in.

CoClasses that implement IMetadataSynchronizer

CoClasses and Classes Description
FGDCSynchronizer ESRI FGDC Synchronizer object.
GNSynchronizer (esriCatalog) ESRI Geography Network Synchronizer object.
MetadataSynchronizer ESRI Metadata Synchronizer object (singleton).

Remarks

The IMetadataSynchronizer Interface is available from the MetadataSynchronizer CoClass. The interface defines the properties of a metadata synchronizer and is used to develop a custom synchronizer.

When creating a custom metadata synchronizer, two read-only properties (Name and ClassID) and one method (Update) must be supported.

Additional information on this subject can be found in the Technical Paper "Creating a Custom Metadata Synchronizer", May 2001.