---
title: "Universal Metadata Format"
source: https://dev.pageseeder.com/psml/universal_format/universal_metadata_format.html
description: "The Universal Metadata Format is a metadata-only XML structure for non-PSML files, featuring a root element with level=\"metadata\", documentinfo, and optional metadata sections without content or TOC elements."
last_updated: 2026-09-05T17:36:31+10:00
tokens: ~640
---

# Universal Metadata Format

The metadata format is identical to the portable format except that it doesn't include the actual content. It is designed to contain metadata about non-PSML files.

- It has the attribute `@level="metadata"`
- It doesn¹t have `<section>` or `<toc>` elements.
- It might have a `<fragments>` element.

When uploaded, it must be under the `META-INF` folder and correspond to a non-PSML file in the upload, see [Universal Portable Format](universal_portable_format.md). 

> **Note:** Any @href in this format is not relative to the .psml metadata file but to the actual file it is describing. For URLs it is relative to the context path being exported.

## Examples

### Image

```xml

<document level="metadata">
  <documentinfo>
    <uri id="234"
         docid="fig2"
         scheme="http"
         host="acme.com" 
         port="80"
         path="/ps/acme/products/images/figure%202.jpg"
         decodedpath="/ps/acme/products/images/figure 2.jpg"
         mediatype="image/jpg">
      <displaytitle>Figure 2</displaytitle> 
      <description>Overall system diagram</description> 
      <labels>Spec,System</labels>
    </uri>
  </documentinfo>
  <metadata>
    <properties>
      <property name="caption"
                value="Specification diagram"/>
      <property name="action" value="Zoom"/>
      <property name="hi-res" datatype="xref">
        <xref uriid="123" href="figure%202-hires.jpg" />
      </property>
    </properties>
  </metadata>
</document>
```

### Folder

```xml

<document level="metadata">
  <documentinfo>
    <uri id="456"
         scheme="http" 
         host="acme.com"
         port="80"
         path="/ps/acme/products/images"
         decodedpath="/ps/acme/products/images"
         mediatype="folder">
        <displaytitle>
             images
      </displaytitle>
      <description>System images</description> 
      <labels>Spec,System</labels>
    </uri>
  </documentinfo>
</document>
```

### URL

```xml

<document level="metadata">
  <documentinfo>
    <uri id="21762"
         scheme="http"
         host="www.acme.com"
         port="80"
         path="/"
         decodedpath="/" 
         external="true" 
         title="ACME Company">
      <displaytitle>ACME Company</displaytitle>
      <description>The home page for the ACME Company
      </description>
      <labels>homepage,company</labels>
    </uri>
  </documentinfo>
</document>
```

> **Note:** When uploading URLs the following attributes on `<uri>` are required `@scheme`, `@host`, `@port`, `@decodedpath`.