Metadata writing of hierarchical tags

[Remco Viëtor]

On jeudi 19 février 2026 13:53:00 heure normale d’Europe centrale Pierre 
DELGOVE wrote:
> Hi !
> 
> I'd like to know if it's possible to set the way that hierarchical tags
> are written in xmp.dc.subject tag for example.
> 
> If all level above a hierarchical child tag are checked, Digikam writes
> them like this, for example for the keyword oak :
> 
> plant
> 
> plant/tree
> 
> plant/tree/oak
> 
> This creates 3 keywords in this example, each representing a level.
> 
> Is it possible to set Digikam to write a child tag and its parents like
> this (flat list) :
> 
> plant/tree/oak
> 
> or
> 
> plant, tree,oak
> 
> The same question applies to reverse geocoding which creates as many
> levels as there are in the adress fields retrieved.
> 
> Thanks for helping.
> 
> Regards.
> 
> Pierre

No, you cannot change the way xmp tags are written (afaik), although I haven't 
be able to find any source where the "official" format is described.

In my sidecar files, <dc:subject> only contains the nodes, in your case that 
would be plant, tree, and oak as individual keywords. That means the hierarchy 
is lost with this xmp tag.

I do get the full paths in e.g. <lr:hierarchicalSubject>, 
<mediapro:CatalogSets>, <digiKam:TagsList>.I know there are programs where you 
would only be able to search on leaf nodes (in your case, "oak") if you only 
write "plant/tree/oak" as keyword. To be able to search on "tree", you need 
the keyword "plant/tree" for such programs.