Bug 409663

Summary: Faster Metadata editing interface
Product: [Applications] digikam Reporter: Peter Jessup <peter.m.jessup>
Component: Plugin-Generic-MetadataEditAssignee: Digikam Developers <digikam-bugs-null>
Status: REPORTED ---    
Severity: wishlist CC: caulier.gilles, metzpinguin
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 6.1.0   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: unspecified   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Peter Jessup 2019-07-10 00:52:17 UTC 
SUMMARY
Currently metadata editing is quite a long process in most editors and I've looked at. Here's my challenge - I am digitizing hundreds of strips of old negative. I want a metadata editor that allows me to quickly edit mainly:
- date taken
- location data
- caption
- type of negative may be interesting
This data varies from image to image so for most current editors this means navigating into a dialog for each image and also in the cas of dates, updating several fields.

What would be very useful would be an editable grid for metadata. This would ideally include a selector dialog for the columns  to be displayed (both 
read only and editable EXIF, IPTC etc). Ideally the view would include a thumbnail image or the selected row could link to a preview panel. 

Another nice feature would be the automatic (configurable) replication of data between meta fields (e.g. copy EXIT date to IPTC date), so you could enter one date to update several date fields.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Comment 1 Maik Qualmann 2019-07-10 05:59:55 UTC 
Much of this has been added to the Metadata Editor by digiKam, e.g. the adjustment from the EXIF date to IPTC and / or XMP date. The number of fields can not be restricted. I would first create a template with things that are the same in all images and apply this with the BQM on the images and then make individual editing with the Metadata Editor.

Maik
Comment 2 Peter Jessup 2019-07-10 07:44:07 UTC 
Hi Maik,
I see those options but what I'm looking for is slightly different. The current metadata editor requires each individual image to be opened in a dialog, navigating in and out of each image file.

Think of it this way, say the current "Table" view had the ability to add editable controls linked to the EXIF, IPTCX, XMP metadata fields which the user could update and tab copy/paste between. The user could then hit an save/update button to apply the metadata changes from the grid for many images and very efficiently much like updating a spreadsheet.

The paradigm is where the exact metadata is not commonly shared between images, but is likely closely correlational - like date taken, location, caption, etc. The ability to edit the metadata for many correlated images in a single grid becomes quite powerful.
Comment 3 caulier.gilles 2019-07-10 08:15:17 UTC 
Hi Peter,

There is already a file about this whish. The goal is to apply the same changes on a set of files at the same time. The editor must take a care about the chnage to apply for each items, depending of values already assigned in metadata.

If you play with CLementine audio player, there is a MP3 tags editor which work exactly like this with a 3 states editor for each metadata tags to changes. We need exactly this king of rules in digiKam metadata editor.

See bug #372158 for details, where i explain also this plan for the future...

Gilles Caulier