[Digikam-devel] [Bug 113997] New: wish: option to store tags in image

[Stuart Prescott]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=113997         
           Summary: wish: option to store tags in image
           Product: digikam
           Version: 0.7.2
          Platform: Debian stable
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: digikam-devel kde org
        ReportedBy: bugs.kde.org nanonanonano net


Version:           0.7.2 (using KDE KDE 3.3.2)
Installed from:    Debian stable Packages

I'd like to be able to store the tag information in the images themselves (exif, jfif, whereever!) rather than in digikam's binary database. I know that this would be slower, I know that it would not be everyone's cup of tea, but it would be a big advantage for many users. 

The reasons are:

* I love digikam *now* but will I always use it? Storing the tags in a database makes it very difficult to migrate to a different application. (did someone say vendor lock-in?  :)

* Saving the tags in the images removes the single point of failure for the .db file, making the data safer

* It makes editing the tags by scripts, other programs etc easier 

* Operations done to images outside digikam (cpying/symlinking, editing, cropping) would preserve the tags.

* It makes moving images from one computer to another much easier (which I see in bugzilla is an oft-requested feature) as all the data about the images is just in the images.

I know that this is a non-trivial request -- but it is certainly on my wishlist :) For example a method by which tags could be changed or the tag heirarchy rearranged is much easier to do in the .db than in individual files... but it is still possible to do in the individual files, just a bit slower!

BTW I currently use Digikam's option of saving my comments in the jfif header and that is quite snappy for the 5k images that I already have in Digikam -- this means that I can at least already move much of the information about the images around with the files themselves. Tags would be more of a problem as you have to scan all Albums, but it would be easy to *cache* this information in digikam.db only updating it as needs be (say, if either the checksum has changed (a la kimdaba) or perhaps if the flastmod has changed.)

Have thoughts... and I'm happy to help out where I can with this one (having never looked under the hood of digiKam, but willing to do so!)