Some Date Fields in Metadata Panel don't show Time

[PandDLong]

I am looking to capture a couple of dates beyond the standard Date Created and Date Subject Created.

A text field can store the data but none of the date-time functions will work on it (eg. format and datecomp) - no surprise. I am looking for tags which will store and handle the data as a date-time stamp.

I found a few options of metadata tags structured as Date - Dublin Core\Date, IPTC Extension\IPTC Last Edit, and a few fields in the PLUS:XMP structure.

They all seem to work well except one oddity.  In a metadata panel:
    - only the date portion is shown
    - when you click into the tag to edit, the time and time zone do show and can be edited
    - the Select Date function doesn't work properly

In a File Window they function exactly as the core date fields and the same seems to be true in the filter and MD templates.  Write-back and the subsequent read work.

Should the metadata panels work the same for all tags structured as Date?

Michael

[Mario]

Consider that some metadata tags (especially if their name contains Date) only contain a date, but no time.
IPTC splits date and time values into two separate tags frequently (for historical reasons I believe).

IMatch shows the data as managed by the database and as extracted, with some special treatment of some selected tags.
If you need to use non-standard metadata tags which contain date or time information, you need to make sure to use the correct ISO format required by ExifTool and you need to do your own formatting.
Even if a file is named date in some way, ExifTool may treat it as plain text.

The only date and time fields IMatch really cares for are explained in details here: How IMatch uses Date and Time Information

[PandDLong]

The metadata tags I am using are handling the full date-time and time-zone information perfectly - in terms of being able to use the format function as well as datecomp.   I writeback to the file and it is read and updated to the database just fine.   I really appreciate this power of iMatch to extend the use beyond "typical" metadata.

The capability of being able to add a couple more functional date-time stamps to the metadata is super.  For me:
     - I am saving a workflow date-time stamp and I can setup categories to see which photos hit that workflow point in the last week, month etc. 
     - I will be using two additional date-time stamps to represent the range for uncertain dates when I begin to scan old photos.  Having them as date fields will allow proper searches/filter and categories - eg. All photos taken in 1974 could include those that have the subject created date assigned to be in 1974 as well as those for which 1974 is inside the range (even if my best guess assigned a subject created date of 1973-01-01)


The only odd thing is the metadata panel layout which just displays the date portion.  I can edit it fine as clicking into the tag will then display all of the data and I can edit any portion of the date, time and time zone. After I leave that tag, it reverts to a date only display.   (This is the case when I check 'Use Raw Value' or not in the metadata panel layout editor).

This is just an inconvenience as I can use a File Window or File Window Tip to view the times (or click into the tag on a metadata panel). 


Michael

[Mario]

The Metadata Panel uses the tag data type returned by ExifTool to chose how to format fields for display.
If you click on the tag, IMatch uses the formatted value as it exists in the database.

If you don't see the date portion when IMatch displays the tag, the tag is declared as "date", not as "datetime" in the ExifTool tag dictionary.
And this usually means that the tag is supposed to contain only a date, and not a date and time. Or, ExifTool is wrong for the tags you are using. Which is a possibility.
You can of course input whatever text you want, but the question is how ExifTool treats your special tags during write-back, how it splits the tag data etc.

Please read the official standard documentation of the tags you are using for your purpose and the ExifTool tag library to learn more about the tags you are using and the values they can take.