Skip to content

Metadata fields

Metadata fields are the information people fill in on assets. Fields belong to the organization; which fields each role may see and change is set per role (see Roles and permissions). Fields are added and edited from the metadata table on any role's page under Users → Roles. You can add up to 25 custom fields, choose which fields are required, limit pick-lists to set values, read values from the files themselves, and offer fields as search filters.

Built-in fields

Title, Description, Caption, Event, Copyright, Keywords, Rating, Asset Status and Custodian. Built-in fields keep their names. You can make them required, hide the optional ones, and edit the value lists for Asset Status and Custodian. Keywords always appears on the upload form. Asset Status can't be hidden or required, and its Archived value is always kept because retention rules use it.

Adding a custom field

  1. On a role's page, click Add field below the metadata table.
  2. Enter a Name. As you type, standard photo and document metadata names are suggested (City, Creator, F-Number, Camera Model and so on). Picking one fills in the type, the file tag it reads from, any values and the help text for you.
  3. Choose a Type: Text, Long text, Number, Date, Pick-list (one value), Pick-list (several values), or Yes / no. A field's type can't be changed later.
  4. Choose whether it is Required and whether to Ask on the upload form.
  5. Read from the file (optional): the name of the embedded metadata tag the field takes its value from, such as FNumber or City. See below.
  6. For pick-lists, enter the Allowed values, one per line (up to 200).
  7. Optionally add Help text, shown next to the field, and save.

Then set the new field's access for each role: it starts at No access everywhere.

Required fields must be filled in at upload and can't be cleared later. Assets uploaded before a field became required are not blocked. Hide for all takes an optional field out of Picsha DAM for every role (popup, Details, bulk edit, upload form and filters) and makes it optional; values already on assets are kept, and Show for all brings it back with each role's access as it was. To hide a field from one role only, set it to No access in that role's table. Remove deletes a custom field from forms and filters; values already on assets are kept but no longer shown. Edit, Hide for all and Remove apply to every role.

Reading values from the file

Cameras and programs such as Lightroom write information into the files they save: the camera model, the aperture, the city, the creator, keywords and more. A custom field that names a source tag shows that information without anyone typing it.

  • The field shows the file's value on every asset whose file carries the tag, as soon as the field exists. Assets uploaded later are filled in within a few minutes of arriving.
  • When a field gets a source tag, Picsha also walks the library and copies the value into the field on every asset where it is empty, so the value becomes searchable. The field's row in the metadata table shows the progress ("Filling from files…", then "Filled N from files").
  • A value someone typed is never overwritten by the file, and the file itself is never changed.
  • Values are converted to the field's type: a number out of "200.0 mm" for a number field, dates to a date, lists to a multi-value pick-list, True/False to Yes/No. A pick-list takes the file's value only when it matches one of the allowed values.

The field's badge in the table reads "from file: <tag>".

Fields as search filters

A field offered as a facet appears in the filter panel in Picsha DAM for members of the roles that have the Facet box ticked. Pick-lists and yes/no fields offer their values, date fields a from-to range, and text and number fields the values the library holds, with counts. The built-in Rating, Asset Status and Keywords fields are ticked the same way. See Roles → Search filters.