IPTC Keywords With Numbers

emalvick

For years I've been categorizing images with IMatch and using the categories to create my IPTC keywords. I was using Flickr and am now trying out Smugmug.

With Flickr all keywords, multi-word, those with numbers (years, camera models, etc) were applied when uploaded.

With Smugmug, the multi-word keywords work fine but any keywords with numbers are completely ignored.

Is there anyway to get photos that are already keyworded in IPTC to upload with all their keywords even if they have numbers? I can't easily go through and selectively add quotes to the IPTC for all my files as that would break some internal ability for my database to function since a few programs and sites I use can't handle quotes.

I tried to find some information in these forums and on the help site, but it seems that either I am missing an easy solution or people are not having this problem?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

gluwater

emalvick wrote:

For years I've been categorizing images with IMatch and using the categories to create my IPTC keywords. I was using Flickr and am now trying out Smugmug.

With Flickr all keywords, multi-word, those with numbers (years, camera models, etc) were applied when uploaded.

With Smugmug, the multi-word keywords work fine but any keywords with numbers are completely ignored.

Is there anyway to get photos that are already keyworded in IPTC to upload with all their keywords even if they have numbers? I can't easily go through and selectively add quotes to the IPTC for all my files as that would break some internal ability for my database to function since a few programs and sites I use can't handle quotes.

I tried to find some information in these forums and on the help site, but it seems that either I am missing an easy solution or people are not having this problem?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

Hi emalvick and welcome to Dgrin.

This is a great question. Unfortunately our system needs quotes around the numbers in your keywords in order to handle them correctly. It sounds like you've already seen this page but here it is, click on "I want all the details": http://www.smugmug.com/help/keywords-tags. It will show you how we interpret keywords using different syntax.

Here's another related link to a wiki page that describes how to use the search correctly: http://wiki.smugmug.net/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1572960.

I know it's not optimal but you can edit your keywords once you have uploaded your images. You can click edit next to the keywords and then add the quotes to them so they will function properly. I wish I had a better solution for you but I don't at this time.

emalvick

gluwater wrote:

Hi emalvick and welcome to Dgrin.

This is a great question. Unfortunately our system needs quotes around the numbers in your keywords in order to handle them correctly. It sounds like you've already seen this page but here it is, click on "I want all the details": http://www.smugmug.com/help/keywords-tags. It will show you how we interpret keywords using different syntax.

Here's another related link to a wiki page that describes how to use the search correctly: http://wiki.smugmug.net/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1572960.

I know it's not optimal but you can edit your keywords once you have uploaded your images. You can click edit next to the keywords and then add the quotes to them so they will function properly. I wish I had a better solution for you but I don't at this time.

Thanks, but the whole point of trying out Smugmug was for things to be better than what is on Flickr. Having to edit each image's keywords, especially when I am looking at 1000's of images is in no way better.

This has been the only site I've seen so far that has this type of limitation with having numbers in keywords and it makes it really tough when everything else seems ideal here.

I've seen a couple of past threads about this issue, and I just can't believe that in the few years these threads span that this issue as not been improved with at least some flexibility in allowing numbers into basic keywords (i.e. without having to use the quotes as special formatting).

I'm not sure what makes them so special that they have to be removed or ignored. I can understand the idea as it relates to file names, but that is because presumably each image would have a unique keyword. However, when people have keywords in IPTC, they are presumably responsible enough to make sure that not each and every image would have a unique number in it and that a number is there for a reason.

jfriend

emalvick wrote:

Thanks, but the whole point of trying out Smugmug was for things to be better than what is on Flickr. Having to edit each image's keywords, especially when I am looking at 1000's of images is in no way better.

This has been the only site I've seen so far that has this type of limitation with having numbers in keywords and it makes it really tough when everything else seems ideal here.

I've seen a couple of past threads about this issue, and I just can't believe that in the few years these threads span that this issue as not been improved with at least some flexibility in allowing numbers into basic keywords (i.e. without having to use the quotes as special formatting).

I'm not sure what makes them so special that they have to be removed or ignored. I can understand the idea as it relates to file names, but that is because presumably each image would have a unique keyword. However, when people have keywords in IPTC, they are presumably responsible enough to make sure that not each and every image would have a unique number in it and that a number is there for a reason.

It sounds like you've probably seen some of my previous threads railing on this same issue. In my lastest go 'round with Smugmug, it appears that they at least acknowledged that is really shouldn't be the way it is and that there was too much "filename processing" code mixed into keyword indexing which is messing up perfectly good keywords. Now the question remains when will Smugmug actually prioritize this issue and do something about it? We're at a couple years and counting.

All we can do is keep bringing it up and reminding them that it's something we care about like you did here. And, anyone else who is affected by this can chime in too.

Andy

jfriend wrote:

Now the question remains when will Smugmug actually prioritize this issue and do something about it? We're at a couple years and counting.

And you personally know more than most, about what we're working on We want to do everything, but resources are limited so we do what we can. Thanks for adding your voice to this request.

It's gotten attention from our Sorcery team. We have prioritized a new pro lab, coupons, shopping cart improvements, some customizing stuff, and a few other things ahead of anything else.

