# Metadata

The **Metadata** object provides metadata information about a file or folder (metadata are things like the track number of a music file, the dimensions of an image, the author of a document, etc). You can obtain a **Metadata** object from the [**Item**](item)**.metadata** property if you have an **Item** object, and if not you can obtain it using the path of the item using the [**FSUtil**](fsutil)**.GetMetadata** method.

The **Metadata** object provides different sub-objects as properties that group the available metadata into a number of categories, broadly corresponding to the categories listed on the [Keywords for Columns](../../metadata_keywords/keywords_for_columns) page. You can determine the primary, or main type of metadata available using the _default value_ of the **Metadata** object.

| Property Name      | Return Type                         | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| _\<default value>_ | _string_                            | <p>Returns a string indicating the primary type of metadata available in this object. The string will be one of the following: <em>none</em>, <em>video</em>, <em>audio</em>, <em>image</em>, <em>font</em>, <em>exe</em>, <em>doc</em>, <em>other</em>.<br>Note that sometimes more than one type of metadata will be available. For example, author is a document field (and so found under the <strong>doc</strong> property), but pictures can have authors as well. In this instance, the <strong>Metadata</strong> object would provide both <strong>ImageMeta</strong> and <strong>DocMeta</strong> objects.</p><p>If the returned string is <em>none</em> it means that no metadata is available for the file, and you should not attempt to access any of the other properties.</p> |
| audio              | _object_:[**AudioMeta**](audiometa) | Returns an [**AudioMeta**](audiometa) object providing access to audio metadata. The properties of this object are generally returned as their appropriate underlying type (e.g. a numeric field like "track number" will be returned as an _int_).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| audio\_text        | _object_:[**AudioMeta**](audiometa) | Returns an [**AudioMeta**](audiometa) object that provides access to the unmodified text form of the audio metadata. This provides access to the same text as displayed in a Lister. For example, a numeric field like "track number" would be returned as a _string_ rather than an _int_.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| doc                | _object:_[**DocMeta**](docmeta)     | Returns a [**DocMeta**](docmeta) object providing access to document metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| doc\_text          | _object:_[**DocMeta**](docmeta)     | Returns a [**DocMeta**](docmeta) object that provides access to the unmodified text form of the document metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| exe                | _object:_[**ExeMeta**](exemeta)     | Returns an [**ExeMeta**](exemeta) object providing access to executable (program) metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| exe\_text          | _object:_[**ExeMeta**](exemeta)     | Returns an [**ExeMeta**](exemeta) object that provides access to the unmodified text form of the program metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| font               | _object:_[**FontMeta**](fontmeta)   | Returns a [**FontMeta**](fontmeta) object providing access to font file metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| image              | _object:_[**ImageMeta**](imagemeta) | Returns an [**ImageMeta**](imagemeta) object providing access to picture metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| image\_text        | _object:_[**ImageMeta**](imagemeta) | Returns an [**ImageMeta**](imagemeta) object that provides access to the unmodified text form of the picture metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| other              | _object:_[**OtherMeta**](othermeta) | Returns an [**OtherMeta**](othermeta) object that provides access to miscellaneous metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| tags               | _collection:string_                 | Returns a collection of _strings_ corresponding to the tags that are assigned to this item.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| video              | _object:_[**VideoMeta**](videometa) | Returns a \*\*[VideoMeta](videometa)\*\*object providing access to video metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| video\_text        | _object:_[**VideoMeta**](videometa) | Returns a \*\*[VideoMeta](videometa)\*\*object that provides access to the unmodified text form of the video metadata.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
