Show and edit EXIF Tags

[skjnldsv]

Feature request

User type: Logged-in or public user

User level: Beginners, intermediate or advanced

Description

My photo collection is taken care of with digikam, a really powerful foto managment tool.
In digikam you can give stars to images and use tagging to mark subjects, context or people in the images.

nextcloud gallery Features requested:

• tags album: clicking on a Tag shows an album with all images with that Tag.
• gallery should show Tags and Stars from Images when single Image is used.
• Logged in Users can add tags, which are then being written into the fille (and or filename.xmp file - this would be lighter on syncing changes in metadata) There is a few php exif libraries available to do so.

EXIF is the standard that stores metadata in image files.
The actual values are stored in a format defined by IPTC and XMP
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTC-IIM-Standard
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Metadata_Platform

Benefit / value

Better usability, Easier to keep in control of the floods of images that are synced.

Before owncloud we had a straight forward Foto Workflow e.g. from digital camera -> import folder, editing -> image library -> sharing with friends.
Nowadays Images pour in from different peoples smartphones/cameras/ other synced devices and adding tags only makes sense if this is can be done by anyone who is sharing those images.

Risk / caveats

Displaying images in Tag based albums would require some thought about which folders or subfolders are beeing scanned for images.
Some users might have been used gallery 3, phtagr, or other image galleries, which use some kind of database or caching of Image Tag information.

Sponsorship

Are you a developer willing to implement this feature?: no
Can you sponsor the development of this feature or do you know someone who can?: yes
We could at least to some extent sponsor work on that feature.

Originally posted by @epe in nextcloud/gallery#204

[skjnldsv]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I use shotwell to organize and tag my photos. Once uploaded to my nextcloud instance I am unable to see the tags set under 'Tagged photos'

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like to be able to browse my photos using the tags set by shotwell (stored in EXIF-data)

Describe alternatives you've considered
None, since this feature seems unavailable

Additional context
See attachement for an example with (nested) tags

rikmeijer
Originally posted by @rikmeijer in #225

[matiasdelellis]

Hi,

I would like to see this, but IMHO this should be done in another application. I am particularly concerned with tag editing.
Change EXIF or just rotate the images, emits a hook saying that the image has changed (actually \OC\Files\postWrite). You don't know what change in the image, so this invalidates any type of information that you have about the image, and you have to analyze the image again.

For example:

• Rotate the image (You only need to change EXIF), all the previews must be done again. It's correct.. 👍
• Add a tag called "Holidays" to an image, previews will be done again. That's wrong. 😞
• Nextcloud Maps allow change the geolocation of images. This is a great feature!. But should you create the preview again?. 😅

A real case:
Well, Nextcloud Maps change the geolocation of an image. This emit \OC\Files\postWrite, Our Face Recognition application just know that the image changed, and since don't know what change, should remove the info of this image and must be analyze it again which has a great cost!. 😞

• I have orphan persons (without faces), and always recreates the group. matiasdelellis/facerecognition#137

Note that the same would happen if FaceRecogniton change the images adding the regions of the faces into the files. As nobody knows exactly what changed, the preview would be done again, the tags should be loaded again, and the map application would not display this image either. 😅
This is inefficient, and can be annoying for the user..

Suggestion:
Must centralize tag management as a new application, or preferably an ImageManager/ImageService/ImageMetadataService ¡? within the Nextcloud/Server core.

• This should have the methods to change the metadata. setCustumTag(), setRotate(), setGeolocation(), etc.
• ...and emit hooks with better context. OCP\Image\postRotate, OCP\Image\postGeoChanged, OCP\Image\postTags().

In this way all applications that depend on metadata can interact with greater security.

And as I said I want to see these characteristics, but just try to explain, that a more important background job is needed to do it well. 😉

Thanks for all,
Regards,
Matias.

[skjnldsv]

Hey @matiasdelellis !
I'm thinking about the same as you!

Must centralize tag management as a new application, or preferably an ImageManager/ImageService/ImageMetadataService ¡? within the Nextcloud/Server core.

That would help a lot. Especially if we just expose the metadata into a dav property, meaning it doesn't break anything. For example using the taken date for sorting, if the info is here, let's use it, if not, meh.

BUT, it complicate the infrastructure. If a new user have to install 15 apps that are just here as plugins this doesn't help easing the setups.

[dermalikmann]

Just to get this straight in my head:
We all want EXIF support. But performance and usability wise it is preferred that all EXIF manipulation is in a central background location.
Since you closed nextcloud/server#5106 I assume that you want NC Photos to be that background Manager, am I correct?

[skjnldsv]

Since you closed nextcloud/server#5106 I assume that you want NC Photos to be that background Manager, am I correct?

Not specifically, but this issue gained lot of attraction lately while the one in server is kinda lost in the thousands of others. So let's focus on dicsussing this here :)

There is already a metadata app. https://github.com/gino0631/nextcloud-metadata
Currently it adds just a tab in the sidebar, which is not really what we want to aim for at Nextcloud. We would like to have this receive a proper api implementation in dav so other apps can use those additional informations. But The sidebar already have lots of tabs and too much can get confusing.

Anyway, there's lots of ideas and desire in this area, we just have to find the sweet spot ;)

[Spartachetto]

I hope that a proper api implementation in dav could allow to tackle also issues like this: nextcloud/server#19114

In several cases bibliographic data is just a peculiar type of file metadata...

[jokerigno]

I think that tag support would be a killing feature. Right now other sw have support for photo metadata but no one can read photo tag made by digikam or lightroom.

[skjnldsv]

I think that tag support would be a killing feature. Right now other sw have support for photo metadata but no one can read photo tag made by digikam or lightroom.

Please use the github reactions to add your support to a feature :)

[milianw]

I would also love to see this feature becoming available. If possible, please keep compatibility with other external applications in mind. It would be great e.g. if one could easily run e.g. a specialized face recognition application on some machine and then sync back the tags somehow (ideally through EXIF or potentially even some scriptable REST API or the like). Generally, it would be ideal if an application like digikam would become better integrated with nextcloud somehow...