edit xmp metadata: developers needed

[Ian Wood]

I'm primarily a photographer, so know *a bit* about XMP, although not  
enough to do the actual work...

One thing that would be MUCH easier would be to use XMP sidecar files  
- instead of embedding the data in the actual image file, you have a  
bog-standard XML file sitting next to it in the folder, with an  
identical name but the extension '.xmp'. This would solve all your  
binary data problems in a stroke, and also solves potential image  
corruption issues when writing data back into the image file.

Ian

On 27 Sep 2006, at 10:14, Henk van der Velden wrote:

> Good day all,
>
> Can anyone help me with editing XMP metadata in image files (JPEG)?
>
> I've searched the archives and I've found some messages about EXIF  
> data and IPTC metadata. But it looks like no one has done XMP  
> reading / editing yet. It wouldn't perhaps be too difficult, since  
> XMP data is 'just' an XML tree put somewhere into the JPEG binary  
> data. But I have no knowledge of binary data, so I can't figure out  
> how to add these metadata to a (JPEG) file.
>
> Another option might be Image Magick. If an external could be built  
> around the Image Magick libraries, that would provide another way  
> to read and edit XMP data.
>
> I need this facility for a new application we are going to build  
> for a couple of local cultural institutions. We need to describe  
> lots of historical photographs, and it looks like the best way to  
> store these descriptions is as metadata inside the files. These  
> images are also to be used in educational applications, where  
> children can read - and eventually edit - the metadata.