Handling metadata

Viewing METADATA of folders

You can view the metadata linked to a folder in the Metadata pane. The metadata appears when you select a folder in the Navigation pane or in the Details pane.

EDIT METADATA of folders

  • To edit the metadata fields of a folder, click “Edit Metadata” in the Metadata pane.

Viewing Document metadata

Metadata of files and folders are presented in the Metadata pane. As you scroll through the list, data in the Metadata pane will be updated.

In the example above, you will see that this document type is a “Project”, which has the standard metadata field (creation date, creator, etc) and some specific metadata fields (project name, customer name, etc).

Edit Document metadata

“Edit Metadata” will open a window to edit the metadata field values. You can perform edits such as adding further detail to the document type and/or add additional optional metadata groups. These steps are described in ‘Uploading file’.

Auto completion of metadata values (SOLR)

When the Alfresco server is using SOLR indexing, you can activate the text metadata field to enable auto completion behavior. Then, while you are typing, Fred will suggest possible values that fit the text you are typing. As you narrow down the options whilst continuing to type, you can select, with either the mouse or with the keyboard arrows, the correct value and move to the next field.

**Important: **

  • Auto suggestion is case sensitive!

  • When you add a new value to the file, it will take some time before this value will appear in the suggestions. The delay is dependent on multiple elements specific to your environment. In ideal conditions, the delay will only be 15 seconds long.

Viewing metadata of Multiple documents

All metadata fields, as defined in the Alfresco document model, can be selected as a column in the Fred window. This allows you to sort the files. See ‘Handling views for more information.

Editing metadata of Multiple documents

Selecting documents in the Details pane will show the metadata fields which are common for the selection in the Metadata pane. Where all fields are blank or have identical values, they will be presented in the view mode. In the view mode of the Metadata pane, fields that have different values in the document selection will be marked as ‘Multiple values’.

When you select the edit mode of the Metadata pane, you will be able to update the values of the common metadata fields. Please note:

  • Not filling in a field will not change the existing values in that field

  • Filling in a value in a field will overwrite the existing values in that field

For each column, the following behavior is defined as:

  • Checkbox or indicates that all documents have that value

  • Checkbox indicates that the selection contains multiple values

  • When clicking the checkbox, it will iterate between , and . This is indicating that your input will result in a new value or , for that field, or that you want to leave the different values in the document selection unchanged.

Exporting metadata

In the Detail pane and the Search pane, you can export the metadata of selected objects and save them to a comma separate file on your local drive.

The metadata of the columns that you selected in the view will be exported to a local file.

You can now add additional records to the list by selecting new objects and using the shortcut CTRL + C or the COPY command to copy the metadata to the desktop clipboard. You can then paste the metadata values to an excel table.

You can configure a hyperlink to the object, which should be added as the first column. This parameter is set in the Advanced tab of the Fred configuration: File>Open Settings

Metadata governance – Mandatory metadata

When uploading documents to the server, standard document properties are extracted automatically from the document and you are able to edit the business metadata. You can choose to keep the default document type, and not add extra metadata.

Adding extra metadata fields and values is helpful in finding the content at a later date, and providing additional details of the content. To guide the users in completing the appropriate metadata, you are able to add some additional metadata governance in specific folder structures.

This functionality needs to be properly configured on your server. Contact your system administrator for configuration services.

How to activate the metadata governance on a specific folder

You can activate the mandatory metadata governance on a specific folder and its subfolders by adding the Enable Metadata Aspect to the folder.

An indication that the Metadata Validation is activated, is provided in the metadata panel of the folder, as shown below.

Metadata Validation behavior

When Metadata Validation is activated on a folder, the following behavior will be default:

  • You will be able to upload documents into this folder structure

  • A document for which the document type or the metadata values are not compatible with the metadata governance rules, will remain visible in the upload progress pane, until the metadata is completed correctly

  • If you are uploading too many documents with metadata that do not pass the validation check, you will be restricted from adding additional documents to the repository. The parameter of number of ‘invalid’ documents is set on the server.

Metadata validation rules

  • The document type cannot be generic (e.g. Fred Document, Company Document) and must be specified in detail (e.g. Invoice, Project, Minute Of Meeting). The list of document types which are considered ‘generic’ is defined on the server.

  • For document types that contain mandatory metadata fields (indicated by a * next to the description), the fields must be completed with the appropriate values.

Behavior with rules

When documents are uploaded into folders where automated rules are changing the document type and/or the metadata values, the validation check will run against the values after the rule has been executed. If the validation is positive, the document record will be removed from the upload pane after you have save the metadata.

Other people updating the metadata

When other users complete the metadata, the validation check will be positive and the document record will be removed from the upload list.

Easy integration with third party metadata applications

Fred includes the possibility to connect to a metadata database or table, in which it can query metadata values linked to a record key (i.e. customer ID stored in Alfresco metadata field) in the database and present these values in presentation fields in the Fred User Interface.

For more information, contact your IT team.