why does this only happen when using a ClientDataSet (or maybe
DataSetProvider)?

>
> No, not redundantly. IBO makes great use of the metadata.
>
>
> What you describe here is the connection getting the metadata of

your

> extraordinarily large (in terms of objects) database. As someone

else

> suggested, you can avoid having this happen every time on

connection by

> enabling schema caching. After that, as long as the metadata

doesn't

> change, the schema querying won't occur on each connection.

Properly set

> up, schema caching stores a local cache (just a text file)

containing info

> which IBO uses instead of querying metadata across the wire into

the memory

> cache.
>
> The metadata version is stored in a table IBO$SCHEMA_VERSION on

the server

> with a version number. IBO creates this table automatically if it

doesn't

> exist, but it doesn't put any data into it - that is up to the DBA

who

> makes the metadata changes. Your users will need to be granted

SELECT

> rights on this table.
>
> The connection object verifies once per connection that the local

cache has

> the same version number as the latest on the server. If it's not,

the

> connection object regenerates the cache, which will be a fairly

protracted

> process for your database. It's perfectly OK to deploy a pre-

built cache

> along with your client applications. Read up the help on the
> SchemaCacheDir property.
>
> Helen