Bulk Metadata Import - Append Mode? | Community
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ap-ap
January 17, 2024
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Bulk Metadata Import - Append Mode?

  • January 17, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 2107 views

Hello!

 

We are working on updating a few metadata properties on assets spread through a variety of folders in our DAM. Most metadata properties have been easy to address by replacing asset metadata in bulk using a CSV file; however, we're running into complications with tags. Instead of appending the new tag to these assets, the bulk metadata import replaces the existing tags with the new one. Is there a way to append metadata when using the bulk importer? We regularly use the 'append mode' when bulk editing metadata in one folder, but the assets we're working on are distributed throughout the DAM. 

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice!

    Best answer by GeraintJo

    Hi,

     

    I'm pretty sure you can't append using the CSV upload.

     

    You may have to download the metadata for these images, or for all images.

     

    Then do some Excel manipulation to only leave the images you need to update, and only the metadata fields you want to update.

     

    Hopefully then it's relatively easy to add your additional metadata entries.

    It'll test your Excel expertise 😄

     

    Then you can upload that CSV file to make the update in AEM.

     

     

     

    5 replies

    G
    GeraintJoAccepted solution
    Level 4
    January 18, 2024

    Hi,

     

    I'm pretty sure you can't append using the CSV upload.

     

    You may have to download the metadata for these images, or for all images.

     

    Then do some Excel manipulation to only leave the images you need to update, and only the metadata fields you want to update.

     

    Hopefully then it's relatively easy to add your additional metadata entries.

    It'll test your Excel expertise 😄

     

    Then you can upload that CSV file to make the update in AEM.

     

     

     

      Adilos-Cantuerk
      Community Advisor
      Adilos-CantuerkCommunity Advisor
      Community Advisor
      January 28, 2024

      I can confirm and would like to add: excel power query was very helpful when I had to clean up the tags.

      It helped me a lot. Big time.

        diksha_mishra
        Community Advisor
        diksha_mishraCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        January 31, 2024

        @ap-ap Have you tried tagging assets using , (comma) or | (pipe) as a separator in your excel file? The metadata field header should be of type {{String: multi }} in your CSV file.

         

         

         

          Adilos-Cantuerk
          Community Advisor
          Adilos-CantuerkCommunity Advisor
          Community Advisor
          January 31, 2024

          So you export the tags and receive something like this:
          Asset path; cq:tags
          /dam/bla/bla; bodypart:hands|department:sport;
          This asset contains two tags.
          If you want it to contain another, you can not overwrite these values but you can add to them by using the pipe symbol bodypart:hands|department:sport|activities:running|season:summer
          Excel is your friend with this but i couldn't have done it with excel alone since we had a loooot.
          Excel Power Query saved me.

            A
            ap-apAuthor
            January 31, 2024

            Thank you all for the help and great responses! As appending isn't an option, we ended up using Excel, as many of you had also suggested. 

             

            For anyone else looking to address this issue in the future, the approach we settled on is as follows: 

            1. Export assetPath and existing cq:tags{{String:multi }}
            2. Add a blank column before cq:tags. Insert any new desired tags here. 
            3. In column D, use the formula =B2&"|"&C2 to prepend the new tags to existing. Keep values in D, erasing B & C. 
            4. Bulk metadata import to add the new tags. 

            Thank you all again!

              Adilos-Cantuerk
              Community Advisor
              Adilos-CantuerkCommunity Advisor
              Community Advisor
              February 1, 2024

              By using the power query function - i made myself some shortcuts and a way to reproduce the outcome with a simple change of the source csv file.
              I created multiple functions that check the filename or even better the asset path for information fragments and then created additional columns that then became new tags.
              In the end i created a bunch of functions that combine the all the new columns, after checking if the new tag is already there - so we don't have multiple entries of the same tag.
              Next time i need to do something similar, i can simply reload my power query editor and change the scource file csv.

              Table.SplitColumn(#"Replaced Value.2", "themes", Splitter.SplitTextByDelimiter("|", QuoteStyle.Csv), {"themes.sports.1", "themes.sports.2", "themes.sports.3", "themes.sports.4", "themes.sports.5", "themes.sports.6", "themes.sports.7", "themes.sports.8", "themes.sports.9", "themes.sports.10"})Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "tags.sports.1", each if [themes.sports.1] = null then null else if Text.Contains([assetPath], "athletes") then "lifestyle-asset-type:marketing-picture/athletes" else if Text.Contains([assetPath], "campaign-images") then "lifestyle-asset-type:marketing-picture/campaign" else if Text.Contains([assetPath], "content-images") then "lifestyle-asset-type:marketing-picture/content" else if Text.Contains([assetPath], "event-pictures") then "lifestyle-asset-type:marketing-picture/events" else if Text.Contains([assetPath], "key-visual-content") then "lifestyle-asset-type:marketing-picture/key-visual" etc... else null, type text)

              I hope this gives people ideas ;D

                A
                Adobe Employee
                AlexT-Adobe Employee
                Adobe Employee
                December 4, 2024

                @ap-ap we have bulk edit of tags and keywords coming GA next week (Dec 12) in the new Asset View under "Bulk Metadata Edit". You can select up to 100 assets from search or folder view and add (append) tags and keywords in addition to making changes to approval status, author, and expiration date. If this is of interest we can enable early for you too

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