Custom xmp in Lightroom?

Question

I have written a few custom xmp panels that work beautifully in PS, IL, IND, Acrobat, Portfolio etc.. Alas I can't seem to access this info in LR.
Am i missing some crucial step?
I have the txt file in the adobe custom xmp panels folder but it is nowhere to be found in Lightroom's workspace.
Thanks.
a

Answer 1

I have also experimented with customized XMP data with Bridge and found it quite powerful and useful. You do need to work with a bit of Javascript to do this, but this is not too difficult to learn.
For example, you can create your own namespace (e.g. "http://ns.mynamespace.com/customdata/1.0/"). and then a series of custom fields (e.g. CustomSetting, CustomName, CustomGroup etc.).
You can then add this namespace and custom fields to any image (except RAW) without affecting any of the existing metadata or the image itself. Once you have this extra metatdata imbedded in images you can use it in a number of other metadata-aware programs for advanced searching or sorting purposes.
Creating a custom metadata field is better than using an existing metadata field (e.g. IPTC fields) for your own purposes. In this way you are free to define the purpose of these fields without worrying that other programs will mess-up this metadata or choke on your image.
Regards, Nigel