Can I automate the writing of XMP metadata into JPEG and TIFF files?

[_David_C_Anderson_]

I have written an ASP.NET 3.5 website application on behalf of an annual international photographic competition. Entrants will be uploading digital photos in either JPEG or TIFF format. Ideally, I would write entrant identity and image title information into the XMP metadata for each image immediately after upload - but so far, I have failed to find any way to do this in ASP.NET.

Thousands of images are involved, so I need to find a way to automate the metadata insertion, perhaps with some sort of script that uses a text file (extracted from the SQL Server database on my website) as the source of the metadata for a batch of images. Is this the sort of task that can be done by writing a script for Bridge CS3? Are there any scripts already in existence that I could use? I am a total beginner in this area.

I use a Win XP PC, though I have a colleague who, I think, has CS3 on his Mac (running under the Leopard OS), so scripts for either platform might be usable.

David

[jcapes1]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the great scripts. I can use this and your import kewords script to automate quite a bit of data entry.

How can the metadata import fields be changed? I would like to be able to import data into a couple more fields but don't know much about scripts.

I am guessing things need to change around here

var titleAuthor= strInputLine.substr(strInputLine.indexOf(",")+1);
       titleAuthor = titleAuthor.replace(/&/g,"&");
   inputArray  = strInputLine.split(",");
   inputArray2  = titleAuthor.split(",");
   var csvFile = new File(inputArray[0]);
   var title = inputArray2[0];
   var author = inputArray2[1];
   var Country = inputArray2[2];

to add to the description field.

Thanks.

Joe

[Paul Riggott]

It's a long time since I looked at this but think this is the code with the Description field added for you..

#target bridge  
   if( BridgeTalk.appName == "bridge" ) {  
addInfo = MenuElement.create("command", "Add CSV Information", "at the end of Thumbnail");
}
addInfo .onSelect = function () { 
   TitleAuthorCountryDesc();
}
function TitleAuthorCountryDesc(){
var value = 0; 
var win = new Window("palette{text:'Please wait...',bounds:[100,100,550,140]," + 
               "progress:Progressbar{bounds:[20,10,430,28] , minvalue:0,value:" + value + "}" + 
               "};" 
         ); 
var csv = File.openDialog("Please select CSV file.","CSV File:*.csv"); 
csv.encoding = "UTF-8";
if(csv != null){
csv.open("r");
var csvtemp=csv.read();
csvtemp =csvtemp.split("\n");
var maxcount = csvtemp.length;
csv.close();
csv.open("r");
win.progress.maxvalue =maxcount;
while(!csv.eof){  
   win.center(); 
   win.show(); 
   win.hide(); 
   win.show(); 
   win.progress.value++;  
   strInputLine = csv.readln(); 
   if (strInputLine.length > 3) { 
    strInputLine = strInputLine.replace(/\\/g,'/');
var titleAuthor= strInputLine.substr(strInputLine.indexOf(",")+1);
    titleAuthor = titleAuthor.replace(/&/g,"&");
   inputArray  = strInputLine.split(","); 
   inputArray2  = titleAuthor.split(","); 
   var csvFile = new File(inputArray[0]);
   var title = inputArray2[0];
   var author = inputArray2[1];
   var Country = inputArray2[2];
   var Description = inputArray2[3];
if(csvFile.exists){ 
   item = new Thumbnail(csvFile); 
   md =item.synchronousMetadata;  
   var result =addTitleAuthor(md,inputArray2[0],inputArray2[1],inputArray2[2],inputArray2[3]); 
   }
  }
 }
}
win.close(2);
errorlog.close();
errorlog.execute();
}
function addTitleAuthor(metadata, Title, Author,Country,Description) { 
var strTmpl = "TempTmpl"; 
var strUser = Folder.userData.absoluteURI; 
var filTmpl = new File(strUser + "/Adobe/XMP/Metadata Templates/" + strTmpl + ".xmp");  
var fResult = false; 
if (filTmpl.exists) filTmpl.remove(); 
try{
fResult = filTmpl.open("w"); 
}catch(e){
  alert("Unable to create Template " +filTmpl +"\r"+e.message);
  return;
 }
try{
if (fResult){
filTmpl.writeln("<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x=\"adobe:ns:meta/\" x:xmptk=\"3.1.2-113\">"); 
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#\">"); 
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:Description rdf:about=\"\"    xmlns:dc=\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\" xmlns:photoshop=\"http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/\" photoshop:Country=\""+Country +"\">"); 
filTmpl.writeln("<dc:title>");
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:Alt>");
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:li xml:lang=\"x-default\">"+Title+"</rdf:li>");
filTmpl.writeln("</rdf:Alt>");
filTmpl.writeln("</dc:title>");
filTmpl.writeln("<dc:description>");
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:Alt>");
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:li xml:lang='x-default'>"+Description+"</rdf:li>");
filTmpl.writeln("</rdf:Alt>");
filTmpl.writeln("</dc:description>");
filTmpl.writeln("<dc:creator>"); 
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:Seq>"); 
filTmpl.writeln("<rdf:li>" + Author + "</rdf:li>");
filTmpl.writeln("</rdf:Seq>");
filTmpl.writeln("</dc:creator>");
filTmpl.writeln("</rdf:Description>");
filTmpl.writeln("</rdf:RDF>");
filTmpl.writeln("</x:xmpmeta>"); 
fResult = filTmpl.close(); 
metadata.applyMetadataTemplate(strTmpl, "replace"); 
} } 
catch(e) { 
 alert("There was a problem with the Template");
 fResult = false; 
 } 
return fResult; 
}; 

[jcapes1]

The script works great!

Seeing the differences between the scripts helps me see how they operate.

Thanks for the quick response.

Joe

[Paul Riggott]

The easy way to see what to change in the template section of the script is to create a new template in Bridge with the fields you require and look at the xmp file it creates.

Paul.

[jcapes1]

Good idea. I'll try it out next week.

Joe