Set Metadata Properties

Update or add metadata properties satisfying a predicate

The setProperties method used in this code sample actually combines two operations: add and update. If an existing property satisfies the specified predicate its value is updated. If there is a known property missing in a metadata package that satisfies the predicate it is added to the appropriate package.

The code snippet below demonstrates a basic usage scenario of the setProperties method.

1. Open a file to update
2. Specify a predicate that will be used to add/update metadata properties
3. Specify a value you would like to add to existing metadata packages in the file
4. Check the actual number of added/updated properties
5. Save the changes

// Constants.InputVsdx is an absolute or relative path to your document. Ex: @"C:\Docs\source.vsdx"
try (Metadata metadata = new Metadata(Constants.InputVsdx)) {
	// Set the value of each property that satisfies the predicate:
	// property contains the date/time the document was created OR modified
	int affected = metadata.setProperties(
			new ContainsTagSpecification(Tags.getTime().getCreated()).or(new ContainsTagSpecification(Tags.getTime().getModified())),
			new PropertyValue(new Date()));
	System.out.println(String.format("Properties set: %s", affected));
	metadata.save(Constants.OutputVsdx);
}

As a result, we update all existing metadata properties containing the date the document was created/updated. If a metadata package doesn’t contain such properties but they are meant to be in its structure they are added.