Category: IPTC Supplemental Categories to IM5 Category field(s)

[rik]

In IMatch3, I assign Categories to an image, and with a script I copy them to the "IPTC Supplemental Categories" field, so they will be embedded in the IPTC data of my jpg files (I do not use sidecar files).

In IMatch3, I can import these jpg files and automatically the corresponding IMatch3 Categories will be created and related to the image.

1. How do I do this in IMatch5? I.e. how do I import "IPTC Supplemental Categories" in one (or more) jpg images into Categories in IMatch5?
2. In IMatch5, if I have assigned (e.g. three) Categories to one image, how can I get those into the "IPTC Supplemental Categories" field of that image (and thus save them into the jpg file)?

Thanks a lot.

Rik

[JohnZeman]

I've never tried this so I don't know if this will do what you want but if you go to Edit > Preferences > Keyword Import, you'll see a checkbox to import IPTC supplemental categories as keywords.  You might experiment with that to see if that brings your supplemental categories in but it looks to me like they'll be imported as keywords.

As far as I know you'd need a script to write categories to supplemental categories though, so perhaps it would be best to do it all with a script?

[JohnZeman]

Why not just export your categories from IMatch 3 and then import them into your IMatch 5 database?  There are a number of threads regarding that subject in this forum.

[rik]

Why not just export your categories from IMatch 3 and then import them into your IMatch 5 database?

Thanks for your reply. The basic answer is that I would like to be able to restore (or create) Categories in IMatch from the IPTC tag in the jpg file (e.g. if my database crashed or if I import from another application). Exporting from IMatch3 and importing in IMatch5 would not work in this case since a category may not exist in IMatch3.

As a response to your first post:
As far as I understood from a post in this forum Keywords are different from Categories, and Categories seem to be more suitable.

Thanks!

[Mario]

Storing IMatch 3 categories in IPTC supplemental categories using a script was a work-around implemented by users who somehow wanted to persist IMatch 3 categories in the IPTC record.

IMatch 5 does not support or endorse this. IMatch work automatically stores hierarchical keywords in the XMP record, and maps these keywords to flat IPTC and XMP keywords as well. Hierarchical keywords are automatically mapped under the special @Keywords category. If you create categories under @Keywords, these categories are automatically stored as keywords in the file. No need for a script-based work-arounds or anything.

It is recommended that you transfer your IMatch 3 categories to your IMatch 5 database using the proper import / export procedure as outlined here.

If you want to convert existing categories contained in IPTC supplemental categories on import, set the corresponding option under Edit > Preferences > Metadata. Note that IMatch does not store keyword on export in this tag, so the keywords / categories will get out of synch if you don't manually update the IPTC supplemental categories tag somehow. I suggest to delete the contents of this tag once your categories have been imported into keywords.

[rik]

Thanks Mario for your answer. I thought it over a bit and tried a bit out.

What I basically want is being able to use my IPTC supplemental categories, since I already use them for a long time and I have labeled many files.  These IPTC supp categories are of the form People.<name> or Event.<year>.<something>, and several (different ones) can fill an IPTC supp cat field in an image file.

- if I use the keywords as in IMatch5, I can import those values in @Keywords, but this has the disadvantage that they are being added to the XMP and IPTC Keywords fields, which I don't want since this results in unused (by me) data in my image files (and data duplication in the tags).
- that is (was) the advantage of using Categories since they don't have a corresponding IPTC field, and in IMatch3 I could therefore choose to map them to the IPTC supplemental categories field (and back) with a script.

Is there a way to use the @Keywords in IMatch5 and NOT have IMatch copy the values which it has read from the image files to the IPTC and XMP keywords fields? How? Or do you a different way to do keep using the IPTC supp cat field?

Thanks.

[Mario]

Is there a way to use the @Keywords in IMatch5 and NOT have IMatch copy the values which it has read from the image files to the IPTC and XMP keywords fields?

No. That's the sole purpose of this special category branch!  To automatically synchronize IMatch categories with the hierarchical keywords in the file.

Categories outside of @Keywords are stored in the database only and don't show up in the file. Your choice what you use, or if you use both.

Note: The IPTC supplemental categories field has been officially deprecated by the IPTC committee and should not be used for new data anymore. Neither the XMP IPTC Core namespace nor the Metadata Working Group specification mention this field.