Configuration and administration of metadata functionality in Assets

Last update: March 14, 2024

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Adobe Experience Manager Assets keeps metadata for every asset. It allows easier categorization and organization of assets and it helps people who are looking for a specific asset. With the ability to keep and manage metadata with your assets, you can automatically organize and process assets based on their metadata. Adobe Experience Manager Assets lets administrators configure and customize metadata functionality to modify the default Adobe offering.

Edit metadata schema

For details, see edit metadata schema forms.

Register a custom namespace within Experience Manager

You can add your own namespaces within Experience Manager. Just as there are predefined namespaces such as cq, jcr, and sling, you can have a namespace for your repository metadata and XML processing.

  1. Access the node type administration page https://[aem_server]:[port]/crx/explorer/nodetypes/index.jsp.
  2. To access the namespace administration page, click Namespaces at the top of the page.
  3. To add a namespace, click New at the bottom of the page.
  4. Specify a custom namespace in the XML namespace convention. Specify the ID in the form of a URI and an associated prefix for the ID. Click Save.

Configure limits for bulk metadata update

To prevent a denial of service (DOS) like situation, Enterprise Manager limits the number of parameters supported in a Sling request. When updating metadata of many assets in one go, you may reach the limit and the metadata does not get updated for more assets. Enterprise Manager generates the following warning in the logs:

org.apache.sling.engine.impl.parameters.Util Too many name/value pairs, stopped processing after 10000 entries

To change the limit, access Tools > Operations > Web Console and change the value of Maximum POST Parameters in Apache Sling Request Parameter Handling OSGi configuration.

Metadata profiles

A metadata profile lets you apply default metadata to assets within a folder. Create a metadata profile and apply it to a folder. Any asset that you later upload to the folder inherits the default metadata that you configured in the metadata profile.

Add a metadata profile

  1. Navigate to Tools > Assets > Metadata Profiles and click Create.

  2. Enter a title for the profile, for example, Sample Metadata, and click Create. The Edit Form for the metadata profile is displayed.

    Edit a metadata form

  3. Click a component and configure its properties in the Settings tab. For example, click the Description component and edit its properties.

    Setting of a component in metadata profile

    Edit the following properties for the Description component:

    • Field Label: The display name of the metadata property. It is only for the user reference.

    • Map to Property: The value of this property provides the relative path or name to the asset node where it is saved in the repository. The value should always start with ./ because it indicates that the path is under the asset’s node.

    Map to property setting in metadata profile

    The value you specify for Map to property is stored as a property under the asset’s metadata node. For example, if you specify ./jcr:content/metadata/dc:desc as the name of Map to property, Assets stores the value dc:desc at the asset’s metadata node. Adobe recommends that you map only one field to a given property in the metadata schema. Otherwise, the latest added field mapped to the property is picked by the system.

    • Default Value: Use this property to add a default value for the metadata component. For example, if you specify “My description” then this value is assigned to the property dc:desc at the asset’s metadata node.

    Set default description in metadata profile

    NOTE
    Adding a default value to a new metadata property (that does not exist at /jcr:content/metadata node) does not display the property and its value on the asset’s Properties page by default. To view the new property on the assets’ Properties page, modify the corresponding schema form.

  4. (Optional) In the Build Form tab, add more components to Edit Form, and configure their properties in the Settings tab. The following properties are available in the Build Form tab:

ComponentProperties
Section HeaderField Label,
Description
Single-Line TextField Label,
Map to property,
Default Value
Multi Value TextField Label,
Map to property,
Default Value
NumberField Label,
Map to property,
Default Value
DateField Label,
Map to property,
Default Value
Standard TagsField Label,
Map to property,
Default Value,
Description

  1. Click Done. The Metadata Profile is added to the list of profiles in the Metadata Profiles page.

    Metadata profile added in Metadata Profiles page

Copy a metadata profile

  1. From the Metadata Profiles page, select a metadata profile to make a copy of it.

    Copy a metadata profile

  2. Click Copy from the toolbar.

  3. In the Copy Metadata Profile dialog, enter a title for the new copy of the Metadata Profile.

  4. Click Copy. The copy of the Metadata Profile appears in the list of profiles in the Metadata Profiles page.

    A copy of metadata profile added in Metadata Profiles page

Delete a metadata profile

  1. From the Metadata Profiles page, select a profile to delete.

  2. Click Delete Metadata Profiles in the toolbar.

  3. In the dialog, click Delete to confirm the delete operation. The metadata profile is deleted from the list.

Metadata schema for a folder

Adobe Experience Manager Assets lets you create metadata schemas for asset folders, which define the layout and metadata displayed in folder properties pages.

Add a folder metadata schema form

Use the Folder Metadata Schema Forms editor to create and edit metadata schemas for folders.

  1. In Experience Manager interface, go to Tools > Assets > Folder Metadata Schemas.
  2. On the Folder Metadata Schema Forms page, click Create.
  3. Specify a name for the form, and click Create. The new schema form is listed in the Schema Forms page.

Edit folder metadata schema forms

You can edit a newly added or existing metadata schema form, which includes the following:

  • Tabs
  • Form items within tabs.

