Metadata¶

OdtTemplate exposes a bounded metadata API for common ODT document properties stored in meta.xml.

Metadata is document information, not visible template content. It is independent of classic assign()/render() processing.

`setMeta()`¶

Recommended · Template & Document

Updates supported metadata fields in the current working document.

public function setMeta(array $meta): void

Supported keys¶

Key	Input	Behavior
`title`	any value cast to string	Document title
`subject`	any value cast to string	Subject
`description`	any value cast to string	Description
`coverage`	any value cast to string	Coverage
`keywords`	`string` or `list<string>`	Complete keyword collection
`initial_creator`	any value cast to string	Initial creator
`creator`	any value cast to string	Current creator
`language`	any value cast to string	Document language value
`creation_date`	any value cast to string	Creation date value
`date`	any value cast to string	Document date value
`editing_cycles`	any value cast to string	Editing cycle value
`editing_duration`	any value cast to string	Editing duration value
`generator`	any value cast to string	Generator

Compatibility input aliases:

author -> creator
initial_author -> initial_creator

Unknown keys are silently ignored for compatibility.

Keywords¶

A string is one keyword; it is not delimiter-split.

$template->setMeta([
    'keywords' => ['invoice', 'customer', '2026'],
]);

A keyword array must be a PHP list and every item must be a string. Invalid keyword input throws InvalidArgumentException. An empty list removes all existing keyword elements.

Lifecycle and side effects¶

setMeta() mutates the current document-local metadata state immediately. It does not require render(). Persist it with save().

$template->setMeta([
    'title' => 'Q2 Financial Report',
    'creator' => 'Anna Example',
    'subject' => 'Quarterly Financial Analysis',
]);

$template->save('report.odt');

The imperative metadata API intentionally keeps historical string-casting behavior for non-keyword fields. The stricter typed metadata validation used by mapped Phase-E automation is a separate contract.

`getMeta()`¶

Recommended · Template & Document

Returns supported metadata currently present in the working document.

public function getMeta(): array

Absent supported fields are omitted. keywords, when present, is returned as a list in document order.

When creator or initial_creator is present, the returned array also exposes the compatibility aliases author and initial_author with the same values.

$metadata = $template->getMeta();

$title = $metadata['title'] ?? null;
$keywords = $metadata['keywords'] ?? [];

Limitations¶

This API does not expose arbitrary custom meta.xml element authoring. It is limited to the supported mappings above.