Metadata#

Data loves metadata. Any time you run Datasette you can optionally include a YAML or JSON file with metadata about your databases and tables. Datasette will then display that information in the web UI.

Run Datasette like this:

datasette database1.db database2.db --metadata metadata.yaml

Your metadata.yaml file can look something like this:

title: Custom title for your index page
description: Some description text can go here
license: ODbL
license_url: https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/
source: Original Data Source
source_url: http://example.com/

{
  "title": "Custom title for your index page",
  "description": "Some description text can go here",
  "license": "ODbL",
  "license_url": "https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/",
  "source": "Original Data Source",
  "source_url": "http://example.com/"
}

Choosing YAML over JSON adds support for multi-line strings and comments.

The above metadata will be displayed on the index page of your Datasette-powered site. The source and license information will also be included in the footer of every page served by Datasette.

Any special HTML characters in description will be escaped. If you want to include HTML in your description, you can use a description_html property instead.

Per-database and per-table metadata#

Metadata at the top level of the file will be shown on the index page and in the footer on every page of the site. The license and source is expected to apply to all of your data.

You can also provide metadata at the per-database or per-table level, like this:

databases:
  database1:
    source: Alternative source
    source_url: http://example.com/
    tables:
      example_table:
        description_html: Custom <em>table</em> description
        license: CC BY 3.0 US
        license_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

{
  "databases": {
    "database1": {
      "source": "Alternative source",
      "source_url": "http://example.com/",
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "description_html": "Custom <em>table</em> description",
          "license": "CC BY 3.0 US",
          "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Each of the top-level metadata fields can be used at the database and table level.

Source, license and about#

The three visible metadata fields you can apply to everything, specific databases or specific tables are source, license and about. All three are optional.

source and source_url should be used to indicate where the underlying data came from.

license and license_url should be used to indicate the license under which the data can be used.

about and about_url can be used to link to further information about the project - an accompanying blog entry for example.

For each of these you can provide just the *_url field and Datasette will treat that as the default link label text and display the URL directly on the page.

Column descriptions#

You can include descriptions for your columns by adding a "columns": {"name-of-column": "description-of-column"} block to your table metadata:

databases:
  database1:
    tables:
      example_table:
        columns:
          column1: Description of column 1
          column2: Description of column 2

{
  "databases": {
    "database1": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "columns": {
            "column1": "Description of column 1",
            "column2": "Description of column 2"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

These will be displayed at the top of the table page, and will also show in the cog menu for each column.

You can see an example of how these look at latest.datasette.io/fixtures/roadside_attractions.

Specifying units for a column#

Datasette supports attaching units to a column, which will be used when displaying values from that column. SI prefixes will be used where appropriate.

Column units are configured in the metadata like so:

databases:
  database1:
    tables:
      example_table:
        units:
          column1: metres
          column2: Hz

{
  "databases": {
    "database1": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "units": {
            "column1": "metres",
            "column2": "Hz"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Units are interpreted using Pint, and you can see the full list of available units in Pint's unit registry. You can also add custom units to the metadata, which will be registered with Pint:

custom_units:
- decibel = [] = dB

{
  "custom_units": [
    "decibel = [] = dB"
  ]
}

Setting a default sort order#

By default Datasette tables are sorted by primary key. You can over-ride this default for a specific table using the "sort" or "sort_desc" metadata properties:

databases:
  mydatabase:
    tables:
      example_table:
        sort: created

{
  "databases": {
    "mydatabase": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "sort": "created"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Or use "sort_desc" to sort in descending order:

databases:
  mydatabase:
    tables:
      example_table:
        sort_desc: created

{
  "databases": {
    "mydatabase": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "sort_desc": "created"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Setting a custom page size#

Datasette defaults to displaying 100 rows per page, for both tables and views. You can change this default page size on a per-table or per-view basis using the "size" key in metadata.json:

databases:
  mydatabase:
    tables:
      example_table:
        size: 10

{
  "databases": {
    "mydatabase": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "size": 10
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This size can still be over-ridden by passing e.g. ?_size=50 in the query string.

Setting which columns can be used for sorting#

Datasette allows any column to be used for sorting by default. If you need to control which columns are available for sorting you can do so using the optional sortable_columns key:

databases:
  database1:
    tables:
      example_table:
        sortable_columns:
        - height
        - weight

{
  "databases": {
    "database1": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "sortable_columns": [
            "height",
            "weight"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This will restrict sorting of example_table to just the height and weight columns.

You can also disable sorting entirely by setting "sortable_columns": []

You can use sortable_columns to enable specific sort orders for a view called name_of_view in the database my_database like so:

databases:
  my_database:
    tables:
      name_of_view:
        sortable_columns:
        - clicks
        - impressions

{
  "databases": {
    "my_database": {
      "tables": {
        "name_of_view": {
          "sortable_columns": [
            "clicks",
            "impressions"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Specifying the label column for a table#

Datasette's HTML interface attempts to display foreign key references as labelled hyperlinks. By default, it looks for referenced tables that only have two columns: a primary key column and one other. It assumes that the second column should be used as the link label.

If your table has more than two columns you can specify which column should be used for the link label with the label_column property:

databases:
  database1:
    tables:
      example_table:
        label_column: title

{
  "databases": {
    "database1": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "label_column": "title"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Hiding tables#

You can hide tables from the database listing view (in the same way that FTS and SpatiaLite tables are automatically hidden) using "hidden": true:

databases:
  database1:
    tables:
      example_table:
        hidden: true

{
  "databases": {
    "database1": {
      "tables": {
        "example_table": {
          "hidden": true
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Metadata reference#

A full reference of every supported option in a metadata.json or metadata.yaml file.

Top-level metadata#

"Top-level" metadata refers to fields that can be specified at the root level of a metadata file. These attributes are meant to describe the entire Datasette instance.

The following are the full list of allowed top-level metadata fields:

  • title

  • description

  • description_html

  • license

  • license_url

  • source

  • source_url

Database-level metadata#

"Database-level" metadata refers to fields that can be specified for each database in a Datasette instance. These attributes should be listed under a database inside the "databases" field.

The following are the full list of allowed database-level metadata fields:

  • source

  • source_url

  • license

  • license_url

  • about

  • about_url

Table-level metadata#

"Table-level" metadata refers to fields that can be specified for each table in a Datasette instance. These attributes should be listed under a specific table using the "tables" field.

The following are the full list of allowed table-level metadata fields:

  • source

  • source_url

  • license

  • license_url

  • about

  • about_url

  • hidden

  • sort/sort_desc

  • size

  • sortable_columns

  • label_column

  • facets

  • fts_table

  • fts_pk

  • searchmode

  • columns