edit keywords

[Archive]

[Originally posted by andre2p on 2008-10-05 15:21:41-07]

Can Exiftool be used to convert keywords that contain slashes (/) to using a period instead?

Example:  IPTC keywords: Family/Dad; Places/Parks/Yosemite to Family.Dad; Places.Parks.Yosemite

I am trying to export photos to Photoshop Elements, and my keywords are not getting imported because of the slashes.

Thanks!
AC

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-05 18:23:33-07]

You can do any sort of value manipulations that you want with
user-defined tags.  The following config file will do what you
are looking for:

Code:

%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined = (
    'Image::ExifTool::Composite' => {
        NewKeywords => {
            Require => 'Keywords',
            ValueConv => q{
                my @list = ref $val eq 'ARRAY' ? @$val : ($val);
                tr{/}{.} foreach @list;
                return \@list;
            }
        },
    }
);

And use this command line to fix your keywords (where
FILE is one or more files or directory names):

Code:

exiftool "-keywords<newkeywords" FILE

Read the config
file documentation for details on how to install a config file.

I hope this helps.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by janott on 2008-10-09 19:37:14-07]

Hi Phil,

I would like to do the same thing as the OP, only the other way round: I need to replace the dots used as IPTC keyword separators by slashes (for migration to another program).

So I tried using your config file with only dot and slash changing places in the following line:

Code:

tr{.}{/} foreach @list;

When entering

Code:

exiftool "-keywords<newkeywords" path/file

I get the following error message:

Code:

Can't use string ("Keywords") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use at /usr/share/perl5/Image/ExifTool.pm line 1344, <EXIFTOOL_FILE> line 7.

What went wrong?

Thanks

Jan

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-09 20:29:17-07]

Hi Jan,

My guess is that you're using a really old version of exiftool.
This should work with 7.00 or later.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by janott on 2008-10-09 20:55:13-07]

Thanks, Phil,

you guessed right. I used 6.90, with the actual version it works fine.

Can I use this method as well to replace not only single characters, but also longer strings?

Jan

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-09 23:15:15-07]

If you change "tr" to "s" then you can replace longer strings:

tr = translate (a character at a time)

s = substitute (whole strings)

The only trick is that the substitutions take a regular expression, so
some characters have special meanings ( . * ? + brackets etc) and must be
escaped with a backslash.

If you want to learn more, check the Perl docs.

- Phil