Re: [Tracker] Searching with Meta Tracker

[Martyn Russell <martyn lanedo com>]

On 14/09/11 05:07, John Bestevaar wrote:
> Hi All

Hello John,

> I have just installed tracker-gui, 0.9.5-OubuntuOunstable.10.04.2 and
> all its dependencies via Synaptic on my Ubuntu 10.04 Gnome. There is a
> lot to like for ordinary user like me. As a search for filenames or part
> thereof tool its very fast. The gui window is simple and clean. I
> support open source projects not only by using and advocating them but
> also by donating to the ones i find useful.

Great!

> As a photographer I have made a lot of images to which i have added
> Exif,IPTC,and XMP data via Digikam 2:1.2.0-0unbunt2
> My understanding is that Digikam adds metadata to the actual image file
> as distinct from keeping it separate in its own database.
> So i tried to search, with Tracker, for the words which i know to be
> present in the images Digikam image metadata.
> No results.
> After reading the documentation on the Tracker website Wiki it dawned on
> me that i had no chance of understanding how Tracker works and or how to
> properly do metadata searches.
> Would you be able to point me in the right direction?

If by *words* you mean "tags", then I have a branch which fixes the 
search application not yet merged to master or any main line branch.

If you mean something else, do let me know.

To see *all* information we get from a file, you can use:

  /usr/libexec/tracker-extract -f /path/to/my/filename

This should output (at the end) everything we know about a given file. 
Additionally, you can use:

  tracker-info /path/to/my/filename

This will include not only the image specific metadata (which 
tracker-extract gives you), but also the file related information and 
any other tags which were added in the database specifically (but not 
stored in the file) - so EVERYTHING we know about the file.

It may well be that we just don't find it currently using the queries we 
form in the UI, it would be nice to know if it is that or that we don't 
find the metadata itself before going further.

--
Regards,
Martyn

Founder and CEO of Lanedo GmbH.