Adding information from other sources

[BrentT]

I have a command like this:

exiftool  -csv -r -filecreatedate -filesize -imagesize -software -gpslatitude -gpslongitude -LastKeywordXMP -createdate -rating -exposuretime -fnumber -focallength -iso %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 >> c:\vb6\Naturalist\Batch\Metadata.txt

This gets me the metadata from the files I want and stores it in metadata.txt.

However, I have additional information from a spreadsheet that I want added to the metadata.txt.

Can I add something like this to the exiftool command?
-supplementtag:Species="Subarctic Bluet" so that the output is this:

SourceFile,FileCreateDate,FileSize,ImageSize,Software,GPSLatitude,GPSLongitude,Species
c:/My Pictures/2014/2014-05-03-C/DCIM11[N4634132W07929876T3FE9F604H012B99].jpg,2014:05:03 14:15:21-04:00,633 kB,1536x2048,VISUALON V2.0,"46 deg 20' 28.75"" N","79 deg 17' 55.53"" W",."SubarcticBluet"

These supplement tags are from a spreadsheet file and will be stored in a database rather than the media files ultimately.

Also is it possible to suppress the line "SourceFile,FileCreateDate,FileSize,ImageSize,Software,GPSLatitude,GPSLongitude,Species" as in my software I want to append file by file in some cases to metadata.txt?

Thanks, Brent

[BrentT]

Alternatively I could pipe the output from Exiftool to the clipboard and then I'll be able to manipulate the text in my software.  That should work.

[BrentT]

Piping the data to the clipboard didn't work as I am unable to get the output from Exiftool, but I still can read the results of exiftool, alter it with string manipulation and save it again.

[Hayo Baan]

Have you already gotten what you need, or do you still need help with something?

By the way, if you're on a mac, it is easy to pipe the output of a program to the clipboard using pbcopy. But alas, I see you are on Windows and I don't know if there is a similar command there 

[StarGeek]

Windows vista and up has a Clip command.  XP can download it.   See this article which has the link.

[BrentT]

I figured it out.  I used Exiftool as normal to collect all it information I wanted it to extract and put it in a file.  Then I read this file line by line and tack on the parts from the spreadsheet.  The new line is added to a long string.  Then I save the whole string into a new file and I'm done.  It is a bit of a hack but it works.  Here is the code I came up with:

Sub PImportMediaDiary()
  Dim xlApp As Object, wb As Workbook, ws As Worksheet
  Dim t As Long, Metamake As String, StartPoint As Long, EndPoint As Long, FilenameWhole As String
  Dim LineOfFile As String, Metadata As String, Filename() As String
 
  ' Set up reading from spreadsheet
  Set xlApp = New Excel.Application
  Set wb = xlApp.Workbooks.Open("c:\diary.xls")
  Set ws = wb.Worksheets("Sheet4")  'Specify your worksheet name
  StartPoint = ws.Cells(2, 1)
  EndPoint = ws.Cells(1, 1)
  Set ws = wb.Worksheets("Sheet1")
 
  ' Get basic data
  If Dir$(PW.Metadata) <> "" Then Kill PW.Metadata
  Metamake = "exiftool -csv -filecreatedate -filesize -imagesize -software -gpslatitude -gpslongitude -LastKeywordXMP -createdate -rating -exposuretime -fnumber -focallength -iso "
  For t = StartPoint To EndPoint
    FilenameWhole = ws.Cells(t, 1)
    If Len(FilenameWhole) > 4 Then
      If Mid$(FilenameWhole, Len(FilenameWhole) - 3, 1) = "." Then
        Metamake = Metamake + " " + Chr$(34) + FilenameWhole + Chr$(34)
      End If
    End If
    If Len(Metamake) > 8000 Or t = EndPoint Then
      Metamake = Metamake + " >> c:\vb6\Naturalist\Batch\metadata.txt"
      If Dir$(PW.Metamake) <> "" Then Kill PW.Metamake
      Open PW.Metamake For Append As #META
      Print #META, Metamake
      Close #META
      ShellCommand = DefaultDirectory + "\batch\metamake.bat"
      ShellWait ShellCommand
      Metamake = "exiftool -csv -filecreatedate -filesize -imagesize -software -gpslatitude -gpslongitude -LastKeywordXMP -createdate -rating -exposuretime -fnumber -focallength -iso "
     
    End If
  Next
 
  ' Add in other data from the diary
  Open PW.Metadata For Input As #META
  For t = StartPoint To EndPoint
    If EOF(META) Then Exit For
    Line Input #META, LineOfFile
   
    If Mid$(LineOfFile, 2, 1) <> ":" Then
      Metadata = Metadata + Left$(LineOfFile, Len(LineOfFile) - 2) + ",Species,Comment" + Chr$(13) + Chr$(10)
      Line Input #META, LineOfFile
    End If
    Filename() = Split(LineOfFile, ",")
    Do Until Filename(0) = Replace(ws.Cells(t, 1), "\", "/")
      t = t + 1
    Loop
    Metadata = Metadata + Left$(LineOfFile, Len(LineOfFile) - 2) + ","
    If ws.Cells(t, 4) <> "" Then
      Metadata = Metadata + Chr$(34) + ws.Cells(t, 4) + Chr$(34) + ","
    Else
      Metadata = Metadata + ","
    End If
    If ws.Cells(t, 5) <> "" Then
      Metadata = Metadata + Chr$(34) + ws.Cells(t, 5) + Chr$(34) + Chr$(13) + Chr$(10)
    Else
      Metadata = Metadata + Chr$(13) + Chr$(10)
    End If
  Next
  Close #META
  Kill PW.Metadata
  Open PW.Metadata For Append As #META
  Print #META, Metadata
  Close #META
 
  ' Clean up Excel stuff
  xlApp.Quit
  Set ws = Nothing
  Set wb = Nothing
  Set xlApp = Nothing
End Sub

[Phil Harvey]

Thanks for posting your solution.

- Phil