Acquia DAM

How to Export Asset Metadata from Acquia DAM

Formerly Widen Collective, Acquia DAM is a leading enterprise DAM. Here's how to get your asset metadata into a spreadsheet for quality assessment.

Built-in Export

Yes (CSV)

Admin Required

Standard user

Best Output

CSV / Excel

Time to First Export

5-20 min

The short answer

Acquia DAM (formerly Widen Collective) has built-in metadata export capabilities. Users can export asset metadata from search results or collections as CSV. For comprehensive inventory reports, Acquia DAM includes reporting features that generate detailed metadata spreadsheets. The Acquia DAM API provides full programmatic access for custom or automated exports.

Acquia DAM — Metadata Export

EasyBest for: Marketing teams, brand managers, content operationsOutput: CSV~5-10 minutes

Acquia DAM allows users to select items in the library and extract their metadata — no actual files are downloaded, only the metadata. The export produces a CSV file with all configured metadata fields.

Log in to Acquia DAM. Navigate to the asset library and use search, categories, or collections to find the assets whose metadata you need.

Select the items whose metadata you want to extract. You can select all items in the current search results or pick specific ones.

Click the Export or Download metadata option from the actions menu. Choose which metadata fields to include.

Download the CSV file. It includes all selected metadata: file name, description, categories, keywords, custom fields, dates, and technical specifications.

✓

Category hierarchy in exports

Acquia DAM uses hierarchical categories for organizing assets. The CSV export includes the full category path (e.g., "Marketing > Product Images > Lifestyle"). This hierarchy data is valuable for metadata quality assessment.

Acquia DAM Reports

EasyBest for: DAM administrators, governance teams, audit complianceOutput: CSV or Excel~10-15 minutes

Acquia DAM includes comprehensive reporting capabilities. Admins can generate asset inventory reports with full metadata details, usage reports, and audit trails. Reports can be exported as CSV or Excel files.

Navigate to Admin → Reports in the Acquia DAM admin panel.

Select Asset Inventory or Metadata Report as the report type. Configure the date range, category scope, and asset types to include.

Select the metadata fields for the report. Include all fields relevant to your quality assessment.

Generate and download the report. Large reports may take a few minutes to compile.

Scheduled reports

Acquia DAM supports scheduled report delivery. Set up a weekly or monthly metadata report to be automatically emailed to your team. This is useful for ongoing metadata monitoring and governance.

Acquia DAM API

TechnicalBest for: Developers, data engineers, automated integrationsOutput: JSON → CSV~20-30 minutes

The Acquia DAM API provides full access to asset metadata including custom fields, categories, embedded metadata (EXIF, IPTC, XMP), and usage data. It supports search, filtering, and pagination for large libraries.

Get API credentials from your Acquia DAM admin. You need an API token for authentication. API access may require an Enterprise plan.

Use the asset search endpoint to query assets and retrieve metadata. The API returns JSON responses with full metadata for each asset.

python

import requests
import csv

BASE_URL = "https://api.widencollective.com/v2"
TOKEN = "your_api_token"
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {TOKEN}"}

def search_assets(query="*", limit=100):
    """Search all assets with pagination."""
    all_assets = []
    offset = 0
    while True:
        resp = requests.get(
            f"{BASE_URL}/assets/search",
            headers=HEADERS,
            params={
                "query": query,
                "limit": limit,
                "offset": offset,
                "expand": "metadata,embeds,categories",
            },
        )
        data = resp.json()
        items = data.get("items", [])
        if not items:
            break
        all_assets.extend(items)
        offset += limit
        total = data.get("total_count", 0)
        if offset >= total:
            break
    return all_assets

assets = search_assets()

with open("acquia_dam_metadata.csv", "w", newline="") as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f)
    writer.writerow([
        "ID", "File Name", "Title", "Description",
        "File Type", "File Size", "Width", "Height",
        "Created", "Modified", "Categories", "Keywords"
    ])
    for asset in assets:
        metadata = asset.get("metadata", {})
        fields = metadata.get("fields", {})
        writer.writerow([
            asset.get("id", ""),
            asset.get("filename", ""),
            fields.get("title", [""])[0] if fields.get("title") else "",
            fields.get("description", [""])[0] if fields.get("description") else "",
            asset.get("file_properties", {}).get("format_type", ""),
            asset.get("file_properties", {}).get("size_in_kbytes", ""),
            asset.get("file_properties", {}).get("image_properties", {}).get("width", ""),
            asset.get("file_properties", {}).get("image_properties", {}).get("height", ""),
            asset.get("created_date", ""),
            asset.get("last_update_date", ""),
            "; ".join(
                cat.get("name", "")
                for cat in asset.get("categories", [])
            ),
            "; ".join(fields.get("keywords", [])) if fields.get("keywords") else "",
        ])

print(f"Exported {len(assets)} assets to acquia_dam_metadata.csv")

What metadata fields can you export?

Field	UI Export	Reports	Acquia DAM API
File name	✓	✓	✓
Title	✓	✓	✓
Description	✓	✓	✓
File type / format	✓	✓	✓
File size	✓	✓	✓
Dimensions (W x H)	✓	✓	✓
Created date	✓	✓	✓
Modified date	✓	✓	✓
Categories (hierarchical)	✓	✓	✓
Keywords / tags	✓	✓	✓
Custom metadata fields	✓	✓	✓
Copyright	✓	✓	✓
Usage rights / expiry	✓	✓	✓
EXIF data (photos)	✓	✕	✓
IPTC / XMP metadata	✓	✕	✓
Download count	✕	✓	✓
Embed / share links	✕	✕	✓

Known limitations

Widen Collective to Acquia DAM transition: Organizations that migrated from Widen Collective to Acquia DAM may have different API endpoints and authentication methods. The API base URL may be api.widencollective.com or an Acquia-specific endpoint depending on your migration status.
Embedded metadata extraction: Acquia DAM extracts EXIF, IPTC, and XMP data from uploaded files automatically. However, the specific fields extracted depend on your DAM configuration. Some organizations customize which embedded metadata fields are indexed.
API rate limits: The Acquia DAM API enforces rate limits that vary by plan. For large libraries (100,000+ assets), batch your API calls and implement appropriate delays between requests.

You have your metadata export.
Now score it.

Upload your CSV or Excel file to MQS and get a structural metadata health score out of 100 with dimension breakdowns and actionable diagnostics.