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How to set up Metadata

This article shows how to set up metadata for the files in your Dalux project.

 User rights

You need to be a project administrator to set up and edit metadata. Contact the project administrator if you do not have permission.

Table of contents

  1. What is metadata?
  2. See and edit metadata
  3. Add metadata
  4. Change how metadata is displayed
  5. Export and import metadata

What is metadata?

Metadata is used to define the properties of the files you upload and store in Dalux Box. These properties are displayed when looking at the list of files in Box and can be seen in their respective columns:

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You can add and remove which columns/properties are displayed. To do so click the -icon and check/uncheck the boxes of the metadata that you want to be displayed/hidden:

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See metadata for a single file by opening that file and clicking Show metadata in the top right of the file window:

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See and edit metadata

To get to the metadata window, go to Settings Box 'Metadata':

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When you open the metadata window, you will see a list of the metadata for the files in your project:

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The properties in this list are the default metadata for files in Dalux Box. These properties will always be added to the files you upload to Dalux Box. In the list you can see:

  • The name of the property
  • The type of the property (Text, integer, user, list, decimal number, ‘Yes/no’)
  • Which of the 3 generic file types that the property is attached to (documents, drawings, models)

Default properties are locked, which means you have limited access to change these properties.

Edit metadata

From this window, you can also edit the current properties or add new properties. For the default properties, you can only edit the column width and whether the property is shown in the list as default.

For user-defined properties (see section below), you can edit everything. To edit a property, simply select it and click Edit:

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Change the data in the property and click 'Save'.

Add metadata

You can add metadata to the files in your project. To add a property, click Add:

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Now fill in the information:

  • Name of the property
  • Type of property – text, date, or list
  • Column width (defines column size in Box overview)
  • Options – Where to display the property (documents, drawings, models) and if to show in the list as default

and click 'OK'.

Change how metadata is displayed

You can change how metadata is displayed in the overview. First, go to the metadata in settings. To customize the display of metadata, select a property and use the arrows to rearrange the columns and change their order.

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You can also choose if a property should be displayed as default or not in the overview. To change it: Select a property Edit  Tick 'Show in list as default' on or off:

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 Tips and tricks

When making changes in the metadata settings it will not affect the existing users on the project. Only new users can see the changes made in the metadata settings.

For existing users to view the new setup, they need to hit the Reset columns button:

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Export and import metadata

You can also add metadata to your project by importing it from another project. To do so, you first have to export the metadata from the other project.

To export metadata, go to

Settings Box 'Metadata' More  Import metadata 'Export metadata':

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To import the data, do the same as above, but instead click  'Import and validate metadata'.

Columns marked in grey CANNOT be imported via this method and will be ignored during import.

Important

If you have already uploaded files to your project, a newly added property will not automatically apply to the existing files.

To update it, go to Settings Box 'Metadata' More 'Generate metadata for existing files'.

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