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How This Helps

Export datasets for use in training pipelines, labeling platforms, analytics workflows, or external review. You can export everything or just what you need.

Export a Dataset

1

Open the Dataset

Go to the Dataset Exploration page.
2

Click 'Export'

Click the Export button in the top-right corner.
3

Name the Export

Provide a descriptive name for your export file.
4

Choose Export Scope

Select the scope—entire dataset, filtered view, or specific selections.
5

Pick a Format

Choose from supported formats:
  • JSON– available now
  • COCO– coming soon
6

Include Images (Optional)

Toggle Include image files to include up to 5,000 images in your export.
7

Export

Click Export File to download.

Export Options

Entire Dataset

Exports all items in the dataset, regardless of filters or selections.

Matching Filters

Exports only the items that match your currently applied filters, such as issue types, tags, or labels.

Current Selection

Exports only manually selected items—images, objects, or clusters.

JSON Export Format

Exported data is structured into a .json file with two sections:

1. info

General metadata about the dataset and export:

2. media_items

An array of media items (images or video frames), each with all available metadata:

Metadata Items

Each media item includes a list of metadata_items. Below are the possible types:

1. type: "issue"

Used to represent a detected problem:

2. type: "user_tag"

Tags applied by a user to a media item:

3. type: "video_info"

Provides context on a video frame:

4. type: "object_label"

Describes an annotated object (bounding box), including nested issues:

5. type: "image_label"

A classification label applied to the entire image:

6. type: "caption"

  • Duplicates often include duplicate_group_id and threshold values.
  • Object-level issues are nested inside object_label blocks.

Export Data

Use the export options to download either the full dataset or a filtered subset. All exported data is formatted in clean, structured JSON.

Extracting Data Using Visual Layer’s API

First, let’s set up a Python class to handle the API calls for exporting datasets.

Simplified Python API

We’ll use the following class to encapsulate the API calls:

Usage Example

You’ll need to replace the url, dataset_id, and file_name with your own values:

Expected Output


Parsing Exported Metadata

After extracting your data, you’ll have a metadata.json file. Let’s learn how to parse and analyze it.

Loading the Exported Metadata

First, let’s load the exported metadata into a pandas dataframe:

View the Dataset Level Information

schema_versiondatasetdescriptiondataset_urlexport_timedataset_creation_timeexported_bytotal_media_items
1.1food101Exported from food101 at Visual LayerLink2025-02-10T14:29:53.7405692024-12-05T05:55:27.725598Dickson Neoh118

Get Image Level Details

Each row in the dataframe corresponds to an image:
media_idmedia_typefile_namefile_pathfile_sizeuniqueness_scoreheightwidthurlcluster_idmetadata_items
d5227901-22c9-4744-a264-407d9671aa4aimage548938.jpg548938.jpg32.00KB0.004178512512Linkfbcad8ef-d863-46c9-83b7-1a3bd85e2e2b[type’: ‘issue’, ‘properties’: issue_type’…
2546c70a-e0a4-4bfb-ac59-e2895bb96456image548231.jpg548231.jpg32.00KB0.006069512512Linkfbcad8ef-d863-46c9-83b7-1a3bd85e2e2b[type’: ‘issue’, ‘properties’: issue_type’…
45c226e0-daba-4ca8-8eac-fec9d490ea36image835953.jpg835953.jpg28.18KB0.003515512384Link5bc63415-76d8-49ec-975a-9a021bf98770[type’: ‘issue’, ‘properties’: issue_type’…

Analyzing Your Data

Filter By Uniqueness Score

By filtering by uniqueness score, you can get a representative sample of the images in the dataset:
This will show media items with a uniqueness score greater than 0.85.

Get Duplicate Images

The metadata_items column contains a list of issues for each image. We can filter for images with duplicate issues above a certain confidence threshold:
This table includes images with duplicate issues above a confidence threshold of 0.8.

Get Mislabels

We can filter for images with mislabel issues above a certain confidence threshold:

Converting Video Frame Data to CSV

If your exported JSON contains video frame data, here’s how to parse it into CSV format:

Example Video Frame JSON Structure

Converting Video Frame Data to CSV


Converting Object Detection Data to CSV

For datasets with bounding box annotations and user tags, here’s how to convert them to CSV format:

Example Object Detection JSON Structure

Converting Object Detection Data to CSV

Expected CSV Output

FilenameXYWHLabelUser Tag
000000046252.jpg148177127188Persontest-tags
000000046252.jpg1921947565Shirttest-tags
000000012639.jpg2836880118Vesttest-tags

Analyzing Video Frame Similarity

For datasets with video frames, you can analyze similarity between frames to understand which videos are most similar. This is useful for identifying duplicate content, finding related videos, or grouping similar content.

Creating a Video Frame Data Table

First, let’s extract video frame information along with their similarity data:

Creating a Video Similarity Aggregation Table

Now let’s create a table that shows video-to-video similarity. This analysis only compares frames between different videos, excluding similarities within the same video:

Alternative Approach Using Clustering

You can also use the cluster_id field to find similar frames:

Export Results to CSV

Finally, export your analysis results:

Expected Output

The analysis will produce tables like: Video Similarity Table:
video_avideo_baverage_similaritynumber_of_similar_frames
video1.mp4video2.mp40.985015
video3.mp4video4.mp40.97208
Video Cluster Summary:
video_avideo_bshared_clustersframes_from_video_aframes_from_video_b
video1.mp4video2.mp451218
This analysis helps you identify:
  • Which videos have the most similar content
  • How many frames are similar between video pairs
  • The confidence level of similarities
  • Clusters of related video content

Analyzing Mislabel Issues

For datasets with mislabel detection, you can analyze which labels are potentially incorrect and what the suggested corrections are. This is valuable for improving dataset quality and understanding systematic labeling issues.

Understanding Mislabel Structure

Mislabel issues are stored within object labels and have this structure:
Where:
  • issues_description: The suggested correct label
  • confidence: How confident the system is about the mislabel (0-1)

Comprehensive Mislabel Analysis

Here’s how to extract and analyze all mislabel information:

Mislabel Statistics and Analysis

High-Confidence Corrections Analysis

Summary Statistics and Export

Expected Output

The analysis will produce results like:
This analysis helps you:
  • Identify systematic labeling issues: Classes that are frequently mislabeled.
  • Prioritize corrections: Focus on high-confidence suggestions first.
  • Understand label confusion: See which classes are commonly confused with each other.
  • Improve dataset quality: Apply suggested corrections to improve training data.
  • Analyze labeling patterns: Understand if certain types of objects are consistently mislabeled.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to work with exported metadata files, you can:
  1. Analyze data quality by filtering for different issue types and confidence thresholds.
  2. Create data subsets using uniqueness scores and clustering information.
  3. Export to different formats for use in other tools and platforms.
  4. Build automated workflows to process exported datasets at scale.
  5. Analyze video similarity to find duplicate content, group related videos, or identify the most unique content.
  6. Analyze mislabel issues to identify systematic labeling problems and prioritize corrections.
For more information on exporting datasets, see our Export Dataset guide.