Working with EXIF and IPTC Metadata in ActiveX/Java Uploader

Metadata are the additional data that image contains. Such information can be used, for example:

  • to provide higher results during printing
  • to get exact date and time of the image creation
  • to categorize images
  • to implement advanced image search

ActiveX/Java Uploader works with two metadata formats: EXIF and IPTC.

When an image is captured, the capturing device writes EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) information about the image into the captured file. EXIF fields may contain such information as camera parameters during capturing, date and time of the capturing, photographer's name, and etc. It can even contain GPS information. For more information about EXIF, please, see the EXIF Specification article.

IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) Information Interchange Model is widely used in journalism to keep such information as byline, subject, location, and etc. For more information about the IPTC format, please, see the IPTC Specification article.

ActiveX/Java Uploader supports the following metadata-related features:

Preserving EXIF and IPTC Metadata While Creating Thumbnails

Note

ActiveX/Java Uploader Express does not copy EXIF metadata into thumbnails created client-side. See the Upload Suite Editions topic for details.

You can make ActiveX/Java Uploader send transformed (resized, rotated, cropped, watermarked, and etc.) images. However, you may wonder what happens with EXIF and IPTC metadata when you perform imaging operations with ActiveX/Java Uploader. It is especially important when you process uploaded images with some specific software, e.g. for printing them at photo labs.

Fortunately, you can preserve EXIF and IPTC metadata using the ThumbnailCopyExifThumbnailCopyExif (ASP.NET)ThumbnailCopyExif (PHP)thumbnailCopyExif (JavaScript) and ThumbnailCopyIptcThumbnailCopyIptc (ASP.NET)ThumbnailCopyIptc (PHP)thumbnailCopyIptc (JavaScript) properties of the ConverterConverter (ASP.NET)Converter (PHP)converter (JavaScript) class. Just set the property to true and metadata of chosen type will be embedded in the corresponding thumbnail.

Default value of both discussing properties is false, this allows making uploaded thumbnails a bit smaller.

The following example configures the converter to create thumbnails with both types of metadata (EXIF and IPTC) preserved.

ASP.NET
<aur:Uploader ID="Uploader1" runat="server">
	<Converters>
		<aur:Converter Mode="*.*=Thumbnail" 
		   ThumbnailCopyExif="true" 
		   ThumbnailCopyIptc="true" />
	</Converters>
</aur:Uploader>
PHP
$uploader = new Uploader("Uploader1");
$converters = &$uploader->getConverters();
$converter = new Converter();
$converter->setMode("*.*=Thumbnail");
$converter->setThumbnailCopyExif(true);
$converter->setThumbnailCopyIptc(true);
$converters[] = $converter;
JavaScript
var u = $au.uploader({
	id: 'Uploader1',
	converters: [{mode: '*.*=Thumbnail',
		thumbnailCopyExif: true,
		thumbnailCopyIptc: true}]
});

See Also

Reference

Manual

Other Resources