Unreal Metadata Exporter

Unreal Metadata Exporter is an Unreal Engine editor plugin that connects Unreal projects to an external, engine-agnostic asset validation pipeline.

The plugin handles editor integration and asset metadata export only.
All validation logic runs outside Unreal Engine.

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What It Does

• Integrates with the Unreal Editor
• Exports selected asset metadata to JSON

Unreal-specific code is kept minimal and limited to editor concerns.

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Pipeline Overview

Unreal Editor (metadata export) → JSON → Asset Validator

• Unreal Engine: asset selection and metadata extraction
• Asset Validator: rule evaluation and reporting

Core validation logic lives here:
https://github.com/janikowski-dev/Asset-Validator

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Design Principles

• Clear separation between export and validation
• No engine-specific validation rules
• Consistent JSON schema across tools
• Reusable across projects and pipelines

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Installation (for Unreal Developers)

Requirements

• Unreal Engine 5.x
• Project-level plugin installation

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Installation Steps

1. Clone or download the plugin

   • Clone this repository or download it as a ZIP
   • Extract it if needed

2. Place the plugin in your project

   (YourProject)/Plugins/UnrealMetadataExporter/
   

3. Regenerate project files (if using C++)

   • Right-click the .uproject
   • Select Generate Visual Studio project files

4. Open the project in Unreal Editor

5. If prompted, rebuild missing modules

6. Go to Edit → Plugins

   • Locate Unreal Metadata Exporter
   • Enable the plugin
   • Restart the editor if requested

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Verifying Installation

• Open the Content Browser
• Expand the Tools menu
• Locate the Export Assets for Validation entry provided by the plugin

If the export option is available, the plugin is loaded correctly.

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Updating the Plugin

1. Close Unreal Editor
2. Replace the plugin folder with the newer version
3. Regenerate project files if needed
4. Reopen the project and rebuild

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Notes for Developers

• This plugin performs no validation
• It only extracts editor-visible metadata and serializes it to JSON
• Validation rules live entirely in the external Asset Validator
• Keep engine-facing code:
  • editor-only
  • minimal
  • schema-aligned