File Name Parse Options - 4.0.0.0

Parsing file names is used in cases when the names are structured according to a strictly set rule and format. You will be able to extract some values from the file name and forward them in separate metadata fields.

To use this option go to Project Properties > File Name Parsing Options and check the Get metadata from file name section. Click to Settings button to create a template for file name parsing or change settings for an existing template . 

After clicking Settings button the following window appears which the rules for parsing is defined ;

You can create new templates or make changes for existing templates. You can select existing templates from drop-down menu at the bottom and click to Load button. All the template’s fields will be loaded in this window in the upper-left part. If a field deletion is needed, select it and press the Remove button.If you want to change something in the field, use Edit – the field’s properties dialog will open– Formatting Step Settings. Make the changes from here and press OK.

After that either Save them (the changes) or Save As the template .

After a template is loaded, you can test its behavior in the Test section with a Sample Text. Enter any text here and press the Parse button. In result, the text will be divided in parts as per the rules defined in that template and this result will be displayed in the Field and Value columns.

Export - is used to export created templates to another project. So that all the settings (of templates selected ) will be saved in one file only ( *.xml format ) . 

Import - is used to import here (from xml file) other templates settings.

Delete - is used to erase any template from the list.

New - is used to Start a new template creation , enter a name for the template in the Template field. Metus MAM is automatically popping up name New in order to avoid losing your information, in case you forget to specify a name.

Press the Add button to add the first field in the form. Select what will be the type of the first part of the filename – Field, Bulk or To Start.

Field - opens the metadata tree dialog to select which field to add. After adding fields to list , double-click the added field and the Formatting Step Settings dialog will open so that you configure here the field – its length, format, etc.

Step Type, Data Type and Field/Variable sections show the info about the Field which properties you are previewing.

Format – When a date field is selected, this section becomes active so that you can select the format of the Date-value that will be extracted. Shortly said - specify here what will be the format of the date that this part of the file name will present.

Regex - stays for Regular Expression and presents a string which always is one and the same exactly into this part of the filename. This string must include the separator after it, too.

Fixed length - If the currently described part of the filename is going to be always with one and the same number of symbols, we can describe it as a Fixed length section. Enter the number of the symbols, including the separator after it.

Variable length - is the mostly used option as basically, the parts of the filename are changing their lengths. If you describe a Variable Length part, you can additionally specify its Min.Length and/or Max.Length (in symbols). Do not forget to point in the last field of the dialog which will be the Separator as parsing will search for it in order to “understand” where the end of this filename part is. Once the separator is met, the part can be extracted and loaded in the metadata field.

Sometimes, however, it is needed to load in one and the same field more than one part of the filename. To achieve this, Add a Field and select which values to Concatenate into that field.

The same dialog opens when you select the Bulk field.

To Start - adds [(Return)] value and it is not working alone - it needs to add a Field after it (on the next row). Once you select To Start, the parsing will jump on the first part of the filename and load this part into the field placed on the next row (after To Start). With this the filename parsing ends! Even if there are more parts in the filename, they will be ignored. Generally, To Start is mainly used for loading one and the same value in two different fields.

As a summary , let's now explain the parsing in the best way it could be done with an example ;

In a music TV they tender to name their files in one and the same way: first they put the creator company, then the singer name, then some symbols which present a kind of internal system ID, after that the album name, the year the album is released and finally – the name of the song: Creator – Singer – System ID – Album name – Album year – Song name . From a filename with such a structure we can extract values for several metadata fields and thus we shall save time with applying values for these fields inside of the project.

If the filename is: Sony–Mariah_Carey–19a8sf–Emotions–1991–Make it happen.mpg we can parse this name like this:

We have to create a template rule for this parsing:

First we add Field (Creator), Variable length, Separator “-“

Second is Field (Singer), Variable length, Separator “-“

Third is Bulk (can be fixed length if symbols are always one and the same number);

Forth is Field (Album Name), Variable length, Separator “-“

Fifth is Field (Album Year), Variable length, Separator “-“

Sixth is Field (Song Name), Variable length, Separator “-“

Seventh is Bulk (can be fixed length=3).

Finally, when the file Sony –Mariah_Carey–19a8sf–Emotions–1991–Make it happen.mpg is archived on the storage Metus MAM will take the values and load them in the mentioned metadata fields.