Efficiently providing multiple metadata representations of the same type

摘要

Embodiments are directed to dynamically adapting metadata for use with a native data encoding and to efficiently modifying object model type references. In one scenario, a computer system instantiates a metadata reader over an object model description to access various portions of metadata in the object model description. The metadata reader is configured to read native metadata, where native metadata is metadata represented in an encoding that is expected by the metadata reader. The metadata reader determines that the accessed metadata is encoded in a non-native encoding and then determines which metadata modifications are to be performed to transform the non-native encoding into a native encoding. The computer system then dynamically adapts the metadata of the object model from a non-native encoding to a native encoding according to the determined modifications. As such, the object model is readable by a native runtime.

主权项

1. At a computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for efficiently modifying object model type references, the method comprising:
an act of instantiating a type reference table configured to receive type definition requests and provide appropriate type definitions in response using one or more type reference tokens stored in a metadata file readable by a metadata reader, the metadata file including native and non-native encodings of the same metadata within the metadata file; an act of the instantiated type reference table receiving a type definition request for a specified type from a type requester; an act of implementing type reference tokens in the metadata of the type reference table to dynamically substitute one or more types for the metadata reader based on which type was requested and which type is appropriate for the current consumer of the metadata reader; and an act of providing the requested type definition to the type requester based on the dynamically substituted types provided by the type reference tokens in the metadata.