1. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method, the method comprising: receiving from a first party at a database system a definition of a custom object specifying a custom format for metadata, wherein the definition of the custom object includes a relationship with at least one of a standard object defined by a platform provider of the database system that specifies a standard format for metadata and another custom object specifying another custom format for metadata; storing the custom object having the definition; creating by the first party or a second party a first record according to the stored custom object which defines metadata according to the custom format; relating the first record to a second record created according to the at least one of the standard object and the other custom object; and defining at least one aspect of an application, using the metadata of the first record and the relationship of the first record to the second record.