This article is for CONTENT OWNERS.
This article outlines how to prepare the metadata for your content before delivering it to Snapplify.
In today’s digital retail environment, metadata management is essential to the success and further growth of your publishing business. Rich metadata not only provides customers with key information that drives sales, but also empowers publishers to track trends and inform future publishing decisions.
For this reason, Snapplify makes it easy for you to compile your metadata, using the format you prefer.
Snapplify accepts the following formats:
The pricing provided in your metadata must either be inclusive or exclusive of VAT (sales tax) based on what has been agreed in your distribution agreement.
CSV metadata
For the metadata to import successfully, the CSV file must be error-free.
Download the Snapplify metadata CSV sample.
Understanding CSV metadata fields
The table below describes the column headings required for the CSV file. Each field below the column header must be completed.
Column heading | Description | Example |
EAN | The most important field is the EAN field. This is the ISBN of your book and its unique identifier. No two ebooks can have the same EAN/ISBN.
9780801448157.jpg | Correct: 9780801448157 |
| related_EAN | The print of hardcopy ISBN number of the ebook. | Correct: 978080144852 Incorrect: 978-808-1448-157 978 808 1448 852 |
File_type | The format of the file associated with this product | epub |
Title | The title of the product Where Licence_Days is not perpetual (forever), add the licence period to end of the title | The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings (1-year licence) |
Description | The description of the product. If you want line breaks in this field please use this sequence: <br> | The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. |
Published | Whether this book is available immediately for sale | true/false |
Embargo_date | Date from which the book may only be sold by, in the format YYYYMMDD | 20190123 |
Category | Top-level category/descriptor | Fantasy |
Authors | Semicolon-separated list of authors | JRR Tolkien; Bob Smith |
Edition | The product edition | 1st, First, Revised, etc |
Publisher | The publisher of the product | Oxford University Press |
Publication_date | The date the product was first published, in the format YYYYMMDD | 20190123 |
Pages | Page extent | 264 |
Copyright | The copyright holder | Bob Smith, Oxford University Press, etc |
Language | ISO language code of the product | Eng |
Price | Price of product. This price should either be inclusive or exclusive of VAT (sales tax), based on what was contractually agreed in your distribution agreement. | 99.99 |
Currency | The currency of the value provided in the price column. Ensure that currency code is entered for each asset. | ZAR |
Business_model | This determines the business model (rights) under which the titles are supplied and pricing is associated. If a title is to be sold as both ‘Retail’ and ‘Library’, two records (rows) of metadata must be provided (i.e. if you have 50 titles with both Retail and Library rights, you will have 100 records/rows of metadata). | RETAIL |
Allowed_countries | Semicolon-separated two-character ISO country codes where the book may be sold. If this field is populated, disallowed_countries must be left empty. NB: Only valid country codes or leave blank | ZA;US |
Disallowed_countries | Semicolon-separated two-character ISO country codes where the book may not be sold. If this field is populated, Allowed_countries must be left empty. NB: Only valid country codes or leave blank | AU;NG |
DRM_required | Should DRM be applied to this product? | true/false |
Number_of_devices | The number of devices/times the user may request a licence, if DRM_required=true | 5 |
Licence_days | The number of days that the customer will be entitled to access the ebook.
| 425 |
For ebooks used in educational institutions, in particular, we recommend 425 days for a one-year licence, 790 days for a two-year licence, and 1155 days for a three-year licence specifically so that students and educators can purchase books for the following year and still have access for the full upcoming academic year (rather than losing access a month or two before that academic year ends).
XML metadata
Snapplify uses a subset of the ONIX 3.0 XML standards.
We will provide an XSD (snapplify-onix-metadata.xsd) that can be used to build and validate metadata XML documents.
The XSD contains annotations for what values are allowed in each field. If no annotation is present, free text is assumed.
XML filename
The name of the XML file must be in the format YYYYMMDD_HHmm.xml (example: 20140213_1532.xml).
Associated content files
Filenames are inferred via the values of IDValue for ProductIDType=15 in the ProductIdentifier element, and ProductFormDetail in the DescriptiveDetail element
Images follow the same convention, but are independent of the ProductFormDetail element. Supported image formats are jpg, png, or gif. Only one image is supported per record.
Example 1:
- Asset file associated with this record will be 9780801448157.epub
- Jacket image file associated with this record will be 9780801448157.jpg/png
<Product>
<ProductIdentifier>
<ProductIDType>15</ProductIDType>
<IDValue>9780801448157</IDValue>
</ProductIdentifier>
<DescriptiveDetail>
<ProductFormDetail>E101</ProductFormDetail>
</DescriptiveDetail>
</Product>
Example 2:
- Asset file associated with this record will be 9781600608667.pdf
- Jacket image file associated with this record will be 9781600608667.jpg/png
<Product>
<ProductIdentifier>
<ProductIDType>15</ProductIDType>
<IDValue>9781600608667</IDValue>
</ProductIdentifier>
<DescriptiveDetail>
<ProductFormDetail>E107</ProductFormDetail>
</DescriptiveDetail>
</Product>
Assigning DRM restrictions in XML metadata
Specifying if DRM is enabled on a product is done via the EpubTechnicalProtection:
| Element | EpubTechnicalProtection |
| Allowed values | Description |
| 00 | None – product doesn't require DRM |
| 01 | DRM enabled |
If EpubTechnicalProtection = 01, then optional EpubUsageContraint elements can be supplied. If none are supplied, the default DRM scheme will be used.
EpubUsageContraint element is described in Snapplify’s XSD.
Currently only ePUB and PDF types may support DRM.
Example: DRM Restriction XML snippets
User restricted to downloading title, on the same device, or multiple devices, a total of 5 times:
<EpubUsageConstraint>
<!-- 04 = use on multiple devices, 10 = licence days -->
<EpubUsageType>04</EpubUsageType>
<!--01 - unlimited, 02 = limited -->
<EpubUsageStatus>02</EpubUsageStatus>
<EpubUsageLimit>
<Quantity>5</Quantity>
<!-- 06 - devices, 09 - days -->
<EpubUsageUnit>06</EpubUsageUnit>
</EpubUsageLimit>
</EpubUsageConstraint>
User licence will expire 365 days after first licence acquisition:
<EpubUsageConstraint>
<!-- 04 = use on multiple devices, 10 = licence days -->
<EpubUsageType>10</EpubUsageType>
<!--01 - unlimited, 02 = limited, 03 = prohibited -->
<EpubUsageStatus>02</EpubUsageStatus>
<EpubUsageLimit>
<Quantity>365</Quantity>
<!-- 06 - devices, 09 - days -->
<EpubUsageUnit>09</EpubUsageUnit>
</EpubUsageLimit>
</EpubUsageConstraint>
CoreSource metadata
If you already use CoreSource to manage your metadata, we can accept a feed directly from CoreSource. Please let us know if this is the route that you would prefer to take.
Learn how digital rights management (DRM) works for content owners.
Need help? Reach out to us by emailing marketplace@snapplify.com.
