6.1 Object repository
The heart of the MetaEdit+ environment is the Object
Repository
. It is located on a server, or in the case of
a single user version of MetaEdit+ on a local disk. Alternatively, if your
computer can access a network drive, the repository can be located there,
allowing remote work and a measure of non-simultaneous data sharing: for the
latter each user must of course have a MetaEdit+ license.
All information in MetaEdit+ is stored in the Object
Repository, including language definitions, diagrams, matrices, objects,
properties, and even font selections. Hence, modification of system designs (or
even modeling languages) in one tool or MetaEdit+ client is automatically
reflected everywhere it appears, guaranteeing consistent and up to date
information. Similarly, generators are based directly on the information stored
in the repository. Only temporary data such as which windows are open and where,
which varies between users and platforms and thus cannot be shared, is not
stored.
The repository is stored as a set of directories and files
within the main repository directory. As these files are highly interlinked make
sure to treat the repository directory as an indivisible whole. If you need to
carry out disk level operations (like copying) on the repository, they must
always operate on the main directory and all below it – there are no files
that can be individually copied or deleted within it. Changing or removing
individual files or directories will damage the
repository.