KeyView 24.3

# What is Metadata?

Documents may contain information about the document itself: we call this metadata. For instance, a raster image file contains metadata recording the image's width and height; a word processing document may contain metadata recording the document's author and title. Metadata can be represented by key-value pairs. For instance, a document's title can be represented as the key "Title" and the value "Annual Report". We refer to a single metadata key-value pair as a metadata field.

Containers (documents with subfiles) can contain metadata about their subfiles. For instance, a Personal Folders (`.pst`) file is a container that can have multiple email messages as subfiles. A PST file may contain metadata, including the "To" and "From" fields of these subfiles.

## Access Metadata using the Python API

You can access document metadata through the `metadata` attribute on a KeyView `Document` object.

You can access subfile metadata through the `metadata` attribute on a KeyView `Subfile` object.

KeyView uses `Metadata` and `MetadataElement` objects to represent metadata.

- A `Metadata` object is a container of `MetadataElement` objects, allowing you to iterate over them or look them up by key.
- A `MetadataElement` object represents one metadata field.

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Version 24.3 | Last updated June 2024

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Product: IDOL KeyView 24.3

Topic Title: What is Metadata?