XMPConst.OPEN_FOR_UPDATE throwing error

[Chuck Uebele]

This short test script used to work getting a files description in Bridge, but now it fails on the line tha has: XMPConst.OPEN_FOR_UPDATE. The error is XMP Exception: OpenFile retuned false. Anyone else having issues with this?

#target bridge

if (ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined) {
    ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject('lib:AdobeXMPScript');
    }

var doc = app.document
var thumbs = doc.selections

for(var i=0;i<thumbs.length;i++){
    
    var tSpec = thumbs[i].spec;
    var testFile = new File(tSpec);

    readTextFile (testFile)
    };//end for thumbs loop

function readTextFile(file){
      var xmpf = new XMPFile(File(file).fsName, XMPConst.UNKNOWN, XMPConst.OPEN_FOR_UPDATE );
      var xmp = xmpf.getXMP();
      var des = xmp.getProperty(XMPConst.NS_DC, "description").toString();
      alert(des)          

            xmpf.closeFile( XMPConst.CLOSE_UPDATE_SAFELY );
      
      }

[gregreser]

I am not getting the OpenFile error in Bridge 12.0.0.234

Your script worked, except that I didn't get a value for var des = xmp.getProperty(XMPConst.NS_DC, "description").toString();

so I changed it to this:

var des = xmp.getArrayItem(XMPConst.NS_DC, "description",1).toString();

[Chuck Uebele]

Thanks for the update. 

[wckdtall]

Still terrible at understanding metadata. What's the 1 for after description? Examples that have multiple entries, I'm guessing that it's semicolon delimited, but is there a default value for 0? Or rather why does it start at 1 in this case?

[gregreser]

dc:description is a language alternate (langAlt) property which means it can have values in different languages. It starts at 1. Generally, only one language is saved using the "x-default" designation, so using 1 will get the only available item.

 <dc:description>
	<rdf:Alt>
	   <rdf:li xml:lang="x-default">My description</rdf:li>
	</rdf:Alt>
 </dc:description>

If your metadata contains multiple language values, it possible to read a specific one, like "en-US" using getLocalizedText(). Most times only "x-default" is used, so getArrayItem(XMPConst.NS_DC, "description",1) works fine.

There are two other array type properties, bag and seq. These contain individual items and are generally displayed in the UI as one string using semi-colon or comma separators.

[Chuck Uebele]

Seems to be working with PSD files, but not raw NEF files.

[Lumigraphics · Accepted solution]

Because you can't read XMP from a RAW file. You have to use thumbnails not file specs.

OP, use thumbnails and synchronousMetadata instead of file spec.

[Chuck Uebele]

Thanks!

[Lumigraphics]

Let me know if you need some sample code.

[Chuck Uebele]

YES! Some sample code would be wonderful. 

[Lumigraphics · Accepted solution]

XMPdesc();        
        
        XMPdesc = function(){
            var descThumbs = app.document.selections; //get selected thumbnails
            var newText = 'test'; //replacement text
            if(!descThumbs.length) return; //nothing selected
            for(var a in descThumbs){ //loop through thumbs
                if(!descThumbs[a].container){ //not a folder
                    try{
                        var descMeta = descThumbs[a].synchronousMetadata; //get metadata
                        var descXMP = new XMPMeta(descMeta.serialize()); //serialize
                        alert(descMeta.read(XMPConst.NS_DC, 'description').toString()); //read description
                        descXMP.deleteProperty(XMPConst.NS_DC, 'description'); //delete
                        descXMP.setLocalizedText(XMPConst.NS_DC, 'description', null, 'x-default', newText); //set new description
                        var descUpdatedPacket = descXMP.serialize(XMPConst.SERIALIZE_OMIT_PACKET_WRAPPER | XMPConst.SERIALIZE_USE_COMPACT_FORMAT); //serialize
                        descThumbs[a].metadata = new Metadata(descUpdatedPacket); //write to file
                        }
                    catch(e){
                        alert(e + e.line);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

[Chuck Uebele]

Thanks, so much!

[Lumigraphics]

You see I used both serialized and synchronous metadata, you could use descXMP.getProperty instead of descMeta.read, whichever works best for you.

[Chuck Uebele]

Thanks! I'll have to play around with it. I'm going to send my siblings a couple thousand family photos, and I'm going to pull all the descriptions off and put them in a pdf for them.

[Lumigraphics]

You can write these to a text file as you read them. Just skip the code that removes the old description.

[Chuck Uebele]

I'm thinking of just using Bridge to export jpgs for them. It's fairly fast, and they don't need to be opened. I could also then use my original script to create the text file. Just thinking if I want to write a script for saving them that keeps the folder structure. 

[Kukurykus]

The error occurs when you use .toString(). Then as processed file was not closed (by last code line), the Bridge remembered its open state, so next time it couldn't proceed, unless you restarted application. The solution is to change UPDATE to READ (due to your original question):

!ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript && ExternalObject
.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject('lib:AdobeXMPScript')

slctns = app.document.selections; while(slctns.length) {
	xmp = new XMPFile(slctns.shift().spec.fsName, XMPConst.UNKNOWN, XMPConst.OPEN_FOR_READ)
	try{alert(xmp.getXMP().getLocalizedText(XMPConst.NS_DC, 'description', 0, 0).toString())}catch(err){}
	xmp.closeFile(XMPConst.CLOSE_UPDATE_SAFELY)
}

btw please assign Scripting label to your thread 😉