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Import Metadata with an Asset in a FTP Watch Folder

Managing an asset's metadata can be time-intensive. Thankfully, our FTP Watch Folders allow you to automate populating (or pre-tag) metadata for single assets or a whole group of assets.  It takes a little bit more work on the front end, but even people without access to the Control Panel now have the ability to add the metadata with a simple text editing program. The metadata is added to the asset upon import through an accompanying JSON file.

Import Metadata for a Single Asset

All files that are uploaded to the bucket will have a filename. The accompanying JSON simply needs to carry the same file name, and the system will connect them. Once a JSON is found, any metadata fields found inside the JSON will auto-populate to the asset. 
Example:
  • File to be imported is named myFile.mp4 
  • Accompanying JSON file is named myFile.json 
  • myFile.json has the following content inside of it:
 
{
 "title": "My Custom Title",
 "description": "My Custom description",
 "series": "My Custom Series",
 "categories": ["Category 1", "Category 2"],
 "tags": ["Tag 1", "Tag 2"],
 "airDate": "2023-06-01T00:00:00Z",
 "approved": true
}

 

 

Accepted Metadata fields:

  • title - the asset title
  • description - an appropriate description of the asset
  • series - if the asset is part of a Series, that Series title will go here
  • categories - If you are utilizing Categories within the Control Panel (i.e. for a VOD or SimLive feed), the Category will be put here. Multiple Categories are allowed, separated by commas
  • tags - If you are utilizing Tags within the Control Panel, the Tag will be put here. Multiple Tags are allowed, separated by commas
  • airDate - The date that the asset aired. Any valid date format can be used here.
  • approved - If you want the asset to be approved and immediately included into a feed, this is where you would indicate that. The value here should read either true or false.

 

An exception to the Metadata is the ability to link a new Asset to an existing that is already in the system. This metadata field is only read using the Import option (not available when transcoding), and if this field is present, the system will ignore any other metadata in favor of this one.

  • existingAssetId - This must be a valid asset ID obtained from an existing SCP asset (not PID) in order to work

jsonAssetId

 

The other special-use Metadata field is the Publish Profile. If using custom folder names, rather than folders named after a publishing profile, you will need to tell the system which publishing profile to use.

  • publishProfile - Must be a valid value from the Accepted Publish Profiles list (see above)

Helpful Tip: Upload your JSON file before your video / audio file to ensure your file doesn’t get processed before your JSON is uploaded. Only valid JSON is going to work, to double check your file, you can use a free online JSON validator.

 

Import Metadata for a Multiple Assets via a Custom Folder

We support the ability to create any folder name you want. With a settings.json file in it, you can choose all the metadata for all files that get uploaded to that folder. 
 
To create a custom folder, create any folder name you want. Example: My Custom Profile. This folder MUST be placed at the same level as the standard folders in your account (hls, import, etc.)
 

Note: If you place a folder inside an existing folder, any files you load into that folder will be ignored.

Inside of that folder, upload a settings.json file with any values found from the Per File Settings point on this page. publishProfile is a required field for this file or else no jobs will be processed.
 
Any future files that are uploaded to this folder will now use the settings.json metadata for it. 

 

Example:
Settings.json has the following content:
{ 
 "series": "My Custom Series",
 "categories": ["Category 1",],
 "approved": true,
 "publishProfile": "mp4"
}
 
With these settings in place, uploading a file called myFile.mp4 to the My Custom Profile folder, will create an asset with the series My Custom Series , a category called Category 1 , it will be auto approved, and it will use the mp4 publish profile to create this asset. The title will be myFile.
 

Note: Settings.json files also work in any default Publish Profile folder as well.