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Create a custom metadata template

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Create a custom metadata template

To create a custom metadata template for your enterprise you can use our API directly or one of our SDKs to create a new template.

For this customerInfo template, we're going to create a template with 3 fields. The first field is a text field to hold the customer's name, the second is a dropdown list of the possible values for the industry the customer operates in, and the final field represents the total annual contract value (tav).

Learn about the different field types

To create this template we need to pass in the configuration for the fields, as well as a display name for the field.

cURL
curl -X POST https://api.box.com/2.0/metadata_templates/schema \
     -H "authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
     -H "content-type: application/json" \
     -d '{
      "scope": "enterprise",
      "displayName": "Customer Info",
      "fields": [
        {
          "type": "string",
          "displayName": "Name"
        },
        {
          "type": "enum",
          "displayName": "Industry",
          "options": [
            {"key": "Technology"},
            {"key": "Healthcare"},
            {"key": "Legal"}
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "float",
          "displayName": "Total account value",
          "key": "tav"
        }
      ]
    }'
.NET
var templateParams = new BoxMetadataTemplate()
{
  DisplayName = "Customer Info",
  Scope = "enterprise",
  Fields = new List<BoxMetadataTemplateField>()
  {
    new BoxMetadataTemplateField()
    {
      Type = "string",
      DisplayName = "Name"
    },
    new BoxMetadataTemplateField()
    {
      Type = "enum",
      DisplayName = "Industry",
      Options = new List<BoxMetadataTemplateFieldOption>()
      {
        new BoxMetadataTemplateFieldOption() { Key = "Technology" },
        new BoxMetadataTemplateFieldOption() { Key = "Healthcare" },
        new BoxMetadataTemplateFieldOption() { Key = "Legal" }
      }
    },
    new BoxMetadataTemplateField()
    {
      Type = "float",
      DisplayName = "Total account value",
      Key="tav"
    },
  }
};
BoxMetadataTemplate template = await  client.MetadataManager.CreateMetadataTemplate(templateParams);
Java
MetadataTemplate.Field name = new MetadataTemplate.Field();
name.setType("string");
name.setDisplayName("Name");

MetadataTemplate.Field industry = new MetadataTemplate.Field();
industry.setType("enum");
industry.setDisplayName("Industry");

MetadataTemplate.Option technology = new MetadataTemplate.Option();
technology.setKey("Technology");

MetadataTemplate.Option healthcare = new MetadataTemplate.Option();
healthcare.setKey("Healthcare");

MetadataTemplate.Option legal = new MetadataTemplate.Option();
legal.setKey("Legal");

List<MetadataTemplate.Option> options = new ArrayList<MetadataTemplate.Option>();
options.add(technology);
options.add(healthcare);
options.add(legal);

MetadataTemplate.Field tav = new MetadataTemplate.Field();
tav.setType("float");
tav.setDisplayName("Total account value");
tav.setKey("tav");

List<MetadataTemplate.Field> fields = new ArrayList<MetadataTemplate.Field>();
fields.add(name);
fields.add(industry);
fields.add(tav);

MetadataTemplate template = MetadataTemplate.createMetadataTemplate(api, "enterprise", "customerInfo", "Customer Info", false, fields);
Python
from boxsdk.object.metadata_template import MetadataField, MetadataFieldType

fields = [
  MetadataField(MetadataFieldType.STRING, 'Name')
  MetadataField(MetadataFieldType.ENUM, 'Industry', options=['Technology', 'Healthcare', 'Legal'])
]
template = client.create_metadata_template('Customer Info', fields)
Node
client.metadata.createTemplate(
  'Customer Info',
  [
    {
      type: 'string',
      displayName: 'Name'
    },
    {
      type: 'enum',
      displayName: 'Industry',
      options: [
        {key: 'Technology'},
        {key: 'Healthcare'},
        {key: 'Legal'}
      ]
    },
    {
      type: 'float',
      displayName: 'Total account value',
      key: 'tav'
    }
  ]
).then(template => {
  // ...
});

Admin permissions required

Creating metadata templates is restricted to users with admin permission. This means that only admins, or co-admins who have been granted rights to Create and edit metadata templates for your company by the admin can use the web app or the API to manage templates.

The API will return the newly created metadata template.

{
  "id": "100ac693-a468-4b37-9535-05984b804dc2",
  "type": "metadata_template",
  "templateKey": "customerInfo",
  "scope": "enterprise_34567",
  "displayName": "Customer Info",
  "hidden": false,
  "copyInstanceOnItemCopy": false,
  "fields": [
    {
      "id": "5c6a5906-003b-4654-9deb-472583fc2930",
      "type": "string",
      "key": "name",
      "displayName": "Name",
      "hidden": false
    },
    {
      "id": "cf3eb5b8-52ef-456c-b175-44354a27e289",
      "type": "enum",
      "key": "industry",
      "displayName": "Industry",
      "options": [
        {"key": "Technology"},
        {"key": "Healthcare"},
        {"key": "Legal"}
      ],
      "hidden": false
    },
    {
      "id": "5c6a5906-4654-9deb-003b-472583fc2930",
      "type": "float",
      "key": "tav",
      "displayName": "Total account value",
      "hidden": false
    }
  ]
}

Template key

Although you did not explicitly set the template key the key is automatically derived from the displayName value. In this case, the templateKey would be customerInfo.

I've created a custom template