New Design for IIP Metadata Templates

[danaltick]

Marc,

Alll this sounds fantastic!  Good job on the new iView panel.... and no, I don't know what EM stands for, but I'm sure curious.  And yes, the Notes field wraps now, great, I can use that fine for descriptions and notes.  I don't have a problem with that.  I can also use the Quick Field's Job field as the People field so it's on the Metadata Panel for quick access.  That will work fine.

Now that you've gotten rid of the database fields from the Metadata Panel, it would be nice if you could add just a few more Quick Fields.

Also, it didn't occur to me to (or I forgot that you could) use semicolons in the keywords and catalog sets fields.  That does make it easier.  I will do that.

Looking good Marc.  Can't wait!

Dan

[danaltick]

Oh, one other thing, the @FilenameNew is a cool macro to have.  Of course, now that I've gone back to Bridge CS3 awaiting the new R&F Lite, that functionality will exist there as well.  However, I will probably still do that at ingestion in case I don't (or forget to) run R&F on a job.  I've currently been doing this in iView using the Filename to IPTC Title script.

Dan

[danaltick]

It just dawned on me; EM stands for Expression Media....duh!

Dan

[danaltick]

Marc,

Now that you have the Metadata Presets with their own macro capability, I really don't see a need in maintaining that extra level of indirection via the ImageIngester-IPTC.xmp template(s); other than backwards compatibility with the database.  You might want to consider severing those ties down the road sometime and removing that layer.  In otherwords, go straight to the sidecars from the Preset Panels.  Maybe take a poll of the users.  I may be overlooking something, but I don't think I will ever need it.

Dan

[Marc Rochkind]

Beta 5 is now available for the Mac (link below). I hope to have the Windows version of Beta 5 completed in about 10 days.

--Marc

[Marc Rochkind]

Dan--

You're right, in that I think that once I verify that the new design is working, the visibility of the template will go away. I need to add one feature first: The ability to add completely new sections. However, internally, the extra layer of macro processing is extremely convenient, as it allow IIP to work with a template originally generated from Adobe software, and easily updated if Adobe makes any changes. The macro processing of it is free, since macro processing is already there for other, user-visible, purposes.

--Marc

[Marc Rochkind]

Dan--

The reason why you didn't already know you could use semicolons in keywords, etc., is that I put the feature in this afternoon, at your suggestion. ;-)

It was needed for People, since I didn't want to build another fancy interface. Using it for keywords and Catalog Sets also took an extra 45 sec. of work.

--Marc

[danaltick]

Awesome!  Looking forward to the update.

By the way, I guess I was overlooking something with the templates.... Adobe compatibility.... makes sense.

Dan

[danaltick]

Marc,

A few other suggestions:

I would go ahead and combine the Copyright and Status panels into the one Status panel like the Adobe Status panel.

Also, now that you have a preset panel, I think I would do away with the separate Metadata panel and just add another tab to the front of the Preset panel and call it QuickFields.  On that panel I would hardcode the multi-line Description, Catalog Sets, and Keywords fields, then follow that with about a half dozen or more single-line Quickfields.  I think I would also hardcode a single-line Headline field.  A few benefits of this are you have a larger QuckFields panel and the other tabs are easily accessible.  By doing this, you will basically be emulating the Adobe File Info Panels with the added QuickFields capability instead of Adobe's hardcoded Description panel.  If you want to create little drop-down arrows to the right of some of those fields like Adobe does, that's aliright with me, but not a high priority.  What do you thiink?


Dan

[Marc Rochkind]

Dan--

My thinking was that once a few Metadata Presets were defined, the Metadata Preset panel would no longer be frequently accessed. All the action would be on the Metadata Panel, as it is now.

Part of my thinking is that since the metadata applies to the whole ingestion, and not to individual images, there's a limit in how much one can put in it in IIP.

Perhaps more Quick Fields, and with larger typing areas, may be what's really needed.

You could help me here by giving me an idea of what IPTC and iView fields you use on a regular basis. I had thought, perhaps erroneously, that most of them were basically never used.

--Marc

[danaltick]

Marc,

I understand your reasoning here; makes sense.  This is a design decision that requires some thought, which I will admit have not put allot into.  Currently there are only about 5 - 7 IPTC fields that might change regularly for any given ingestion.  The only one that I might have to go to the preset panels for is the license agreement for a given job, which I also put in the instruction field.  That agreement is usually fairly long.  It's really hard for me to say at this point.  For now, leave it like it is and I'll wait for the update.  As I perform more ingestions, I should be able make a better decision at that time.

The more I study this, the more I see how well you've thought it out.  Looking forward to the Windows update.

Dan