Custom metadata

Custom metadata

Your catalog may need to include metadata that is not already built-in to Portfolio. The following steps show you how to add a metadata definition and associate it with a custom field in your catalog.


Adding a custom metadata definition

To add a custom definition:

  1. Click Catalogs and select a catalog.

  2. Click Fields.

  3. Click Manage Metadata.

  4. In the Metadata Definitions window, click .

    This opens the Create Metadata Definition window.

  5. Enter the metadata definition:

    • Name: The unique name for the metadata.

      The convention used in Portfolio is XMP - <corporate identifier> - <field name>; for example, XMP - Example Company - Example Field.

      The “field name” represents the custom field that you will create to contain this metadata. The text used here does not need to match the field name exactly, but it should uniquely identify the custom field for your ease in identification.

    • Type: Choose XMP from the list.

    • Namespace: Choose xap.

    • Tag: Enter the unique tag for the metadata. (The tag is how the metadata is identified by other software.)

      The convention used in Portfolio is to merge the “corporate identifier” and “field name” text, removing all spaces; for example, ExampleCompanyExampleField.

    • Data Type: Choose the type of data that this definition identifies. (This is the same data type that you will assign to the custom field that you will create.)

    • Multivalued Type: If the field will contain more than one value, select Ordered or Unordered; otherwise, select Not Multivalued.

  6. When the metadata definition is complete, click Create.

You can now create a custom field that is used to embed and extract the metadata that you just defined. For details on adding a custom field to your catalog, see Creating custom fields.

Example

In this example, we have a catalog of products that we want to add some standard advertising metadata to. We’ll add three metadata definitions: Product Release Date, Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price, and Product Recall Status. We’ll then add these fields to our catalog. (If you want to follow this example, create a dummy catalog that you can work with. Ours is named Products.)

  1. Click Catalogs, select the Products catalog (or your dummy catalog), click Fields, then click Manage Metadata.

  2. Click  and enter the following for the first metadata definition:

    • Name: XMP - Our Company - Release Date

    • Type: xap

    • Tag: OurCompanyReleaseDate

    • Data Type: Date/Time

    • Multivalued Type: Not Multivalued

  3. Click Create to create the first metadata definition.

  4. Click  and enter the following:

    • Name: XMP - Our Company - MSRP

    • Type: xap

    • Tag: OurCompanyMSRP

    • Data Type: Decimal

    • Multivalued Type: Not Multivalued

  5. Click Create.

  6. Click  and create the final metadata definition:

    • Name: XMP - Our Company - Recall Status

    • Type: xap

    • Tag: OurCompanyRecallStatus

    • Data Type: Boolean

    • Multivalued Type: Not Multivalued

  7. Click Create, then click OK in the Metadata Definitions window.

  8. Click Add Field .

  9. Define the field as follows:

    • Name: ReleaseDate (note that we do not use a space in the field name; this makes custom searches much easier to perform)

    • Field Type: Date/Time

    • Show Time: False (leave this option deselected)

    • Allow Multiple Values: False (deselected)

    Click Create to create the new field in your catalog.

    Continue editing the field settings:

    1. Click Add Extract Metadata .

    2. In the Add Extract Metadata dialog, choose XMP - Our Company - Release Date (as created above) and click Add.

    3. Under Embed in Metadata, choose XMP - Our Company - Release Date from the drop-down menu.

  10. Click Add Field  and create, then edit the MSRP field:

    • Name: MSRP

    • Field Type: Decimal

    • Precision: 2

    • Add Extract Metadata: XMP - Our Company - MSRP

    • Embed in Metadata: XMP - Our Company - MSRP

  11. Click Add Field  and create and edit the final field:

    • Name: RecallStatus (do not use spaces)

    • Field Type: Boolean

    • Default Value: False (deselected)

    • Add Extract Metadata: XMP - Our Company - Recall Status

    • Embed in Metadata: XMP - Our Company - Recall Status

Testing your custom metadata

If you have created a dummy Watch Folder catalog and added the new fields following the example above, you can use Portfolio Web or Desktop to confirm that your metadata and custom fields are “working” correctly.

In Portfolio Web or Desktop:

  1. Add an asset to your dummy catalog.

  2. Enter metadata for the new asset using the new custom fields.

    Since we turned on embedding for our custom definitions, the metadata will be written to the original file.

  3. Delete the asset from your catalog. Do not delete the original file from disk!

  4. Refresh the catalog to see that Portfolio has re-cataloged the file.

  5. Look at the metadata for the re-catalogued asset. It should include the data you entered originally.

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