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 can be extremely useful if you do not upload original files, but need to get all metadata embedded in the received thumbnails.
• Extracting and uploading metadata extracting and uploading metadata in ASP.NET extracting and uploading metadata in PHP allows you to specify metadata fields you want to get on the server. These fields will be extracted on the client side and sent along with other files and data. On the server side, you just retrieve them from the upload request, without writing a lot of non-trivial additional server code to extract metadata.
• Automatic rotation based on EXIF metadata is useful if you want to get images in the orientation they were actually done.

<aur:Uploader ID="Uploader1" runat="server">
	<Converters>
		<aur:Converter Mode="*.*=Thumbnail" 
		   ThumbnailCopyExif="true" 
		   ThumbnailCopyIptc="true" />
	</Converters>
</aur:Uploader>

$uploader = new Uploader("Uploader1");
$converters = &$uploader->getConverters();
$converter = new Converter();
$converter->setMode("*.*=Thumbnail");
$converter->setThumbnailCopyExif(true);
$converter->setThumbnailCopyIptc(true);
$converters[] = $converter;

var u = $au.uploader({
	id: 'Uploader1',
	converters: [{mode: '*.*=Thumbnail',
		thumbnailCopyExif: true,
		thumbnailCopyIptc: true}]
});