Option to store xmp metadata outside of DNG file

This would serve to improve differential backups, as the xmp file format is text based and easy to tell differences.

Walt,
No, you totally misunderstood what I meant. I'm not talking about LR catalog backups, I'm talking about backing up scores of dng files completely outside of LR, from the OS or some other external tool. With my suggestion, the xmp file would be right next to its dng file, and i would be backing up the whole directory hierarchy that hold my files. One of the benefits of LR over Aperture is that I can access, manipulate, and/or backup my files outside of the app rather than having them locked up in a vault which must be backed up in one huge blob.
If I change the brightness of 500 dng files using LR, then back up all my dng files using rsync (for example), I will be copying 500 large binary files around. If my edits were saved in separate text files (xmp), then my backup program could only copy the DIFF of each of the text files (one line added to each file, so one line, or five in a normal unified diff format, is all that needs copied around). This would be exponentially faster.
Embedded xmp edits is not a good practice, from an OS-level backup point of view. Since not everyone will agree on that, I'm asking for a checkbox option - I'm fine with it being embedded by default.
With xmp data being stored inside the dng file, and LR changing the dng file every time I edit something, LR is hardly non-destructive from an OS-level point of view when dng files are used.
No where in the spec does it state that xmp changes data MUST be stored in the dng file. I'm simply asking for the option to store that data outside of the DNG file, so that the dng file only needs backed up once or rarely, rather than every time I make an edit.

Similar Messages

ExtendScript : store XMP / metadatas

Hi,
First of all, please excuse my poor english, hope I'll be understandable.
CS5 - AE 10.0.2.4
OSX 10.6.8
I'm trying to save user datas (ie: production context, batch render options, composition history, statistics ...) with after effects projects, using extendscript routines.
app.settings.get/saveSetting, and app.preferences.get/savePref will store datas at a session level, shared amongst any project a user will open, which is not what I want.
XMP scheme approach seem pretty appropriated, but I can't find a "scriptish" way to manage things. I can create a new scheme and save fields with a project through the metadatas window, but I cannot reproduce this with simple extendscript commands.
I only found an app.project.xmpPacket string reflecting changes made through the interface, but I can't find anything but the basic XML module to edit it, the XMPMeta module described in the documentation is not accessible and seem designed for bridge scripting only.
Any tip about this matter would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance !
Tonio

Walt,
No, you totally misunderstood what I meant. I'm not talking about LR catalog backups, I'm talking about backing up scores of dng files completely outside of LR, from the OS or some other external tool. With my suggestion, the xmp file would be right next to its dng file, and i would be backing up the whole directory hierarchy that hold my files. One of the benefits of LR over Aperture is that I can access, manipulate, and/or backup my files outside of the app rather than having them locked up in a vault which must be backed up in one huge blob.
If I change the brightness of 500 dng files using LR, then back up all my dng files using rsync (for example), I will be copying 500 large binary files around. If my edits were saved in separate text files (xmp), then my backup program could only copy the DIFF of each of the text files (one line added to each file, so one line, or five in a normal unified diff format, is all that needs copied around). This would be exponentially faster.
Embedded xmp edits is not a good practice, from an OS-level backup point of view. Since not everyone will agree on that, I'm asking for a checkbox option - I'm fine with it being embedded by default.
With xmp data being stored inside the dng file, and LR changing the dng file every time I edit something, LR is hardly non-destructive from an OS-level point of view when dng files are used.
No where in the spec does it state that xmp changes data MUST be stored in the dng file. I'm simply asking for the option to store that data outside of the DNG file, so that the dng file only needs backed up once or rarely, rather than every time I make an edit.

[CS3] the file cannot store XMP metadata

Hello,
I want to add some metadatas like keywords and description to my video files (raw avi and mpg). It works for most of them in bridge but some will not accept any changes. I get the following error message: "xxx.avi cannot store XMP metadata. No changes will occur." Even so all the video files have been recorded during the same session (no visible differences between the files), some of them work, some do not work.
Do you know a known problem with embemdding XMP into video files? Or if the problem comes from Bridge, how can I do?
Thanks to everyone who could help me.
Steeven
from France

Clear the cache in preferences.

