Managing your project's metadata in PIX

Using metadata as an integral part of your project management can help users find what they are looking for with just a few keywords. Pix offers several ways for your team to add and manage file metadata.

In PIX, you have two types of metadata that you can attach to files: Tags and Attributes. These can be added to individual files, folders, and playlists.

What is a Tag?

A tag is a single value keyword assigned to a file that can be used when searching the project for items with the same information. A file's tags can be located in the Tag Bar, directly under the description box in the Info Panel.

Tags exist in a large pool that other people on the project can see and use when searching for assets. For example, a tag of “EXT” could be used to tag all exterior shots. You could also tag the director’s name, or cameras, locations, etc.

What is an Attribute?

An attribute operates as a key/value pair - each one has two parts - the key, which is something constant, and the value, which changes. An example would be: “Camera: B” where “Camera” is the key and “B” is the value.

When you add Attributes to items, you can take advantage of that data to narrow down a project of thousands of files to just the files you are looking for. You can find an item's Attributes by exposing its Info Panel and selecting the Attributes tab.

For example, you might use attributes to add very specific camera and scene/setup information to dailies. You might add “Camera: B”, “Setup: 4B” and “Scene: 4” attributes to clips for scene 4, setup 4B, that were shot on camera B.

Then, using these parameters, users could perform a search for all takes for a certain camera, for a certain setup or scene.

Attribute Templates

Attribute templates can be useful if you need to regularly apply a certain set of metadata to many files. Creating and then adding the template to the file will save you from having to add the attributes individually. In order to create Attribute templates, you must be enabled as an Attribute Templates Admin on the project.

To create an Attribute Template:

Go to Window > Attribute Templates or go to a file's Info Panel > Attributes Tab> Edit Templates.
Select the + in the lower-left corner to add a new template name.
To the right, add your attribute key and value pairs.
Once finished, exit the window, and then select your new template from the dropdown. Click Add or Append to the right of the dropdown to add those attributes to the file.

Note: Attribute Templates cannot be created in PIX for Windows or PIX for Browser.

Adding tags and attributes to files in PIX 2

You can manually add tags and attributes to items in the PIX 2, PIX for Windows, and PIX for Browser applications.

To add a tag to a file in PIX 2:

Open the file's Info Panel.
Click the Tags button to the right of the Tags Bar.
You will be presented with a list of Tags that exist on the project. Choose one or more tags from the list, and add them to the file by dragging them to the Tags Bar.
If you are a Tags Admin, you can select the + sign at the bottom of the Tags list and create a new tag, then drag that over.

To remove a tag, select it in the Tags Bar and hit Delete.

Adding Metadata with Batch Change in PIX 2

In PIX 2, you will be prompted to add Tags when you initially upload files, but you can opt to skip that and add the metadata once the upload has completed using either the Batch Change feature or by applying tags and attributes manually to individual files per the steps above.

Batch change allows you to update the metadata of several files at once by selecting the files and going to the Menu > Edit > Batch Change. Or, you can use the Keyboard shortcut Shift + Cmd + B

You can use this option to append new tags and attributes or replace existing metadata with new data.

Once you have completed your updates, choose Change.

Note: Currently, batch change is only available in the PIX 2 application.

To add an attribute to a file:

Open the file's Info Panel.
Click the Attributes Tab.
Choose an existing Attribute Template from the dropdown, or manually enter an attribute by selecting the + sign in the bottom left corner.
Enter the Key and the Value for the attribute. Example: Camera (key) A (value).

To remove an attribute from a file, select it and hit Delete, or select it and hit the minus button in the bottom left corner.

Adding tags and attributes to files in PIX for Windows and PIX for Browser

Add Tags and Attributes to files in these platforms by following these steps:

Choose a file and expose its Info Panel using the Info button in the top right.
Drop down the Attributes and Tags sections by clicking the arrow to the left of each.
Click the plus icon (+) to add a Tag or Attribute, or the Pencil icon to edit an exiting Tag/Attribute.
Your changes will be auto-saved.

Note: Currently Attribute templates cannot be utilized or managed in these platforms, and are only available in PIX 2.

When to use tags vs attributes

Tags are a bit more generalized and attributes are more targeted because of the key/value relationship. How you use them really depends on your workflow, and how you anticipate most users will be searching the project for assets.

*Who can utilize and manage tags and attributes? *

All users can see the existing attributes and tags on files and can search by them.
For applying existing tags to content, a user must be enabled with PIX Tags access. This permission does not allow for the creation of new tags.
Any user with edit/upload access to a file can remove tags and attributes from files.
Only Tag Admins can create new tags for the project, and an Attribute Admin can create and edit attribute templates.
- It is recommended that you only appoint a small amount of Tag and Attribute Admins so that your metadata stays as refined as possible.

Searching a project using tags

You can search by tags on all PIX platforms by typing the tag in the search bar. Try to be as accurate as possible when entering search criteria.

To search by a tag in PIX 2:

Type the tag into the search bar, you should see a suggested search type of Tags pop up in addition to other suggested search options such as Description, Name, etc.
Click the suggested search for Tags and hit Enter to initiate the search.
- Just hitting Enter and not choosing Tags specifically will bring up all files meeting the criteria for any field - description, name, etc.
The suggested search function in PIX 2 also allows you to perform a very targeted search.
- For example, you can search for a file that has both a tag of London and EXT and then also a Description of "VFX Plates".

In PIX for Windows or PIX for Browser, you can only search by one tag. To search by tags in these platforms:

Start typing your Tag/criteria into the Search bar in the top left.
Then, when the Showing results for.. bar is displayed, you can change the All Fields dropdown to Tags.
- If you want to narrow the search by file type, you can change the All Types dropdown to Clip, Image, or PDF.
The results will now show all of the files that are tagged with your search criteria.

Additional ways to Manage Metadata in PIX

PIX offers options for API integration, and we also offer PIX Codebooks, which can automate metadata addition to your files.

If you would like to know more about API integration or a PIX codebook - please reach out to support@pixsystem.com