Catalog fields

Catalog fields

The Catalog Administrator determines what metadata fields are available in a catalog.

This allows you to tailor a catalog to include only relevant metadata, reducing the size of the database and making searching and other operations more efficient and faster.

Note: For information about adding custom fields to your catalog, see Creating custom fields.

To change which fields are included in a catalog:

  1. Click Catalogs and select a catalog.

  2. Click Fields.

  3. For each category:

    1. Choose a field category from the pop-up list.

    2. Select or deselect the checkbox for a field to enable or disable that field in the catalog. (When you disable a field, you’ll be prompted to confirm that you want to disable it.)

      Note: Some fields cannot be disabled.

    3. For fields that you have enabled, you can edit field details, default, and predefined values, and specify extract and embedding behavior. See Extracting and embedding options for details.

Field categories

  • All Active Fields: This category shows which fields are enabled in your catalog. You can edit field definitions, but you cannot enable or disable fields in this category.

  • Custom Fields: You can create custom fields for your catalog to store any type of information you want about the assets you catalog: a date, a number, a block of text, or an URL, for example.

    This gives you more flexibility when it comes to organizing, categorizing, and searching for your assets.

  • System Fields: System Fields are those that Portfolio includes in all catalogs automatically. They are considered “must-have” metadata for most types of catalogs.

  • EXIF: EXIF data typically includes information about the device capturing an image, such as model and serial number.

  • IPTC: Typically, photo and media metadata used by news organizations.

  • Movie: Metadata included in a variety of video and animation files.

  • MS Office: Metadata incorporated into Microsoft Office documents.

  • GEO: Geographic metadata included in GIS files (such as MrSID files).

  • Extensis Font Sense: Metadata that uniquely identifies a font used in a document; Font Sense metadata is created by Extensis plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and After Effects.

    Font Sense plug-ins are included with Suitcase Fusion and Universal Type Server’s client applications.

  • XMP: A large selection of general metadata that can be extended as necessary.

Modifying field settings

Most fields have some settings you can customize for your catalog to ensure the data entered is in the format you need.

For all fields, you can:

  • Enter a default value for the field;

  • Choose to Allow Multiple Values;

  • Choose to include a list of Predefined Values for the field;

  • Choose to Allow Only Predefined Values in order to restrict user choices to specific values;

  • Specify metadata extracting and embedding options. See Extracting and embedding options below for details.

    Specify metadata extracting and embedding options. See Extracting and embedding options for details.

For String fields, you can set the maximum number of characters allowed in the field.

For Decimal fields, you can set the precision (number of digits after the decimal).

For Date/Time fields, you can choose whether to show the time data when the field is displayed in Portfolio Web or Express.

Note: Date/Time fields always include time information, whether it is displayed or not.

The Keywords system field includes a unique hierarchical list of predefined values. See The Keywords field for details on changing keyword entry options.

Extracting and embedding options

Metadata in the Portfolio catalog can be populated by extracting it from one or more elements of metadata already in the asset’s file. In addition, metadata in the Portfolio catalog can be embedded in an asset file when it is downloaded or exported.

Notes

  • You do not need to extract metadata from a file in order to embed it back into a file. In fact, you can add new metadata for a file by adding it within Portfolio then exporting the asset.

  • If you extract metadata from a file but do not elect to embed it back into the asset, that field will be read-only within Portfolio.

To extract metadata into a field in your Portfolio catalog:

  1. Click Catalogs, select a catalog, then click Fields.

  2. Select a Field Category from the drop-down list, then select a field.

    If the field is not enabled, select the checkbox to the left of the field name to enable it.

    You can also create a custom field; see Creating custom fields.

  3. Click Add Extract Metadata , choose the metadata to extract and click Add.

    You can extract up to five metadata elements.

    To remove a metadata element from the list, click Remove  next to the metadata name.

To save your field settings, click Submit.

To embed Portfolio metadata into an asset file, choose a field from the Embed in Metadata pop-up menu. The target field does not have to be one of the fields that is extracted.

Note: A warning message will be displayed if the chosen field is already the target for other embedded metadata.

To stop embedding metadata from the selected field, select a different field or the – (None) option at the top of the pop-up menu.

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