Metadata API reference

Last updated: Feb-13-2023

Overview

Cloudinary structured metadata allows you to define typed fields for media assets, populate them with values programmatically or via the Media Library, and perform searches on them. You can also add validation rules, set default values, and define fields as mandatory.

A metadata field is a custom, typed field (key) for storing user defined data (value) with a media asset.

Note
Cloudinary product environments are limited to a maximum of 100 structured metadata fields each. After reaching the maximum, you must disable one or more existing fields in order to add a new one.

This page explains the Metadata methods for creating and managing structured metadata fields, as well as the Metadata field structure and how to structure field validation and list (datasource) values.

Tip
It's also possible to create and manage structured metadata fields in the Manage Structured Metadata page of the Cloudinary console. For details, see Structured metadata management in the Digital Asset Management Guide.

Note
You can set up dependencies and hierarchical relationships between structured metadata fields and field options using the Conditional metadata rules API.

On this page:

Quick example

Add a new mandatory metadata set (multi-select) field with an external_id of 'color_id', labeled 'Colors', and with 4 available colors: red, green, blue and yellow, where red and green are the default values:

Note
If running the CLI command on Windows, you need to escape the double quotes within the curly braces using either \ or ", for example, \"text\" or ""text"".

Metadata methods

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The Metadata methods enable you to manage the metadata fields available for your product environment.

Note
These methods are part of the rate-limited Admin API, and share the same usage limits. See that documentation for more information on authentication, pagination and error handling.
Method Description
GET/metadata_fields Lists all metadata field definitions.
GET/metadata_fields/:external_id Returns a single metadata field definition by external ID.
POST/metadata_fields Creates a new metadata field definition.
POST/metadata_fields/:external_id/datasource_restore Restores entries in a metadata field datasource.
PUT/metadata_fields/:external_id Updates a metadata field definition by external ID.
PUT/metadata_fields/:external_id/datasource Updates a metadata field datasource by external ID.
DELETE/metadata_fields/:external_id Deletes a metadata field by external ID.
DELETE/metadata_fields/:external_id/datasource Deletes entries in a metadata field datasource for a specified metadata field definition.

Get metadata fields

Returns a list of all metadata field definitions as an array of JSON objects.

See also: Metadata field structure

Syntax

GET /metadata_fields

Sample response

Get a metadata field by external ID

Returns a single metadata field definition.

See also: Metadata field structure

Syntax

GET /metadata_fields/:external_id

Required parameters

Parameter Type Description
external_id String The ID of the metadata field (included in the endpoint URL when using the REST API).

Examples

Return the information for the metadata field with the ID of 'in_stock':

Sample response

Create a metadata field

Creates a new metadata field definition. Expects a single JSON object which defines the field, according to the structure for the required field type.

See also: Metadata field structure

Note
Cloudinary product environments are limited to a maximum of 100 structured metadata fields each. After reaching the maximum, you must disable one or more existing fields in order to add a new one.

Syntax

POST /metadata_fields

Required parameters

Parameter Type Description
field Object The metadata field to add. For details see Metadata field structure.

Examples

Add a new mandatory metadata set (multi-select) field with an external_id of 'color_id', labeled 'Colors', and with 4 available colors: red, green, blue and yellow, where red and green are the default values:

Note
If running the CLI command on Windows, you need to escape the double quotes within the curly braces using either \ or ", for example, \"text\" or ""text"".

Sample response

Restore entries in a metadata field datasource

Restores (unblocks) any previously deleted datasource entries for a specified metadata field definition. Sets the state of the entries to active.

See also: Metadata field structure

Syntax

POST /metadata_fields/:external_id/datasource_restore

Required parameters

Parameter Type Description
external_id String The ID of the metadata field (included in the endpoint URL when using the REST API).
external_ids String[] An array of IDs of datasource entries to restore (unblock).

Examples

Restore (unblock) the datasource entry with external_id 'color1' from the metadata field with external_id 'color_id':

Sample response

Update a metadata field by external ID

Updates a metadata field definition (partially, no need to pass the entire object) passed as JSON data.

See also: Metadata field structure

Syntax

PUT /metadata_fields/:external_id

Required parameters

Parameter Type Description
external_id String The ID of the metadata field (included in the endpoint URL when using the REST API).
field Object The metadata field to update. For details see Metadata field structure.

Examples

Update the metadata field with the ID of 'in_stock':

Note
If running the CLI command on Windows, you need to escape the double quotes within the curly braces using either \ or ", for example, \"text\" or ""text"".

Sample response

Update a metadata field datasource

Updates the datasource of a supported field type (currently only enum and set), passed as JSON data. The update is partial: datasource entries with an existing external_id will be updated and entries with new external_id's (or without external_id's) will be appended.

