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Runtime Service Description

Client applications and tooling can use a runtime service description to understand how to interact with the service. By convention, this description is retrieved by requesting the /$metadata resource, located at the root of the service.

ExampleGET https://jetsons.azurewebsites.net/$metadata
Accept: application/json

Result:

{
  "$Version": "4.01",
  "jetsons": {
    "company": {
      "$Kind": "EntityType",
      "$Key": ["stockSymbol"],
      "name": { "Type": "Edm.String" },
      "incorporated": { "$Type": "Edm.Date" },
      "stockSymbol": {},
      "employees": {
        "$Kind": "NavigationProperty",
        "$Collection": true,
        "$Type": "jetsons.employee",
        "$ContainsTarget": true
      }
    },
    "employee": {
      "$Kind": "EntityType",
      "$Key": ["id"],
      "id": { "$Type": "Edm.Int32" },
      "firstName": { "$Type": "Edm.String" },
      "lastName": { "$Type": "Edm.String" },
      "title": { "$Type": "Edm.String" }
    },
    "Service": {
      "$Kind": "EntityContainer",
      "company": {
        "$Type": "jetsons.company"
      },
      "competitors": {
        "$Collection": true,
        "$Type": "jetsons.company"
      }
    },
    "$EntityContainer": "jetsons.Service"
  }
}

Types​

Types are defined within a namespace. The namespace defined for this service is jetsons.

Within the jetsons namespace two types are defined: company and employee.

Properties​

Meta Properties​

Properties representing meta information about the model, such as key, type, kind, collection, contains target, and entity container, are prefixed with a dollar sign ($).

Types​

By default, properties are strings. The $Type property specifies the type for the core Edm.String, Edm.Int32, Edm.Double, Edm.Boolean, Edm.Date, Edm.Time, and Edm.DateTimeOffset properties. More advanced services may define stream, binary, geography, or geometry types.

Collections​

Because the employee type is used in a collection, it defines a property (id) as the key value for referencing instances within the collection.

The company type has a property for navigating to a collection of employees. The employees are contained within the company; that is, they do not exist in a separate top-level collection.

Dynamic Properties​

Resources can also include properties not advertised in metadata. These "dynamic" properties can be referenced in query options and included in result payloads, just like normal declared properties.

Service Entity Container​

The last line defines the Service entity container as the root of the service. Its members are top-level resources exposed by the service; company is a single instance of the company type, and competitors is a collection of companies.