Studio I.5 Metadatabase

This studio will guide you through the process of creating a Metadabase by using the TSER CASE tool.

A CIM model involving three databases: Order Processing, Shop Floor Control, and Process Planning, is used to illustrate the process.

The designs/schemas of these databases become the metadata instances which will be contained in the Metadatabase.

I. Generate a Metadatabase - populating script :

• Under <Tools> menu from IBMS, select <MDB Population> menu
• Then you get "Metadatabase Population" Window
• Under <File> menu, select <Populate MDB> menu
• Then you get "input SER file name" dialog box
• Select cim.ser
• Then you get "input OER file name" dialog box
• Select cim.oer
• Then you get "Resource Editor" dialog Box
• Just click [Cancel] button without doing anything (Even though it looks strange, it works.)
• Then you get "warning" message box
• Click [Yes] button
• Then you get "Information" message box which says that "To create Metadabase : 1.SQL compatible DBMS required 2.GIRD.DDL required"
• Also you get the message "Pupulate success. GIRD.DML file created" on the background window.

Now you have two files in the directory IBMS.EXE: GIRD.DDL and GIRD.DML.
GIRD stands for Global Information Resources Dictionary. For more information about GIRD click here.
GIRD.DDL is the SQL statement file for creating the Metadatabase tables.
GIRD.DML is the SQL statement file for inserting metadata instances into the Metadabase.
Since they are ASCII files, you can see them with an editor such as WordPad.
Now you are ready to create a Metadabase on Oracle or other SQL-compatible DBMS.

II. Create a Metadatabase on Oracle:

• Copy or move GIRD.DDL and GIRD.DML to your RCS account
• Start Oracle. If you have troubles here, refer to  Studio 1.4
• Create Metadabase structure: SQL>start GIRD.DDL
• Now you have Metadabase structure. You can check it by using this command: SQL>select * from tab;
• Insert metadabase instance: SQL>start GIRD.DML (During this stage, you may get some error messages. But it is OK for our purpose of Studio5 )
• You can now query the Metadatabase as you would with a regular database by using SQL statements such as select * from MDB_ACTION...

You can get detail information about Metadatabase from Metadabase Research or the book: Hsu, C., Enterprise Integration and Modeling: The Metadatabase Approach, Kluwer Academic Publishers.