IMatch 2018 Sneak Peak: Metadata Mechanic

[Mario]

Work on IMatch 2018 is now progressing again, after I've spent the last week almost entirely managing the transition of the photools.com web site to my new hosting company...

I've decided to polish an IMatch App that I had written for some projects and make it available as a standard App in IMatch 2018: the Metadata Mechanic.

This is a simple but super-useful app to modify metadata. To replace or remove text and more.
These operations cannot be done in the Metadata Panel comfortably, at least not for more than one file at a time. The MD Mechanic can do it for any number of files.

Typical uses are:

+ appending/prepending text
+ replacing or removing text
+ complex replacements using JavaScritpt regexp patterns

This is how the app looks (click to zoom):



You select the tag you want to work on, and then the operation you want to perform (set, append, prepend, replace, regexp replace).
From exchanging all occurrences of the old company name with a new name to correcting typos in metadata titles and descriptions.

A comfortable preset management allows you to save frequently used corrections and apply them. This has served me well during several projects.



The MD Mechanic also has a flexible filter feature which allows you to limit changes to files matching the filter.
This is, for example, useful when you want to replace a last name after a marriage, but only for files where the description contains the word Susanne:

[BanjoTom]

This Metadata Mechanic is going to VERY useful, I think, for I know I have many image titles, headings and descriptions that could be quickly improved using this app.  Looks like a great addition!

[HaWo]

 

[DigPeter]

Useful - this seems similar to John Zeman's description editor, which I uses frequently.

[JohnZeman]

I agree, this is going to get a lot of use from me.  And it appears to be much more flexible and powerful than the description editor app.

[Jingo]

Hmmm.... this looks very familiar.. .  

[pmbvw]

This App looks very helpful for me.
Over the last 10 years I have a lot of fields needing corrections.
With this app it looks to be easy.
Thanks. This App alone is worth upgrading when IMATCH 2018 hopefully arrives  this year   

[mastodon]

That would be very useful for correcting small failures that are in lot of files or fill missing data in them.

[Mario]

(...) Over the last 10 years I have a lot of fields needing corrections.
Thanks. This App alone is worth upgrading when IMATCH 2018 hopefully arrives  this year   

Which kind of corrections do you plan to make?
If users give me info about what they need, I can check if this is doable or what would be needed to make it doable.

[Mario]

That would be very useful for correcting small failures that are in lot of files or fill missing data in them.

That's exactly the purpose. I used a similar script during some migration projects (like "no organization at all but 100,000 files from 10 years spread over 20 computers to DAM with IMatch") 
Let me know what kind of corrections you need to do so I can check if this is doable already with the MD Mechanic.

[Mario]

Hmmm.... this looks very familiar.. .

To what? John's script?
I, as a matter of principle, don't look into scripts/apps written by users so I might not be aware if something similar already exists.
If you think John's script is more advanced, let me know what you would like to see in the MD Mechanic.

I tried to keep it simple so normal users can use it. In my experience, "normal" users usually have more problems to fix in their metadata than more advanced users.
For example, I decided against the ability to do multiple operations per run, or having multiple filters. This would overcomplicate the user interface. The same effect can be achieved by running multiple presets. And, most corrections need to be done only once anyway.

[DigPeter]

@Mario
John's script is restricted to description, but appears to provide the same functions as yours with that item.  From the look of yours you are enabling a choice of metadata fields, which will be a great improvement.

[Mario]

Yes, The MD Mechanic can be used on any metadata tag. It also handles repeatable tags like regions or even keywords, which gives extra flexibility in some cases.
The filters allow you to restrict changes based on contents in same or another tag, e.g. changing "Müller" to "Mueller" in the description, but only when the description also contains "Susanne" (to avoid renaming Benjamin Müller by accident). Or to change 2017 to 2018 in the Copyright notice if the title contains 2018 as well.

[pmbvw]

(...) Over the last 10 years I have a lot of fields needing corrections.
Thanks. This App alone is worth upgrading when IMATCH 2018 hopefully arrives  this year   

Which kind of corrections do you plan to make?
If users give me info about what they need, I can check if this is doable or what would be needed to make it doable.

The corrections are mostly in the metadatafields Title, Description, Headline, City, Country, Location.
Also with the app I hope, i can change there the Umlauts ä to ae, ö to oe etc in older photos. 

Can I find a log, what has been changed, after processing 
and/or is it possible to "Undo Change metadata (Strg +Z)" after starting the script or preset ?

[Mario]

Can I find a log, what has been changed, after processing

No. The app currently has no logging capabilities.

and/or is it possible to "Undo Change metadata (Strg +Z)" after starting the script or preset ?

No. There is no undo with changes made to metadata by apps.
If you are in doubt. I recommend you first try with some sample images.
And make a backup copy of your database so you can roll-back your changes in case of problems.
Unless you write-back the changed metadata all changes done by the app will be only in the database, and hence rolling back the database to a previous version will undo everything cleanly.

[Jingo]

Hmmm.... this looks very familiar.. .

To what? John's script?
I, as a matter of principle, don't look into scripts/apps written by users so I might not be aware if something similar already exists.
If you think John's script is more advanced, let me know what you would like to see in the MD Mechanic.

I tried to keep it simple so normal users can use it. In my experience, "normal" users usually have more problems to fix in their metadata than more advanced users.
For example, I decided against the ability to do multiple operations per run, or having multiple filters. This would overcomplicate the user interface. The same effect can be achieved by running multiple presets. And, most corrections need to be done only once anyway.

Yes.... I only know because I re-wrote the script in JS from the original VB John wrote for older version...  why don't you look into user written scripts?  If you incorporate these scripts into the standard scripts and more than likely improve upon them because of your knowledge and skill, that would be welcome no?

[Mario]

I don't download, look at or try user-written scripts or apps for time and legal reasons.