Export multiple image metadata to single XML or CSV file

[A__Wayne_Webb]

Hey Guys and Gals, I need an export script but with a variant.

Using Bridge CS4 I need to export the metadata from a directory of files to a XML file.  And I want all the metadata, not just part of if as the Web Galleries do.

I need this file so in Dreamweaver I can create a Spry data set.  Adobe seems to have forgotten that to use a XML file as a data set you need to create it first!  I am not going to sit here and manualy type and create a XML file for a directory of 800 TIF images (3.2 gigabyte).  I already did that in creating the metadata!

Their kind of like me at times, can't see the forest for the trees.  Or, conversely, they've sold you the car but forgot to give you the keys to it.

Now to truly make this script useful give the user the option to create a CSV or XML file!  This should be coded into Bridge!!!

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Paul Riggott]

There is the Barred Rock script that will extract all the metadata to a csv file, I am not up with xml but this will dump all the raw metadata from all all documents in a folder to a file on the desktop..

#target bridge
app.bringToFront();
var sels = app.document.visibleThumbnails;
var xmpdat = new File("~/desktop/All-XMPdata.txt");
xmpdat.open("w");
xmpdat.encoding = "UTF-8";
  for (var i = 0; i < sels.length; i++){
   if(sels.type == "file"){
   var t = new Thumbnail(sels);
   xmpdat.writeln(t.metadata.serialize());
   }
}
xmpdat.close();

[A__Wayne_Webb]

Thanks Paul,

Okay, so let us say I get the metadata into a CSV file.  That is wonderful if my intent was to upload it to an Apache / MySql database. That file does nothing for Dreamweaver.  Do a search within the online Dreamweaver CS4 help file.  You'll strike out.

And looking at the XMP file exported from Bridge does us no good either.  Adobe, in their infinite wisdom, used their own proprietary XSLT / DTD.  No way to convert it to a standard XML.

So much for Adobe being Dublin Core compliant!  Even if it was Dublin compliant you then run into the problem of getting 800 single XMP files into one single file and then explorting it to XML.

It really is a case of needing a XML file to get Dreamweaver to create the Spry data set for the set of TIF images with Bridge telling Dreamweaver to go pound sand.  What came first, the chicken or the egg? really does apply in this case!!!

But I could go spend, minimum, $180.00 US for a program that manufactures the car from the smelting of the iron ore to the putting of the key in the ignition.  All I need is the (*%# steering wheel, not the whole car.  I already have the metadata, I don't need to create it in another program!!!  This what Bridge should be doing.

Would someone please pass this along to Adobe for me as a "Get Ur' Done".  Put it into Bridge where it belongs.  This is part of the description of "image organization, ..."  Isn't that what Bridge is supposed to do?

My apologies for voicing my frustration.