Importing Tags Using -CSV

[kblanch]

Hello, We're beginning to use an open source DAMS, and ExifTool is at the heart of it (we're a small museum). I'm trying to import tags from a CSV using the -csv command. Thanks in advance for helping me get a handle on the ExifTool magic!

I've created a CSV with my tags using --> exiftool -T -dc:title -description -r -csv "Z:\Public Assets\Test" > "Z:Public Assets\Tags.csv" and have made the needed edits in the .csv. I'm now ready to import the tags into a directory that has many subfolders.

1) I'm attempting to use this command to update images in this folder and it's subfolders.
exiftool -csv="Z:\Public Assets\Test\Metadata_imp.csv"  "Z:\Public Assets\Test\" -r

I have been wrangling with this for a few days, and reading every post I can find (this forum is an excellent resource)...but I still get this error --

C:\Windows\System32>exiftool -csv="Z:\Public Assets\Test\Metadata_imp.csv"  "Z:\Public Assets\Test\" -r
Z:/Public Assets/Test" -r: No such file or directory at script/exiftool line 2367


2) Re: formatting the CSV file for importing metadata -- if my folder paths have spaces, do I bracket the path + filename within the CSV? Could that be the problem?

Here are the first 2 lines of my CSV --
SourceFile,DC:Title
Z:/Public Assets/Test/07 Bricklayer.jpg,Rainy Wednesday 1
Z:/Public Assets/Test/ARG_35.236_Fnt_UK.jpg,Rainy Wednesday 2
Z:/Public Assets/Test/ArtStor IAP Sample/PL1_57.376_TR_T88.tif,Rainy Wednesday 9
Z:/Public Assets/Test/ArtStor IAP Sample/PL1_61.267_TR_T90IIA.tif,Rainy Wednesday 1

Would I want the SourceFile value in double quotes since it has spaces?

Thanks again. 

[Phil Harvey]

What you are doing looks good to me.

ExifTool writes the SourceFile column in the -csv output.  The names of the files in this column should be the proper format, so this shouldn't be the problem.

I'm guessing the problem may have something to do with a network drive.  It might make sense to try this with a few test files in a local directory first.

- Phil

P.S. What version of ExifTool are you using?

[kblanch]

Thanks for the reply. I'm using 9.38 on a Windows machine.
I will try to circumvent any network drive issues and run exiftool from the server (so my images will be local in that scenario).
This did work for me locally, from my C:\ Drive -- but I did not test the recursion locally.
I'll post back with what I discover....cheers!

-Kate

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Kate,

Searching the forum for "No such file or directory at script/exiftool" yields a few threads having similar troubles with the -csv option.  They all seemed satisfied in the end, but on a quick reading I couldn't identify a clear solution to this problem.

- Phil

[kblanch]

Thanks Phil. I moved to the server and by working locally and exchanging the Drive Letters (Z:\ or D:\ for UNC paths) seems to help. I'm getting a long string of new errors, which lead me to believe it's now finding the .CSV database but now can't do anything with the files in it? I will search the forum for this new error and see what I can come up with. Much obliged for your help!

New command --> exiftool -csv="DAMS/Public Assets/Test/Metadata_imp.csv"  "DAMS/Public Assets/Test/" -r
Yields this error -->

No SourceFile 'DAMS/Public Assets/Test/W/Destination/PS3_38.545_Opn_DD_T13.tif'
in imported CSV database
(canonical path: 'D:/DAMS/Public Assets/Test/W/Destination/PS3_38.545_Opn_DD_T13
.tif')

   32 directories scanned
    0 image files updated
    4 image files unchanged

[Phil Harvey]

Right.  Did you rebuild your CSV file with the files in this directory structure?

ie) does this SourceFile entry exist in the CSV file?:

DAMS/Public Assets/Test/W/Destination/PS3_38.545_Opn_DD_T13.tif

[kblanch]

Phil, thank you for the suggestion. I had not entirely rebuilt the CSV with the new directory structure. When I did -- it worked.

I still got the "canonical path" error for files in the directory but not on the CSV, which is no big deal. But it did update 7 files - so now we're cooking with fire!

No SourceFile 'DAMS/Public Assets/Test/XMP Tests/test metadata will error/PS1_DD
_T13.tif' in imported CSV database
(canonical path: 'D:/DAMS/Public Assets/Test/XMP Tests/test metadata will error/
PS1_DD_T13.tif')
   32 directories scanned
    7 image files updated

I guess I will take away these two things -- work locally / avoid network paths and use UNC paths as opposed to drive letters. And, that exporting into a CSV from the same files you want to update really does ensure you'll get a readable .csv for import.

Thanks again!

[Phil Harvey]

When I did -- it worked.

Great!

I still got the "canonical path" error for files in the directory but not on the CSV, which is no big deal.

This is the design.  It is telling you that it couldn't update these files because they don't exist in the CSV.  But I think you understand this.

work locally / avoid network paths and use UNC paths as opposed to drive letters.

Network drives should work.  I have seen some people have better success with drive letters than UNC path names.  However, there seems to be a problem for network drives in the library routine I am calling to generate the "canonical path", but the canonical path is only relevant if you don't specify the file path exactly to start with.  I am adding a patch to the next version to try to suppress the "No such file or directory" warning generated by this library routine.  I am also changing the terminology from "canonical path" to "absolute path", since this is what I am using.

And, that exporting into a CSV from the same files you want to update really does ensure you'll get a readable .csv for import.

Yes.  If it doesn't, that's a problem with ExifTool.

- Phil