Exporting from an online competition management system and importing into LrC

[iwaddo]

Lightroom Version Number

15.0.1

Operating System

1. macOS 26 Tahoe

I plan to export images from an online competition system. There are many competitions and many authors.

I want to create a static searchable archive, it seemed to me that an LrC catalog might be a good way.

I can use a number of tokens to create dynamic file names, like

author_title_score_comp.jpg

The export will be one competition at a time. I can create subfolders using a token, so I could get all the images for each author within a competition into separate folders.

I do have the option to download a CSV for each competition which has all the tokens and more, each image has a unique imageOID so I could add the imageOID to the image filename which would tie it directly to the CSV in a 1:1 relationship.

• Is there a way, a plug-in perhaps, that will allow me to create and assign keywords using the information in the filename or CSV?
• Maybe I need to do something before I add the images to LrC?
• I did wonder about how I might get the data into custom metadata fields and not keywords, or both?

I was considering jb: Search & Replace or LR/Transporter put cannot quite see a solution yet.

I could do it manually but there are quite a few hundred images, the exact number is currently unknown.



Just looking for ideas and inspiration at this stage.

Any help appreciated.

 

[John R Ellis]

The LR/Transporter plugin will import metadata from CSVs and assign it to LR's photo metadata fields and keywords. Lots of reports over the years that the developer no longer responds to queries, but there are several people in this forum who could probably help.

I recommend that you store the various fields in industry standard metadata fields. That will make it easier to search by individual fields or in combination, and you can export the photos with those standard fields that other programs can read.

Here are suggested mappings that would allow searching via smart collections:

Author: IPTC > Creator
Title: IPTC > Title
Score: IPTC > Job Identifier

I'm assuming Score is a number (e.g. 1 to 100). There's IPTC or EXIF field whose standard meaning directly corresponds with a score. But if you use IPTC > Job Identifier, then you can search that field using smart collections and Library filters.

LR's search capabilities are pretty cramped, so if you find yourself not being able to do the searches you want, consider the Any Filter plugin.

 

[Gnits]

What metadata fields do you want to import.

 

[iwaddo]

The LR/Transporter plugin will import metadata from CSVs and assign it to LR's photo metadata fields and keywords. Lots of reports over the years that the developer no longer responds to queries, but there are several people in this forum who could probably help.

I recommend that you store the various fields in industry standard metadata fields. That will make it easier to search by individual fields or in combination, and you can export the photos with those standard fields that other programs can read.

I am less concerned about other programs. If we export the images to use elsewhere we are likely to strip the metadata though I do see the advantage of using the field you suggested to give options down the line.

Here are suggested mappings that would allow searching via smart collections:

Author: IPTC > Creator
Title: IPTC > Title
Score: IPTC > Job Identifier

I'm assuming Score is a number (e.g. 1 to 100). There's IPTC or EXIF field whose standard meaning directly corresponds with a score. But if you use IPTC > Job Identifier, then you can search that field using smart collections and Library filters.

Actually I has two 'scores' on some but not all images in depends on the competition type. I may have Score 1-20, Award 1st, 2nd, 3rd, HC, C or nothing.

LR's search capabilities are pretty cramped, so if you find yourself not being able to do the searches you want, consider the Any Filter plugin.

I have this plug-in installed an rely on it for a number of things


Thank you. I've not looked yet but assuming the link between the imported image, metadata and keywords is the filename, yes?

 

[iwaddo]

What metadata fields do you want to import.

None, directly from the image file. The data will all be in the CSV and or filename depending how LR/Transporter links the image to the CSV. Though I will probably create filenames using the export tokens that holds the key data so I have options.

If we export the images to use elsewhere, submit into other club related competitions, it will probably just be the image title that is used.

Thank you for your help.

 

[johnbeardy]

If all the information you want is in the filename and/or the folder path, Search and Replace may be sufficient. For example, it could parse the folder path to individual keywords, or into a field which you might then manipulate (eg replace odd characters or break up into different fields). If the CSV really contains the info, then LRTransporter is more relevant. Any data manipulation could be done in Excel or a text editor, before importing the CSV, or Search & Replace could do that task in LR.

 

[Gnits]

I create sidecar files per image which contains the metadata I wish to add to a specific image at import. I am happy to describe this further, but do not want to bore people if the details are irrelevant. LRC automatically uses the metadata contained in the side car files per to populate the image metadata in the catalog at the time of import. I use this for Title, Caption, Location and Copyright fields.

 

[Gnits]

I used to administer competitions for a relatively large camera club… and always had difficulty finding a field to store the image score as a numeric. Also, there are very few fields in LrC which are both editable and sortable (so I can present the results in ascending / descending sequence when presenting the results). What field do you use to store numeric scores.

 

[johnbeardy]

What field do you use to store numeric scores.