Keywords are important. But so are these other things.

Thanks!

emalvick

jfriend wrote:

It sounds like you've probably seen some of my previous threads railing on this same issue. In my lastest go 'round with Smugmug, it appears that they at least acknowledged that is really shouldn't be the way it is and that there was too much "filename processing" code mixed into keyword indexing which is messing up perfectly good keywords. Now the question remains when will Smugmug actually prioritize this issue and do something about it? We're at a couple years and counting.

All we can do is keep bringing it up and reminding them that it's something we care about like you did here. And, anyone else who is affected by this can chime in too.

Thanks for the support there. I had done searching but couldn't find much in terms of recent inquiries. That is part of why I thought maybe this had been solved and I just didn't see it. While I know this isn't Flickr, I found it very nice that Flickr would take all my IPTC keywords and add them without a hitch, letters, numbers, puntuation, and all. It seems like something that could easily be corrected here.

In my one day of trialing Smugmug, I've found that while some things are better there are quite a few nuances that might break the deal on me for Smugmug (not just the keywording thing). I find uploading a little erratic, which is a big reason I am trying to leave Flickr. Allowing numbers in already existing IPTC keywords would give Smugmug an edge but at the moment it doesn't.

jfriend

emalvick wrote:

Thanks for the support there. I had done searching but couldn't find much in terms of recent inquiries. That is part of why I thought maybe this had been solved and I just didn't see it. While I know this isn't Flickr, I found it very nice that Flickr would take all my IPTC keywords and add them without a hitch, letters, numbers, puntuation, and all. It seems like something that could easily be corrected here.

In my one day of trialing Smugmug, I've found that while some things are better there are quite a few nuances that might break the deal on me for Smugmug (not just the keywording thing). I find uploading a little erratic, which is a big reason I am trying to leave Flickr. Allowing numbers in already existing IPTC keywords would give Smugmug an edge but at the moment it doesn't.

FYI, I use a third party uploader StarExplorer which is very robust (upload queues are stored on disk so it even recovers and restarts from a crash or network errors) and you can upload in one unattended session (e.g. overnight) to many different galleries.

I'm with you on the keyword thing. A few threads on the topic:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=98026&highlight=keyword+number
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=105848&highlight=keyword+number
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=76487&highlight=keyword+number

Andy

jfriend wrote:

I'm with you on the keyword thing.

BTW, Me too

jfriend

Andy wrote:

BTW, Me too

I hope this doesn't come out wrong as I'm genuinely curious about your position on this topic.

Are you with us enough that you'll help it get prioritized so that someone actually works on it relatively soon (like after the release you are working on now)? Or you agree in principle, but not sure beyond that?

See, you've taught me that we not only have to convince someone at Smugmug that something should change, but we also have to convince them that they should give it enough priority to actually get done vs. all the zillions of other competing bugs/features.

Andy

jfriend wrote:

I hope this doesn't come out wrong as I'm genuinely curious about your position on this topic.

Are you with us enough that you'll help it get prioritized so that someone actually works on it relatively soon (like after the release you are working on now)? Or you agree in principle, but not sure beyond that?

See, you've taught me that we not only have to convince someone at Smugmug that something should change, but we also have to convince them that they should give it enough priority to actually get done vs. all the zillions of other competing bugs/features.

Hi John, I don't really have any more to say other than it's important to us. We'll get it done

jfriend

Andy wrote:

Hi John, I don't really have any more to say other than it's important to us. We'll get it done

Thanks.

gaffphotography

I came across this post on another blog which uses a JavaScript trick to add quotes to number keywords being imported from Lightroom.

I use Aperture and know almost zero about JavaScript. I tried out the trick mentioned above just for the heck of it (worth a shot, rather than having to manually enter quotes on 1000's of photos!:). It didn't quite do what I wanted it to do (add double quotes around each number in my comma separated list of keywords), but i think it is *very* close to doing this.

SO...I'm looking for someone who is a little more versed in JS who could modify this script to do the following: add double quotes around each number (and just numbers) in a list of comma separated keywords. Here's the script:

function trim(s)
{
var l=0; var r=s.length -1;
while(l < s.length && s[l] == ' ')
{ l++; }
while(r > l && s[r] == ' ')
{ r-=1; }
return s.substring(l, r+1);
}

function quoteLightroomNumbers(ele){
field = YD.get(ele);
if(field){
cur = field.value;
words = cur.split(";");
var newKeys = "";
for(w in words){
word = parseInt(words[w]);
if (!isNaN(word))
newKeys += ' "' + trim(words[w]) + '" ';
else
newKeys += " " + trim(words[w]);
}
field.value = trim(newKeys);
}
}

for(var i=0;i < imgArray.length;i++){
ele = "Images["+imgArray[i]+"][Keywords]";
quoteLightroomNumbers(ele);
}


You'll also need this plugin for firefox to run the JS on the edit caption/keyword console of SmugMug

I may be forgetting to mention some key info, so let me know if I can give any more details.

Thanks in advance.

Joel