DC 5.8 Configuration embedding metadata in images

Owned by Mathias Mattson (MHM)
Mar 21, 2023
2 min read

Metadata can be embedded into images using ExifTool

Transcodes now supports writing DC Metadata to Embedded metadata in supported image formats.

 

Only some image formats supports metadata and DC metadata validation is needed to void Transcode Errors if MetaData does not conform to Exif specifications.

See ExifTool documentation https://exiftool.org/

 

Disclaimers:

  • This is an advanced feature DC must be configured so that metafields used for Meta Embed is validated, to avoid job errors.

  • Data Transformations must be performed using AutomationWorkflow

  • AW must be used to republish relevant assets when metadata, used in embed, changes, these metafields is not part of the reuse logic as that would severely general transcode performance.

  • ExifTool is slow so use of this feature will impact transcode speeds.

 

 

Embed Metadata Definition

This feature is configured on System tools / Transcode Settings

Syntax

-<ExifTool tag>=(<MetaFieldID|MetaFieldGuid>)[:format_string]

Where only the dataTypes Float and DateTime supports format_string. See C# ToString format specifications

ExifTool Tags generally have the format Area:Tag see ExifTool for list of tags

https://exiftool.org/TagNames/index.html

IgnoreTagErrors

The optional IgnoreTagErrors controls how the BatchSystem responds to errors from ExifTools if IgnoreTagErrors=false the Job is failed if ExifTool reports any error otherwise the error is ignored and the resulting file is copied to output (or the source file).

 

The following DC MetaData Types are supported

DataType

Comment

DataType

Comment

Int

 

String

 

URL

 

Bit

 

Link

 

Text

 

Note

 

DateTime

Format string available

Float

Format string available

EditComboValue

only text part supported

Combo

only text part supported

ComboValue

only text part supported

Running ExifTool as commandline for testing purposes: (on the batch server)

  1. Create a workfolder and copy the test source image to this folder

  2. Copy Exiftool.exe to the workfolder

  3. create a text file with utf8 encoding named args.arg

    C:\exifToolTest\sampleimage.jpg -IPTC:Headline=Some headline text -IPTC:ReleaseDate=2021:02:15 -IPTC:ReleaseTime=13:44:55 -CodedCharacterSet=UTF8

4. From a command Prompt in the workfolder Run the Command;

exiftool.exe -E -@ args.arg

This should perform an inplace embed of metadata

Tip: Use GIMP to verify that metadata has been written to the image as expected

https://www.gimp.org/

Image / Metadata / View Metadata

Logs

Output from ExifTool is logged in the JobLog. see DigiBatch status in MM5 find the job named DigiExiftoolJobs.JobExiftoolCommandFile