File Content Extraction 25.1
XML Export SDK Java Programming Guide

# 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.

Some documents contain metadata that is intended to be interpreted only by the parsing application, not the end user. This might be information like the number of records within the document, or the algorithm used to encrypt contents. File Content Extraction uses this metadata internally to interpret the file structure, but will only output metadata that is likely to be useful for the end user.

## Access Metadata using the Java API

You can access subfile metadata using the method `extGetSubFileMetadataList()` on your `XML Export` object.

File Content Extraction uses `MetadataList` and `MetadataElement` objects to represent metadata.

- A `MetadataList` object represents a list of `MetadataElement` objects, allowing you to iterate over them. The order of elements within the list is not significant and may change in the future.
- A `MetadataElement` object represents one metadata field.

## Mail Metadata

The metadata for an e-mail message (the header fields such as "To", "CC", "Subject", and so on) are typically stored in the mail container (such as an MSG or EML file). To access this metadata you can call the function `extGetSubFileMetadataList()`.

The message body and any attachments are considered by File Content Extraction as subfiles of the container. When you extract the message body, File Content Extraction includes the header fields (by default). If you do not want to include this information, call the method `setExcludeMailHeader(true)` on your `ExtSubFileExtractConfig` object, before you call `extExtractSubFile()`. You might want to do this if you have already accessed the metadata and do not want to process it again.

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Version 25.1 | Last updated January 2025

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Product: File Content Extraction 25.1

Topic Title: What is Metadata?