Systems and articles of manufacture for managing metadata associated with a data abstraction model abstractly describing data in a database. One embodiment provides a technique for managing metadata describing objects of a data abstraction model with logical fields that define abstract views of physical data in a database. Managing metadata includes traversing a logical tree structure representing the data abstraction model. The logical tree structure has a plurality of nodes, each representing a logical field or a category of logical fields of the data abstraction model. Managing metadata also includes identifying metadata describing logical fields or categories represented by the plurality of nodes. The identified metadata is stored in a queryable database. A user is allowed to query the database to identify objects in the data abstraction model that may be used to construct an abstract query.