Getting started with the Metadata Module

Access to other types of metadata

Metadata is information about the job you are processing, such as its size, creation date, number of pages, paper type, ... In Switch, this information can be used to route jobs, to rename them, to make decisions, etc.

With the Metadata Module, you have - in addition to Switch-specific metadata - access to XMP metadata (embedded in side the job and available in most jobs created with Adobe products) and to metadata in external files (XML or JDF tickets) submitted with the job.

You can:

Use metadata in Switch just like regular variables to process your jobs dynamically.
Visualize metadata for jobs submitted through the Switch Web Portal or processed with a Connector.
Use the Metadata tools (listed below) to export metadata and convert XML information, preflight logs and reports into other XML formats, HTML or human-readable information.

Metadata tools

With the Metadata Module, you get access to the tools in the Metadata category of the Flow Elements pane:

Metadata variables

Once you have "picked up" the metadata set you need using one of the Metadata tools, you can select the variable of your choice from the Metadata variables group. This group is only available if you have an active license for the Metadata Module.