Message: 'FILE CANNOT STORE XMP METADATA'

I have encountered a problem that I cannot resolve by myself and cannot find any relevant information. I hope you can help: In some cases (this has only been happening with my last big job of about 1000 selected images which are divided in subfolders) in most folders when I try to apply a new keyword in an entire group of photographs I get the message ".. the metadata of some of the selected items cannot be changed. Do you want to continue and apply the changes to some of the selected items only?.." whilst when i select individual files (photographs) I get the message ".. the file xxxx.CR2 cannot store XMP metadata. No changes will occur..". This has been happening both before and after the batch rename processing. Also I noticed on my desktop that the RAW files that do not accept keywords are not initially accompanied by an XMP file. I guess that there is a problem with my 'settings' but I cannot located it or resolve it... Can you help please?

..a couple of hours later..
However, if I ReNAME the file which contains the photographs that 'refuse' to have new keywords added to them, IT APPEARS that everything is fixed. After a 'blink' on the screen which resembles with a refresh, I can add the keywords that I desire. Moving the contents of my initial subfolders in one NEW folder does not change the METADATA or the KEYWORD status and so far they are retained when my files are moved to the new folder.
B U T... if I rename the file again (through the Bridge window) and give it its previous name, the problem persists....
-Am I doing something wrong?...since I am not following a different procedure.. why did problem occur out of the blue?
-Will the problem occur again?
-will the Raw files retain the details (keywords/metadata) that I have added from now on?.. or is it possible that I will loose them again at some point?
-why does this happen?

Bridge - "The file cannot store XMP metadata. No changes will occur"

I am trying to use keywords to organize all my projects. But on every file I try to apply a keyword too I get the message "The file cannot store XMP metadata. No changes will occur". I'm on windows 7 64bit with Creative Cloud and all the latest updates.

Not sure what kind of files you are trying to add keywords, but I am having the same problem with .MTS and m2ts files. I am running Bridge 4.0.0.529 and Win 8.1. I found a work around, which was to change the extension to .mpg in File Manager, then you can add keywords. However, not sure of the implications of doing this when I import them into Premiere. I noticed in File Manager that under file properties that the "Type of File" changes to reflect the file extension. Running some tests to try and find out. I suppose one could change the extensions back to the original. But if you have a lot of clips, that is a big hassle. Unfortunately, Bridge "Batch Rename" doesn't allow one to change the extension. Any help would be appreciated. However, I am not very optimistic in that it appears the "Cloud" version of Bridge has the same issues.

XMP metadata lost in PNG files

Hello,
My XMP metadata is lost from a PNG file if the file is modified and saved. Here is what I am doing
1. Put some metadata in a PNG file using m_xmpFile.OpenFile( FileName, kXMP_PNGFile , kXMPFiles_OpenForUpdate)
2. Edit this file in Photoshop (changed the brightness and contrast of the file)
3. Saved the the modified files.
All my XMP metadata is now lost fromt the file.
is my implementation wrong? Is there some other way to stamp metadata in PNG files?
Thanks,
Hitesh

Info: Mac, Yosemite, Bridge CC
I have an extensive collection of PNG files that HAD been keyworded in Bridge (XMP). I noticed several days ago that the XMP of all those files is now missing.
When attempting to assign keywords back in, I also get the message: "The file ####.png canot store XMP metadata. No changes will occur." Weird. Like you said, it's looking like a bug.
And here's the kicker... if I duplicate the PNG file (Edit > Duplicate), the "copy" DOES contain the original XMP that went missing.
I really don't want to have to manually duplicate all my PNG files just to regain the metadata. Any brainy solution? I'm attaching an example of the original PNG (missing XMP) and the duplicated PNG (magically restored XMP).

Adding/Reading XMP Metadata in a psd file

Hi,
I'm having some troubles to understand how to add and read XMP metadata on a psd file. I followed the Panel developer guide tutorial, and try to look on the internet for some answers, but I'm still stuck ...
Here is the simple example I'm trying to make (using part of the code from the panel developer guide) :
     The function loads the XMP Script Library.
     @returns True if the XMP Script Library was loaded successfully.
     @type Boolean
function loadXMPLibrary(){
     if ( !ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript ){
          try{
               ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject('lib:AdobeXMPScript');
          }catch (e){
               alert("Can't load XMP Script Library");
               return false;
     return true;
     The function unloads the XMP Script Library.
function unloadXMPLibrary(){
     if( ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript ) {
          try{
               ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript.unload();
               ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = undefined;
          }catch (e){
               alert("Can't unload XMP Script Library");
    Try to put a new property into the metadata
if( app.activeDocument || !loadXMPLibrary()){
    var xmp = new XMPMeta(activeDocument.xmpMetadata.rawData);
    xmp.setProperty( XMPConst.NS_EXIF, "myProperty", "test" );
    activeDocument.xmpMetadata.rawData = xmp.serialize();
    unloadXMPLibrary();
    Window.alert(activeDocument.xmpMetadata.rawData);
I don't really know where I'm wrong, could you help me please ?
Thanks,
Julien