You can map/configure these form items to a field within a metadata node in the CRX repository. You can add new tabs or form items to the metadata schema form.

  1. In the Schema Forms page, select the form you created, and then select the Edit option from the toolbar.

  2. In the Folder Metadata Schema Editor page, click + to add a tab to the form. To rename the tab, click the default name and specify the new name under Settings.

    custom_tab

    To add more tabs, click +. To delete, click X on a tab.

  3. In the active tab, add one or more components from the Build Form tab.

    adding_components

    If you create multiple tabs, click a particular tab to add components.

  4. To configure a component, select it and modify its properties in the Settings tab.

    If necessary, delete a component from the Settings tab.

    configure_properties

  5. To save the changes, select Save from the toolbar.

Components to build forms

The Build Form tab lists form items that you use in your folder metadata schema form. The Settings tab displays the attributes for each item that you select in the Build Form tab. Here is a list the form items available in the Build Form tab:

Component NameDescription
Section HeaderAdd a section heading for a list of common components.
Single Line TextAdd a single-line text property. It is stored as a string.
Multi Value TextAdd a multi value text property. It is stored as a string array.
NumberAdd a number component.
DateAdd a date component.
DropdownAdd a drop-down list.
Standard TagsAdd a tag.
Hidden FieldAdd a hidden field. It is sent as a POST parameter when the asset is saved.

Editing form items

To edit the properties of form items, click the component and edit all or a subset of the following properties in the Settings tab.

Field Label: The name of the metadata property that is displayed on the properties page for the folder.

Map to Property: This property specifies the relative path of the folder node in the CRX repository where it is saved. It starts with “./”, which indicates that the path is under the folder’s node.

The following are the valid values for this property:

  • ./jcr:content/metadata/dc:title: Stores the value at the folder’s metadata node as the property dc:title.

  • ./jcr:created: Displays the JCR property at the folder’s node. If you configure these properties in CRXDE, Adobe recommends that you mark them as Disable Edit, because they are protected. Otherwise, the error ’ Asset(s) failed to modify’ occurs when you save the asset’s properties.

To ensure that the component is displayed properly in the metadata schema form, do not include a space in the property path.

JSON Path: Use it to specify the path of the JSON file where you specify key-value pairs for options.

Placeholder: Use this property to specify relevant placeholder text regarding the metadata property.

Choices: Use this property to specify choices in a list.

Description: Use this property to add a short description for the metadata component.

Class: Object class the property is associated with.

Delete folder metadata schema forms

You can delete folder metadata schema forms from the Folder Metadata Schema Forms page. To delete a form, select the form and click the delete option from the toolbar.

delete_form

Assign a folder metadata schema

You can assign a folder metadata schema to a folder either from the Folder Metadata Schema Forms page or when creating a folder.

If you configure a metadata schema for a folder, the path to the schema form is stored in the folderMetadataSchema property of the folder node under ./jcr:content.

Assign to a schema from the Folder Metadata Schema page

  1. In Experience Manager interface, go to Tools > Assets > Folder Metadata Schemas.

  2. From the Folder Metadata Schema Forms page, select the schema form you want to apply to a folder.

  3. From the toolbar, click Apply to Folder(s).

  4. Select the folder on which to apply the schema and then click Apply. If a metadata schema is already applied on the folder, a warning message informs that you are about to overwrite the existing metadata schema. Click Overwrite.

  5. Open the metadata properties for the folder to which you applied the metadata schema.

    folder_properties

    To view the folder metadata fields, click the Folder Metadata tab.

    folder_metadata_properties

Assign a schema when creating a folder

You can assign a folder metadata schema when creating a folder. If at least one folder metadata schema exists in the system, an extra list is displayed in the Create Folder dialog. You can select the desired schema. By default, no schema is selected.

  1. From the Experience Manager Assets user interface, click Create from the toolbar.

  2. Specify a title and name for the folder.

  3. From the Folder Metadata Schema list, select the desired schema. Then, click Create.

    select_schema

  4. Open the metadata properties for the folder to which you applied the metadata schema.

  5. To view the folder metadata fields, click the Folder Metadata tab.

Use the folder metadata schema

Open the properties for a folder configured with a folder metadata schema. A Folder Metadata tab is displayed in the folder Properties page. To view the folder metadata schema form, select this tab.

Enter metadata values in the various fields and click Save to store the values. The values you specify are stored in the folder node in the CRX repository.

folder_metadata_properties-1

Tips and limitations

  • To import metadata on custom namespaces, first register the namespaces.
  • Property Picker displays properties that are used in schema editors and search forms. Property Picker does not pick metadata properties from an asset.
  • You may have pre-existing metadata profiles existing since before upgrading to Experience Manager 6.5. After upgrade, if you apply such a profile in folder Properties in Metadata Profiles tab, the metadata form fields do not display. However, if you apply a newly created metadata profile, the form fields are displayed but unavailable as expected. There is no loss of functionality but if you want to see the (unavailable) form fields then edit and save the existing metadata profiles.
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