CSV Import/Export

How to import and export design metadata

Jeff Schnitzer avatar
Written by Jeff Schnitzer
Updated over a week ago

OrbitKit allows you to export and import the metadata (title, tags, etc) of your designs as a CSV file.

The download and upload formats are identical; you can download the CSV, edit it in your favorite spreadsheet, and re-upload the resulting file.

Exporting

Downloading a CSV file produces data that looks like this:

ID,FILENAME,UPLOADED,TITLE_EN,TAGS_EN,DESCRIPTION_EN,NOTE,ART
DES123,filename1.png,2022-01-01T12:00:00Z,title1,"tag1,tag2,tag3",description1,private note 1,https://path.to.image
DES456,filename2.png,2022-01-01T12:30:00Z,title2,"tag4,tag5,tag6",description2,private note 2,https://path.to.image

There will be one row per design in your library. There will be separate TITLE, TAGS, and DESCRIPTION columns for each language - EN, DE, ES, FR, and IT (most omitted in this example for brevity).

The ART is a unique, unguessable URL to your full sized artwork image. This field will remain blank for users without the Download Artwork permission in your Organization.

New! Download Subsets

If you wish to download metadata for a subset of your designs, search/select which designs you are interested in and use the Download CSV action on the orange button menu:

Importing

The easiest thing to do is upload the same file that you downloaded. However, you can also generate a CSV from an existing database. Some things to consider:

  • There must be a header row. The significant columns are ID, FILENAME, TITLE_XX, DESCRIPTION_XX, TAGS_XX, and NOTE. Other columns (including ART) will be ignored.

  • If you leave off the language code (eg, specify TITLE rather than TITLE_EN) the column is assumed to be English.

  • ID and FILENAME are 'key' columns. One must be present; if both are present, the FILENAME column is ignored.

  •         -- If FILENAME is the key, any design whose filename matches a row will be altered.

  •         -- Paths are NOT part of the filename. Just the filename + extension.

  • CSV rows which do not match an existing design are ignored.

  • TITLE, DESCRIPTION, TAGS, and NOTE columns are optional. E.g. if you leave out TITLE, OrbitKit will not change titles.

  • Save your CSV with UTF-8 character encoding (especially with Excel!)

  • There is no 'undo'.

Gotchas

  • CSV import changes metadata of existing designs in your OrbitKit library. It does not add new designs to the library. If you want a more sophisticated import, please reach out to support - we're happy to help.

  • OrbitKit does not keep these CSV files. Importing a CSV is a one-time operation that affects the contents of your library at the time that you upload it.

  • Watch out for non-UTF8 characters. Especially weird quotes that Microsoft apps like to mysteriously replace. If you get errors on upload, reach out to support and we can help you find the bad characters.

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