Rather mess with EXIF and Dublin Core namespaces, wouldn't it be better to create your own?
IE:
#target photoshop
addtoMeta();
function addtoMeta(){
if(!documents.length) return;
if (ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined) ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject("lib:AdobeXMPScript");
var xmp = new XMPMeta( activeDocument.xmpMetadata.rawData);
var myNamespace = "http://my.fantastic.newspace/";
var myPrefix = "nsfns:";
XMPMeta.registerNamespace(myNamespace, myPrefix);
xmp.setProperty(myNamespace, "myProperty", "A Test String");
app.activeDocument.xmpMetadata.rawData = xmp.serialize();

Faillure writing metadata to some DNG files

I'm having a problem writing metadata to some dng files using Lightroom 2.6.1. When I try to apply a metadata template to a batch of files most of them get changes but a few don't. This only effects DNG files so far JPEG and TIFF seem to be OK. I have tried running the problem files through DNG converter and the new files have the same problem. Lightroom won't write to them.
I can change the metadata of these files from Bridge. The changes then appear properly in Lightroom. Afterwards I can change the metadata again from Lightroom.
I'm working on a MacBook Pro (Late 2008) and running OS 10.6.2.

I created a preset to export to same folder as original, same format as original, and stack with (above) original. I used this on the seven files, and it has solved the problem without losing any metadata.
The jpegs had at some point been processed by Photoshop Elements as they were imported/edited using that application in 2010 but the metadata problem didn't show up until recently when I was making some adjustments in Lightroom. I somehow think this may be related to the GPS tag though I don't have sufficient evidence.
The DNG file was strange in that it was straight the camera with no Lightroom adjustments, although I did add GPS info in the Map module. Anway it is now fixed as well as the jpegs.
With this preset it would be possible quickly to fix a large number of image files. Just create a Smart Collection to display the problem files and run the preset on them all in one go. The only things that I am aware of that you would need to look out for are (1) if they are in a collection other than a smart collection, or have been published to a service like Flickr or to the Hard Disk the link will be broken, and (2) If you like to sort photos by date/time added, they will be out of the sequence (capture time is fine).
When you are satisfied that this has worked OK then you can delete the images from the "Metadata Not Up To Date" smart collection. Select all, go to all photos, they should remain selected and press Delete. You could do a thousand in one go if you have the nerve for it
Hope this helps.
Peter

How to read XMP metadata of an indd file using Actionscript

Hi All,
I am trying to read XMP metadata of an indd file using CS Extension Builder in Flash Builder 4.5.
The documentation has many class like XMPmeta, XMPStruct, etc.
I have got the currently opened document in InDesign as follows:
var myDoc:Document = InDesign.app.activeDocument();
And a new XMPmeta object is created as follows:
var myXMP:XMPMeta = new XMPMeta();
How to initialize document's xmp metadata in the XMPMeta object? Or is there any other way to get the XMP metadata of currently opened document in InDesign?

I have found that the XMP data of an InDesign document can be retrieved in actionscript as follows:
InDesign.app.activeDocument.metadataPreferences
This returns the MetadataPreference object.
But I am not able to iterate each namespace in the xmp. There isn't any XMPFile class which allows me to serialize the object to xml file so that I can iterate all elements in the XMP.
I could not relate class like XMPMeta, XMPProp, etc. with the MetaDataPreference class. So, how to obtain the entire xmp packet from the MetadataPreference object?
Can anyone shed light on this?

Access XMP Metadata outside of Acrobat

Is it possible to access the PDF metadata without using the full version of Acrobat?

