Structured tags combined with autofill deletes entries

[Bolitho]

IMatch 2023.1.14

"Played" around to examine the new possibilities of maintaining structured tags combined with autofill.

Following the "Help" example I created a tag set for artwork.
Adding several entries for various artwork objects manually works flawlessly.

Then I created an artwork autofill template filled with some lines.
Adding artwork then almost automatically works as described.

However - as soon as I hit the green checkmark to save back the changes to the database all but one entry is deleted (instead of keeping all).

[Mario]

Ive tried to reproduce this but could not.
I created an AutoFill template for ArtworkOrObject Title, Creator, Source (3 tags) and filled in 5 rows of data.
I switch the Metadata Panel to the "Artwork or Object" layout and double click into the list to add a new entry.
I click the AF icon for Title and select a row of data from the AF template list. This fills title, source, creator.
I click <Ctrl>+<S> to save the changes.
The new data remains in the MD Panel.
I switch to another image (no Artwork or Object data) and switch back to the original image. The data entered by the AF template is still there.

I have done a lot of work on the MP panel and metadata (several related bugs were reported) and rolled them all into the upcoming 2023.1.16 release.
Most likely the bug you have reported today has been fixed already.

If you can provide further details about your template, the Metadata Panel layout you use etc., I can do more experiments.

[Bolitho]

I'll wait for the 2023.1.16 release.

[Mario]

Just released.
Let me know what you find out and what exactly you do and in which order.
For issues which i cannot reproduce (like this one), details are very important. Any difference in workflow, setup or order can be the cause for the problem.

[Bolitho]

Just installed 2023.1.16 - this does not fix the reported bug :-(

I do the same as you describe - as soon as I hit <CTRL><S> all but the last added entry disappear.

Nevertheless I think I found the reason for this behavior:

My Metadata layout (for testing purposes) also contains the "Metadata Browser", thus also the "XMP IPTC Extension" showing artwork.
If I use autofill the last added autofill entry overwrites "XMP IPTC Extension" completely, the yellow pencils are activated (this is why the other entries disappear).
If I add artwork entries manually they are added to the "XMP IPTC Extension" separated by ";" (thus being appended and not overwriting) as soon as I hit <CTRL><S> but not earlier.

[Mario]

Please export your layout, ZIP and attach it to your reply (this does not sound like one of the standard layouts shipped with IMatch).

If I use autofill the last added autofill entry overwrites 

What does "last added autofill entry" mean?
How do you use AutoFill, exactly?

[Mario]

I guess the problem is that your layout shows the same tag multiple times. Once in the non-structured single value way and once in the structured tag form.

When you add more than one element to the structured tag in this case, the flattened input elements for the individual tags in the structure will contain the data of the last added set of tags, thus wiping out the others during write-back.

I'm not sure if this is worth adding extra precautions or extra code to detect and handle this. The reason for structured tags to become an official supported feature in IMatch 2023 was precisely to overcome issues like this.

The "Show the same tag multiple times in a Metadata Panel layout" works for single-value tags, but not for multi-value tags or structured tags. If you remove the Metadata Browser from your layout, the problem should be gone. Can you confirm that?

[Bolitho]

I guess the problem is that your layout shows the same tag multiple times. Once in the non-structured single value way and once in the structured tag form.

I guess so too.

The "Show the same tag multiple times in a Metadata Panel layout" works for single-value tags, but not for multi-value tags or structured tags. If you remove the Metadata Browser from your layout, the problem should be gone. Can you confirm that?

No:
The "Metadata Browser" ist part of the "Standard Panels". One can hide these - what doesn't help, I already tested this two days ago.
One cannot totally exclude them (as far as I know) - so the problem/conflict is inevitable.
The XMP IPTC extension is shown as soon as the first artwork is entered.
The contained fields also show the circle (structured tag indicator).

"My" panel (which I created using default settings just for these tests) contains the Standard panels plus artwork only.

(My IMatch is an "old" and upgraded installation. So - if you changed the panels under the hood that might explain a possibly different behavior of your and mine installation.)

Further Findings:

I activated the option "Append" in the autofill layout (for all autofill layout fields - just for testing purposes).
(Found this playing around - had not and could not see this before because I produced the autofill layout "automatically" by ticking the respective option when I configured the layout.)
Now I can add multiple entries to the structured artwork tag (using autofill).

If "Append" is not activated the most recently selected autofill entry overwrites the whole structure.
Somehow this is logical - however, if the structured tag appends and shows all entries they all should be stored when hitting <CTRL><S>

Probably "Append" should be the default when producing an autofill template directly based on the layout? Currently the user doesn't even see this option.

[Mario]

The "Metadata Browser" ist part of the "Standard Panels". One can hide these - what doesn't help, I already tested this two days ago.

There is a standard layout named "Browser" which has this enabled. But only that, not mixed with structured tags.

If you create your own layouts, disable the Metadata Browser. Set it to Hide for all formats.

I activated the option "Append" in the autofill layout (for all autofill layout fields - just for testing purposes).
(Found this playing around - had not and could not see this before because I produced the autofill layout "automatically" by ticking the respective option when I configured the layout.)

See the AutoFill help which explains these options: AutoFill Template Properties
If you did not know yet about "append", you may be missing other important features and options for AutoTill, too.
I recommend reading the AutoFill help topic at least once.

If "Append" is not activated the most recently selected autofill entry overwrites the whole structure.

Yes. This is what happens if you don't use "Append".

Somehow this is logical - however, if the structured tag appends and shows all entries they all should be stored when hitting <CTRL><S>

And they should if you disable the Metadata Browser standard panel for your custom layout. Let me know.

Probably "Append" should be the default when producing an autofill template directly based on the layout?

Why. There are many structured takes which don't support multiple sets or users may want to replace or not replace, depending on their preferences.

The general idea is that the user uses the shortcut to quickly setup an AutoFill template, and then opens the new Template in the AutoFill Editor to make changes and adjustments. You need to open the editor anyway to add data, and hence this is easy to do.

[Bolitho]

Just installed and tested IM2023.1.18

And, yes I have read the release notes, too.

This bug seems to be solved partially.

For structured tags with multiple entries:

If there is an autofill template with a not activated "append" option the entries are still added to the metadata template as if added. They only vanish as soon as you hit <CTRL><S> (leaving just the last entry).

As of consistency: This is not one would expect because until hitting <CTRL><S> the metadata template behavior is identical to adding (not replacing) entries.

I suggest to already delete/replace all possibly existing entry lines of a structured tag if one uses an autofill template without activated "append" option.

[Mario]

I have made a change to the AutoFill editor: it now ensures that the don't replace / merge options for all tags are automatically synchronized across all tags of the same structure in the same template.

If the user uses AutoFill with tags not marked as append in combination with a structured that, the Metadata Panel now indicates the to-be-deleted entries in the list with a [Deleted] mark.

[Bolitho]

Sounds perfect - looking forward to the next release :-)
Thank you!