Defining Metadata for an External File Source

Follow these steps to define automatic metadata for externally created documents.

Steps

  1. Open M-Files Admin.
  2. In the left-side tree view, expand the desired connection to M-Files Server.
  3. In the left-side tree view, expand the document vault of your choice.
  4. Still in the left-side tree view, expand Connections to External Sources and then select File Sources.
  5. On the File Sources list, double-click the file source that you want to edit.
    The Connection Properties dialog is opened.
  6. Click the Metadata tab.
    The Metadata tab is opened.
  7. Using the Object type drop-down menu, select the object type that the external objects get when they are imported or linked to M-Files.
  8. Click Add... to define a new property and value to be added automatically for objects created from external files, or select one of the existing properties and click Edit... to edit it.
    The Define Property dialog is opened.
  9. In the Define Property dialog, select one of the following options:
    1. Use a fixed value: Use this option to select a fixed property value.
      or
    2. Read from an XML file produced by HP DSS: Use this option if you want to obtain a property value from user-provided metadata when a document is scanned and OCRed using HP DSS.
      or
    3. Read from an XML file: Use this option to read a property value from an XML file using an XPath expression. XPath is a W3C standard syntax for defining locations in an XML document. For more information on XPath syntax, see http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp.
      or
    4. Use an OCR value source: Click Define... to define a zone in a scanned document from which to capture the property value. For detailed instructions, see Defining an OCR Value Source.
  10. If the selected property is of the Choose from list data type, and you chose Read from an XML file produced by HP DSS, Read from an XML file or Use an OCR value source in the previous step, in the Conversion to value list item section, select either:
    1. Use the value read as the ID of the item: Select this option if you want to use the captured value as an identifier of the value list item with a separately defined name.
      or
    2. Use the value read as the name of the item: Select this option if you want to use the captured value as the name of the value list item. You can check the Add a new item to the list if a matching item is not found option check box if you want to add a new value list item whenever a new value is captured.
  11. Click OK to close the Define Property dialog.
  12. Use the Permissions drop-down menu to set the permissions for new objects created via the external source.
    You can click the ... button to refine the permission settings.
  13. Optional: Check the Read values from an XML file option check box if you property values to be read from an XML file. Check also the Delete the XML file after use option check box if you want the XML file to be deleted after the metadata has been read.
    The name of the XML file must match the name of the file to be imported. The supported XML formats are:
    • Regular XML data
    • XML data output by HP Digital Sending Software (DSS)
  14. Click OK to finish defining the metadata.

Results

The metadata that you have just defined is assigned to any new object created via this external source.
© M-Files Corporation 2016
Last updated 10/2016