Metadata of ECL Item

Question

I have integrated the ECL( External Content library) to the Tridion. Here i have three basic ECL item named as Image,Video,Document.

Now for every ECL item we have created the External metadata by overriding the MetadataXMl property from IContentLibraryMultimediaItem Interface. so every time when we access the item we can have meta data from the External Library.

I have scenario where author want to have different meta data of same ecl item. say for example one image call product.jpg is used on the product list page as thumbnail and on the detail page as large image.

As ecl item is same on both the place.but they have render as different rendition on the page with diffrent purpose. so alt text for both place for same ecl item can be diffrent.

so how we can have different metadata for one ecl item placed on the page in the different section.

Regards, Gaurav

Answer 1

You can create groups in your metadata.

IFieldGroupDefinition thumbnail = YourProvider.HostServices.CreateFieldGroupDefinition("Thumbnail", Resources.MetadataPrograms, maxOccurs: null);
programs.Fields.Add(YourProvider.HostServices.CreateNumberFieldDefinition("Description", "The description"));

If you name the group according to the rendition your templating code will be able to find the metadata for the rendition it is currently rendering.

Answer 2

With or without ECL the "correct" place to store alt text is in the context an image is used, just as you describe.

If the ECL item is not on the page, then you could model this with a Component that includes the alt text and links to the ECL item.

The main reason having alt text on Multimedia (or ECL) items works is because images aren't always used in multiple contexts or the alt text is generic enough to be okay across contexts (e.g. based on the product name).