DOCS

Running Queries and Item Searches

Introduction

Metability provides various types of queries for metadata analysis that enable you to recognize correlations in the metadata, relate them to the processes in your enterprise, and, based on the correlations, optimize the processes. The result of a query can include a representation of the relationships between items, and can be displayed in a format that is best suited to the nature of the query.

Metability provides the following types of queries:

  • An Item Environment query starts from an item, called the seed item of the query, and then explores the immediate relationships to other items (that is, links and namespace relationships). There are several types of Item Environment queries:
    • References
    • Usages
    • References + Usages
    • Context

    Item Environment query results can be viewed in diagram, table, relationship tree, and item table format. To know more, see Item Environment Queries.

  • A Path query starts from a seed item and follows a predefined path based on the subject area’s information model to show the chains of relationships that exist along that path in the current subject area. To know more, see Path Queries.
  • The Item Versions query presents an overview of all versions that exist for a selected item in a relationship tree view, showing the item versions and the subject areas to which they belong. To know more, see Item Versions Queries.
  • Comparison queries compare the content of two or more entities of the same type and display the differences and similarities between them. The entities can be items, item versions, subject areas, and query results:
    • A Compare Items query lets you compare any item of a subject area with any set of secondary items. To know more, see Compare Items.
    • A Compare Item Versions query provides a detailed comparison of two specific versions of an item. To know more, see Compare Item Versions.
    • A Compare Subject Areas query provides an item-by-item comparison between the items in two different subject areas. They produce item lists in a query-specific format. To know more, see Compare Subject Areas.
    • A Compare Query Results query accepts any pair of stored or currently displayed query results and lists the items that satisfy certain logical conditions (for example, that exist in both query results, or in one query result but not in the other).
    • Queries of this type produce item lists in a query-specific format. To know more, see Compare Query Results.

    • A Compare with Transaction query provides an item-by-item comparison result of the currently opened subject area with the transaction. To know more, see Interpreting Compare with Transaction Query Results.
    • All comparison queries present their results in query-specific formats.

  • Queries that produce plain item lists:
    • An Advanced query lists all items that satisfy a set of search conditions, which can be very simple (for example, a string with wildcard characters) or quite complex (that is, combining multiple conditions). You can save advanced queries for repeated use. To know more, see Advanced Queries.
    • An Inventory query lists all items that exist in the current subject area. If an item type was selected instead of a subject area when this query was requested, the result is limited to that type. For details, see Inventory Queries.
    • An Item Search query basically is an ad-hoc Advanced query. For details, see Item Search Queries.
    • These query types do not take the relationships between items or the differences and similarities between them into account; rather, they produce a collection of items in a flat list. The table format, therefore, is best suited for displaying these query results.

  • An Inventory Counter query counts the number of items in subject area. To know more, see Counter Queries.
  • A Count Items of Type query counts the number of items of a specific type. To know more, see Counter Queries.

Queries can also be grouped according to their approach. Some of the queries take an item-oriented approach and some of them focus on the whole subject area:

  • In item environment and item version queries, the query is focused on a particular item and then looks for items associated with it, either by links, by namespace relationships, or by being different versions of the same item.
  • Subject area and query result comparisons, subject area inventories, item search queries, and advanced queries do not focus on any one particular item, but arrive at their result set of items by looking at all items in the subject areas.

Path queries and Advanced queries can involve complex query conditions, which means formulating them can require considerable time and research effort. You can store them in the database to make them available for reuse. Therefore, if you need to run a Path query or an Advanced query, you can first check to see if a predefined query already exists for the task you have in mind. Predefined queries can also include queries that have been formulated in AutoPilot.

Query results typically are provided in a report view in the Editor frame. They are then available for further processing:

  • Editing, copying, renaming, or removing any item in a diagram, a list, a relationship tree, or an item table
  • Selecting any item and running a further Item Environment query with it
  • Changing the position of items and the appearance of links and namespace relationships within diagrams, and excluding items from being viewed in the diagram
  • Exporting the query result to a file

To know more on the standard display formats of queries (that is, diagram, table, item table, and relationship tree), see Working with Diagrams, Working with Tables, and Working with Trees.