[Digikam-users] Confused about meta-data templates

[Guy Stalnaker]

Mark,

Thank you for the pointer on how one actually *applies* a template one 
has created. You were more persistent than I was -- I gave up after two 
days trying to figure it out.

Guy

On 02/27/2012 08:40 AM, Mark Hayes (Hotmail) wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm experimenting with Digikam's meta-data templates as a way of
> inputting a lot of metadata early on in my workflow.  I've not played
> with it before, but the whole idea seems fairly intuitive so I presumed
> that I would be able to sort it out fairly easily.  Nevertheless, I'm
> struggling with it - quite a lot really, so wanted to quiz people on how
> they used templates.
>
> Firstly, I usually import pictures with Rapid Photo Downloader.  I find
> it fast, excellent, easy to use, and able to rename and sort according
> to my preferences on import, along with making a simultaneous backup.
> For some reason, I have struggled to do the same with Digikam, in
> particular using the regex renamer - which must make perfect sense to
> coders, but is complete gobbledegook to myself.  The regex renamer seems
> to struggle to remove parts of a filename for me - even when I follow
> the very simple instructions on the Digikam blog etc.  Ho hum...
>
> I hit on a bunch of problems - so I'll try and break them down a little
> to make it more manageable.  Any help you can give on any of these items
> is most welcome.
>
> Firstly, setting up a template.  From a UI point of view, I struggled
> initially.  The 'Add' button didn't seem to open up a dialogue box to
> fill in data - which is what I had expected it to do.  You had to fill
> out the data, including a name for the template, before pressing Add to
> add it into the list of available templates.  This seems a little
> counter-intuitive to me (anyone else too?) and although I eventually
> worked it out, being a little quirky just seemed to make it a little
> more of an effort.
>
> In addition, I had imagined that a template would be a generally minimum
> set of basic "boilerplate" info that you then added to - but how to add
> the additional information seems harder than it should be.  I had
> thought that you would leave a bunch of fields blank - such as location
> and then update them later, when applying the template to the photos.
> But when I came to update/apply the template later, I hit on other
> problems related to that.
>
> Anyway, the Digikam manual/help-file states that templates can be
> applied at downloading.  Since I don't use Digikam to download, this
> means that I need to apply the template later.  It took me a while to
> find out how.  I had tried selecting photos and then editing metadata
> but this doesn't seem to be the right way.  I also looked long and hard
> at the metadata tab on the right hand panel.  In the end, I had to
> Google it and then surf to the Scribbles and Snaps blog to find out how
> to apply it.  Apparently, metadata templates are applied under
> "Captions/Tags" panel and then choosing the "Information" tab on the
> right hand panel.
>
> I realise that Digikam is a hugely complicated program with a lot to it
> - but I really am struggling to understand why template application
> would appear there - and not in and around the metadata tab.  Is there a
> reason behind that?  What is the main notional separation between photo
> metadata and my/your metadata templates that is being applied here?  Why
> would they seem so far apart and stuck in such very different locations?
>
> Anyway, so now I found it - but then I came across another problem.
> When applying a template, you are not able to adjust any data before
> application.  I would have assumed that I could select pictures, select
> a template to base my data on, and then make any adjustments necessary
> (such as a change of location and country, subject matter etc etc) and
> then apply the template with the adjusted data.  But I don't seem to be
> able to do that.  I am not able to change any data or add any more data
> to the basic template before application.  And now that I have 362
> images with the wrong country data (picked up from the template), I am
> unsure as to how I can update/change that.
>
> I must be pressing all the wrong buttons because I can't seem to do
> that.  Please let me know:  what am I doing wrong?
>
> Finally, I am now trying to adjust the 'country' metadata that I have
> now incorrectly embedded in the files.  I have a bunch of photos showing
> that they were took in one country, when in fact they were taken
> elsewhere on holiday.  So I select all the files again, choose Image>
> Metadata>  Edit all metadata and I'm presented with a pop-up box with
> loads of metadata options.  The interesting thing about this dialog is
> that it seems to be for changing only one file at a time - starting with
> file number 1 of 362 in this folder, and not a 'template' system that
> allows me to change all of the files en-masse.
>
> Anyway, with my first file being a CR2, I'm not able to edit the
> metadata.  I'm able to choose from the three tabs across the top - Edit
> EXIF, Edit IPTC or Edit XMP - but not able to choose any of the tabs
> down the left hand side of that box to edit them.  Fair enough, given
> that it's a CR2 file, but then if I click on 'Next' to go to the JPG
> version of the same file (in the hopes of changing that metadata), the
> system hangs and I am not able to advance to the second picture.  I am
> unable to Close the box, either by clicking on Close or on the X at the
> top of the window...  Dialogue buttons show no reaction to clicking, but
> clicking on the X seems to bring up a KWin warning about non response
> and asking me if I want to terminate the application and its child
> windows with the loss of all unsaved data.  Humph!!!
>
> It's very repeatable - and I've done it about 10 times tonight trying to
> find out how to get all this to work.  I'm on Kubuntu 11.10 using
> version 2.1.1 of Digikam on KDE 4.7.4
>
> I'm starting to get concerned that I'm pressing all the wrong buttons
> etc.  Thousands of people use Digikam without all the problems that I
> seem to get - and I have been trying on and off to use Digikam for four
> years... but still struggle to get it up and running.  I give up
> frequently but come back just as often because I know that it's great
> software that many people use effortlessly.  So what am I doing wrong????!!!
>
> Grateful if anyone can shed some light on this for me.  It really
> shouldn't seem this hard for me - and yet, honestly (!! :-) ) I am not
> _that_ stupid all of the time...!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark.
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-- 
"There is only love, and then oblivion. Love is all we have
to set against hatred." (paraphrased) Ian McEwan

Guy Stalnaker
jimmyg521 at gmail.com