The IPTC caption fields seem to be at least according to be:

according to http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/IPTC.html

Caption-Abstract
LocalCaption
RasterizedCaption

The first 2 are ignored by zen and the 3rd seems to require being >= 7360 bytes long.

Could you tell me exactly which field I need to set to get the caption picked up by zen.

Setting EXIF:ImageDescription is picked up for title as you suggested.

thanks.

Additional question - googling on metadata - I see lots of suggestions that XMP may be superceding exif/iptc ... is this correct ?

If so what fields are recommended ?

thanks.

As before, the authority on what gets used is the updateMedadata() method. Further information can be found $IPTCtags array in that function, in the functions.php defined array $_zp_exifvars array, and in the xmpMetadata plugin.

As to XMP superceding EXIF/IPTC. I believe that is really just a Microsoft dream. Somewhat the same as Adobe wanting their RAW format to supercede all proprietary camera raw formats.

If history serves as any guide, then I wouldn't count on XMP becoming dominant anytime soon. Too many applications and devices will continue to include EXIF and/or IPTC as well for backward compatibility, and the result will be more confusion. Plus, since XMP is a specific standard, you can expect that wide adoption will lead to many a fracture in it's implementation, leading to a large selection of almost-compatible versions of XMP.

Unfortunately, even when a specific standard is published and widely adopted, it gets implemented differently by different manufacturers and developers. Keep in mind that EXIF is a formal standard, and look at all the problems you're experiencing with it, and different camera makers implementing it differently :-)

One of the applications I've developed recently parses driver's licenses, state ID cards, and military ID cards for all 50 US states, DC, most Canadian provinces, and several Mexican states. They all use a "standard", published format, yet barely any two actually implement the standard the same way. Over the years, this has literally led to several thousand incompatible versions of the same standard, with each state/jurisdiction doing things slightly differently. It is quite a challenge to keep up with!

Actually, I did poke thru the php code - and best I can tell the field name used by zen is ImageCaption

So i went to iptc.org - and checked exiftool website. I think (tho I am not sure):

a) zen uses IPTC:ImageCaption
b) iptc says the field is Caption
c) exiftool says it is Caption-Abstract (and does not support IPTC:Caption or IPTC:ImageCaption.

exiftool released on may 10, 2010 - but iptc says Caption-Abstract is the 'old way' and should be supported for backward compatibility.

Now, exiftool says there is no such field as caption or ImageCaption - perhaps exiftool is unable to set the same fields zen is using...

So I asked here ... being a newbie ...

Well, the names of the fields are simply attempts at making things easier for human beings. The actual fields are coded in the image. Zenphoto uses the PHP Exifier support libraries. I presume that the names it uses are the ones that were in effect when it was written.

So, add to your list of references all scripts in the exif folder.

I am getting even more stumped - I dont find ipt caption in the PHP exifer source code - at least where I looked here at the latest exifer source file exif.c

http://cvs.php.net/viewvc.cgi/php-src/ext/exif/exif.c?view=markup

Could you point me to an image file which contains iptc caption data that works with zen - so I can see exactly what field in that very image is actually being used by zen?

Thanks.

Make life easier and edit class-image.php

//EXIF title [sic] if (empty($title)) { $title = $this->get('EXIFDescription'); }
to

//EXIF title [sic] if (empty($title)) { $title = $this->get('displayname'); }
That's what I did for my own site, as I do all my meta-data using Lightroom and apparently that's not the right way of doing it according to some EXIF standards. So now I get file name as title instead of the Description data in the Title field.

Thats the title - what about the field for the description (the long wordy thing which describes the image).

the reason the iptc caption is not in Exifier is because it is IPTC data, not EXIF data. (I know that is a hair-splitting distinction--blame the standards people for not unifying them.) IPTC is essentially a side car to EXIF data. It is handled by the zp_imageIPTC() function.

Please can you show me an image file which contains IPTC caption infornation that zen recognizes ?

I am learning ... thank you for your patience !!

gene

First you will have to tell us what field you are refering to. Suggest you use the IPTC spec for your reference.

Hi and thanks - I was hoping someone could show me an image which contains IPTC caption data that zen seccesfully parses and puts the text up as a description.

Having a sample image which is known to work in zen would be helpful for me.

Pointing me to a zen album which demonstrates the caption data working and one I could download the image and inpect its metadata would be helpful.

Thanks.

The images on our show case have the title from the show case title and the link to visit the site from the description part (filled in via Photoshop/Bridge CS3). Although there is no direct access to the full image right now.