ExifTool Forum

[Originally posted by vik on 2007-04-11 23:12:22-07]

Dear ExifTool members,

I am having a problem viewing my modified iptc data.
Both test files below should contain the following iptc data and viewing them in other
online tools gives me the data below.

perl exiftool -IPTC:All goodTest.JPEG

Application Record Version      : 1
Category                        : A
Originating Program             : AP Preserver
Object Name                     : 070217-A-4520N-265
Keywords                        : NXJ
Special Instructions            : Cleared for public release by Sgt Boyer,MNC-I,
 PAO/28th,PAD,DSN 318-822-1111 E-mail,jacob.boyer@iraq.centcom.mil

However, I seem to only be getting the following fields shown in exiftool for the badTest.jpg.

perl exiftool -IPTC:All badTest.JPEG

Application Record Version      : 1
Category                        : A
Originating Program             : AP Preserver

Any insight into this problem will be a great help.

I have written the link below to a zip containing the  bad test file (not all iptc fields are shown) and a good test file.

http://download.yousendit.com/FFB21113490C2976

Regards,

Vik

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2007-04-12 11:54:48-07]

Hi Vik,

Thanks for the samples.

There are two problems:  1) You must use the -a option to see all tags (otherwise duplicates are supressed, and some IPTC information is duplicated in other formats), and 2) there is an apparent format error in this IPTC information which prevents ExifTool from reading some of it.

You can use the -v option to see all the details.  Currently, the warning is only printed in verbose mode.  (Maybe I should change this.)  But once ExifTool encounters the unknown record number (255), it assumes the rest of the information is corrupted and stops trying to read it.  Regardless of whether or not it is legal to use indefined record (dataset) numbers, the IPTC specification states that record numbers must be in sequence, so there should be no records after 255 (the maximum record number) anyway.  So your file is definitely written incorrectly.

- Phil