Sheet format - Excel, CSV

Data in sheets can contain rows of descriptive information which will be ignored by the Importer and it can also contain the actual metadata configuration. However, from the mandatory DataStartRow configuration everything must be data and the Importer will stop at the first empty row it encounters.

Row validity in an asset upload with metadata use case

When uploading assets with metadata in a sheet input format there must be a column with a reference to the filename of the asset. Any file not referenced in the sheet will be left alone with the assumption that a sheet referencing this asset will arrive later. For the same reason any sheet input must always copied into a hotfolder after any and all asset files. Any reference in the sheet to a file which does not exist when the sheet is read is simply ignored.

Row validity in a metadata only use case

With a metadata only use case (RunUpload is false) there must be 1 of 2 conditions present for any given row in a sheet:

A match token to give to MatchSearchName to find an ItemId for the asset to update.
An ItemId which directly specifies the asset to update.

If none of these options are present the Importer has no way to identify which asset to update and the row will be ignored.

With option 1 there is at least in theory a chance that the search will not return a result for a match token which in turn means a row of metadata will be ignored because the Importer does not know where to put it.

In either case when the Importer cannot identify the asset for metadata update an error message will be written to log.

Supported file extensions

Excel

CSV

.xls

.xlsx

.xlsm

.csv

Important note on performance

When using a sheet input type with asset upload it is recommended to use the SheetDirectory option to separate metadata from assets. In use cases where customers need to bulk upload large quantities of assets (10k+) at one time this will speed up the metadata part of the proces.

XML format - Xml2Metadata

Currently when using the XML format metadata configuration will always be preconfigured as described in DC 5.4 Metadata Configuration. Any XML content which is not referenced by the metadata configuration file will simply be ignored.

Supported file extensions

The only supported file extension is .xml.

Data types

The following sections will describe each supported datatype.

Bit

This type of field only accepts boolean values. The values that the Importer understands are as follows:

1 and 0
Yes and No
True and False

Values will read case insensitive.

DateTime

This type of field accepts datetime formats. When input is a sheet type it is possible to format the column as date which causes the Importer to implicitly receive the data in datetime format. If not formatted as data or if input is XML in which case all values are strings the format of the date must be valid according to the Culture configuration of the Importer.

Combo types

The singular types ComboValue and EditComboValue are treated exactly the same. The multi types MultiComboValue and EditMultiComboValue are also treated exactly the same. The only difference in handling between the singular and multiple types is that only one value will ever be saved for the singular types and for the multiple types the ComboSeparator configuration will be used to split the input value when input is a sheet type.

Any value that does not exist will be created. It is only possible to specify one string input value so a combovalue will be created using this for display- and optionvalue both.

Example

Input: Grass;Green;Nature

The ComboSeparator is configured to be semicolon in the example. The above multivalued input gets interpreted as three discrete values: Grass, Green, and Nature.

Float

This type of field accepts decimal numbers. The Culture parameter will determine the format. When input is a sheet type it is possible to format a column as a number in which case the sheets internal data type format will take precedence.

Integer

This type of field only accepts whole numbers only. The Culture parameter will determine the format. When input is a sheet type it is possible to format a column as a number in which case the sheets internal data type format will take precedence.

Link

See String.

Money

See float.

Note

See String.

String

This type of field can take any textual type of input and handle as a string value.

Tree

Represents a tree structure in the DAM Center. The values are split by ComboSeparator, much in the same way as EditMultiComboValue and MultiComboValue are. However, since trees have hierarchy, this hierarchy is represented by forward slashes.

Example

A tree that looks like this:

Will be represented in the excel sheet like this:

Images;Images/Animals

If any tree node (or an entire structure) does not already exist, it will be created. It is only possible to specify one string input value so a treevalue will be created using this for display- and optionvalue both.