XMP sidecar files to store metadata: which file formats can be used??

[photomy]

Since xmp sidecar files a very simple files, could they not be used to store basic metadata such as keywords, labels, etc. for a wide variety of file types?   As long as they have the same name, they would be linked.

In particular, I have added .iso image files to a catalog for a movie collection and imatch5 seems fine for this.  However, it would be nice to have sidecar files to backup my keywords.

I so far do not see how to do this.  Any ideas?

= tommy

[Mario]

I'm not sure that I understand you correctly.
IMatch supports XMP sidecar files for all file formats. For standard formats like JPEG, TIFF, PSD, DNG and selected RAW formats it supports XMP embedding. For all other formats, IMatch creates and maintains XMP files. This includes video files. When you enter keywords for a video and then write-back, IMatch will create an XMP sidecar file.

[photomy]

So far, I am unable to get a xmp sidecar file to be generated when I add a keyword and then do a writeback for .iso format image file.  This is how I save some of my movies.  I added the .iso format and gave it a class of multimedia.  Was not sure which class to use.

[Mario]

Ah, you are working with a) a user-defined file format which b) is also not supported by ExifTool.
I need to check that, I have never tried this.
Please open a bug report so I can allocate time for later release to look into this.

[Mario]

I looked into this today.

The problem was than ExifTool does not support .ISO files.
IMatch correctly identified the format as a format which has to use an XMP sidecar file, but the creation of the sidecar file failed. The reason was that IMatch uses ExifTool to produce the new XMP file, and in combination with the -tagsfromfile option to copy whatever suitable data ExifTool can extract and copy from the original file. This is required e.g. for RAW files, where IMatch produces a high-quality and 'full' XMP files by importing existing IPTC, EXIF, GPS and other data from the RAW into the newly created XMP file. In case of .ISO files (or, generally, files not supported by ExifTool) this failed, and no XMP file was produced.

IMatch now uses a secondary code path to create XMP files for file formats not supported by ExifTool. This allows it to create the XMP file, and later write-backs (e.g. your keywords) will succeed as well.

[photomy]

Mario said:

"IMatch now uses a secondary code path to create XMP files for file formats not supported by ExifTool. This allows it to create the XMP file, and later write-backs (e.g. your keywords) will succeed as well."

I am not sure what you mean "now" uses.  Did you make a change so that I need to download imatch5 again with the new change?

Thanks,

= tommy.

[Richard]

I suspect that Mario will include the change in the next release.

[sinus]

I think the same like Richard. This will be in the next release.

[Mario]

This change will be rolled up into the next release, which will be 5.4.10.

[photomy]

Thanks for the great service.  Can't wait.

= tommy