Keyword? Custom field? But all fields are text, so it's likely to be awkward whenever scores are not 0-9 or decimals.

 

[Gnits]

I use the State Field and scores (in my case) are full integers. The State field is both editable and sortable and I do not use this field for my normal photography. I use leading zeros… so a score of 15 would be entered in as 015. Max scores are in the region of 50 to 150 so always use a 3 digit score.

 

[iwaddo]

If all the information you want is in the filename and/or the folder path, Search and Replace may be sufficient. For example, it could parse the folder path to individual keywords, or into a field which you might then manipulate (eg replace odd characters or break up into different fields). If the CSV really contains the info, then LRTransporter is more relevant. Any data manipulation could be done in Excel or a text editor, before importing the CSV, or Search & Replace could do that task in LR.

I can do both. All the tokens available to create the filenames are also in the CSV as individual columns. I do have to xlookup into a separate export to pull in the real text for some of the OIDs but is easy enough this will be my import CSV.

My initial thinking is to export the images with the following filenames imageTitle-author-imageOID-competitionOID.jpg - I can textjoin to create the same string into a field in the CSV to create the match between the filename and the image file.

I will have duplicates which I need to keep separate but the imageOID will be fully unique.

I can export the images into the following folder structure year > competition group > competition

I've 285 competitions to export one at a time, they download as zip files. Adding the images to a new LrC catalog is the easy bit.

What I now need to establish is whether I need one large CSV that I can import once or 285 individual CSVs. I need to play with the plug-in to see if it will operate on a single Collection of all my imported images. At a guess of 25 images per competition I may have 25*285=7,125 images

Time for some testing to prove my theory....

Thank you for your help.

 

[iwaddo]

I use the State Field and scores (in my case) are full integers. The State field is both editable and sortable and I do not use this field for my normal photography. I use leading zeros… so a score of 15 would be entered in as 015. Max scores are in the region of 50 to 150 so always use a 3 digit score.

For my own images in my own catalog I've been assigning scores as keywords so ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen etc. We do score between 1 and 20 but the judge very rarely gives less than 11 and for my images I never need more that mid-teens (do not ask why we do not score between 1 and 10 as I do not know, it has always been like this).

 

[iwaddo]

I used to administer competitions for a relatively large camera club… and always had difficulty finding a field to store the image score as a numeric. Also, there are very few fields in LrC which are both editable and sortable (so I can present the results in ascending / descending sequence when presenting the results). What field do you use to store numeric scores.

So I do not administer competitions as such. I provide the tools. We have used PhotoEntry for several years but have decided to move to Pixoroo an integrated camera club solution. My task is to create an archive from PhotoEntry before deleting our account completely which will of course remove all our images.

 

[Gnits]

Understood.

I normally recommend a single Catalog for all personal images… but this may be a case of having a dedicated catalog for these images, with the images stored in the same folder hierarchy as the catalog… Easier to admin and easier to backup and easier to pass to someone else if someone else assumes responsibility for this.

 

[iwaddo]

Understood.

I normally recommend a single Catalog for all personal images… but this may be a case of having a dedicated catalog for these images, with the images stored in the same folder hierarchy as the catalog… Easier to admin and easier to backup and easier to pass to someone else if someone else assumes responsibility for this.

Yes, I need a separate catalog so I can pass the finished solution to our Archivist.

 

[John R Ellis]

I've not looked yet but assuming the link between the imported image, metadata and keywords is the filename, yes?

The plugin lets you join the catalog photos with rows in the CSV using any column in the CSV but only these metadata fields of cataloged photos:

 

[iwaddo]

I am very pleased to report that my Proof of Concept has worked on a small batch of images.

I now need to give some thought to what data I need to capture and where and ultimately what the use case(s) are to make sure I get this right first time.

I've established that I can do the LR/Transporter step once with a large CSV as it will work on every image in the database - this is a big win.

One negative is the LR/Transporter plug-in seems to be lite on logging or reporting, another reason to get it right first time.

Thank you everyone for your help, there is no doubt you gave me a huge nudge in the right direction and saved me hours of trial and error

 

[gegjr]

I create sidecar files per image which contains the metadata I wish to add to a specific image at import. I am happy to describe this further, but do not want to bore people if the details are irrelevant. LRC automatically uses the metadata contained in the side car files per to populate the image metadata in the catalog at the time of import. I use this for Title, Caption, Location and Copyright fields.

@Gnits
Is this a question or an answer? It it's an answer what was the question? If it's a question, what are you asking?

 

[Gnits]

It is a possible approach.. but needs scripting or dev skills to set up. I will post an example when I get back to my desktop later today.

 

[Gnits]

Is this a question or an answer? I

It is a possible approach... see this worked example, (but needs scripting or dev skills).

I responded to this query re auto population of metadata fields.

I did wonder about how I might get the data into custom metadata fields and not keywords, or both?

