DF Studio offers many ways to input and manage asset metadata, and Metadata Terms represent a robust tool for organizing and controlling metadata authoring across large organizations where expansive metadata sets can quickly become unmanageable.

The feature allows admin users to define a set of terms for any metadata field, which will simplify the process of assigning metadata to assets, by suggesting a list of defined metadata terms, by matching new input against the pre-defined terms, or (if desired) by restricting new input only to defined terms.

Edit Metadata

Text fields with defined Metadata Terms accept typed input from the keyboard, just like any other text field. However, when the field is first activated (by clicking, or by tabbing from the previous field), it will also open an alphabetical list of Metadata Terms, which can be selected by clicking with the mouse or scrolling using the arrow keys. The list can also be filtered by typing in the text field, which will automatically narrow the list to terms matching the typed text.

Once a value is entered, either by selecting from the list or by typing and pressing Enter, it will appear in the metadata field as a capsule, which can be removed by clicking the small “close” icon, or can be rearranged by dragging. (This can be a term from the list, or a completely new term entered by typing.)

If a new value has been added to the metadata field while editing, that value will also be added to the Metadata Terms for the Library when saving the metadata to the asset, meaning it will appear on the suggestion list when editing the same field on subsequent assets.

Metadata assigned in a Metadata Messenger will update the Metadata Terms in the same manner as metadata assigned within DF Studio.

Edit Metadata in a Field with Closed Metadata Terms

In some cases, a field’s defined Metadata Terms will be a closed list, meaning only terms on the list can be selected. In this case, typing a new term into the text field and pressing Enter will result in the newly entered text disappearing, because the field cannot accept the value. Selecting other terms from the list, by scrolling or using the type-ahead filtering, will continue to work.

Import Metadata from a CSV File

The Import Metadata feature accounts for Metadata Terms as well. When importing into a field with a closed set of Metadata Terms, any terms not included in the defined Metadata Terms will be ignored. Importing new terms into a field with open Metadata Terms will update the Metadata Terms for the Library. For more information, see Import and Export Metadata.