ingest flow question

[Magnus M]

When ingesting I have a iptc template that contains {persons} in description, as I cannot enter that field until the ingest is complete this field is left blank after ingest, so how would I approach this. I would like to ingest using a template that is prefilled with data that also include variable holders I can edit after the ingest when I can enter name to be replaced in the {persons} field.

[alexmacnaughton]

Hi, I don't think it's possible to save a template to a file without completing the variable. As in your example, if you use the {person} variable in a caption and the person shown field is blank, you'll end up with a gap in your caption.

There are several workflows I would suggest, depending on the job.

If it were a job photographing a large number of speakers at a conference where I had all the names in advance, I would create folders for each speaker, then use Hot Codes to add captions, the person shown, and keywords, etc. I create folders on my computer, but Jeff Vogan has promoted a very clever way to create folders in the camera.

https://www.youtube.com/@jeffvoganphotography

Otherwise, you could just reapply the template with the person shown added.

[Dimitrije]

A while ago I accidentally discovered that while doing metadata exports, writing {{ will actually escape the variable and produce {. For example putting {{fbas} in the header will return {fbas} in the output text file. I was really hopeful this works when included in a template, but I just checked and it does not.

AFAIK escape characters aren't mentioned in any of the official documentation. I'm hopeful a dev will respond and say if {{ is an intended method of escaping {.

I think the double braces is a good solution, so even if it isn't an official feature maybe it can become one and then we can get it working in IPTC templates, info panels etc.