Help: Script can't read photoshop:Credit metadata in InDesign 2025 v20.4

[Kevin23266480586b]

Hi,

I'm having a specific issue with a caption generation script in InDesign 2025 v20.4. The script can read image descriptions but not credit lines.

My situation: Claude wrote me a "Better Captions" script that automatically generates captions from image metadata (credit lines and descriptions) — then styles and sizes them properly, saving lots of extra steps. It's suddenly not reading the credit tag. The images definitely contain the metadata - I can verify this by going to Object > Captions > Generate Static Caption which works perfectly and creates the caption I expect. I can also see using the Links panel > XMP File Info... > Raw Data that the <photoshop:Credit> tag. All my metadata is created in Bridge, which I also just updated today

What's working:

• Description extraction via ExtendScript (dc:description) - works fine
• UI caption generation (Object > Captions > Generate Static Caption) - sees both credit and description perfectly

What's broken:

• Credit extraction via ExtendScript (photoshop:Credit) - returns empty/null
• Various XMP access methods for credit field specifically

My XMP contains:

<photoshop:Credit>First Last / Organization</photoshop:Credit>
<dc:description>
   <rdf:Alt>
      <rdf:li xml:lang="x-default">Long description text here...</rdf:li>
   </rdf:Alt>
</dc:description>

What I've tried for credit extraction:

• xmp.getProperty(XMPConst.NS_PHOTOSHOP, "Credit")
• Regex parsing of linkXmpPacket looking for <photoshop:Credit>
• generateStaticCaption() method (fails entirely)
• Various other XMP access approaches

The weird thing is that the UI can see both fields perfectly, and my script can extract the description just fine - it's specifically the photoshop:Credit field that's not accessible via scripting anymore.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is there a new way to access the photoshop:Credit field in 2025 v20.4, or is this a regression? This worked fine in previous versions and is breaking my automated caption workflow.

Thanks for any help!

[brian_p_dts]

What happens in the steps you've taken, ie parsing the xmp. Is the field visible in that read approach or not.

[Kevin23266480586b]

The XMP parsing can successfully read the dc:description field, but the photoshop:Credit field returns null/undefined despite being present in the raw XMP and accessible through the UI. 

If I run the script as posted, the credit area is just left blank. When I add diagnostics to show me what's happening, it says the data doesn't even exist. I can then immediatley use the built in UI to generate a caption, and the credit line will flow right in.

[leo.r]

Try to roll back to InDesign 20.3.x (Creative Cloud app > InDesign > Other Versions menu). Will it make a difference?

InDesign 20.4 introduced some scripting and plug-in bugs which may or may not be related to the problem you describe.

[Kasyan Servetsky · Accepted solution]

This works for me in InDesign 20.3.1  on Mac 

var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
var myLink = myDoc.allGraphics[0].itemLink;
var myLinkXmp = myLink.linkXmp;
var myResult = myLinkXmp.getProperty("http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/", "photoshop:Credit");
alert("Credit line: " + myResult);

[Laubender]

Hi @Kasyan Servetsky ,

tested your script with InDesign 2025 v20.3.0 and also with v20.4.0.52 on macOS.

In both versions it will work and alert the contents of the credit line.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[Kevin23266480586b · Accepted solution]

BINGO, you got it. I am very much not a programmer/scripter and appreciate the help! Claude was trying to use linkXmpPacket, attempting to call .toString().trim()  and was using XMPConst instead of full namespace URLs. 

For credits, what worked was linkXmp.getProperty("http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/", "photoshop:Credit") 
For descriptions, it's using direct access with linkXmp.description

Thanks again!