Standard metadata vocabularies

[jrp]

There are a number of fields in the IPTC dialogue that appear to take standard "controlled" vocabulary settings.

Is there a step-by-step guide as to how to get the settings from iptc.org et al into Photo Mechanic, to occupy what is otherwise a fairly arid workspace? Tx.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Hi there,

Here is a description of how the fields map to IPTC standards. Is this what you are looking for?

http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=IPTC_map

-Mick

[jrp]

Thanks.  No, I am looking for the newcodes.org codes referred to in that link in a form that Photomecanic can use.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

I've been doing some digging on the IPTC newscodes. I see that in the documentation, plaintext is not an available format for download
http://dev.iptc.org/NewsCodes-CV-Server -- Photo Mechanic saves and loads CVs in a text format.

http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Structured_Keywords
 It must be a text file encoded in UTF-8 which means it is fully Unicode compatible and supports any language. The layout of the file is simply a tab-delimited set of words with special wrapper characters that determine the type of item the word is. Simple items (keyword items) have no wrapper character at all. Category items (items used for organizational purposes only and are not part of the hierarchical path) are wrapped in ‘[’ and ‘]’. Synonym items (items that are synonymous with their sibling item) are wrapped in ‘{’ and ‘}’. The easiest way to see this in action is to Save out the built-in structured keywords to a new file and then open it up in a text editor and see for yourself.

I know there are some XML-to-text converters out there. That would be one next avenue to explore, but perhaps others have more experience with the IPTC CVs.

-Mick

[jrp]

It would be good to get a set of files that can be imported to pre-populate the PhotoMechanic dialogues with the standard IPTC settings.  In the meantime, it would be good to update the documentation to avoid wasting peoples' time, referring them to a web site that does not, in the event, give them a usable solution.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

That is a good suggestion, jrp.  If we do link to newscodes.org somewhere, we should clarify or remove the link. Can you point me to where you saw it in our documentation?  (Edit: I see where it is mentioned in the descriptions from the IPTC. That does clarify things somewhat. Doing some more poking around now))

 I would be very interested in hearing from someone who actually uses the data at newscodes.org to better understand what info is there and how it is used.

Thanks for opening the topic and for your patience. There is definitely room for us to learn more about these IPTC controlled vocabularies, but until we know more about how they are used, it is difficult to tell how how we can help. 

Incidentally, there is a link in the Photo Mechanic documentation to http://controlledvocabulary.com which is completely different from newscodes.org (and independent of Camera Bits)  and does in fact offer a way to pre-populate the structured keywords panel, albeit not for free. because compiling and maintaining that data is nontrivial.  That data is also not "IPTC standard" to the extend that newscodes.org apparently is meant to be.

Mick

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

I did some more poking around.  I was able to create an XSL stylesheet that would take the RDF XML from the IPTC site and output a plain text list of the labels.  For example, this is the output of the IPTC Scene values:  http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/scene?format=rdfxml&lang=us

headshot
half-length
full-length
profile
rear view
single
couple
two
group
general view
panoramic view
aerial view
under-water
night scene
satellite
exterior view
interior view
close-up
action
performing
posing
symbolic
off-beat
movie scene

To load those into Photo Mechanic, you would save them in a file. (Suggested name: IPTCscene.txt)    Then, in your IPTC Stationery Pad, you'd click the DOWN ARROW next to IPTC Scene and Choose "Edit IPTC Scenes"  then "Import" and navigate to your text file (IPTCscene.txt)    The then IPTC scene values would be would populated in the down arrow for that field.

I realize this is not very automated at the moment, and I will look into creating a tool to automate some of this. But, if anyone would care to make use of the XSL, it's this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
      xmlns:skos="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#"
      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
      xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"
      xmlns:owl="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#"
      xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
  <body>
    <xsl:for-each select="//rdf:Description">
          <xsl:value-of select="skos:prefLabel"/>
          <br />
    </xsl:for-each>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

-Mick

[jrp]

Thanks, Mick.  I think that providing an easy way of populating key fields from the standard vocabulary could help to make Photo Mechanics feel a bit more lived in, rather than the rather empty shell it is now, and make it stand out further from the crowd.