Is there any way to allow "literal capture" of field values in Hot Codes?

[yichen_chen]

Greetings,

I use Live Ingest with a single watch folder containing subfolders like xinhua, live, and agencies. Each subfolder uses a different Hot Code set based on namespace. Photos from xinhua already contain valid Headline and Caption, which should be preserved. Photos in live have no Headline/Caption and need to be auto-filled using templates.

When I put {head} or {caption} in a Hot Code field to “preserve the original value,” Photo Mechanic treats these as dynamic references rather than literal values. This can lead to unexpected behavior (e.g., infinite substitution loops, blank fields, or metadata corruption), especially when the source field is empty or when combined with other variables.

It would be extremely helpful if Hot Codes supported a way to capture the current value of a field as static text, rather than inserting a live reference. For example:
Use a new syntax like {=head} or {head!} to mean “insert the current value of Headline as plain text”

This would enable safe conditional-like workflows within a single IPTC template—preserving existing metadata where present, while generating defaults where absent—without requiring multiple ingest tasks or external scripts.

Thanks for considering this enhancement. Photo Mechanic is already indispensable in our newsroom workflow, and this small change would make Hot Codes even more powerful for complex ingest scenarios.

[dennis]

When I put {head} or {caption} in a Hot Code field to “preserve the original value,” Photo Mechanic treats these as dynamic references rather than literal values. This can lead to unexpected behavior (e.g., infinite substitution loops, blank fields, or metadata corruption), especially when the source field is empty or when combined with other variables.

It would be extremely helpful if Hot Codes supported a way to capture the current value of a field as static text, rather than inserting a live reference. For example:
Use a new syntax like {=head} or {head!} to mean “insert the current value of Headline as plain text”

Thank you for your continued support!

When you are editing in the Metadata (IPTC) Info dialog, if you enter variable(s) in field(s) then you can "evaluate" all variables by holding down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows), and the OK button will change to "Eval".

But when configuring metadata templates, of course there is no particular photo that can be referenced to evaluate.  So I am a bit confused.  We cannot insert a "live reference" until we have a photo, and then we do of course insert the current value.

Maybe your issue might better be solved with our tech support team with additional info (including examples), and you can ask them to pass the details to me.

Regards,

--dennis