An XML packet created with XMP tool kit, which conforms to XMP, can be added to the document level by attaching to the Catalog dictionary. It is also possible to add object level metadata to PDF component represented as a dictionary or stream. In either case, a reserved key Metadata associated with the dictionaries indirectly references the XMP metadata streams. However, in reality, writing XML packet into PDF without using Acrobat APIs, is complicated and requires a good understanding of PDF. The client must handle it cautiously: · construct an XMP conformant XML packet as the document metadata, which is in a writable XML Packet with enough padding provided for the in-place edits and expansion; · synchronize the information in the metadata stream with that in the document information dictionary; · write the XML packet to the right place in PDF; · interpret the multiple versions of XML packet correctly. As recommended in the XMP framework specification, applications should allocate 50% of the XML data size as padding, with a minimum of 4 KB. The purpose is to enable in-place edits and expansion of the embedded XML if the value of the end attribute is set as w in the packet trailer, <?xpacket end='w'?>. In addition, applications that create PDF 1.4 documents (such as Acrobat 5.0) should include the metadata for a document in the document information dictionary as well as in the documents metadata stream. Applications that support PDF 1.4 should check for the existence of a metadata stream and synchronize the information in it with that in the document information dictionary (see Implementation Note 104 on p. 804 of PDF Reference: Third Edition, version 1.4). Moreover, in Acrobat 5.0 (PDF1.4), the document level metadata is constructed automatically from the document information dictionary. However, due to the incremental update mechanism of PDF, it is possible to end up with more than one copy of XML packet in PDF. Whenever the PDF is saved, a new copy of XMP metadata stream will be appended to the cross-reference section, although there may be only one or two properties are changed (i.e., ModDate and MetadataDate). The following PDF sample illustrates the complications. When the PDF was first created, the metadata stream is defined in the object 19 associating with the /Metadata key in the /Catalog dictionary. The value of <xap:MetadataDate> property is 2002-02-11T13:43:24-08:00. When the PDF was saved later, a new XMP metadata packet was appended to the cross-reference section, which associated with the updated entry (/Metadata 21 0 R) in the catalog dictionary. The value of <xap:MetadataDate> property is 2002-02-11T13:46:52-08:00. %PDF-1.4 7 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 3 0 R /Metadata 19 0 R /PageLabels 2 0 R >> endobj 19 0 obj << /Type /Metadata /Subtype /XML /Length 1338 >> stream <xap:MetadataDate>2002-02-11T13:43:24-08:00</xap:MetadataDate> endstream endobj startxref 7 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 3 0 R /Metadata 21 0 R /PageLabels 2 0 R >> endobj 21 0 obj << /Type /Metadata /Subtype /XML /Length 1338 >> stream <xap:MetadataDate>2002-02-11T13:46:52-08:00</xap:MetadataDate> endstream endobj xref %%EOF Because of the above complications, Adobe can only support use of the PDF Library and Acrobat SDK plug-in for adding new XMP packets into PDF.

How to add lens metadata to existing DNG files?

I shot some images with a fully manual optic, so lens data was not embedded in RAW files, hence they are not existant in DRG files after conversion.
Is there a way to edit those DNG files in Lightroom so they would include lens name and focal lenght I manually enter?
Regards,
Romuald

>That said, I would love a secret mode for this.
It's called a Text Editor and it doesn't even and to touch the raw file (i.e. CR2, NEF, MRW, etc). Save out the metadata to XMP sidecar, use search and replace to overwrite the lens info, then read the metadata back in Lightroom. Lightroom will use the edited metadata instead of the embedded EXIF data. I've used this method for years. TextWrangler (Mac) or similar on Windows can run a search/replace on a batch of files (thousands if need be).
For example:
Find:
24.0-70.0 mm
replaced with
EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
You can't use above method on DNG directly. So, you create and edit the XMP sidecar before converting to DNG. Either way you're leaving the original Makernotes intact and therefore running no risk of screwing the file.
At some point in the future it should be possible to skip above and write the lens data directly into the Lightroom database and back to the sidecar or DNG if required. Unfortunately, not this cycle.

