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Embedded metadata or sidecars: How Fotoware stores metadata in assets

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This article explains how Fotoware stores metadata in the assets in the DAM system.

XMP metadata

Some file formats support embedded XMP, while others don't. For the file formats that support embedded XMP, the metadata will be stored in the asset file and travel with that file when it is copied or moved around in the system. Many image formats support embedded XMP, and all XMP-compliant software will be able to read and modify the XMP data that Fotoware adds to the files.

Some file formats do not support XMP data embedded within the actual file. When a user adds XMP metadata to these file types, a sidecar file will be added. A sidecar file is a physical file that you can see in the file system. It is given the same name as the file it accompanies, with the extension .xmp.

So if a user adds descriptive metadata to, for example, a PowerPoint presentation called presentation.pptx, the sidecar that contains the descriptive metadata will be named presentation.xmp. The sidecar files are handled entirely transparently by the Fotoware system - you will never actually see them show up in the user interfaces. When a user previews said presentation, the system will display the metadata that is stored in the accompanying xmp file. When the file is copied or moved to another location, the sidecar file travels with the file.

EXIF metadata

EXIF data is metadata that digital cameras and scanners produce to give information about a recording, such as shutter speed, aperture, camera orientation, GPS coordinates of the shoot, image dimensions, and other information.

An in-depth article has been created to explain in detail how Fotoware handles EXIF data.

Document content

The Fotoware system can extract document content from Word and PowerPoint documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDF documents, and InDesign documents (InDesign document indexing requires additional software; see Index Manager system requirements.)

Content indexing is read-only; while users can search in document content, the content cannot be changed from within Fotoware - to make changes, users need access to the program that created the file (Word, PowerPoint, etc.).

A preview of the document content (max 2000 characters) is stored in an XMP sidecar in the Document content field (#150), while the entire document content is stored in Index Manager's index and made searchable by users.