Process external metadata
Using an external application, you can extract metadata from documents stored in your file systems. Fusion lets you process the content of the resulting metadata files in conjunction with the original documents in file system datasets. You can process external metadata for documents regardless of whether you store the document content. During processing, Fusion reads metadata information from the external metadata files and applies the information according to the defined external metadata file processor. The external metadata files are not processed as part of the dataset primary capture rules.
As an example, you use an application to extract content from images, scanned documents, audio files, and video files. This content is saved in files that are directly associated to the original items, such as image001.tiff
(original item) and image001.tiff.idx
(extracted metadata file). When viewing a document with processed external metadata in Analyze or Manage, the metadata displays in the document view panel in a section labeled "Metadata Text Content".
The following requirements must be in place to process external metadata for file system datasets.
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The external metadata files that contain the metadata information must be located in the same directory as the original document from which the metadata was extracted. When creating the dataset, you will define the file extensions for the files that contain the external metadata.
The external metadata files should provide well formatted, human readable text. The external metadata text is used as is for identifying and extracting grammar values, tagging, keyword searching, and document preview. Well formatted text such as the use of key value pairs results in better output of processing and searches.
Sample well formatted external metadata file contentCompany=My Company Network=my.company.net Region=AMER FileRoute=2698A EmpID=123-4567 HRgroup=East
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The external metadata file processor must be a PowerShell script (
.ps1
file extension) located in the path defined by theScriptBasePath
in the Agent Admin UI under Advanced Settings > Run Script. By default, this is the\Agent\Scripts
directory of the Fusion installation path (for example,C:\Program Files\Fusion\Agent\Scripts
). When creating the dataset, you will specify the file name of the metadata file processor.A sample file,
ExternalMetadata.ps1
, is provided with Fusion and is located in the\Agent\Scripts
directory of the Fusion installation path (default isC:\Program Files\Fusion\Agent\Scripts
).
Sample external metadata file processor
Fusion includes a sample external metadata file processor, ExternalMetadata.ps1
. The sample file reads the metadata information from the external metadata files and adds the metadata to the index for the associated original documents. The sample file can be used as is or used as a guide to create your own external metadata file processor PowerShell script.
When "External metadata file capture" is enabled for a file system dataset, the Fusion processing agent looks for and reads the external metadata file processor script. For every external metadata file encountered during processing, the agent takes action based on the commands in the script.