---
title: 'Metadata Importer'
url: 'https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions/metadata_importer'
markdown: 'https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions/metadata_importer.md'
lang: en
date: '2026-10-26'
description: 'Technical documentation for the CELUM Extension "Metadata Importer" – Software developed by brix'
taxonomy:
  category:
    - docs
---

[](#) 

  [ Welcome ](https://doc.brix.ch/)     [ CELUM Extensions ](https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions)      Metadata Importer    

# Metadata Importer

![No UI](https://img.shields.io/static/v1?label=UI&message=none&color=inactive)

Imports metadata from a CSV file, based on an asset's path (or just the name, provided it's unique enough).

This is intended to facilitate an initial import from a 3rd party system that you want to migrate into CELUM, and you got a hard drive with the files on it and a CSV. Based on the (relative) storage path, the metadata is written to the assets in CELUM.

If you intend to use this to bulk-edit existing asset metadata, try the [toolbox](https://celum-toolbox.brix.ch) instead.

#### Table of Contents

- [Properties](#properties)
- [Bean Configuration](#bean-configuration)
- [A note on shading](#a-note-on-shading)
- [Compatibility Matrix](#compatibility-matrix)
- [Release Notes](#release-notes)

## Properties

To be configured in {home}/appserver/conf/custom.properties

##### genericMappingTask.license

> type: String, **required: yes**, default: -

The license key for the plugin (product: genericMappingTask), provided by *brix*.

##### genericMappingTask.startDate

> type: Date (format: yyyy.MM.dd), required: no, default: -

Only consider assets that have been created since that date.

## Bean Configuration

Because the Metadata Importer can be quite complex, the main configuration is not done through properties but rather with Spring Beans. The Metadata Mapper expects an XML to be located in `{home}/appserver/spring/genericMappingTask-config.xml`

Let's consider the following example where we have 3 columns: the assets path, the asset type it should get, and the creation date:

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-3.0.xsd">
    <context:annotation-config />

    <bean id="genericMappingTaskDocuments" class="ch.brix.genericMappingTask.GenericMappingTask">
        <property name="csvReader" ref="csvReader" />
        <property name="assetMappings" ref="assetMappings" />
        <property name="assetMappingFile" value="classpath:conf/import.csv" />
        <property name="assetMappingFileKeyColumn" value="0" /><!-- 0-based -->
        <property name="rootNodeId" value="11634" />
        <property name="useOriginalName" value="true" />
    </bean>

    <bean id="csvReader" class="ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib.util.CsvReader">
        <property name="delimiter" value=";" />
        <property name="quoteChar" value=""" />
        <property name="lineSeparator" value="\n" />
        <property name="ignoreEmptyLines" value="true" />
        <property name="allowMissingColumnNames" value="true" />
        <property name="encoding" value="UTF-8" />
    </bean>

    <util:list id="assetMappings" value-type="ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib.mappingTypes.Mapping">
        <bean class="ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib.mappingTypes.NullMapping" /><!--A: ignore, used as assetMappingFileKeyColumn-->
        <bean class="ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib.mappingTypes.AssetTypeMapping"><!--B: AssetType-->
            <property name="valueTransformer">
                <bean class="ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib.valueTransformer.IdMappingTransformer">
                    <property name="mappings">
                        <util:map map-class="java.util.Hashtable">
                            <entry value="10001" key="Video"/>
                            <entry value="10002" key="Image"/>
                            <entry value="10002" key="Bild"/>
                            <entry value="10003" key="Logo"/>
                            <entry value="10004" key="Icon"/>
                        </util:map>
                    </property>
                </bean>
            </property>
        </bean>
        <bean class="ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib.mappingTypes.infofield.DateInfofieldMapping"><!--C: Creation Date -->
            <property name="infofieldId" value="155" />
        </bean>
    </util:list>
</beans>
```

The main player here is the *GenericMappingTask*-class

- **csvReader** - **required**, reference to the CSV settings to use (see below), e.g. what separator to use.
- **assetMappings** - **required**, reference to the mapping rules (see below). Every bean represents a column in the CSV, **in that order**! Most mappers also take a *value transformer* to transform the received value before applying it. There are **a lot** of different mappers, so they are not explained here in detail. We recommend that you use an IDE and import the jar as a library - this enables auto-complete of all `ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib.mappingTypes` and their associated `nodeFinder` and `valueTransformer`.
- **assetMappingFile** - where the CSV is located, e.g. `classpath:conf/import.csv`. Alternatively you can use **assetMappingAssetId** to refer to an asset ID inside CELUM (which is useful if you do multiple imports, so you can just add a new asset version and run the task again)
- **assetMappingFileKeyColumn** - **required** long, in which column of the CSV the asset's path (or name) is located. **This is 0-based**, i.e. what your spreadsheet software would call `A` is 0, `B` is 1 etc.
- **globalMappings** - *optional*, reference to global mapping rules, which will always be executed first, regardless of incoming data (useful for setting an asset type for example). There is also a **postMappings** which is run after all other mappings.
- **rootNode** - **required** (unless in ID mode) long, from with CELUM root node to calculate the relative path from
- **ignorePath** - *optional* boolean, ignores the assets folder path and just uses the asset name (i.e. you need to be sure they're unique)
- **pathPrefix** - *optional* String, a path prefix that existed on disk, but is no longer present in CELUM, e.g. `E:/export`
- **useOriginalName** - *optional* boolean, whether to use the asset's original file name instead of the asset name.
- **validateColumnCount** - *optional* boolean, whether to compare the number of `assetMappings` with the column count of the CSV (and fail should they not match)
- **caseInsensitive** - *optional* boolean, whether to disregard case sensitivity when constructing the path
- **removeFileExtension** - *optional* boolean, whether to disregard the file extension

## A note on shading

All *mappers*, *value transformers* and *node finders* are located in the generic package *ch.brix.lib*. These however get shaded when included in any project to \_ch.brix.ARTIFACT*ID.lib* (so *ch.brix.genericMappingTask.lib* in this case) in order to avoid conflicts with other plugins that may use the same libs at different version levels. When developing the mappings in your IDE, we recommend that you import the compiled jar as a library (Intellij: Project Settings > Libraries > + > Java, select the jar).

## Compatibility Matrix

| metadataMapper | CELUM (min. version) |
|---|---|
| 1.0 | 5.13.3 (tested up to 6.7) |
| 1.9 | 6.8 (tested up to 6.19) |
| 1.12 | 6.20 (tested up to 7.1) |

## Release Notes

#### 1.0

> Released 2015-09-15

Initial release

#### 1.x

> Released every time we use it again

Updated the available mapping types (through the celum-mappings library)

 [ ](https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions/global_statistics) [](https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions/asset_exporter)

---

## Navigation

- Parent: [CELUM Extensions](https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions.md)
- Previous: [Global Statistics](https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions/global_statistics.md)
- Next: [Asset Exporter](https://doc.brix.ch/celum_extensions/asset_exporter.md)