Retrieve or Update a Metadata Value

Each name=value pair in an object's metadata is represented as a MetadataEntry element, which includes links that an administrator or the object owner can use to retrieve or update the metadata value, or delete the MetadataEntry.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you are logged in to the VMware Cloud Director API as an administrator or the object owner.

  • Retrieve the object's Metadata element. See Retrieve or Update a Metadata Element

Procedure

  1. Examine the retrieved Metadata element to find the MetadataEntry you want.
    Each MetadataEntry contains a link of the following form, which you can use when updating the Value of the entry: 
    <Link
   rel="edit"
   type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.metadata.value+xml"
   href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/object/id/metadata/DOMAIN/key-name" />
    For example: 
    <Link
   ...
   href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/org/26/metadata/SYSTEM/LOS/>
  2. Retrieve or update the value.
    Make a request to the URL in the value of the href attribute of the MetadataEntry that contains the Key.
    • To retrieve the value, make a GET request to URL in the value of the href attribute of the MetadataEntry. The response is a MetadataValue element.
    • To update the value, make a PUT request to the URL in the edit link described in Step 1, and supply a MetadataValue element as the request body. See .Update a Metadata Value
    Note: The href value of a MetadataEntry in the SYSTEM domain includes the SYSTEM qualifier. The href value of a MetadataEntry in the GENERAL domain does not include a qualifier.

Example: Update a Metadata Value

This request updates the value of the metadata Key named LOS from the original value of bronze (shown in Update a Metadata Element) to a new value of silver. Note that because this MetadataValue is contained by a MetadataEntry where the Domain is SYSTEM and visibility is PRIVATE, only a system administrator can update it.

Request: 
PUT https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/org/26/metadata/SYSTEM/LOS
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.metadata.value+xml
...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MetadataValue
   xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5"
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <TypedValue
      xsi:type="MetadataStringValue">
      <Value>silver</Value>
   </TypedValue>
</MetadataValue>

The response is a task.

Response: 
<Task
   xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5"
   status="running"
   ...
   operationName="metadataUpdate"
   operation="Updating metadata for vApp (7)"
   ... >
   ...     
</Task>