[digiKam-users] Rereading metadata from images

[Fred Brigham]

As reported in my previous messages (Digikam-users Digest, Vol 186, Issues
10 & 13), my problem was that "Reread Metadata from File" did not appear to
be working when I attempted to synchronize keyword tags with a foreign
program. In my case the foreign program is F-Stop Gallery, an Android app
running on a Chromebook, with digiKam 7.1.0 also running on the Chromebook
in Linux. The tags were actually being read successfully from F-Stop and
were visible in the digiKam Tag Manager but crucially they were not visible
under Captions > Tags in the Right Sidebar (which I wrongly referred to as
the Tag Manager in my last message). I am using Captions > Tags in the
Right Sidebar to add and delete tags from individual images.

After much trial and error, I have now established reliable keyword tag
synchronization between F-Stop and digiKam. F-Stop uses Xmp.dc.subject for
keyword tags and everything works fine when I move this field to the top of
the list of metadata namespaces in Settings> Metadata> Advanced> Tags.
There is a note in Settings> Metadata> Advanced> Tags saying that "Sequence
is important when reading metadata" but the documentation doesn't provide
any tips to help find the right order.

Based on my experience, "Reread Metadata from File" works reliably when the
metadata namespace used by the foreign program is moved to the top of the
list (in my example Xmp.dc.subject). Of course the field to be moved would
depend on the foreign program. My hypothesis is that in order to
synchronize keyword tags effectively with Lightroom, for example, the field
Xmp.lr.hierarchicalSubject should be moved to the top of the list.

Can anyone confirm whether this hypothesis is reasonable or alternatively
provide any other guidance on the principles behind sequencing the fields
in Settings> Metadata> Advanced> Tags? Keyword tags are very widely used so
if any guidance can be provided it would be helpful to many users.

regards,
Fred
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