The MDM Tools component has been designed to simplify access to MDM variables, to facilitate consistency across products, and to reduce the need to extend the Metadata Model (MDM).

The IVariableInfo object enables you to retrieve information about a variable more simply than you can using MDM directly. For example, you can use the IVariableInfo.Text property to retrieve not only the value of many of the properties that are available in the MDM, but additional properties also, such as the ToolTipText property. This provides text based on the variable and category labels formatted in a standard way for use in ToolTips. By using this property to create ToolTips for variables, you can maintain consistency with the UNICOM Intelligence products.

The IVariableInstanceList object facilitates the creation of a list of variables, similar to that used in UNICOM Intelligence Reporter. You can easily filter the variables that are included in the list by a number of different criteria, such as the variable or usage type, or one of the custom MDM properties. If you use the list in more than one place in an application, it will be defined with the same filters by default.

Here is a simple Visual Basic example that shows how to specify a variable list using filters to select categorical variables that have the Visible property set in the Analysis context.

UNICOM Intelligence has created MDM Tools as a separate component from the MDM with the intention of keeping the MDM as lean and efficient as possible.