Aprimo DAM

Bulk Update Metadata

Three ways to update fields on multiple assets simultaneously.

Humpback Whale tail above water
Humpback Whale Young humpback whale slaps its tail near Klemtu, BC, Canada. © Jason Houston

*Tasks and processes covered in this article take place in the Power Workspace, the Aprimo DAM user interface designed for uploaders and other power users. To learn about the different user interfaces and how to navigate between them, visit this page.*

 

There are 3 Ways to Bulk Update Metadata in the Aprimo DAM. 

Method 1: Edit Draft Records Before Making Assets Available

After uploading assets, before completing all metadata and making them available to use, you can select a set of assets from your Uploads page and apply text or a label in multiple fields to all assets. 

Method 2: Using a Metadata Template

If you frequently use the same photographer, the same usage rights, the same business group and geographic location, you may want to create a metadata template. This is a set of metadata that you can apply to any assets. 

Method 3: Edit Available Records 

If you already have a number of availbale assets which are all missing a field of information, and should have the same value in that field, it would make sense to select all these assets and bulk update the records. 

View the How To

4min

View Video

Method 1: Edit Draft Assets

Newly uploaded files are automatically saved into draft. Draft files in the My uploads list are only visible to the uploader and are not yet available in Aprimo DAM for other users to see or edit..

You first have to add all required metadata fields and make the assets available before they will be visible.   

You can edit assets and make them available to other users in bulk or one at a time.

To edit draft records in bulk:

  1. From the uploads page, select assets you want to edit and click the Make x available button at the top right corner.
  2. For all fields that should have the same value across all selected assets, enter values in those fields.
  3. If you have completed all required metadata fields, you can click Make available at the top of the page to allow the asset to be used. If you still need to make edits to assets individually, click Save as draft to apply the field values and keep the record(s) in draft status.
  4. If you have selected more than 10 assets, you may see a pop-up window warning you that the upload may take some time. You can click 'OK' to dismiss the warning. 

Before a draft record can be made available, it must be linked to at least 1 classification and all required fields must contain a value.

View Tutorial

Method 2: Using a Metadata Template

Creating a metadata template

You can create a metadata template from all places where you can edit multiple records:

  • from and search results, collection, or view in Assets
  • from the My Uploads page in Assets

To create a metadata template:

  1. From a collection, view, or search results select one or more records and in the selection bar at the bottom of the page choose More > Edit records. On the My Uploads page select one or more records and click Make x available at the top of the page. Both actions open the multiple-record editing page.
  2. You now see a list of all fields that are available on the selected records. Edit all field values that you want to include in the metadata template. You will notice that the check box of these fields gets selected.

  3. Click Metadata templates > Save as metadata template at the top of the page. Enter a name and a description for the new metadata template and click Save.
  4. You can now choose to also save the changes to all selected records, or to click Cancel to only keep the metadata template without changing any records

In short, Metadata templates allow you to apply a predefined set of field values to multiple records at once.

This means that, wherever you can edit multiple records at once, you can also apply a metadata template:

  • by selecting one or more records from a collection, view, a search results page, etc. in Assets
  • by selecting one or more draft records on the My uploads page

To apply a metadata template:

  1. Select one or more records in Assets and in the selection bar at the bottom of the page choose More > Edit records. On the My uploads page select the check box in front of one or more draft records and click Make x available at the top of the page.

    Both these actions open a multiple-record edit page.

  2. At the top of this page click Metadata templates > Apply metadata template and choose the template that you want to apply from the list.
  3. You will see that all field values that are included in the template are instantly applied to all records in the selection.

Important to know:

  • You can apply more than one template during one edit session, and also combine this with manual editing. Be aware however that applying a template will overwrite any existing field values.
  • If the field already contained a value, that value will be replaced by the one in the template.

Source: Aprimo DAM User Guide

Method 3: Edit Available Records

To bulk edit metadata for available assets. It may be a good idea to start by creating a saved view or a collection of assets that you are looking to update.

You can only do a bulk metadata update on a group of assets that are the same content type, such as all photos or all design files, rather than a mix of types.

1.  Starting with the saved view, you can select all the images you would like to update by either clicking “select all” at the top of the page, or clicking in the top right corner of each image thumbnail.

2. When you select images, a dark grey bar will pop up at the bottom of the page. Firstly, note the number of images that have been selected in the bar. Make sure that number looks correct and you are not inadvertently updating more images than you intend to. Selected images will stay selected until you unselect them, so there could be selected images not visible on thepage you are viewing.

3. In the same grey bar, you can see a list of options. Notice that here you can choose to add all of the selected items to a collection of images. Click on More, and select Edit Records.

4. This will open up the metadata editor where you can enter field values to write over all the selected assets. At this step, you could also apply a metadata template from the dropdown menu next to the Save button at the top of the page. Since these assets are already available in the system, unlike pending assets in your uploads page, you cannot save changes in draft and once you initiate the field changes by clicking save, those changes will be visible in the system.