See also: Metadata field structure

Syntax

PUT /metadata_fields/:external_id/datasource

Required parameters

Parameter Type Description
external_id String The ID of the metadata field (included in the endpoint URL when using the REST API).
entries Object The datasource enties to update. For details see Datasource values.

Examples

Update the datasource for the metadata field with the ID of ''color_id':

Note
If running the CLI command on Windows, you need to escape the double quotes within the curly braces using either \ or ", for example, \"text\" or ""text"".

Sample response

Delete a metadata field by external ID

Deletes a metadata field definition. The field should no longer be considered a valid candidate for all other endpoints (it will not show up in the list of fields, etc).

Note
external_ids can be reused after fields are deleted, but if the fields had many assignments, the process can take a few minutes and the external_id will be reserved until the asynchronous deletion is complete.

See also: Metadata field structure

Syntax

DELETE /metadata_fields/:external_id

Required parameters

Parameter Type Description
external_id String The ID of the metadata field (included in the endpoint URL when using the REST API).

Examples

Delete the metadata field with the ID of 'in_stock':

Sample response

Delete entries in a metadata field datasource

Deletes (blocks) the datasource entries for a specified metadata field definition. Sets the state of the entries to inactive. This is a soft delete, so the entries still exist under the hood but are marked as having an inactive state. The entries can be activated again with the restore datasource entries method.

Note
As inactive entries are not deleted, they still show up in responses with their state property set to inactive.

See also: Metadata field structure

Syntax

DELETE /metadata_fields/:external_id/datasource

Required parameters

Parameter Type Description
external_id String The ID of the metadata field (included in the endpoint URL when using the REST API).
external_ids String[] An array of IDs of datasource entries to delete.

Examples

Delete (block) the datasource entry with external_id 'color4' from the metadata field with external_id 'color_id':

Sample response

Metadata field structure

Parameter Required Description
external_id No A unique immutable identification string for the metadata field. Default: auto-generated by Cloudinary (although it's recommended to specify a descriptive name). Max character length: 255.
type Yes The type of value that can be assigned to the metadata field, possible types are limited to:
* string - a single string value
* integer - a single integer value
* date - a custom date in the following format: {yyyy-mm-dd}
* enum - a single value referenced by an external_id from a given list, predefined with the datasource parameter
* set - multiple values referenced by external_ids from a given list, predefined with the datasource parameter
label Yes The label of the metadata field for display purposes.
mandatory No Whether a value must be given for this field, either when an asset is first uploaded, or when it is updated. Default: false
restrictions No Any restrictions to apply. Currently can set the readonly_ui boolean parameter to mark this metadata field as read only in the UI (only relevant if mandatory is false). Default: {"readonly_ui": false}
default_value Yes (if mandatory is true) The default value for the field (a set can have multiple default values defined by an array). Default: null
validation No Any validation rules to apply when values are entered (or updated) for this field. See Validating data for more details. Default: null
datasource Yes (for the enum and set type) The predefined list of values, referenced by external_ids, available for this field. See Datasource values for more details.

Validating data

The validation parameter defines a validation object with the logic to apply when a value is entered for the field, via the metadata, upload, explicit or update resource methods, or via the Media Library. The boolean validations also allow for combinations of more than one rule. The following validations are supported:

greater_than validation

Relevant for integer and date types:

Property Type Description
value String The value for validation.
equals Boolean Whether to check if greater than or equals. Default: false

For example:

less_than validation

Relevant for integer and date types:

Property Type Description
value String The value for validation.
equals Boolean Whether to check if less than or equals. Default: false

For example:

strlen validation

Relevant only for string types:

Property Type Description
min Integer The minimum string length. Default: 0
max Integer The maximum string length. Default: 1024

Note
Either min or max must be given, supplying both is optional.

For example:

and validation

Relevant for all field types. Allows you to include more than one validation rule to be evaluated:

Property Type Description
validation_object Object One of the other validations above: greater_than, less_than or strlen

For example:

Datasource values

The datasource parameter is relevant for fields where the selected values must come from a predefined list of values (enum or set type fields). The parameter contains the values property, which defines the values for the enum or set list. Up to 3000 values can be defined for a list.

Each datasource_entry defines a single possible value for the field:

Property Type Description
external_id String (optional) A unique immutable identification string for the datasource entry, (required if the value is referenced by the default_value field). Default: auto-generated by Cloudinary
value String (mandatory) The value for this datasource.
state String (read only) Only given as part of a response - ignored on requests. It is immutable unless changed via DELETE of a datasource entry.

For example:

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