Making metadata input required in Assets Server – Help Center

Some metadata fields store information that is important or even vital to track, such as copyright information. For such fields, users should at least be made aware of the field or even be required to enter that information.

This awareness or requirement can be configured in Assets Server for assets that are imported or for assets that already exist in Assets Server:

For assets that are imported, users can be notified or required to add metadata
For assets that already exist, users can be notified to add metadata

Required metadata

Figure: An example of a required metadata field. Here, the user is notified by a metadata flag below the thumbnail and a message and colored field in the Metadata panel that Category information needs to be added.

How it works

First, a system-wide rule is defined which determines how strict the required data input should be, ranging from 'loose' to 'enforced'.

Next, each metadata field that should have required data input is configured by enabling a setting.

This setting does 2 things:

It tells the system that the system-wide rule of required data input should be applied to this field.
It defines for which type of assets the rule should apply: ranging from all types to only specific types (such as only videos, only JPEGs, or a combination of types).

Levels of requirement

Making metadata input required can be done on 3 levels:

Loose (default): Users are notified and encouraged to add a value but they are not forced to do so (meaning that they can continue without entering the 'required' data).

Strict: Users cannot import assets manually unless they add a value. When users remove the value for an existing asset, they are notified. When users leave the field blank, the original value is automatically put back when they exit the asset.

Note: This restriction does not apply to import modules such as the Hot Folder import.

Enforced: Assets are not allowed to be imported without the required metadata. When users remove the value for an existing asset, they are notified. When users leave the field blank, the original value is automatically put back when they exit the asset.

Notes:

Use this setting with extreme caution. This can cripple import modules and other processes in Assets Server when not all required metadata is set.
The 'Enforced' setting is not supported by Assets. When Assets Server is configured to use the 'Enforced' setting, uploading files with missing metadata will fail in Assets.

Configuration

The configuration is done in the cluster-config.properties.txt file of Assets Server by setting the requiredMetadataHandling value.

For information about modifying this file, see Changing the Assets Server configuration for a running cluster.

Add the following line:

requiredMetadataHandling=value

Example:

requiredMetadataHandling=loose

Setting a field to required

Setting metadata fields to required is done in the custom-assetinfo.xml file of Assets Server.

For information about modifying this file, see Changing the Assets Server configuration for a running cluster.

To make a field required, add a requiredFor attribute and define for which type of assets the requirement should apply:

Note: To do this for default metadata fields, see Changing the default metadata field options in Assets Server. To do this for custom metadata fields, see Custom metadata in Assets Server.)

Using an asterisk (*) makes the field required for all asset types.

Example: Here, the Status field is made required for all assets:

<fieldExt name="status" group="General" requiredFor="*" />

Using a comma-separated list of assetTypes and/or assetDomains makes the field required for a range of assets.

Examples:

Here, the Status field is made required for assets of type 'doc' and all images:

<fieldExt name="status" group="General" requiredFor="assetType:doc, assetDomain:image" />

Here, the Copyright field is made required for assets of type 'jpg' and 'psd':

<fieldExt name="copyright" group="Rights" requiredFor="assetType:jpg, assetType:psd" />

Here, the Description field is made required for all images and videos:

<fieldExt name="description" group="General" requiredFor="assetDomain:image, assetDomain:video" />

Here, the custom field Photographer is made required for all images:

<field name="cf_photographer" group="CompanyData" requiredFor="assetDomain:image" />

How it works

Levels of requirement

Configuration

Setting a field to required

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