Not all file metadata fields are shown

Help & Support
1

Hi,

it seems DOpus does not show all metadata fields. I have the following problem with msg (Outlook message format) files:

I extracts Outlook files with the tool "AutoFiler" which extracts all the email metadata (sender name, sender email, date of email, attachments, etc) to file metadata. This metadata shows perfectly in native windows explorer.

However, in DOpus those fields are not selectable as columns. I simply do not see them.

Thanks for your feedback.

Kind Regards
Thorsten

2

Correct, Explorer has some metadata columns that Opus doesn't have, and vice versa.

If the data you are interested in is available to VBScript or JScript then a script add-in could be written to add a column to Opus that displays it. The Office apps tend to have good automation support, so it's possible that approach would be the way to go, although I don't have experience with automating Outlook.

Column: Word Count for Microsoft Word documents is a similar script add-in that provides a column showing metadata extracted through Word's automation support.

3

Hi leo,

thanks for the quick reply. I am not experienced with scripting, so I am somewhat reluctant to experiment with it.

I would like to understand why DOpus does not have the same column/metadata set as explorer. My understanding is that all metadata fields are stored within the files and are therefore an integral part of the files, independent of DOpus or some other file explorer. Therefore I thought that DOpus just displays all relevant metadata of the file. I do not understand why DOpus is not able to show all relevant information to the file.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Best regards

4

That isn't really how it works. Each file format is different, and to extract or calculate metadata that may be stored inside the file requires writing code (or having a library or API) that understands the file format, knows about the type of metadata, and can extract it.

Think of it like having a book in another language on your desk. The information you want might be in there, but you can't find it and write it down on a piece of paper next to the book unless you know how to read the book. If you know someone who speaks the language then you can ask them for help, which is what using Outlook's automation interface is like.

5

Thanks a lot leo! This has helped me understand why something seemingly simple is not so simple...

Best regards

6

In fact, this script add-in already exists:

[ul][li]Column: EML/MSG (email files) columns[/li][/ul]