[Digikam-users] IPTC and tags, again... Questions to the team

[Daniel Bauer]

On Thursday 11 January 2007 11:24, Gonçalo Valverde wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I understand the need for being able to recreate the tag hierarchy in
> digiKam based solely on the image information.
> Nevertheless using the IPTC keywords to save the whole path doesn't
> seem to be the best approach not only because the user could be
> interested in using the image with other applications but also because
> he could be interested in providing the image file to other people
> that would be using different programs. Interoperability and not
> trying to tie the user to a program is one of the great strengths of
> the Free Software philosophy and that's why I prefer to use it instead
> of going to other solutions (like the Mac one where usability
> sometimes is better but you're tied to what Apple wants).
>
> Best regards

This is what I ment when I wrote that it could be an advantage 
if "digiKam-own stuff" (like tags-hierarchy) would be saved in a place where 
it doesn't interfere with "common stuff".

But I still think it's a good idea if "real IPTC keywording" could be swapped 
out to the plugin (maybe even accessible as a side bar in a later stage, as 
suggested by Caspar). 

I just read in a bug from a user who owns countles pictures of birds but of 
course doesn't want to have a tag for each kind of bird. Also for him it 
would be an advantage to have the possibility to sperate tags from IPTC 
keywords. He could use tags like "mybirds->summer2006" (or whatever suits 
him) and then have a predefined keywords-list containing all his birds 
correct names in the plugin that places it to the IPTC keywords.

Well, I have some ideas in regard of this plugin, but first wait for the 
digiKam team to know what they basically think about using two different 
approaches (tags side bar <-> metadata plugin) as suggested in my first mail.

Daniel
-- 
Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Switzerland
professional photography: http://www.daniel-bauer.com
Madagascar special: http://www.sanic.ch