Folder Metadata Schemas Application for Users

hi ​@LouizaJeffries,

there are a few approaches you could consider to enable users to do this:

1. Create specific user groups (like "content-managers" or "folder-administrators") with elevated permissions to apply metadata schemas, without granting full administrator access.
2. Develop a custom workflow that allows users to request or apply a metadata schema to folders they own or manage. This workflow could:
   • Present users with available schema options
   • Include an approval step if needed
   • Apply the schema programmatically once approved

Before implementing any solution you should consider following topics:

• Governance: Do you want all users applying any schema, or should there be controls?
• Training: Users will need to understand which schemas to apply to which folders
• Standardization: Having a controlled process might prevent inconsistent metadata application across your thousands of existing folders

Hi ​@LouizaJeffries ,

The response from ​@giuseppebaglio in quite precise.

I want to add another point. If you have one or two or even three variations of folder metadata schema, then let people request those schemas, all good. However, if one starts to have many many variations of schemas, then it becomes quite tough to manage. Do consider using inheritance while designing schemas, that can significantly reduce the management and can help with extensibility.

I hope this helps. Thanks!

Hi ​@LouizaJeffries , how many schemas are we talking about here?,  ideally schemas should be limited and should be applied to very top level hierarchy folders and all child/low level folders should automatically get it.

Thank you ​@giuseppebaglio , ​@Abie , ​@Shashi_Mulugu . We do not have a lot of folder metadata schemas but my understanding is that they do not inherit. I have tested this in our environments and each folder must have its own schema selected during creation. If it could inherit, that would solve many of our issues. 

Hey ​@LouizaJeffries 

Out-of-the-box, only Admins can apply Folder Metadata Schemas to existing folders in AEM Assets.
Regular users cannot apply schemas unless you explicitly grant them permissions.

To allow users to apply schemas:

• Give read access to the schema definitions under /conf/.../metadataschema

• Give modify permissions on the target DAM folders

After this, users can see and apply existing schemas — without needing full admin rights.

If permissions are not changed → only Admins can do it.

Hey ​@LouizaJeffries 

Out-of-the-box, only Admins can apply Folder Metadata Schemas to existing folders in AEM Assets.
Regular users cannot apply schemas unless you explicitly grant them permissions.

To allow users to apply schemas:

• Give read access to the schema definitions under /conf/.../metadataschema

• Give modify permissions on the target DAM folders

After this, users can see and apply existing schemas — without needing full admin rights.

If permissions are not changed → only Admins can do it.

Hi ​@LouizaJeffries  I tested this in an AEM instance and here is my observation - 

The main constraint here is that once a folder is created, the UI does not show an option to select the metadata schema for the existing folders.

But a non admin (users part of dam-users group) can select the metadata schema while creating the folders 

So once you setup the folder metadata schema, this would be available to select for newly created folders.

However for the existing folders, it looks like you would need to run a one time script to add the property programmatically.

Hope this helps!

Thanks

Narendra