In many development environments, you do not have the complete application source code on your local machine. Environments that include a source code management (SCM) system are like this. However to gain the most advantage from a catalog, it should incorporate information on your entire application.
The OpenEdge Meta Catalog supports linking catalogs to your workspace in two modes:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Local | A local catalog is specific to your workspace. It includes
information only from the projects you specify in that workspace. You
can update the contents of a local catalog at any time. You can create more than one catalog in a workspace, using each to store information for a particular project, content builder, or other criteria. |
| Master | A master catalog exists outside your workspace. You have read-only
access in this mode. Changes to your local files do not affect the
contents of a master catalog. A group of developers can all use the same
master catalog. A good use for a master catalog is to index all resources in a SCM system. Each developer can perform impact analysis across an entire application without needing all the source-code locally. The catalog could update its contents each time a changed file is checked into the SCM or at scheduled times. The SCM administrator builds a catalog database and then sets up scripts to update it appropriately using the Meta Catalog command-line utility. |