Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with digitalassetmanagement

How do I track my DVD-Rs?

tommorris — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:18:20 -0800

Is there any good, free UNIX/Linux software you can suggest for keeping a searchable index of removable media? I have a large collection of backed up files on DVD-R (about five or six hundred volumes). I have been using a proprietary and rather crufty application called CDFinder. My Mac laptop has become rather less stable recently (and I haven't got enough money for one of them nice new MacBooks), so I've made the leap to a netbook running Linux. This is the one application I can't find a decent equivalent for.

Ideally, I want an application that will maintain a database of all the metadata about the files on burned CD/DVD volumes. That metadata will obviously include the file names, creation/modification dates, but also ID3 data for audio files and the equivalent metadata for videos, photos, PDFs and all the other stuff I haven't really thought about. Search speed isn't tremendously important - it doesn't bother me if it takes fifteen seconds to do a search.

One of the things I would like would be for the data to be in an open format, and for the search tool to be usable from the command line (so I can use it over SSH).

I have done some Googling, but all I can find are the sort of things record collectors would use to keep track of their albums. Not what I want: I basically want UNIX's metadata-aware 'find' or 'locate' commands for unmounted volumes.

I've been thinking about building something like this myself as a fun little open-source project over the Christmas holidays. If someone has a suggestion of an existing project that would do what I want that is free, open source and preferably not tied to any windowing environments (command line ftw!), I'd be greatly appreciative.

What image database software do I want?

xchmp — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:25:09 -0800

What software should I use to manage a small charity's image collection? The small charity I volunteer for has a collection of images (10,000+) that are pretty much just sitting on a hard drive. These are mostly photos contributed by volunteers and members and it would be good if we could put them to use. So I want to start organising them, keep track of (and search the images by) contributors, the terms under which we can use them, keywords/tags, etc.

This seems to fall under digital asset management and there's plenty of enterprise level solutions out there for this. But we're not all that enterprising and they're complete overkill for our needs. Our total computing resources are two recent-ish desktop computers running Windows XP, linked together as a home network. On the other hand, personal image management programs like Picasa seem a little under-powered. I know you can tag photos in Picasa, but the process seems kind of clunky and since I'll be adding keywords to about 10,000 pictures, clunky does not appeal.

Free is better than cheap, although cheap may be an option; expensive's right out. A simple interface that non-technical people can use to add photos or search for them would be nice. And I'll be happier if I can avoid having to install any other software. (For example, although it's intended as a web application Coppermine does much of what I want. However, I'd have to install a web server, PHP, MySQL and ImageMagick which is slightly more work than I want to do. Especially the MySQL bit.)

I've looked at these previous threads, but the requirements are rather different.

Anyway, I'm totally open to advice and suggestions, whether it's how to use Picasa to do this stuff, or that Coppermine is worth the hassle, or the software you use for managing your images.

Digital photos, metadata, and syncing with online services.

Merdryn — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:12:52 -0800

We love to take pictures. Lots of them. And we want to love to tag them with metadata. XMP, IPTC, doesn't matter, as long as the metadata is IN THE FILE (for JPGs) and not in a sidecar file. We also love sharing our photos with family and friends (and just family and friends, thank you). The problem is twofold: First, we want to have tools that natively read and write metadata from and to the file so my wife and I can both use the programs on our respective PCs at will (no database issues). Second, and perhaps most ornery, we want to sync the photos to some online service that will use the metadata we're embedding. The online service should support organizing and navigating photos by keywords.

Now, an ideal solution would have one or more of the following features:

Client-side software: Windows Vista Photo Gallery (which does embedded XMP tagging VERY nicely) or iPhoto (I have a MacBook Pro as my main laptop now, and my wife would switch if it meant easier photo managing) or something just as easy to use. I'm not opposed to Lightroom or Aperture, mind you, but they're not that easy to use for beginners (read: must have high wife acceptance factor). Hierarchical metadata would be nice if presented in an easy-to-use fashion. I know that Vista's photo gallery doesn't do hierarchical metadata, not sure about iPhoto or other Mac or PC apps.

Online side: Ajax-y interface, storage of full resolution files, navigation by metadata (navigating by hierarchical metadata would be awesome, but again, that's not a requirement), add by e-mail (for mobile updates) would be a nice feature, metadata changes online written to the file would be a nice feature

Metadata: IPTC stored as XMP seems to be the way of the future, and I can get on board with that as long as it's not in sidecar files. "The truth is in the file," that's the mantra here. Old style IPTC is fine, too. 100% required: metadata in the file for JPGs. I shoot with a Canon XTi, and I know that Canon doesn't allow writing metadata to the file. That's fine. I'll suffer with that part of my workflow.

File format support: JPG is all I really need. If the app does CR2 (Canon's raw) format with sidecar files, I guess I'd be okay with that, but I don't see how CR2 files fit into the online sync-and-share situation.

Price: Honestly, this is a smaller concern. I'll pay up to $500 for the software and $250 a year for the service if it does everything I need.

Help me before I drown in my JPGs!