Keyword modification possible?

[Vit Kovalcik]

Hello, I was intending to write my own plugin for some simple keyword addition/management, but I cannot find related functions.

photo:getFormattedMetadata() method can retrieve photo keywords, but there doesn't seem to be any setFormatedMetadata() (and according to the documentation getRawMetadata() doesn't support keywords). Also, I failed to find any Lightroom-wide keyword catalog related functions.

Could anyone help me and tell if it is possible to

1) modify photo's keywords?

2) modify Lightroom keyword catalog?

Thank you!

Vit

[Herb_Albert1]

Hello. As far as I know the current SDK does not provide API calls to do either.

[Vit Kovalcik]

That's a pity, but thank you for your answer.

[DawMatt]

Hi Vit,

Vit Kovalcik wrote:

...

2) modify Lightroom keyword catalog?

You can't use this capability directly from a plugin, but you can manage your lightroom keyword catalog outside of Lightroom using text files.  Richard wrote an article about this a little while back.

Matt

[Vit Kovalcik]

That's interesting, thank you DawMatt.

Hmmm... so perhaps there is a chance to create a stand-alone keyword editor, that would import/export Lightroom keywords and also externally change the keywords in XMP files. If Lightroom would reload that on a change... hooray, we are editing keywords

[DawMatt]

If you are going to edit Keywords in files externally, use the Metadata -> Save Metadata to File menu option on the photos first so all Lightroom data is persisted first.  After you make the changes use Metadata -> Read Metadata from File to pull the keywords back in to Lightroom.

Why are you using a third party program to keyword photos after you import them into Lightroom.  I've heard of people using Photo Mechanic (etc) for this type of task before loading into Lightroom.  Once in Lightroom I would have thought its keywording capabilities are sufficient.  Familiarise yourself with the Painter tool, keyword suggestions, keyword sets and the keyword "search while typing" field and I have a hard time imagining what else you would need in this area.  Managing your keyword list/hierarchy outside of Lightroom is different matter entirely, especially if you want to use a standardised keyword list from a third party.

Matt

[Vit Kovalcik]

My current photgraphic workflow is as follows: Put all images into Lightroom, process them, choose the best ones, keyword only those (then send them to microstock sites) - because of that it's hard to keyword images in advance... I don't know which ones.

I like Lightroom keyword hierarchy, but there are problems if you are trying to add multiple keywords by writing them into keywording, such as:

apple, green, isolated

First problem might be case sensitivity - "Apple" and "apple" are two different things in the LR keyword hierarchy, so if you mistype "apple" and all its synonyms are ignored and you have a new item "Apple" in the LR hierarchy.

But the huge problem is complete ignorance of synonyms: Lets say there is a LR hierarchy with "green" keyword, which has a "emerald" as a synonymum. If you type "emerald" to add a keyword into the image, completely new item is added into LR hierarchy instead of just ticking "green".

I can imagine another feature, which I could do in my application: Function to add multiple keywords, which will then tell me what keywords were already found in the LR hierarchy and which have to be added (and also offer me to add synonyms).

[DawMatt]

Hi again,

Vit Kovalcik wrote:

First problem might be case sensitivity - "Apple" and "apple" are two different things in the LR keyword hierarchy, so if you mistype "apple" and all its synonyms are ignored and you have a new item "Apple" in the LR hierarchy.

If you use the "Click here to add keywords" box in the keywording panel it live searches for the keyword, and in my experience fixes case issues at the same time.  I suggest you give that a go.

But the huge problem is complete ignorance of synonyms: Lets say there is a LR hierarchy with "green" keyword, which has a "emerald" as a synonymum. If you type "emerald" to add a keyword into the image, completely new item is added into LR hierarchy instead of just ticking "green".

I think this is a good feature request for LR3, but there is a work around today.

A quick test showed that the "Click here to add keywords" box will not suggest items based upon matching synonyms.  I'd like to see that feature added.  But the live search for the "Keyword List" will match against synonyms.  In your example enter "Emerald" in the "Filter Keywords" box in the "Keywords List" panel and "Green" will appear in the filtered keyword list.  You can easily apply the keyword from there.

While this isn't 100% what you were looking for I suspect it should be close enough that writing a new application would be overkill.  Just make sure you lodge a feature request with a step by step example of how you want it to work, and hope it makes it into LR3.

Matt

[Vit Kovalcik]

Hi Matt,

everything you wrote is of course true - there are workarounds and I have been already using them. However, there is a key difference - speed.

Imagine you have to keyword 50 files with 40 different keywords each. There are online applications, such as this http://arcurs.com/keywording/ , which will help you and for each file can output series of relevant keywords in format "keyword1, keyword2, keyword3, ...".

It is enourmous difference whether you can just copy&paste this keywords into your image or use current workarounds and for each keyword rewrite it into Lightroom, search it in the list, click on it... aaargh!

I am very experienced programmer in C++ and Delphi/Pascal and now I know how to do this app, so it shouldn't take mo more than one or two afternoons and then it will save me a ton of tedious routine work... or at least that's the plan

Vit