Custom Fields

Custom fields are metadata categories that allow to fully describe the type of assets a business manager is storing in a digital library.

When teams are discovering digital asset management, they often wonder: “What should I do if I need to add a new type of product data and there’s no corresponding field on the platform?”

The good news is, you don’t have to limit yourself by the types of fields a default version of the metadata editor. Most top-tier solutions (including Pics.io) allow creating custom metadata categories.

Without further ado, let’s dive deeper into the benefits and best practices of customizing metadata fields.

Here’s how brands across different industries make use of custom fields.

Custom fields allow business managers to add specific metadata and help structure files with unmatched precision.

Custom fields can support a wide array of data types. Some of them are text-based, others support dates in the set format, while some are designated to store numerical data.

Top-level DAM platforms support different types of custom fields. Pics.io, for example, allows users to enter data in 5 ways - it’s time to know them closer:

Custom metadata fields give teams freedom, allowing them to personalize the workspace and create a one-of-a-kind digital library.

However, when it comes to file management, the excess of freedom in your team will eventually lead to chaos. If there are too many custom metadata fields and no conventions for filling them, finding a needed asset quickly will be next to impossible.

To find the fine line between freedom and order, DAM developers grouped custom fields into two broad groups:

All descriptive fields fall into the group of independent data categories. What sets them apart is the fact that file publishers aren’t constrained to choose a specific answer option. The following types of metadata fields are considered independent:

When to use: file managers should use independent metadata fields in case it’s impossible to predict the data in the field.

For example, the content of the field “Client name” can change depending on the project you are working on at the moment. In this case, narrowing the range of answers down is next to impossible - that’s why teams end up using independent fields.

There are a lot of ways teams benefit from using controlled fields - they save time, prevent spelling errors, and, most importantly, ensure uniformity within the team and facilitate file search.

That’s why it’s one of metadata standards to add controlled metadata fields whenever possible.

Custom metadata fields help team managers to be as precise and possible when organizing and describing digital assets. However, choosing which file data is relevant and creating a set of corresponding metadata fields (also known as a metadata schema) for the first time is overwhelming.

That’s why we decided to break the process into simple, actionable steps. Let’s create custom fields for a retailer brand together!

Using the breakdown of fields type we created above, choose the right type of fields for each data category you come up with.

Custom fields give teams freedom and flexibility, as well as improves the efficiency of file and metadata management. Although it takes time to get used to customizing your digital library, once you set relevant data categories for your assets, uploading and locating files within the directory will run like clockwork.