XMP metadata lost from PNG files after saveing

Hello,
i am using Photosop CS3 SDK. through my plug-in I put some metadata in the file using XMP SDK 4.4.2.
For PNG files, if the file is modified and saved, all the XMP metadata is lost from the file.
The following steps are being done.
1. Put some metadata in PNG file using SXMPMeta::SetProperty and SXMPMeta::AppendArrayItem
2. modify the file (changed brightness, contrast, flattened the image).
3. Save this file.
After saving all the xmp metadata is lost from the PNG file. This works for all other formats.
What can be wrong that I am doing?
Is there any other way to put XMP metadata in file?
Thanks,
Hitesh

That's probably because PNG doesn't save or read XMP metadata.
There really aren't standards for metadata in PNG. (though a few products have tried adding it in ad-hoc ways, without documenting their efforts)

"Automatically Write Changes Into XMP" Not Working for DNG Files

Hello,
I am needing to update DNG/JPG file pairs with keywords that I add in lightroom. The following is the problem that I am encountering.
When the image consists of only a JPEG file (ie. I had my DSLR only snap a jpeg and not an associated DNG), and I add one or more keywords to the file in Lightroom, these are written / saved immediately in Lightroom and are visible immediately in the 'tags' column for that image in windows explorer. Very useful and important functionality for my workflow.
However, when the image consists of both a JPEG and a sister DNG (i.e.,snapped simultaneously by my DSLR), and I try to add keywords to these (treated at this point as a single image by lightroom) then Lightroom does not record the keywords into either of the two files and consequently no tags are visible in windows explorer. I have confirmed this apparent problem with a seperate image metadata utility software, and am hoping that it's just something simple that I am missing.
Also "Automatically Write Changes Into XMP" is selected and I have also tried manually both: "right click," "metadata," "write metadata to file;" and "right click" "update DNG preview and metadata" and the problem persists.
Hopefully someone has encountered something similar and can point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance.

@Eric: hitting cntrl+s works but can be tedeous on large galleries. I've been doing this but it can be a pain.
@Jeannine: different topic than this thread but to answer anyways... Lightroom automatically saves all changes into your catalogue. You never need to dave your changes (here's the kicker though) as long as you do not move the original file. If you
move the file than lightroom won't know that it's the same image as the one you've edited. Once you are done editing your image you will need to "export" the image to a new file (you don't wan to overwrite the original). If you don't export than only lightroom will have your edits. Lightroom is "non-destructive" Which means that it doesn't touch your original photo. Lightroom keeps a text file containing the instructions on what you did to make the edited version. Since your changes are just text inatryxtions you have to "export" the image to get your final image in a version you can put online, print, etc. But to answer your original question, I think you prob moves the original image. If not, could you give us more info?

Embedding extended XMP metadata into a PDF file

Hello.
I am preparing a thesis for submission into our library repository. They keep some additional information about the paper in a separate XML file which looks like: http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/ethos-oai/2.0/uketd.xml
The metadata can be then easily harvested by other libraries etc.
Because the papers are downloadable and can freely circulate over the Internet I would like to also include the metadata into the PDF itself.
I've managed to extend the PDFX (MiKTeX) package such that it writes custom metadata in addition to the default fields (Author, Title, Subject, Keywords) into the PDF.
The problem is that the library metadata (see above) makes use of XSI schema which is apparently not compatible with RDF format of XMP.
Is there a way to get such rich metadata sets into a PDF file in a portable and accessible (thinking about search engines) way or should I stick with plain Simple Dublin Core?
Thanks for recommendations.

You may want to repost this in the XMP SDK forum: http://forums.adobe.com/community/design_development/xmp_sdk

Where do the XMP metadata templates and keywords files go WIN XP?

I've just changed computers and upgraded to CS6. I am trying to import my Bridge metadata templates and keywords. I have the files from the old computer but I don't know where to put them on the new computer. The same folder structure where I found them (documents and settings/username/AppData/Adobe/BridgeCS5) does not exist on my new computer after installation of CS6. I tried pasting them in the program files folder for CS6, but this didn't work. I am using Windows XP. Thanks in advance.

I tried pasting them in the program files folder for CS6, but this didn't work.
Not familiair with Windows but on a Mac the path you show is still the same. Did you already used Bridge once?
Quickest way I can think of is putting the files on your desktop and from Bridge metadata and keyword panel use the little menu icon top right of the panel and choose import settings. Find and select both settings and you should be OK.
Also check this blog out, especially if you have subscribed to the cloud:
http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2012/09/photoshop-windows-xp-end-of-the-line.html

Option to store xmp metadata outside of DNG file

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for