Missing "Auxiliary Metadata Field" on CoralNet Platform

[Leonardo Lara de Carvalho]

I am writing to report an issue I have recently encountered on the CoralNet platform. It appears that the "Auxiliary Metadata Field", which previously allowed filtering images based on user-defined metadata, is no longer available or visible in the current interface.

Importantly, the other filtering fields continue to function as expected — this issue seems to be isolated to the auxiliary metadata field.

This particular feature has been especially useful in organizing and processing image data efficiently, and its absence has had a notable impact on our workflow.

Could you kindly confirm whether this functionality has been removed, relocated, or if a technical issue might be causing its disappearance? Any clarification or assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Stephen Chan]

Hello,

I did recently make changes to the auxiliary metadata fields on the Browse Images / Edit Metadata / Browse Patches search forms, but these fields should still be available, unless there is a bug.

This is how it should work right now:

If some of your images have auxiliary metadata values filled in, those metadata fields will appear on the search form. This will typically appear as a dropdown field, but it will be a text-input field if the source has a large number of unique values for that field. If it's a text-input field, entering "(none)" will let you search for blank values.

Previously, it would always use a dropdown field, but sometimes this slowed down page-interaction if there were too many options in a single dropdown. That's why I've changed it to use a text-input field if there are going to be too many options.

If there is a specific source where you're not seeing the auxiliary metadata fields at all, let me know which source it is, and I can look at it.

[mary zotou]

Hi,

I have a very similar problem since yesterday. 

In my case, I can't search by station names in Browse Images / Edit Metadata / Browse Patches.

The drop-down list was very useful. Now I write the station name and "no images found".

I would appreciate it if you could recommend a solution for that.

[Stephen Chan]

Hi Mary,

I believe the search should still work, but it might be more strict than expected. You would have to type the entire station name, not just part of it, unlike the "Image name contains" field. It is also case-sensitive.

Let me know more details if you're still stuck after trying again.

I'll see if I can update the logic to make it case-insensitive. Maybe I'll also increase the dropdown-field limit from 50 options to around 100.

[mary zotou]

Thank you, Stephen!

By typing the exact name of the station (and not part of it), it works.

However, an increased drop-down menu or typing part of a station's name is useful in my opinion. 

While working with an old, inconsistent, and large dataset from multiple projects, it helps to check for duplicate stations or similar names.

:)

[Leonardo Lara de Carvalho]

Thank you very much for the clarification, Stephen!
Our working group regularly uses the platform for various projects. Due to the large number of samples and projects, we have registered many sites with different codes. Since I now need to enter the full site name in the search field, I need a list of all the codes registered for these sites. How can I access this list?

[Stephen Chan]

Leonardo - I guess the way right now would be to search for all images, then use the Export Metadata action from the Image Actions box to download a CSV file of all images' metadata. Then, for example, you could:
1. Open the CSV file in a recent version of Excel.
2. Add a new column.
3. Assuming the site codes are in column F, for example, enter "=UNIQUE(F:F)" anywhere in the new column you just added. This should show all of the different site codes.

Mary - that's a good point. I'm considering adding a full list of the metadata values elsewhere on the page for easier reference. As long as it's a simple text list, instead of part of a dropdown, it probably won't slow down the page much. I will probably still limit the length, but the limit could be much higher, like 500.

[Leonardo Lara de Carvalho]

Thank you very much, Stephen!