Efficiently providing multiple metadata representations of the same type

1. At a computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for efficiently modifying object model type references, the method comprising:

an act of instantiating a type reference table configured to receive type definition requests and provide appropriate type definitions in response using one or more type reference tokens stored in a metadata file readable by a metadata reader, the metadata file including native and non-native encodings of the same metadata within the metadata file;

an act of the instantiated type reference table receiving a type definition request for a specified type from a type requester;

an act of implementing type reference tokens in the metadata of the type reference table to dynamically substitute one or more types for the metadata reader based on which type was requested and which type is appropriate for the current consumer of the metadata reader; and

an act of providing the requested type definition to the type requester based on the dynamically substituted types provided by the type reference tokens in the metadata.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein non-native type references are substituted for native type references in place.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dynamic substitution provides a standardized view of non-native types to the metadata reader.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the type reference table is instantiated to ensure that the type requestor's requests are received via a type reference.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein types are substituted in the type reference table, such that user requests remain unchanged while native type definitions are used in place of non-native definition.

6. A computer system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for dynamically adapting metadata for use with a native data encoding, the method comprising the following:

an act of instantiating a metadata reader over an object model description to access one or more portions of metadata in the object model description, the metadata reader being configured to read native metadata, the native metadata comprising metadata represented in an encoding that is expected by the metadata reader;

an act of the metadata reader determining that the accessed metadata is encoded in a non-native encoding;

an act of the metadata reader determining which metadata modifications are to be performed to transform the non-native encoding into a native encoding;

an act of dynamically adapting the metadata of the object model from a non-native encoding to a native encoding according to the determined modifications, such that the object model is readable by a native runtime, wherein a single metadata file includes both the native and non-native encodings of the same metadata;

an act of the metadata reader determining which user is requesting the metadata file; and

based on the determination, an act of passing the appropriate encoding of the metadata file to the user.

7. A computer system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for efficiently modifying object model type references, the method comprising the following:

an act of instantiating a type reference table configured to receive type definition requests and provide appropriate type definitions in response using one or more type reference tokens stored in a metadata file readable by a metadata reader, the metadata file including native and non-native encodings of the same metadata within the metadata file;

an act of the instantiated type reference table receiving a type definition request for a specified type from a type requester;

an act of implementing type reference tokens in the metadata of the type reference table to dynamically substitute one or more types for the metadata reader based on which type was requested and which type is appropriate for the current consumer of the metadata reader; and

an act of providing the requested type definition to the type requester based on the dynamically substituted types provided by the type reference tokens in the metadata.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein non-native type references are substituted for native type references in place.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the dynamic substitution provides a standardized view of non-native types to the metadata reader.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the type reference table is instantiated to ensure that the type requestor's requests are received via a type reference.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein types are substituted in the type reference table, such that user requests remain unchanged while native type definitions are used in place of non-native definition.