Metadata (EXIF/IPTC) not getting imported into tables.

Shivam Patel

I have imagick installed on my server so thankfully the EXIF metadata is retained in all the cached images.

However I cannot see the EXIF data on the image details page in my album.

• I've got Show Image EXIF Data checked in `Options->Themes` page.
• I've checked all fields to be imported in `Options->Images->Metadata` field.

For your reference, please check the image at http://nypics.in/gallery/index.php?album=manhattan&image=1-IMG_0848.JPG

This photo has all the EXIF data embedded by the camera plus a lot of IPTC fields (Title, Country, Copyright) that I embedded before uploading.
None of these fields are apparently ingested by Zenphoto - or if they are ingested, they aren't displayed on the page I listed above.

If it helps to know, I am dropping the files onto server via FTP rather than using the interface to upload it.

acrylian

How did you embed them with what tool? Some Adobe tools like Bridge (at least for me on CS3 and Mac) don't embed them correctly until you re-save the image via Photoshop. Note that we do follow the official standard, while some software prefers to do custom things. It might also be that your camera type does this so our importer does not "get" it correctly)

We cannot check your image as that is not the real full image (you must have set to protected so it is processed before being delivered which mostly clears all metadata).

Shivam Patel

Hey Acrylian,
Thanks for finding time to reply. To answer your questions:

• I used IrfanView to embed IPTC data. I also used the ubuntu 'iptc' command line tool but none seems to get parsed
• Regarding the image link I posted - What I am trying to say is that my cached images/thumbnails etc. tend to retain the original EXIF/IPTC information - because I am using imagick.
• So the point of giving that URL was that since that cached(and resized) image has all that info, definitely the original full image also has that info.

If you have some time, can you just save that image on your computer and check that it indeed has that EXIF/IPTC data. In this case then, I am wondering what prevents Zenphoto to not parse/ingest it.
Thanks

acrylian

I just looked at it with Photoshop CS3 and all I could see besides general camera info is description and keywords set to "Shivam Patel - Test".

As I assumed the image is not correctly embeded in the image. I uploaded the image here:
http://zenphoto.maltem.de/Test/ (that runs a 1.4.3 beta a few days back)
1. Your plain image imported using Imagick
2. Your image re-saved with Photoshop CS3 imported using Imagick
3. Your plain image imported using GD
4. Your image re-saved with Photoshop CS3 imported by GD

As you see each behaves differently somehow. I am not the expert on the meta data stuff so I will have to pass why this happens to my colleague sbillard.

sbillard

So far as I can tell, there should not be any dependence on the graphic library for imbedded metadata. We use the exifier library which reads the image file directly.

The typical issues with metatada are:

An unexpected character set. There is no standard for identifying the character set of the metadata unless it is stored in UTF-8. Zenphoto will assume iso-8859-1 for the unknown data, but that may not be correct. There is an option to change this default.

Metadata is stored in XMP format not in standard IPTC fields. For this you will need to use the xmpMetadata plugin.

Shivam Patel

Acrylian, thanks for doing those tests.
Sbillard, I'll try encoding the fields in UTF-8 specifically (if its not that currently) and try using xmpMetadata plugin and revert back with results.

Just FYI, I ran the second picture in http://zenphoto.maltem.de/Test/ (which acrylian uploaded) through a online EXIF viewer and that online EXIF viewer was able to parse the IPTC details in the pic:
http://regex.info/exif.cgi?imgurl=http://zenphoto.maltem.de/albums/Test/1-IMG_0848_FULL.jpg

(Scroll near the bottom of the page where various IPTC details are)

That said, I've read it in many posts that you are parsing the images using existing standards and it is possible that this online website is using other heuristics(non-standard) to gather more details out of the image.

sbillard

The data shown on this page matches what I see when I put this image in my gallery. BTW, the EXIF does say that the data is UTF8, so the character set would not be the issue.

There is XMP metadata, but it is a small subset of the EXIF and has nothing new. However, since things like title and description have multiple possible sources in the EXIF and XMP metadata, you could see differences if the XMP metadata plugin is enabled or not.

The information in the Cannon MakerNotes will be largely ignored. There are only a handfull of things that are pulled from these fields.

So, anyway, I fail to see what is wrong. Your site does not seem to list the metadata, but that may well be the theme itself.

It is a pitty that all the fields have the same data.

Shivam Patel

Hi Stephen/Malte,
I tried different themes as well, but the result is same.
Stephen, regarding your comment:

It is a pitty that all the fields have the same data.

All the IPTC fields that I embedded in this image have the same data on purpose "Shivam Patel - Test" - its not a anomaly.

What amazes me is that even if we leave IPTC data, normal EXIF data recorded by the camera isn't getting recognized.
I am sure tons of people must be using the same camera (Canon EOS series) with Zenphoto - the fact that EXIF parsing is a problem for me is strange.
I've tried other themes and the result is the same

Do you want me to look into any specific direction. I am well versed with php and web stuff. If you can give me a direction, I can dig in a bit. Also can you point out the table/field where metadata gets saved in the database ?

Thanks - Shivam.

sbillard

Well, the really strange thing is that I take your image and use it in my test gallery and ALL the data shows properly.

acrylian

As my tests show there is a difference if you have Imagick or GD enabled or if it is saved using Photoshop.

I am not familiar with the code of the graphic libaries and the exifer to know what might be different. Does the exifer libary actually use the exif php extension if available on the server or does it do its own thing always?

kagutsuchi

Imagick will preserve metadata between the original image and its processed versions, but beyond that, it does not manipulate metadata. I believe GD is not capable of doing this.

Exifer does not use the PHP extension - it is a standalone library and should be independent of server setup as it was built from the spec directly, as I understand.

I don't recall the database schema off the top of my head, but one thing to try would be to put some debug lines in the Exifer library to be sure it's pulling data correctly. You can find the script in `zp-core/exif`.

acrylian

Ok, thanks. Maybe the exifer should use the php extension if it is available? Both my live and local server have it. I could imagine that it is quite available on even standard shared hosts.