API ReferenceProduct Documentation
Product Documentation

Attributes

Suggest Edits

You can use labels, metadata, and tags (attributes) to annotate files and trigger pipelines.

Labels are mutable and don’t create a new file version when they’re modified. Metadata and tags are immutable and create a new file version each time they’re modified. Each new file version has its own fileId.

You can apply labels, metadata, and tags when doing the following:

  • Adding attributes to sources, such as Tetra Agents
  • Adding attributes to files
  • Using the TetraScience API
  • Using the TetraScience Software Development Kit (SDK)

Validation rules always apply when using attributes. For information about how to manage labels, metadata, and tags, see Manage and Apply Attributes.

For a list of optional labels that TetraScience recommends using when you first onboard data to the Tetra Data Platform (TDP), see Recommended Labels in the TetraConnect Hub. For access, see Access the TetraConnect Hub.

📘

NOTE

It’s recommended that customers use labels as the primary attribute to store each file’s contextual information, because future versions of the TDP will use the label attribute only. For more information, see Metadata and Tag Deprecation in Tetra Product Deprecation Notices.

Labels

You can use labels to annotate files and trigger pipelines without changing any file data. Modifying a file’s labels doesn’t create a new file version.

Label Formatting

FormatSizingCharacters Allowed
name:value pairs

Label Format Example
sample_id: "041020K001","Glucose Control 1","mAb sample_4"		Label name limit: 128 characters
Label value limit: 256 characters

Note: More than one value is allowed in each label, because a label is an array. One field may store several values. There is no limit on the number of labels that a file can have.		Label names and values can include any combination of letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces; however, leading or trailing spaces are not allowed.

UTF-8 and Kanji characters are also supported starting with TDP v3.6.0.

Note: Labels don't support empty strings. The Tetra File-Log Agent doesn’t support backslashes (\).

🚧

IMPORTANT

When applying labels, keep in mind the following:

  • Files can't have two labels with the same name:value combination.
  • Files can have two labels with the same name.
  • If a file has more than 4,000 labels (or its labels are 256k+ in size) Pipelines might not properly index the file for search in the TDP. To make sure that your labels are properly indexed and available for search, it's recommended that you do the following:
    • Reduce the size of your label data as much as possible.
    • Limit the number of labels applied to each file.

Metadata and Tags

Metadata and tags also allow you to annotate files and trigger pipelines, but modifying a file’s metadata or tags always creates a new file version.

Metadata is used to annotate files with simple information that doesn’t change and must be tracked.

Tags are used to store file-specific information (for example, the name of a test event) that doesn’t change and must be tracked.

Metadata Formatting

FormatSizingCharacters Allowed
key:value pair

Metadata Format Example
SignOff:False		Value size limit for all metadata and tags associated with a file: 2 KB

Limited to one key:value pair value only		Keys can include letters, numbers, spaces, and selected symbols (+, -, or _) only

Values can include letters, numbers, spaces, and selected symbols (+, -, ., _, /, or ,) only

Note: Metadata doesn’t support empty strings.

Tags Formatting

FormatSizingCharacters Allowed
String

Tag Formatting Example
ChromaTest099		Tag value limit: 114 characters

Value size limit for all metadata and tags associated with a file: 2 KB

Limited to one string value only		Tags can include letters, numbers, spaces, and selected symbols (+, -, ., _ or /) only

Note: Tags don’t support empty strings.

📘

NOTE

Each file version that’s created by modifying a file’s metadata or tags results in additional Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) storage cost. This cost is incurred because metadata and tags are both attached as native Amazon S3 metadata to the underlying Amazon S3 object.

Updated 7 months ago