XMP Export

[mopperle]

In the help system under Metadata 2 I found this description:



But I can not find it in the Settings dialog in the "Metadata 2" tab.

[Mario]

This feature has been discontinued. I'll remove it from the help for the next help system version.

[mopperle]

Understand. As I understood, in general Imatch does not write XMP Files (sidecars) expect when adding metadata to files like .txt, .docx or RAW files correct?

And the behaviour can be somehow configured in "Metadata options for file foormats".
But it is not possible to force an xmp sidecar for filetypes not offering the setting "XMP-Sidecar File"?

[Mario]

As I understood, in general Imatch does not write XMP Files (sidecars) expect when adding metadata to files like .txt, .docx or RAW files correct?

When you enter XMP metadata for file formats like .txt, IMatch writes the XMP data to XMP sidecar files.
For RAW files, IMatch writes XMP data to XMP sidecar files.
For other file types which support embedded XMP data (JPG, TIFF, PNG, PSD, GIF, DNG, PDF, ...) IMatch embeds XMP data in the image directly and does not write a sidecar file.
All this is fully automatic.

The file format options allow to override some XMP-specific settings on a per file format option. They should be left alone unless you have a very specific problem to solve. 99.5% of IMatch users will never have to change these options.

Is there a specific question you have or a problem you need to solve?

[Bolitho]

At least auxiliary (user defined) file types should have the option to not write/create XMPs at all.

As I am in travel photography I also manage all gpx tracks with IMatch and have implemented an auxiliary file type accordingly.

It is of no use and irritating filling the file system with XMPs in parallel to the GPXs.
Neither is there any software needing them (including IMatch).

[Mario]

Metadata handling is extremely complex as it is. I'm reluctant to make changes except for very good reasons.

If you want extra options for user-defined file formats you create for your own use-case, please add a proper feature request and explain what changes you want and why.
If you don't write-back your GPX files, no XMP files are created, right?
Why do you retain GPX files after the coordinates have been imported into images? GPX files are usually only temporary...? And similar questions.

A proper feature request allows other users to see your request, comment on it, like it etc. And it tells me if your problem/idea/suggestion is something that affects more than one or a handful of users and if I should spend time looking into it.

Posting such requests in a random discussion thread is not helpful. It will be forgotten soon and I don't scan old General Discussion threads for potential feature requests.

[mopperle]

Is there a specific question you have or a problem you need to solve?

I'm currently thinking about organizing various files for media projects. This includes jpg, png, psd, audio, video and some application specific files (nothing like docx etc.) and I thought about assining metadata to those files. But I might also solve it via categories.

[Mario]

If you add metadata to files, IMatch stores it in the EXIF/GPS/legacy IPTC/XMP metadata record, depending on the file format. If the file supports no embedded XMP (RAW, text, audio), IMatch stores the data in the XMP sidecar file.
This is all fully automatic and ensures that the metadata you add exists independent from IMatch.

If you want to manage some data only in IMatch, using categories for classification/organization and maybe IMatch Attributes for numerical, text and link data is an alternative.