ISCC - Main High-Level Functions

SDK main top-level functions.

code_iscc(fp, **options)

Generate a complete ISCC-CODE for the given file.

This function creates a full ISCC-CODE by combining Meta, Content, Data, and Instance Codes. It automatically detects the media type and processes the file accordingly.

The function performs the following steps: 1. Reads the file and determines its MIME type. 2. Generates Instance and Data Codes for all file types. 3. For supported media types, generates Content and Meta Codes. 4. Combines all generated codes into a single ISCC-CODE. 5. Merges metadata from all ISCC units.

Note:

• This function uses multithreading to improve performance.
• The behavior can be customized through the sdk_opts settings. For example, setting fallback to True will allow processing of unsupported media types in a fallback mode instead of raising an exception.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		str or Path object representing the filepath of the file to process.	required
fallback		Process unsupported media types. Default: False	required
add_units		Include ISCC-UNITS in metadata. Default: False	required
create_meta		Create Meta-Code unit from embedded metadata. Default: True	required
wide		Enable wide mode for ISCC-SUM with Data & Instance codes only. Default: False	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	IsccMeta object with complete ISCC-CODE and merged metadata from all ISCC-UNITs.

Raises:

Type	Description
idk.IsccUnsupportedMediatype	If the media type is not supported. By default, the function will raise this exception for unsupported media types, as sdk_opts.fallback is False by default.

code_meta(fp, **options)

Generate Meta-Code from digital asset.

Creates an ISCC Meta-Code based on normalized metadata extracted from the file. If no name is found in metadata, the filename will be used instead.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath used for Meta-Code creation.	required
bits		Bit-length of the generated Meta-Code UNIT. Default: 64	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	ISCC metadata including Meta-Code and extracted metadata fields.

code_content(fp, **options)

Detect mediatype and create corresponding Content-Code.

Analyzes the file to determine its media type and routes the processing to the appropriate specialized function (code_text, code_image, code_audio, or code_video).

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath	required
extract_meta		Whether to extract metadata. Default: True	required
create_thumb		Whether to create a thumbnail. Default: True	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	Content-Code wrapped in ISCC metadata.

Raises:

Type	Description
idk.IsccUnsupportedMediatype	If the media type is not supported.

code_text(fp, **options)

Generate Content-Code Text.

Creates a Text-Code by extracting and processing text content from document files. Can optionally extract metadata and create a thumbnail representation of the text.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath used for Text-Code creation.	required
extract_meta		Whether to extract metadata. Default: True	required
create_thumb		Whether to create a thumbnail. Default: True	required
bits		Bit-length of the generated Text-Code UNIT. Default: 64	required
granular		Whether to generate additional granular fingerprints. Default: False	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	ISCC metadata including Text-Code.

code_image(fp, **options)

Generate Content-Code Image.

Creates an Image-Code by normalizing and processing the visual content of image files. The image is normalized according to SDK options (transparency handling, border trimming, ...).

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath used for Image-Code creation.	required
extract_meta		Whether to extract metadata. Default: True	required
create_thumb		Whether to create a thumbnail. Default: True	required
bits		Bit-length of the generated Image-Code UNIT. Default: 64	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	ISCC metadata including Image-Code.

code_audio(fp, **options)

Generate Content-Code Audio.

Creates an Audio-Code by extracting acoustic fingerprints from audio files. Uses chromaprint/fpcalc to generate audio features for similarity matching.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath used for Audio-Code creation.	required
extract_meta		Whether to extract metadata. Default: True	required
create_thumb		Whether to create a thumbnail. Default: True	required
bits		Bit-length of the generated Audio-Code UNIT. Default: 64	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	ISCC metadata including Audio-Code.

code_video(fp, **options)

Generate Content-Code Video.

Creates a Video-Code by extracting and processing visual features from video frames. Uses MPEG-7 signature tools to extract frame-based features and optionally detect scene changes.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath used for Video-Code creation.	required
extract_meta		Whether to extract metadata. Default: True	required
create_thumb		Whether to create a thumbnail. Default: True	required
granular		Generate additional fingerprints based on scenes. Default: False	required
video_store_mp7sig		Whether to store extracted MP7 Video signature file. Default: False	required
bits		Bit-length of the generated Video-Code UNIT. Default: 64	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	ISCC metadata including Video-Code.

code_data(fp, **options)

Create ISCC Data-Code.

The Data-Code is a similarity preserving hash of the raw input data that allows for detection of similar binary data regardless of file format or metadata differences.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath used for Data-Code creation.	required
bits		Bit-length of the generated Data-Code UNIT. Default: 64	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	ISCC metadata including Data-Code.

code_instance(fp, **options)

Create ISCC Instance-Code.

The Instance-Code is a cryptographic hash (blake3) of the input data. Its purpose is to serve as a checksum that detects even minimal changes to the data of the referenced media asset. For cryptographically secure integrity checking, a full 256-bit multihash is provided with the datahash field.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
fp		Filepath used for Instance-Code creation.	required
bits		Bit-length of the generated Instance-Code UNIT. Default: 64	required

Returns:

Type	Description
	ISCC metadata including Instance-Code, datahash and filesize.