Cumulus Not Importing Metadata

[alash]

For several months now I've been working with my Canto Cumulus service provider to try and figure out why metadata created by Photomechanic (which I've been usually successfully with no problems for several years) is no longer being imported into my Cumulus digital photo catalog. First Canto said it wasn't a problem with their software, then Canto said that the problem would be fixed with the next upgrade, and then Canto said:

"When you store metadata in an asset the application that you use places the information in a certain part of the file. So, when writing with Adobe applications the data is placed in the top part of the code. Cumulus is programmed to only look in this location for metadata and not other locations in the files source code. So, when the user writes the metadata with another application - the information is stored in a part of the file that Cumulus is not programmed to look/locate and that is why it generally will not work properly. If the metadata is added with an Adobe application then all of the IPTC information should store upon cataloging but not other applications."

Are you aware of this issue and what can be done to resolve this? Canto is saying that I have to use Adobe applications only to add metadata which is ridiculous for our workflow. I now have thousands of images with metadata not accessible or searchable using Canto Cumulus which is very frustrating indeed.

[Kirk Baker]

For several months now I've been working with my Canto Cumulus service provider to try and figure out why metadata created by Photomechanic (which I've been usually successfully with no problems for several years) is no longer being imported into my Cumulus digital photo catalog. First Canto said it wasn't a problem with their software, then Canto said that the problem would be fixed with the next upgrade, and then Canto said:

"When you store metadata in an asset the application that you use places the information in a certain part of the file. So, when writing with Adobe applications the data is placed in the top part of the code. Cumulus is programmed to only look in this location for metadata and not other locations in the files source code. So, when the user writes the metadata with another application - the information is stored in a part of the file that Cumulus is not programmed to look/locate and that is why it generally will not work properly. If the metadata is added with an Adobe application then all of the IPTC information should store upon cataloging but not other applications."

Are you aware of this issue and what can be done to resolve this? Canto is saying that I have to use Adobe applications only to add metadata which is ridiculous for our workflow. I now have thousands of images with metadata not accessible or searchable using Canto Cumulus which is very frustrating indeed.

What file types are you captioning?
What types of metadata are you using?  IPTC?  XMP?  Both?

Canto's parsing code sounds fundamentally flawed to me and their response sounds like a cop-out.

I'll be happy to assist you in any way possible.

-Kirk

[alash]

Almost entirely JPGs with a few Nikon RAW (NEF) files. Mostly IPTC (I think) because I do 99% of my metadata capture with PhotoMechanic and rarely use Adobe products to do the work. I'm asking my Cumulus guru to step in and help out with the technical details. But any info you can provide to help me recapture tons of metadata with in the Cumulus catalog would be greatly appreciated. I'll try to answer the questions as best I can.

[Kirk Baker]

Almost entirely JPGs with a few Nikon RAW (NEF) files. Mostly IPTC (I think) because I do 99% of my metadata capture with PhotoMechanic and rarely use Adobe products to do the work. I'm asking my Cumulus guru to step in and help out with the technical details. But any info you can provide to help me recapture tons of metadata with in the Cumulus catalog would be greatly appreciated. I'll try to answer the questions as best I can.

I'm leaving for the weekend, but if you want to send me a sample image that doesn't import properly that would be great.  I'll check back with you on Monday.

-Kirk

[alash]

I will be leaving Monday morning for a conference and will not be back in until Monday, May 5. I will try to check this periodically while I'm gone and I'm asking my tech support guy to also comment on this. Here is a sample image.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[sybyl]

I am a reseller for Canto, and also the one who works with and for alash, and I want to explain this as well as I can. Canto is able to import all of the metadata added by Adobe products because it always writes the metadata to the top part of the header of the code within the asset in the same place. Canto developers complain that they are unable to import all of your metadata because it does not match the same criteria, and they don't wish to search through the entire file. If your data was consistently written to the top, in the same manner, then it would be found and imported. This is the explanation which was given to me when I was trying top track down the problem from Canto. 

[dennis]

If Canto Cumulus is "only looking at the top part of the header of the code within the asset" then this is a bug in Cumulus.  The example JPEG you posted has a lot of Flashpix data embedded in the JPEG, and Photo Mechanic generally skips over this data, and any Exif record, when inserting the IPTC and XMP.  In this photo the IPTC record (inside of a Photoshop resource) is more than 160K into the file.  If Cumulus is only looking at the top part of the file (say first 64K) then it won't find this data.  There is nothing wrong with putting the IPTC data deep into the JPEG as long as it is within the application marker section.  Photo Mechanic is consistent with its implementation and has been for more than a decade now.  Cumulus needs to dig deeper and not make some bogus assumption that the IPTC data is at the top part of the file.

--dennis

[alash]

Thank you for looking into this for me. I have issued my complaint with Canto but without any changes to the Cumulus software—that will go back to finding all the metadata—I will most likely have to find another metadata workflow solution that does not include PM (which is quite upsetting.) If anything changes with Canto's new XMP metadata policy, I will certainly keep you informed. Thanks again.

[photographxgrl]

Hello. I may be of some help as I successfully use PM and Cumulus every day. We fill in IPTC and XMP data using PM (love this fast app!) AND I often do my keywording in PM, too. Then we catalog into Cumulus and the IPTC and XMP data show up in our Cumulus records. I've linked the structured keyword field in PM to the keyword list in Cumulus as well.

Have you prepped your catalogs for IPTC and EXIF? That is where I would start.

Laura