Does Camera Bits have API functionality?

[DMylesC]

My office is trying to tie our API scheduling software to auto-populate fields in Photomechanic's metadata/IPTC fields.  Does anyone know if Photomechanic supports API mechanisms?

Thanks,
Myles

[Bob Russell]

Hi Myles,

Unfortunately Photo Mechanic does not support any API mechanisms.  There might be a possible workaround if your scheduling app is able to write the IPTC metadata updates to an XMP file. Photo Mechanic can load this XMP file into the Metadata (IPTC) Template to batch update the selected files.   If you need to apply individual updates to the images, then a Code Replacement file could be created and used with the Metadata (IPTC) Template.  What are the export capabilities of your scheduling software?

Thanks,

--Bob

[DMylesC]

Hi Bob,
Unfortunately our scheduling software does not export to XMP. It only does Excel, CSV, XML, & Database.

-Myles

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Hi Myles,

It's possible that your XML is a fairly straightforward XSLT-transform away from an XMP file that can be imported directly into Photo Mechanic and applied to images.   You might manually apply the metadata you want to handle to an image in the Metadata (IPTC) Info window, and click the "Save..."  button to get an XMP file, and then use that as a basis to make an XSLT for your XML.

And as far as non-automated processes, it is pretty quick to tweak a CSV or Excel file and apply that to a group of photos in Photo Mechanic using the Code Replacement feature. There is a video about that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHyl5inFvFs

The chance of getting an API anytime soon is remote, but hopefully one of these workarounds can help save you some time.

Mick