Determines whether the provider caches table metadata to a file-based cache database.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

When this connection property is set to True, as you execute queries, table metadata in the SQL Server catalog is cached to the cache database specified by CacheConnection and CacheDriver, or, if those connection properties are not set, to the user's home directory.

The location of your home directory varies by platform:

Platform	Home Directory
Windows	%APPDATA%\\CData\\SQL Data Provider
Mac	~/Library/Application Support/CData/SQL Data Provider
Unix	~/.config/CData/SQL Data Provider

A table's metadata is retrieved only once, when the table is queried for the first time.

When to Use CacheMetadata

When there are a large number of SQL Server tables and columns for the server to retrieve during metadata discovery, the server may take a while to list all table metadata.

You may experience slow metadata retrieval when:

• Your SQL Server instance naturally has a large table count.
• The server has been configured, via its connection properties, to discover more tables than it would under its default configuration.
• You make many short-lived connections to the server.

With CacheMetadata enabled, all retrieved metadata is mirrored in the cache database. This means that any subsequent attempts by the server to discover metadata are much faster, as this metadata is then read directly from the cache database, without needing to spend time requesting metadata from SQL Server.

When Not to Use CacheMetadata

The server automatically persists metadata in memory for up to an hour when you first discover the metadata for a table or view, so CacheMetadata is generally not necessary.

CacheMetadata is not ideal in scenarios where you are working with volatile metadata. The first time you query a table, the server caches its metadata to the cache database file. This cache is not dynamically updated to reflect updates to the table schema, so you must delete and rebuild the cache database file to pick up new, changed, or deleted columns.