Output filename based on date

[andrewj]

Hi,
I need to create output XML files where the filename is based on the image date, not the original image filename. I've tried things like the following but without success:

exiftool .......... -w output/%Y.xml *
exiftool .......... -w output/{$datetimeoriginal}.xml *

Is there any way to either:
1. Set the output filenames based on date, as above
2. Rename the output files (not the image files) using exiftool

Thanks
Andrew

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Andrew,

This must be done in 2 steps:

1) exiftool -X -w xml DIR

2) exiftool -ext xml -d %Y%m%d%H%M%S.xml "-filename<datetimeoriginal" DIR

- Phil

[Phil Harvey]

Ooops.  I just realized that this won't work because the -d option doesn't work for XML tags (since they are not pre-defined).  Darn.

There are a few work-arounds.  One is to format the date before writing the XML:

1) exiftool -X -d %Y%m%d%H%M%S -w xml DIR

2) exiftool -ext xml "-filename<$datetimeoriginal.xml" DIR

Another is to set the filemodify date, then use that:

1) exiftool -X -w xml DIR

2) exiftool -ext xml "-filemodifydate<datetimeoriginal" DIR

3) exiftool -ext xml -d %Y%m%d%H%M%S.xml "-filename<filemodifydate" DIR

There are other alternatives too, but due to the XML limitation one must be more creative than usual.

- Phil

[andrewj]

Many thanks, Phil. First option works well, and can be combined on one line using -execute.

Andrew

[andrewj]

Hi Phil,

We have an odd problem with this code, trying to use it cross-platform, which hopefully you can resolve.

The rename comand is effectively:

exiftool -ext xml "-filename<$datetimeoriginal.xml" "/Users/a/Library/Application Support/Bibble 5/CAQuest cache"

On Windows (with the right directory name) this works fine. On Mac or Linux we just get errors like "Warning: No writable tags found - /Users/a/Library/Application Support/Bibble 5/CAQuest cache/D3-1-5960ab.xml".

I thought it might be a case-sensitivity problem, and I've also tried the following, but with the same results:

exiftool -ext xml "-filename<$DateTimeOriginal.xml" "/Users/a/Library/Application Support/Bibble 5/CAQuest cache"

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Andrew

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Andrew,

I mention this every time I give a sample command:  You need single quotes around a $ symbol if you are on Mac or Linux, as opposed to double quotes on Windows.

- Phil

[andrewj]

Thanks, I'll try that.

Andrew