Metadata and Searching

Updated June 30, 2025 17:10

In NetX, metadata fields are called attributes — their values store information, drive search, and set your DAM apart from a simple file storage system.

Learn about the different types of metadata used in NetX and how search functions rely on your metadata strategy. Understand the importance of controlled vocabulary and how to make cataloging easier.

How do your users find what they're looking for? Are users more likely to browse folders or type in a keyword?
What words, phrases, or acronyms are widely used in your organization?
Does your organization use a taxonomy elsewhere (a website for example) and how can this align with your DAM taxonomy?
How can metadata drive your workflows (i.e. do assets transition from one status to another)?
Do you need to control user access based on the status or rights of certain assets?

If you're not sure how to get started on your DAM taxonomy, ask your Onboarding Specialist about our taxonomy development exercise and metadata governance document.

5 things to know about NetX attributes

Custom attributes are search keywords unique to your organization.

In addition to your folder structure, custom metadata is a way to identify and classify your assets. You choose the attribute field names and values that will store information, power search, control user access to assets, and drive workflows. NetX has different types of custom attribute fields: text, text area, pulldown, tag, number, and date.

System attributes are inherent to your assets.

System attributes are available for searching without the need to manually catalog the information to your assets. System attributes include: File Name, File Size, File Type, File Format Family, File Aspects (Width, Height, Duration), Dates (Creation, Imported, Modified, Expiration), and the Full Folder Path.

Vocabularies control metadata values to improve accuracy and search.

Pulldown and Tag attribute field types support controlled lists of metadata values. Vocabularies make cataloging faster, help prevent misspellings and variations in keywords, and improve search results. Editing values in a Vocabulary list is easy and updates automatically roll out through affected assets.

Assets can be searched for in different ways.

The basic keyword search draws on combined metadata indexed by the search engine. This includes your custom attribute values, as well as system attribute values, folder names, and file names. Basic search can be focused on video clip metadata, attribute history values, color, or specific folder location. Advanced search allows multiple specific criteria to be defined—you can limit keyword search to a specific attribute field, find assets with Any Value or No Value, search number or date ranges, and much more. Attribute values are also used to filter and sort your search results in the asset gallery.

Attribute sets allow users to focus on a subset of all attribute fields.

Sets are convenient for grouping together related attribute fields for use in different contexts. You might have one attribute set for viewing rights management attribute fields, another set for photography cataloging, yet another one for documents or video, etc. The same attribute field can be used in many sets. NetX administrators can create attribute sets for everyone's use, and individual users can create and share custom sets of their own.

Best practices

Consider different metadata strategies.
Metadata is used in different ways to meet different needs: descriptive attributes feed the search index to help users find what they are looking for; structural attributes are used in place of folders to classify and organize assets; technical attributes include specific details or unique identifiers (like a SKU or UPC) needed by external systems; administrative attributes trigger workflows, define access to assets, indicate rights or approvals status, and more.

Strike a balance.
Search will be ineffective if there isn’t enough metadata. If there is too much, the system becomes unmanageable and usability suffers. For many organizations, 10-20 custom attribute fields are sufficient.

Good metadata = good search results.
Think about your users and what they want to search for. Incorporate specific words, phrases or acronyms that are widely used throughout your organization and avoid unnecessary descriptors. Be cautious with attribute values that are too vague, such as “Yes” and “No”.

Curtail cataloging chores.
Think about ways to reduce effort in tagging assets for you and your team. Leverage NetX's automatic indexing of filenames, folder names, and inherent metadata. Limit the number of mandatory attributes to make it easy to import. Make cataloging more efficient with automated tagging features like Metadata Lookups, Attribute Profiles, Google Vision, and Smart Labels.

Embedded metadata: if you've got it, use it.
EXIF, XMP, IPTC, and Dublin Core are examples of metadata schemas that serve to embed valuable metadata in the physical asset files themselves (as opposed to metadata associated with an asset record, like in a DAMs). Readable embedded metadata is displayed in NetX, but most fields are not automatically searchable. Embedded metadata becomes searchable when it's explicitly mapped to custom attribute fields in NetX on import. Conversely, NetX attribute values can be written into embedded metadata schemas at the time of download, so that important information can travel with the file.

Information overload...or not.
NetX administrators control how much or how little attribute information is accessible to view or edit based on user level or user group. This allows granular control over sensitive information and protects essential attribute values that drive workflows or control user access.

How-to articles

Learn how to configure your Custom Attributes.
Use Vocabularies to control value lists for Tag and Pulldown attributes.
Create admin-defined System Attribute Sets and learn about User Attribute Sets.
Enable Attribute History to create an audit trail of attribute value changes.

Editing Metadata Overview lists all the ways to edit.
Check out Dataset Manager to configure Metadata Lookups.
Auto-apply values based on folder location with Attribute Profiles.
Enable Smart Labels and put machine-learning AI technology to work.

Searching Overview gives you all the details.
Turn custom attribute fields, system attributes, and folders into Search Filters.
The NetX Document Viewer lets you search within documents and extract specific pages.
Search within videos with the Video Transcripts and Captions feature.
Check out the impressive Visual Search feature.
Fine tune search behavior in your site with Search Settings.

Control who can view and edit attributes with Attribute Permissions.
See Uploading Attribute Data to import data via spreadsheet.
Tap into embedded metadata in your files with Metadata Maps.
Leverage AI tagging technology with a Google Vision integration.

Tips and tricks

Avoid certain attribute field names. Names with special characters or names containing words that are within other attribute field names (e.g. Date, Event Date) can cause complications. Reserved Attribute Names cannot be used at all for custom attributes.

Avoid using these problematic characters in attribute values:
, (comma) | (pipe) \n (line feed) \r (carriage return)

Attribute types can't be changed. i.e. a pulldown can’t be changed to a tag. If you have to change an attribute type, you'll need to create a new attribute field and re-tag all values that had previously been applied.

Search filters display up to 25 values per attribute field for any given set of assets shown in the gallery. This limit can be changed via a system property to a number between 1-1000 values.

Use attribute sets to change which attribute is shown underneath gallery thumbnails. By default, the File attribute value is displayed underneath each thumbnail in the gallery. This can be changed by selecting an attribute set that has any other system or custom attribute field configured in the first position of the set.

Perform an attribute value search from the Asset Detail View to find all assets with the same attribute value for any given field.

BEFORE YOUR NEXT ONBOARDING MEETING

Meet with your Core Team and develop a set of custom attribute fields and values.
Review your folder structure. This may help identify attributes that are needed or adjustment of your folder tree.
Document your proposed attributes fields, values, and sets in the Attributes Onboarding Worksheet.
Be prepared to discuss with your Onboarding Specialist.

Up next...

Learn about User Access.

BEFORE YOU IMPORT ASSETS
Discuss your data migration plan with your Onboarding Specialist and read about File and Data Ingest.