I'm afraid I'm forced to ask this because the Gallery documentation is extrememly sparse.
(And I've only used it minimally so far: I am still working on adding IPTC captions to my photos before populating my gallery web site.)
What does the search function search?
Does it search EXIF data?
IPTC data?
File name?
Gallery name?
Other?
The search window offers these tickboxes:
*Search descriptions <-are these descriptions in gallery? are they stored in the gallery db?
*Search keywords <-IPTC keywords embedded in the image, yes?
*Search summaries <-what is this?
*Search titles <-and this? (a Gallery database piece of info, or embedded in image metadata, like IPTC?)
*Search comments <-is this a Gallery addition, or embedded metadata (is it IPTC)?
*Search custom fields <-custom IPTC or something internal to the gallery db?
Thanks.
-Colin
Posted: Thu, 2006-01-26 00:28
Posts: 32509
exif / iptc data is not searchable.
search is extensible and by default it searches for the things that the search window offers you.
just browse to an album / photo in your gallery and click on "edit album" / "edit photo", there you see the title, summary, description, .. for the item.
Posts: 37
Bummer!
So is there ANY way to import the IPTC and/or EXIF data into the gallery database at time of upload or otherwise via any add-ons, custom scripts, or whatver?
(Seems pretty limiting (for me) if I can't search IPTC or EXIF, just what I add in gallery itself: that is because of all the IPTC data that will be in my images already.)
Regards,
Colin
Posts: 32509
g2 copies some iptc / exif fields at add item time to item attributes, e.g. the origination date, the description etc.
thus, this data is searchable since item properties are searchable.
yes, it's limiting. yes it was discussed a dozen times before. yes, there are sketches on how to extend the functionality by changing the exif module. no, noone has started this work yet.
Posts: 37
Thanks you for clarifying Valiant.
I will look into it a bit closer to see exactly what gets imported and how easy it would be to extend.
-Colin
Posts: 40
One option you do have is to create some G2 custom fields and use a tool to populate them with IPTC data. I'm developing just such a tool at the moment - a module that imports Gallery metadata from standard CSV (Comma Separated Values) files - I'll release it here when I'm done. You will of course need another tool that can export IPTC data into a CSV files... I use the rather excellent Photools IMatch.
LITL.W/L
Dominic.
Posts: 37
I use IMatch too!
Thanks, I'll watch for this.
Ideally though, as part of the Gallery import process, all the necessary metadata in the image would get imported into the database. It looks like the keywords and I think the caption too get imported at this point already!
-Colin
Posts: 40
For now the images on my [still in development] Gallery are optimised for fast download / low disk space - they have had the IPTC/EXIF data stripped and are pre-resized to 550 pixels with watermark added. As a consequence I'm not using the Gallery's import modules for metadata - that's what prompted me to write my own. I have a custom IMatch script to export the IPTC/EXIF fields (plus a few Imatch image properties) to CSV files. Currently that script doesn't have a user interface for defining the field export map (it's hardcoded as an array and shouldn't be too hard to add a UI - just a matter of available time). My intention is to post it to the Imatch user forum when done... let me know if you want to be an early tester ;-)
I agree that it is desireable for Gallery to be able to import any chosen EXIF/IPTC field directly into its own DB... I've seen a number of forum threads about this but I'm still not sure of the current state of development. The thing that's actually just bitten me is the 255 character limit of the current Keyword field (and for that matter of the Custom Fields)... I'm going to post something more specific about that shortly.
LITL.W/L
Dominic.
Posts: 37
Thanks but I probably would not do the import process like you describe, especially since it seems I am getting keywords and caption already (in which case my main interest would be advanced boolean searching).
However you raised another interesting point: IPTC keywords I thought had a 64 byte limit, but you could have any number of them (any # of 64 byte keywords). Are you saying the Gallery2 implementation limits the total keywords space to 255 characters in its db? That is no good!
-Colin
Posts: 40
According to http://gallery.menalto.com/node/41812 "the keywords architecture of g2 is very limited (255 chars) and a redesign is necessary anyway (separate rows for each keyword)" - which will presumably allow an 'unlimited' number of IPTC keyword entries. I have however been unable to find anything more definitive about who is doing that work and how far they have got...
BTW, I too have got as far as http://gallery.menalto.com/node/36998 ... I may try to locate where the truncation is happening... OTOH I may not - loads else to be getting on with
LITL.W/L
Dominic.
Posts: 18
It would be nice if someone could break this 255 character limit or tell me a gallery which does.....