Introduction to metadata

LIBSAFE Advanced allows users to add metadata to any file, folder or data container preserved in the system. Functions can be used to automatically generate metadata on ingest or it can be added manually, or both.

Metadata can be used for searching (even using complex queries), or it can be exported or consumed by other systems. Metadata can be associated with the objects in the following ways:

• Manually, using the platform's Management Interface (for a single item or in bulk),

• Loaded from a CSV, XML or JSON file,

• Using the API,

• Using the platform Functions (you can define code functions that will do rich and advanced extraction and processing to your metadata) or

• Using the platform's Python library in conjunction with a Jupyter Notebook.

Add metadata using the Management Interface

Add metadata for a single item manually

1. Locate the data container you would like to add metadata to using the Containers menu section or by searching. This guide assumes metadata is properly configured for the data container. See Configuration\Metadata for more details or Working with data containers to see how to create them.

2. Select Check-in in case you are not checked in the container, and you have the check-in/out enabled for the data container.

3. In the data container page, choose Explore content:

1. Right click on the item (file or folder) you would like to add metadata to and select Properties

2. In the dialog, select the Metadata tab, and the metadata fields that are part of the metadata schema linked to your container are shown. You can add or remove metadata from them. When you have finished, do not forget to select Save.

Add metadata to multiple items in bulk

It is possible to add metadata to multiple items at once.

1. Locate the data container you would like to add metadata to using the Containers menu section or by searching. This guide assumes metadata is properly configured for the data container. See Configuration\Metadata for more details or Working with data containers to see how to create them.

2. Select Check-in in case you are not checked in the container, and you have the check-in/out enabled for the data container.

3. In the data container page, choose Explore content:

1. Select multiple items using your mouse to click-and-drag a box around the files or folders you want to select. You can also use Ctrl and Shift and use the Select all, Select none or Invert selection in the file browser top bar.

You can also filter the files in the folder you are looking at by file name, for instance, for selecting all XML or JPG files:

1. When the items to which you want to apply metadata have been selected, select the Function Bulk Metadata Editor in your Functions side bar. If you have folders selected, the platform will also apply your metadata to the files contained in them:

Using the API

When users are uploading files to the platform, search results may not show the new file for a while. Consider this in your code when you are uploading and immediately after the upload you need to search for the uploaded file or alter its metadata. See Tips when working with the API.

API examples here are just illustrative. Check the API documentation for additional information and all available methods.

1. Sign in to the platform's Management Interface

2. Obtain your API key selecting your name and then Access Methods:

1. To change metadata for an item using the API, you need to know the unique file identifier (File id) for it. You can do that by using the API search methods. API for searching is rich on features and it accepts complex queries.

In this guide we are going to search for the items matching a file name:

Curl

curl --request POST \
  --url "$your_platform_url/api/file/elastic" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $your_platform_api_key" \
  --data '{
  "must": [
    {
      "term": {
        "filename.keyword": "my_filename.txt"
      }
    },
    {
      "term": {
        "container_id": 100
      }
    }
  ]
}'

Use:

• url: Your platform address

• header: Your API Token (add Bearer prefix)

• filename.keyword: The filename you are searching for

  • It is important to add ".keyword" to this field, to allow for exact matches. The platform will not provide accurate results for the "filename" field without the ".keyword"

• container_id: (optional) The id of the container to filter by.

1. With your unique file identifier (File id) you can list your item's metadata:

Curl

curl --request GET \
  --url "$your_platform_url/api/file/<ID>/metadata" \
  --header "authorization: Bearer $your_platform_api_key"

Use:

• url: Your platform address

• ID: The File ID from the previous step

• header: Your API Token (add Bearer prefix)

Or you can update it: If you would like to set the metadata field title to "Letter 188/12", you can do it in the following way:

Curl

    curl --request PUT \
    --url "$your_platform_url/api/file/1928913/metadata" \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header "authorization: Bearer $your_platform_api_key" \
    --data '{
      "metadata": [
             {
                   "iecode": "title",
                   "value": "Letter 188/12",
                   "action": "replace"
             }
       ]
    }'

You can also add multiple values to a descriptor by sending an array of values:

Curl

    curl --request PUT \
    --url "$your_platform_url/api/file/1928913/metadata" \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header "authorization: Bearer $your_platform_api_key" \
    --data '{
      "metadata": [
             {
                  "iecode": "dc.creator",
                  "value": ["Emmanuelle Charpentier", "Jennifer Doudna"],
                  "action": "replace"
             }
       ]
    }'

Use:

• url: Your platform address

• ID: The File ID from the previous step

• header: Your API Token (add Bearer prefix)

• iecode: The metadata field to edit

• value: The metadata value to edit (string or array of strings)

• action: add or delete (will clear any value).

CAUTION: If you include no action parameter IN ANY of the request parameters, the platform will remove EVERY metadata field value from the object and will just add the last one you included (not just the one you are including in your request). This is designed for the case in which you want to make a single query and replace every metadata field in the item.

This means that if the file has title="new dataset" and author="Mike" and you launch a method without specifying an action with author="David", the author will be set to "David", but the title will be removed.