Media Pro and IMatch

[zematima]

Hi all:
My wife has her images on Media Pro.
What I would like to do is to put them in IMatch.
I manage to export a file from Media Pro in XML format.
Is there any way to import them to IMatch?
Thanks in advance.

[Mario]

Hi,

XML is a generic format for text-based data. XML can be used to exchange data between applications, if both the producing and the receiving application understand the data stored in the XML file.

I don't know what Media Pro puts into the XML file. Does Media Pro not use proper standard metadata like IPTC, EXIF, GPS and XMP? All these standard formats are supported by IMatch.

If you have data in your Media Pro system which is stored in some proprietary format, and Media Pro can only export this in XML format, the data can be imported into IMatch if a custom script is written which understands the data in the XML file and then knows what to do with it (e.g. import it into XMP metadata, or maybe IMatch Attributes).

I can't say more without having a look at one of these files.
You can attach one or send it to my email.
Please include as much info as possible, like

a) The XML file
b) The image for that XML file
c) How and what data you see for the file in Media Pro
d) ...

Maybe this is a simple format which can be processed easily. Does Media Pro document this XML format somewhere?

I'm not adverse to writing scripts which help users migrate data from other applications.

[zematima]

Hi Mario:
Thanks for replying.
I send you two files:

The "Bia Teste 1" file was made this way: (From the Media Pro Help)
The Export as XML command, on the File menu, exports all catalog text contexts and attributes as an XML file, together with folders that contain thumbnails, audio annotations and original files. At any point, the whole XML catalog file can be imported again into Media Pro.
It also has made two directories :
One the "Thumbnails_(Bia Teste 1)" with 809 files and 3.5 Mb and another "Originals_(Bia Teste 1)" with the same 809 files and 1.97 Gb.

The "Bia Teste 2" file was made this way: (From the Media Pro Help)
To export a catalog as an XML data file:
On the Make menu, click XML Data File.
Select an Include Sections option. You can include Media properties, Annotations and EXIF data (digital camera information) in the XML data file.
Select any Create Folders option. Media Pro will create a separate folder for each option that you select. If you do not select any of these options, the content associated with these options will not be exported with the XML file.
Select the option Include document type definition to embed the custom DTD in the exported XML file.
In the XSL section, click the plus sign (+) to choose an XSL style sheet. XSL defines the presentation of an XML document. You can use it to translate XML documents into other formats.
Click Make, and then browse to the location where you want to save the export.
Click Save.

From the Media Pro help:
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to create common information formats. Once the information format is created, you can share both the format and the data on the web or with other programs and databases.
The XML Data File feature in Phase One Media Pro exports an XML file that contains basic file-related information for all visible media items in the catalog. The XML Data File export dialog box contains the options to include Media properties, Annotations, and EXIF data (digital camera information) into the XML data file.
XML is similar to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language that is used for web pages. Both XML and HTML contain markup tags to describe the contents of a page or file. HTML describes how to display and interact with the content of a web page. XML describes the content in terms of what data is being used.
An XML file can be processed purely as data by a program, stored with similar data on another computer, or, like an HTML file, interpreted and displayed.
Media Pro uses a custom Document Type Definition (DTD) to define the markup of an exported XML file. A DTD is a set of formatting instructions that identifies markup tags and can be stored either in a web document or in an accompanying file. If you include a DTD, you will be able to use another program to process the document and display or print it as intended.
The Export as XML command, on the File menu, exports all catalog text contexts and attributes as an XML file, together with folders that contain thumbnails, audio annotations and original files. At any point, the whole XML catalog file can be imported again into Media Pro. Below is a sample section of an exported XML data file.
<MediaProperties>
<Width unit="Pixels">5325</Width>
<Height unit="Pixels">3543</Height>
<Resolution unit="DPI">300</Resolution>
<Depth unit="Bits">24</Depth>
<PrimaryEncoding>PhotoJPEG</PrimaryEncoding>
<ColorProfile>sRGB</ColorProfile>
</MediaProperties>

Thanks in advance.









[attachment deleted by admin]

[Mario]

This looks like MP is keeping all your data in some sort of internal database and just dumps that database (catalog) into an XML file.
Some data looks like proprietary MP data, other data resembles IPTC and EXIF data.
If you change IPTC, EXIF or XMP data in MP there must be surely a way to store that back into the image? IMatch will pick that data up automatically.


There is tons of data in that file which probably only makes sense to MediaPro. I see things like


<UserFieldList>
   <UserFieldDefinition>Local CD&apos;s</UserFieldDefinition>
   <UserFieldDefinition>Chaves</UserFieldDefinition>
</UserFieldList>


which looks like fields you have defined yourself?

There are AssetProperties which describe an assent (aka file). There are MediaProperties which seem to be cached copies of EXIF data. There are AnnotationFields which contain data like Location, People, Keyword.  There are MetaDataFields which seem to contain EXIF data.

And there are sets named SetName, and one of them is @KeywordsSet which seems to contain some sort of thesaurus.

What of the data in these files is of importance for you? I mean most of that data is in the file anyway, e.g. the EXIF and IPTC data.

[zematima]

Hi Mario:
Thanks for your effort.
She organized the images as follows:
Catalog Sets:
     Parties
          Xmas
          New Year , etc.
     Birthdays
     Films
     Football , etc.
People:
     Ana
     Clarinda
     Zé , etc.
Keywords:
     Abadia
     Algarve , etc.
Hierarchical keywords:
     Sintra
          Seteais
          Pena
          Castelo dos Mouros
     Algarve
     Gerês , etc.
I don´t have any custom fields in this main file (the other I sent you as only a few pictures).
So I would like to put the same fields and names in IMatch the same way she has in MP.
If it is easy to do a script I will send you the real file(s).
If not don't worry that we can do it from scratch.
Thanks again.

[Mario]

Writing an import for this mess of data MP exports will be more like a small project.  It depends on how many requests I get if I spend more time with this.

This looks basically like hierarchical keywords. Has MP no way to write these into hierarchical keywords into the XMP record for each file? IMatch would pick them up automatically. Or maybe in some proprietary Media Pro XMP namespace? ExifTool lists a number of MediaPro elements.

Please send me a "final" file (to which MP has written all data - or exported - or whatever concept they use).

Or, select one of your files and look at it in the Metadata Panel switched to the "Browser" layout. This will show you all the data that's in the file.

On the ExifTool web site, Phil lists some proprietary XMP tags, like

CatalogSets
Event
Location
People
Status
UserFields

If you can see these tags in the MP panel, IMatch has already imported them. You then could use, for example, a Metadata Template to copy them from the proprietary MP XMP namespace into keywords or standard XMP data.