Re: Import/ Export of tags

[Bengt Thuree <bengt thuree com>]

On Sat, 2006-06-17 at 19:21 +0300, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> As I'm trying to decide which photo organiser to use (between DigiKam,
> F-spot, and KPhotoAlbum) I would really appreciate the ability to move
> photos from one program to the other and to keep my tags intact. A
> user on the Digikam mailing list had mentioned that he would like to
> tag his photos 'in the field' on his laptop and to import them into
> the program when he gets home. I think that a kipi Import/ Export
> feature would solve both our problems. It would create an XML file
> similar to this:
> 
> <photo filename="/home/user/pics/beer.jpg">
>   <tag>People*Ester</tag>
>   <tag>People*Studies*Eli</tag>
>   <tag>People*Studies*Anna</tag>
>   <tag>Place*Haifa</tag>
> </photo>
> 
> <photo filename="/home/user/pics/music.jpg">
>   <tag>People*Ester</tag>
>   <tag>People*Dotan</tag>
>   <tag>People*Army*Jacob</tag>
>   <tag>Place*Jerusalem</tag>
> </photo>

Where should this file be. Same place as the photo? or other place? One
file per photo, same as GThumb does it, or one file for all photos?
Could be great to have it implemented with the new Plugin feature
though :)

So, with this way, you are not allowed to use a "*" as a character in
any of your tags I take it?

> 
> This can easily be imported by any application, and it provides for
> hierarchical tags. (levels seperated by asteriks)
> 
> What does the F-spot community think of this? Would you like to be
> able to work on the tags on the go and to import them later? And to
> easily move from application to application? This would also provide a
> secure way to back up the current sqlite database in an accessable
> manner. (any text editor could open it)

In my humble opinion there is only one place to definitely store the
tags to ensure that they follow the picture and that the tags are
readable by any application. That would be embedded inside the photo in
a standard way. Like EXIF/XMP.
Then you do not need to worry about the tag file dissapears or (in your
case) the photo location changes. Not to mention worry about what
happends over the years, since EXIF/XMP follows the standard, then that
should be as future proof we can get. This is one of the main reason I
choose to go with F-Spot, since the other applications you mentioned do
not store the tags embedded inside the photo (yet).

Me, it is not always I travel with a laptop, but I have a portable
harddisk which I store the photos on. If you want to tag photos on the
field on your laptop, why not simply tag them directly in F-Spot in that
case?

Regarding backing up the SQlite database by storing the tags in an XML
file, I do not think so. The SQlite database contains already more
information than only the tags, and this will likely just increase. The
main place for the tags to be backed up, would be that they are backed
up together with the photo since the tags are stored embedded inside the
photo also.

As I mentioned above. This would be a great feature for the new plugin
method some are working on.

My humble AUD 0.02 cent

/Bengt