Data manipulation like renaming or tag synchronisation with pictures on flickr

[irinaonline]

I wonder, if I could rename my pictures on flickr with a simple script.

My goal is to synchronize them at some point, as there are tons of tags at flickr and tons on my local pictures.

As the names of the pictures at flickr (description) differ from the names of the local pictures, it would be a good starting point to have them renamed with a new naming structure.

Does exiftool support anyhow this kind of data manipulation and if yes, are there scripts available?

[Phil Harvey]

Yes, you can rename image based on metadata.  A command to set the file name to the XMP Description is:

exiftool "-filename<${description;}.%e" DIR

See this page for some information about the file renaming feature (although this page mainly deals with renaming based on date/time tags).

- Phil

[irinaonline]

Phil, I meant the pictures at the servers at flickr, not the local ones

[Phil Harvey]

Sorry, I don't know how to rename a picture on Flickr.

- Phil

[StarGeek]

Your best bet is to set the metadata in the file before you upload the image to Flickr, as any changes you make on Flickr will not be saved to the file if you have to download it at a later date. See this recent thread for some tips.

Trying to sync data between Flickr and local files would be difficult at best.  You would have to do some actual programming of some sort and if the names of the local files are different from the online name, then I doubt it could be automated.  Knowledge of Python would probably be the best bet, as then you could use Scrapy to download data easily in a JSON format which exiftool could then read.

Also take note that what you are calling filename is filled by the filename only if other metadata isn't available in the file.  Specifically, Flickr will fill that property with IPTC:Headline, IPTC:ObjectName, and XMP-dc:Title first if those tags are available.