This is not a major issue and most people will probably think it isn't a problem. But:

I am loading thousands of photos into zenphoto and I am finding it easier to add/edit the photo tags/keywords using a third party editor. However the issue I'm asking about is that nearly all of these editors require the keywords to be entered as a string rather than a list.

When I enter the keyword string, I separate the keywords with a comma, but zenphoto still reads them as one tag unlike when entered as a list zenphoto reads them as separate tags.

Is there another separator I can use or is this just the way zenphoto reads this type of input?

Just tested with Photoshop and that works fine.
Which editor are you using?

At present I'm trying XnView, but I've tried a couple of others that all required 'string' input of keywords.

I'm also using IrfanView which does allow 'list' input and this is fine, but I'm having problems with the Batch Function.

Does photoshop use comma separators?

It is possible that the issue is with the editors I am trying and not zenphoto.

In Photoshop I use a comma separator but a semicolon is also possible.
I tried XnView with a comma separator and that works too.
Note that if you change metadata [b]after[/b] uploading you'll have to use the [i]Refresh Metadata[/i] utility to update the images.
It's a button on the [i]Overview[/i] page.

Btw: I see you still have this in your [i]style.css[/i]:
`
.album:nth-child(2n) {
clear: both;
}
`
Please remove it as it is not correct. Sorry.

Thanks

I've corrected the style.css.

It's such a shame that zenphoto doesn't have a built-in script to write the metadata to the photos as well as the database. If the batch facility was modified so that ALL metadata could be edited and written to the photo at the same time, it would make life a lot easier and avoid the need for 3rd party software.

I'll try XnView again.

Zenphoto's policy is generally to not change the full images uploaded. Since it is strongely recommended to have local backup of everything uploaded to your site, actual apps for editing may be much more convenient to edit that before uploading.

Unless I am mistaken it is not that simple to do this with PHP at all. I admit not being a photographer at all I rarely use EXif data myself.

I understand your policy, but the reason I'm using an editing app is because if I spent months tagging and labeling my photos in zenphoto and then for whatever reason used them in any other gallery software, I would have to tag them all again. Therefore for me, editing the metadata BEFORE uploading to zenphoto, is as essential as making backups.

Moving off track a bit now, i noticed in your reply to another topic, you mentioned a new release of zenphoto; when will this be and are there any hints about what changes/upgrades will be in it?

Yes, but your way using tagging independently from Zenphoto or any other online solution is exactly what I would recommend ;-)

you mentioned a new release of zenphoto; when will this be and are there any hints about what changes/upgrades will be in it?

Sorry, no date set for that as we probably won't be able to keep it anyway. We might post something info about it later on. Although it will be a major upgrade it probably will still mostly be compatible with the current release.

As you may have realized, I am new to this and I don't want to spend my time bombarding you and your team with questions about themes etc if I'll have to start again with the new release.

Sure, no problem. But that's what this forum is for ;-)

You might try a semicolon. The IPTC spec says either comma or semicolon. Personally I use Adobe Bridge, but it stores keyword metadata in XMP format as an array.

ALternatively you could write a plugin that applies a filter to `image_metadata`. This filter would "explode" the linear tag list that your editor seems to be creating and store that array as the image's tags.

Hi,

I just started using zenphoto and was surprised, that the tags/keywords are not seperated. Instead I have keywords like
"Henry,Oberschleißheim,Orte,Personen,Spielplatz,Tätigkeit,klettern" -> as one String

Keywords are set in digikam and digikam writes an XMP file next to the raw file.
Then darktable export the JPEG and writes the keywords into the jpg.

When examining the Keywords with exiftool it shows this way:

exiftool -s -G image.jpg
[XMP] Categories : <Categories><Category Assigned="0">Tätigkeit<Category Assigned="1">klettern</Category></Category><Category Assigned="0">Orte<Category Assigned="1">Oberschleißheim</Category><Category Assigned="1">Spielplatz</Category></Category><Category Assigned="0">Personen<Category Assigned="1">Henry</Category></Category></Categories>
[XMP] LastKeywordXMP : Tätigkeit/klettern, Orte/Spielplatz, Orte/Oberschleißheim, Personen/Henry
[XMP] TagsList : Tätigkeit/klettern, Orte/Spielplatz, Orte/Oberschleißheim, Personen/Henry
[XMP] CatalogSets : Tätigkeit|klettern, Orte|Spielplatz, Orte|Oberschleißheim, Personen|Henry
[XMP] Subject : Henry, Oberschleißheim, Orte, Personen, Spielplatz, Tätigkeit, klettern
[XMP] HierarchicalSubject : Orte|Oberschleißheim, Orte|Spielplatz, Personen|Henry, Tätigkeit|klettern
[IPTC] Keywords : Henry,Oberschleißheim,Orte,Personen,Spielplatz,Tätigkeit,klettern

As you can see, comma is being used as seperator.
What to do here?

Sadly image metadata is not a fixed standard so camera and so the separator is not either. Zenphoto will generally recognize semmicolons which generally follows what for example Adobe programs use by default when editing EXIF/IPTC data.