Workflow Question

[Photon]

My workflow requirements are exactly the same as Pajaro (read-only, sidecar XMP).
See: https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=1194.msg7307

One year ago I switched from Idimager to Imatch v3.6. The metadata transfer was quite easy, because Imatch was able to read ALL metadata from ALL read-only files with ALL extensions (including JPG, DNG, ...) from the XMP sidecar files. Good, that Idimager was able to export all important data from its database to XMP sidecars and Imatch is able to import this. So the migration was a full success. Thank you Imatch!!!

With v5.0.124 I am still struggling in finding the right understanding for workflow options. I understand the various issues for metadata handling depending on file extension and ExifTool features. Especially the consistent modification, update and display of date/time taken, labels, rankings, keywords, ... for all file extensions is a challenge. Not to speak about interaction with 3rd party tools (which is out of scope of IMatch, since 3rd party tools like Lightroom, GeoSetter, JPhotoTagger, ... have very different XMP sidecar strategies). I am looking forward to further sharing in this good community. Thanks!

Peter

[Photon]

I just tried various read-only files (JPG, DNG, CR2, ...) and modified labels, rankings, keywords with v5.0.124.
The yellow pencil disappears after some seconds from the thumbnails and the XMP sidecar files are created correctly.
Note, that I modified "Configure File Formats" for DNG, EPS, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIF, ... with "Force XMP sidecar file" and
both "Read/write IPTC" and "Read/write EXIF" setting is changed from default "Yes" to "No".

The only thing I miss currently is the option to change "Modify EXIF Date and Time..." for the read-only files.

I did a test and removed the read-only attribute from some files. When the "EXIF Date and Time" is now changed, the result is updated in the thumbnail information and timeline. However the date/time in the XMP sidecar is not updated. Vice versa, when I edit e.g. label, ranking in the XMP sidecar of a read-only file, then this information is updated correctly in IMatch. But any change of date/time is not updated in both directions (neither from Imatch to XMP sidecar nor from XMP sidecar to Imatch). May be my fault or misunderstanding.

Here is an extract from one sidecar XMP file (with original date/time 2013-10-01 13:01:00):

Code Select Expand


<rdf:Description rdf:about=''
  xmlns:photoshop='http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/'>
  <photoshop:DateCreated>2013-10-01T13:01:00Z</photoshop:DateCreated>
</rdf:Description>

<rdf:Description rdf:about=''
  xmlns:xmp='http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/'>
  <xmp:CreateDate>2013-10-01T13:01:00</xmp:CreateDate>
  <xmp:CreatorTool>photools.com IMatch 5.0.0.124 (Windows)</xmp:CreatorTool>
  <xmp:Label>Red</xmp:Label>
  <xmp:MetadataDate>2013-11-22T14:05:26+01:00</xmp:MetadataDate>
  <xmp:ModifyDate>2013-11-22T14:05:26+01:00</xmp:ModifyDate>
  <xmp:Rating>1</xmp:Rating>
</rdf:Description>


Peter

P.S.: Do I better start a new posting and subject with this?
P.P.S.: Thank you Mario for shifting this posting.

[Mario]

You hijacked a bug report with your two posts. It is always  better to start a new thread to not complicate things further.