Table of Contents
Creating a metadata view
31. August 2026
Table of Contents
A metadata view is a collection of metadata fields applied to an archive. The metadata view manages the fields in the various FotoWeb user interfaces and plugins, as well as their read-only or editable status.
Users can edit metadata in an archive only if they have permission in the archive's access list; however, at the lowest level, the metadata view controls whether a field is editable at all.
How metadata views affect the uploading of assets to the system
The metadata view assigned to an archive also affects the fields users see and must fill in when uploading assets to that archive. By setting required fields and optionally coupling them with a taxonomy with preset values, users will have to fill these fields when uploading files to the archive. This applies to all means of uploading to FotoWeb: from web browsers, FotoWeb Desktop, Adobe Extensions, and FotoWeb mobile apps.
Creating a metadata view
- From the Tools menu (cogwheel icon), go to Site Configuration > Metadata > Metadata Views.
- Select Add Metadata View to begin. You can also clone an existing metadata view by selecting Clone for the relevant view.
- On the General tab, enter a Name and a Description in the General settings section.
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Preserving the original dates of uploaded assets
When migrating content to Fotoware, you might want to preserve the original date and time of uploaded assets. You can do so by turning on the Preserve modification time toggle in the metadata set and associating that metadata set with the archive to which files are migrated.
Note: This setting is currently honored only by the web uploader.
Adding fields
Below the Name and Description fields, you can add the fields you'd like to expose in an archive using this metadata view.
Fields that you add here can be assigned to Regions and Zones. These terms refer to the areas on the Asset Details page in the web interface where information is displayed.
A Region is a group of fields with a group header and can contain any number of fields. Each region you create can then be assigned to a Zone. Zones relate specifically to the main FotoWeb interface, where the asset details page has two zones: Quick Info is the zone directly below the asset's title, to the left of the asset preview, while the Asset Details zone is the area that holds the asset's preview and additional information tabs. Assigning a region to the Asset Details zone creates a new tab that contains those metadata fields. The tab will be named after the region you chose above.
Note
In the Pro interface, the Region serves as a group header for the fields it contains. Zones are not in use in the Pro interface, but you should still assign a zone to all regions so the metadata view can be used in the main FotoWeb interface.
Time and date fields
When you edit a time or date field, you can edit (or remove) the time zone indicator for the field. Metadata fields related to dates and times display a time zone indicator in view mode when a time zone is specified. If a time zone indicator is not specified in the metadata, then metadata fields related to date and time will not display a time zone indicator in view mode.
In view mode, time is calculated based on the local (browser) time, whereas the time zone indicator displays the originally entered time zone.
Creating a region and adding fields to it
- To add a region, scroll to the Regions section and select Add Region.
- Name the region and assign it to the zone.
- Select Add field to choose the fields you want to include.
Field order
Fields will be listed in the same order as the regions and individual fields in the metadata view. Both regions and individual fields in a region can be moved up and down using the = icons on each line. Consequently, you can control the tab order when using keyboard navigation in the metadata editors across the various user interfaces (such as FotoWeb, FotoWeb Pro, and FotoWeb Desktop).
Note
If the metadata configuration is changed so that a metadata view refers to a Field ID that no longer exists in the master metadata configuration, the metadata editor in FotoWeb Pro will refuse to load. See this troubleshooting article to remedy the situation.
Setting field properties
Each field added to a region has several properties associated with it:
- API: This feature lets you control whether these fields are exposed via the API, allowing other systems to read and modify their contents.
- View: Controls whether the user can see the field in the metadata editors in the main and Pro interfaces in FotoWeb.
- Edit: Controls whether users can edit the field's content. If only View is enabled, field content will be exposed but not editable.
- Note: Even if a field is editable, a user can only edit the field content if they have Edit text permissions in the archive(s) to which the metadata view is assigned.
- Required: Manages whether the field is mandatory or not. If it is, users cannot store the field when it is left empty. Users who upload files to an archive must fill in the required fields before initiating the upload.
- Taxonomy Only: Manages whether text can be input in the field only using content from the associated taxonomy (see below for more information).
Note
Enabling some of these properties may automatically enable others. For example, if you enable Required, Edit will also be enabled.
Taxonomy-related field properties
When a field with a taxonomy associated with it is added to a metadata view, a user who edits that field can choose from the tags that have been added to the taxonomy.
By default, the user can also add a custom tag not in the taxonomy. However, if the system administrator has decided that users should be allowed to choose only from tags predefined in the taxonomy, they can select Taxonomy Only for the field in the metadata view. Then, users will not be able to type custom tags into the metadata field but will be forced to choose from the tags defined in the taxonomy. For more information about taxonomies, see Creating metadata taxonomies.
Configuring the fields that are used in the Thumbnail view
On the Thumbnail View tab, you can choose which fields to expose in the regular thumbnail grid. Below each thumbnail in the FotoWeb grid, there is a container for metadata container split into sections: Label, First line, and Second line. The metadata displayed in these fields can be customized using the dropdown list options, as shown in the example below.
Note: You may need to clear your browser cache after changing the labels to reflect the update.
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Additional fields
You can also specify additional fields and set the order in which they appear, as well as in which user interfaces they should appear:
- Desktop App: Shows the field in the FotoWeb Desktop apps and plugins (Uploader, Office plugins, Adobe Extensions)
- Widget: Shows the field in the Selection Widget used in CMS integrations, for example.
- Web: Shows the field in the regular FotoWeb user interface in the web browser.
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Pro: Shows the field in the FotoWeb Pro user interface in the web browser.
Built-in fields
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On the Advanced tab, you can see the list of built-in fields. These fields - Title, Description, Tags, Status, Rating, and Notes - are shown in all archives by default.
The first three fields (Title, Description, and Tags) are considered the minimum required metadata for an archive.
If you do not want users to be able to overwrite information already stored in these fields, or you would like to display metadata fields different from the default field numbers 5, 120, and 25 in the built-in Title, Description, and Tags, you can map them to custom fields by using the Browse button next to the field assignment.
Note
The Tags field can only be associated with a bag field to allow multiple entries.
Setting properties for built-in fields
The following properties can be set for built-in fields:
- View - Determines whether users can see the field in the metadata editors in the Fotoware main and Pro interfaces.
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Edit - Select to make the built-in field editable both during upload, in the General section of the Upload dialog, and after the asset has been uploaded, on the details page in the Quick info panel (see below).
- Required: Determines whether the field must be completed. Users cannot save changes if a required field is empty. When uploading files, all required fields must be completed before the upload can begin.
What's next
When you have created a metadata set, you can assign it to an archive.