The following is not a replacement for the standard LrC option to apply metadata via template while importing. It is something I developed to help streamline my personal workflow.

Background (and my use case).
I noticed years ago that Photo Mechanic(PM) made it possible to rate pictures (and I think apply Titles) to images, which were applied as metadata when the image was subsequently imported to LrC. I checked at the time and discovered PM made use of xmp sidecar files to store metadata fields which were used and applied during the subsequent import to LrC.

For lots of reasons I developed my own Ingest app to copy cards to disk. This allowed me automate many things, including file and folder naming schema and transfer the images to their final folder location ready for importing to LrC via the Add option. This has been working for me for years and I have refined it over time.

This makes it easy for me to assemble multiple cards from multiple cameras and/or photographers to Ingest to disk, after a days shooting. Typically in a hotel at nighttime. It occurred to me that it would be extremely useful to be able to apply specific metadata (such as a generic title and location) to each individual card's images at the time the card was copied to disk. The reason... the knowledge about the card contents was fresh in my mind and it may be specific to that card (rather than a folder containing multiple cards).

So I worked out what structure of an xmp file would be required, so I could populate the Title and Location fields of a side car file per image.

Here is an example for a single image set of raw and corresponding xmp file.

and here is the details of the xmp file.
Note the Location and Title fields and how they were used to populate the corresponding LrC metadata fields.

My custom Ingest app has the following fields which I can populate (if I wish) prior to hitting the button to start the copying of the cards images to disk. This then creates the required sidecar file for each image Ingested.

This is specific to my needs. I am not pushing it to anyone as a general solution. I am just sharing this approach in case the basic idea and mechanism may have value to anyone.

I continue to use a personal standard LrC metadata template to add static metadata to each image, such as copyright, author, etc. which does not vary much for most images captured in a specific year.

 

[gegjr]

It is a possible approach... see this worked example, (but needs scripting or dev skills).

I responded to this query re auto population of metadata fields.



The following is not a replacement for the standard LrC option to apply metadata via template while importing. It is something I developed to help streamline my personal workflow.

Background (and my use case).
I noticed years ago that Photo Mechanic(PM) made it possible to rate pictures (and I think apply Titles) to images, which were applied as metadata when the image was subsequently imported to LrC. I checked at the time and discovered PM made use of xmp sidecar files to store metadata fields which were used and applied during the subsequent import to LrC.

For lots of reasons I developed my own Ingest app to copy cards to disk. This allowed me automate many things, including file and folder naming schema and transfer the images to their final folder location ready for importing to LrC via the Add option. This has been working for me for years and I have refined it over time.

This makes it easy for me to assemble multiple cards from multiple cameras and/or photographers to Ingest to disk, after a days shooting. Typically in a hotel at nighttime. It occurred to me that it would be extremely useful to be able to apply specific metadata (such as a generic title and location) to each individual card's images at the time the card was copied to disk. The reason... the knowledge about the card contents was fresh in my mind and it may be specific to that card (rather than a folder containing multiple cards).

So I worked out what structure of an xmp file would be required, so I could populate the Title and Location fields of a side car file per image.

Here is an example for a single image set of raw and corresponding xmp file.
View attachment 27872
and here is the details of the xmp file.
Note the Location and Title fields and how they were used to populate the corresponding LrC metadata fields.

View attachment 27871

My custom Ingest app has the following fields which I can populate (if I wish) prior to hitting the button to start the copying of the cards images to disk. This then creates the required sidecar file for each image Ingested.

View attachment 27873

This is specific to my needs. I am not pushing it to anyone as a general solution. I am just sharing this approach in case the basic idea and mechanism may have value to anyone.

I continue to use a personal standard LrC metadata template to add static metadata to each image, such as copyright, author, etc. which does not vary much for most images captured in a specific year.

"gegjr said:
Is this a question or an answer?"
I'm sorry but I responded to this by accident. I am trying to UNWATCH it now.

 

[gegjr]

I responded to this post on accident. I'm trying to UNWATCH it now. The forum is not very mobile friendly. At least not for me. Please excuse the intrusion.

 

[clee01l]

I responded to this post on accident. I'm trying to UNWATCH it now. The forum is not very mobile friendly. At least not for me. Please excuse the intrusion.

If you are using the Tapatalk app to access this and other forums, that is to be expected. The app does not offer the same features as what you get using your browser which is where the Xenforo server software was designed.

 

[gegjr]

If you are using the Tapatalk app to access this and other forums, that is to be expected. The app does not offer the same features as what you get using your browser which is where the Xenforo server software was designed.

Not using Tapatalk. Clicked on link in outlook.com notification email sent from the LRQ LrC forum. The embedded link in the email auto opens the LRQ in a MS EDGE mobile browser (when using phone and when using Windows-11 PC). Again I apologize for the erroneous reply to the thread.
I believe I've successfully disabled the Watch for this post.