Using Your Metadata

Once you have labels and info fields attached to files, Drive Toolbox provides powerful ways to browse, filter, and report on them.

The Viewpoints Panel

The Viewpoints Panel is the primary tool for working with metadata. It groups your files by label or info field value, giving you a visual overview of how your files are organized.

Browsing by Label

Open the Labels tab in the Viewpoints Panel. A dropdown lets you switch between personal and shared labels.

Each label appears as an expandable group with a file count. Expand a label to see its files. Click the filter chip on a label to filter the main file table to just those files.

Browsing by Info Field

Open the Info Fields tab. The tree has three levels:

1. Field name (e.g., "Status")
2. Field value (e.g., "Active", "Archived")
3. Files with that value

Click a field name's filter chip to show all files with any value for that field. Click a specific value to narrow to files with that exact value.

Scoping

Both tabs support folder scoping — restrict the view to files within a specific folder. Combined with the search bar at the top of the panel, you can quickly drill down to the metadata grouping you need.

Filtering by Metadata

Metadata fields are fully integrated with the filter system. You can use them in any filter context — the search bar, Visual Builder, Quick Filters, or direct syntax.

What	Example
Files with a personal label	label:"project-alpha"
Files with a shared label	shared-label:equals:"approved"
Personal info field value	info:has:Status:matching:eq:Active
Shared info field value	shared-info:has:Projects:Priority:matching:gt:3
Files with any value for a field	info:has:"Due Date"
Date range on an info field	info:has:"Due Date":matching:before:2026-12-31

These can be combined with any other filter conditions using AND, OR, and NOT.

Reports with Scripts

Scripts can read and report on metadata values. Common use cases:

• Table of contents by label — list all files grouped by label, with clickable links
• Status report — count files by info field value (e.g., how many "Active" vs "Archived")
• Cross-reference — find files that have one label but not another

Example script snippet:

let labeled = files(filter("label:\"project-alpha\""), sort_order("name asc"));

let table = report_table_new();
report_table_title(table, "Project Alpha Files");
report_table_column(table, "Name");
report_table_column_aligned(table, "Size (bytes)", "right");
report_table_column(table, "Type");

for f in labeled {
    report_table_add_row(table, [f.name, f.size.to_string(), f.mime_type]);
}

report_set_table(table);

See Scripting Overview and Reports for the full scripting and reporting guide.

Learn More

• Viewpoints Panel — Panel reference
• Getting Started with Metadata — Creating labels and info fields
• Filter Language Reference — Complete filter syntax
• Cookbook: Organize with Metadata — Step-by-step guide