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Data Type Detection

By default, Oxen.ai will detect the data type of a file based on the file extension and content type. The default data types are:
  • tabular -> csv, tsv, jsonl, parquet, arrow
  • text -> txt
  • image -> png, jpg, jpeg, gif, bmp, tiff, webp
  • video -> mp4, mov
  • audio -> mp3, wav, m4a, ogg, flac

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Tabular Data

When you add a tabular file to Oxen, it automatically detects and versions the schema of any tabular data. This is done by using Polars under the hood to infer the column names and datatypes. To list all the schemas that have been detected and committed, you can use the oxen schemas subcommand. 
oxen schemas

+-----------------------+------+----------------------------------+------------------------+
| path                  | name | hash                             | fields                 |
+==========================================================================================+
| annotations/train.csv | ?    | 53732ea1c2a9ba5807bd59978ebb69f5 | [file, ..., is_fluffy] |
|-----------------------+------+----------------------------------+------------------------|
| annotations/test.csv  | ?    | 36d0edc8779f42e30b0d630aa83bc83c | [file, ..., height]    |
+-----------------------+------+----------------------------------+------------------------+
The schema detection is done on a per file basis. This means that if you have a directory of csv or parquet files, each file will have its own schema.

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View Schema

To view a specific schema, you can pass in a schema hash, name, or path to the oxen schemas command. 
oxen schemas annotations/train.csv

+--------+-------+----------+
| name   | dtype | metadata |
+===========================+
| file   | str   |          |
|--------+-------+----------|
| label  | str   |          |
|--------+-------+----------|
| min_x  | f64   |          |
|--------+-------+----------|
| min_y  | f64   |          |
|--------+-------+----------|
| width  | i64   |          |
|--------+-------+----------|
| height | i64   |          |
+--------+-------+----------+

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Add Schema

Schemas are automatically detected when you add csv, tsv, jsonl, parquet, and arrow files to Oxen. Before a schema is committed, you can see the detected schemas in the oxen status command. 
oxen add annotations/train.csv
oxen status

On branch main -> 503591398980c485

Directories to be committed
  added: annotations with 1 file

Files to be committed:
  (use "oxen restore --staged <file> ..." to unstage)
  modified: annotations/train.csv

Schemas to be committed
  (use "oxen schemas show --staged <HASH>" to view staged schema)
  detected schema: annotations/train.csv 23d86a4c1481b817b57ee8ccd7d9016b
To view more detailed information about the detected schema, use the --staged flag on the oxen schemas command. 
oxen schemas --staged annotations/train.csv

annotations/train.csv 23d86a4c1481b817b57ee8ccd7d9016b
+-----------+-------+----------+
| name      | dtype | metadata |
+==============================+
| file      | str   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| label     | str   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| min_x     | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| min_y     | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| width     | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| height    | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| is_fluffy | str   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| breed     | str   |          |
+-----------+-------+----------+
To view how Polars interprets the schema before adding the file, you can use the oxen df command with the --schema flag. 
oxen df annotations/train.csv --schema

+-----------+-------+
| column    | dtype |
+===================+
| file      | str   |
|-----------+-------|
| label     | str   |
|-----------+-------|
| min_x     | f64   |
|-----------+-------|
| min_y     | f64   |
|-----------+-------|
| width     | f64   |
|-----------+-------|
| height    | f64   |
|-----------+-------|
| is_fluffy | str   |
|-----------+-------|
| breed     | str   |
+-----------+-------+

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Additional Metadata

You can also add additional information to the schema. This is useful if you want to provide context about the data for a UI, data fetching, or any other reason. Notice the empty column metadata in the schema above. You can add arbitrary JSON blobs to the schema itself, as well as each column. Metadata may provide useful information for your end application:
  • Transforms you want to perform.
  • How you want to render the data.
  • Information about the data itself, such as a description of the schema or colun.

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Schema Metadata

At the root of each schema is an Optional<json::Value> metadata value. This is useful for adding information about the schema itself. For example, you can add a description of the schema or a json blob that gives context to a data renderer. 
oxen schemas add annotations/train.csv -m '{"task": "bounding_box", "description": "Extracting bounding boxes from images"}'
You will see the additional metadata listed above the schema if it is added. 
"annotations/train.csv"

{"task": "bounding_box", "description": "Extracting bounding boxes from images"}

+-----------+-------+----------+
| name      | dtype | metadata |
+==============================+
| file      | str   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| label     | str   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| min_x     | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| min_y     | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| width     | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| height    | f64   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| is_fluffy | str   |          |
|-----------+-------+----------|
| breed     | str   |          |
+-----------+-------+----------+

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Column Metadata

You can also add metadata to specific columns. Say you wanted to add information to the file column about the root directory of the images, you could do the following: 
oxen schemas add annotations/train.csv -c 'file' -m '{"root": "images/"}'

"annotations/train.csv"
+-----------+-------+---------------------+
| name      | dtype | metadata            |
+=========================================+
| file      | str   | {"root": "images/"} |
|-----------+-------+---------------------|
| label     | str   |                     |
|-----------+-------+---------------------|
| min_x     | f64   |                     |
|-----------+-------+---------------------|
| min_y     | f64   |                     |
|-----------+-------+---------------------|
| width     | f64   |                     |
|-----------+-------+---------------------|
| height    | f64   |                     |
|-----------+-------+---------------------|
| is_fluffy | str   |                     |
|-----------+-------+---------------------|
| breed     | str   |                     |
+-----------+-------+---------------------+
The -c flag stands for column and the -m flag stands for metadata. The metadata is a JSON blob that can be used to store any information you want. The OxenHub UI uses schema metadata to render more complex datatypes in the UI. For example viewing inline images directly in a dataframe. OxenHub UI

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Commit The Schema

Schemas changes will not be saved until you commit them. To view the schemas staged for commit, you can use the --staged flag. 
oxen schemas --staged

+-----------------------+------+----------------------------------+--------------------+
| path                  | name | hash                             | fields             |
+======================================================================================+
| annotations/train.csv | ?    | 9d1fac486f95120403d7f18232fa5520 | [file, ..., breed] |
+-----------------------+------+----------------------------------+--------------------+
You can then commit the schema to the dataframe with the commit subcommand. 
oxen commit -m "Overriding schema for annotations/train.csv"
These changes are persistent across commits and will be carried forward.

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Name Schema

It is nice to have human readable names to refer to schemas by. Use the oxen schemas name command to name a schema. 
oxen schemas name annotations/train.csv bounding_box

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Remove Schema

If you have accidentally staged a schema, you can remove it with the oxen schemas rm command. 
oxen schemas rm annotations/train.csv --staged

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Render Images

Oxen.ai can render images through the webhub if you add the proper schema metadata. 
oxen schemas add data.csv -c 'file' --render image
Under the hood this applied a metadata blob to the column, telling Oxen to render an image. More verbosely it would look like: 
oxen schemas add data.csv -c 'file' -m '{
  "_oxen": {
    "render": {
        "func": "image"
    }
  }
}'
Oxen.ai can render links to other files through the webhub if you add the proper schema metadata. 
oxen schemas add data.csv -c 'file' --render link
Under the hood this applied a metadata blob to the column, telling Oxen to render an link. More verbosely it would look like: 
oxen schemas add data.csv -c 'file' -m '{
  "_oxen": {
    "render": {
        "func": "link"
    }
  }
}'