Importing XMLs created from Filemaker into Media pro

rayzordoll

• March 26, 2014 03:15

Hi there,

I have an extensive image database currently housed in filemaker 11 that I am trying to migrate into Media Pro. I would like to do this as I have inherited this Filemaker database, and it is not working for us because ultimately the field information is not imbedded into the files. But I would love to migrate the field information via xml (as this seems to be the only thing Media pro imports) as there is useful information there, such as keywords, and file path. I have created custom fields within Media Pro to match the fields that have been generated in Filemaker. But the xml flavours are not compatible.

Has anyone out there had to import xmls into Media Pro that has been generated from other software such as filemaker, Lightroom etc? I note that Media Pro only likes to import xmls that have been generated within media Pro itself. I do not have enough knowledge about xml scripting myself to attempt to edit the file maker generated xml to behave more like the xml generated in Media Pro, but wondered if anyone on this forum has?

Hope I make sense...thanks in advance.

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  imaginatian

  • March 26, 2014 16:54

  Rayzordoll,
  
  Technically it is possible to do this using XSL to convert Filemaker XML to MediaPro XML. However...
  
  

  • It would need Filemaker to export a few fields that are mandatory to the MediaPro import process. These are the file path, the file name (which is part of the file path) and the date for the file. If you include the date in the file name then this is already present, making the file path the only mandatory item.[/*:1wdstbpk]
    
  • It would make things a lot simpler if Filemaker could apply the XSL transformation when it is exporting.[/*:1wdstbpk]
    
  • MediaPro would fail on import if any images were not available online.[/*:1wdstbpk]

  
  
  Below is an XML file that I can import into MediaPro and which creates a catalogue with keywords and location data. If I manually add extra keywords they get imported into the catalogue.
  
  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<?media pro exportversion="1.0" appversion="1.0" ?>

<CatalogType>
<Catalog pathType = "DOS">Catalog2</Catalog>
<MediaItemList>
<MediaItem>
<AssetProperties>
<Filename>20140315-0257.dng</Filename>
<Filepath>E:\Digital\2014\2014 03 15\20140315-0257.dng</Filepath>
</AssetProperties>
<AnnotationFields>
<EventDate>2014:03:15</EventDate>
<Location>Lochnagar Crater</Location>
<City>La Boisselle</City>
<State>Somme</State>
<Country>France</Country>
<CountryCode>FRA</CountryCode>
<Keyword>sign</Keyword>
<Keyword>memorial</Keyword>
<Keyword>crater</Keyword>
<Keyword>explosion</Keyword>
<Keyword>world war one</Keyword>
<Keyword>ww1</Keyword>
</AnnotationFields>
</MediaItem>
</MediaItemList>
</CatalogType>

  
  There is another option which is to use XSL to convert Filemaker's XML into commands for ExifTool to physically add your data to image files. The following DOS command, with Exiftool installed somewhere in a "path" directory, would add all the data from above into the file and would be visible when the image is added to the MediaPro catalogue, or indeed any half-decent imaging tool.
  
  exiftool -L -CountryCode=FRA -Country="France" -State="Somme" -City="La Boisselle" -Location="Lochnagar Crater" -sep ">" -xmp:Subject+="sign>memorial>crater>explosion>world war one>ww1" "E:\Digital\2014\2014 03 15\20140315-0257.dng" -overwrite_original
  In fact this command doesn't have to be built by XSL but could be done in a spreadsheet, which is how I do bulk assigning of location details. Note that if you use Exiftool on large RAW files then it is a slow process as it creates a new copy of the file, even if you overwrite the original. Therefore adding a single keyword results in reading and then writing a new file, which for my current camera producing 30MB files is a lot of data to shift. I do my bulk data assigning on XMP files, which due to their much smaller size , makes the process quicker. Also you never want to add data to RAW files if at all possible, DNG files being the exception. Also note that there are idiosyncrasies to using Exiftool. Repeatedly adding a keyword can result in it being added multiple times to an image, so I actually use Exiftool to remove and then add it back in during a single command to get around this issue, with little or no performance hit.
  
  I have had a quick Google to see if I can find anything about the XML format of the Filemaker data and there are too many results and no obvious answer. Therefore my answer to your question is that technically it is possible, but practically it might not be.
  
  What this does show is the extreme short-sightedness of PhaseOne. If they were serious about MediaPro as an application then they should be providing tools to allow for the migration of image data from other applications. I note that Photo Supreme is providing a migration path whereby an XML file from MediaPro can be used to immediately import images into their application with no data loss. I've no idea how good Photo Supreme is - I tried idImager and found it to be bloatware and think that Photo Supreme has stripped away far too much so as to target the camera phone masses - but with a migration path available in just one direction then it's difficult to see how business lost by PhaseOne could ever be regained.
  
  Ian

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  rayzordoll

  • March 27, 2014 04:31

  Ian, Thank you for your in-depth response. I have a File Maker guru helping me in the coming week and have passed your information onto him. I will let you know how we go. I agree with you that the one way migration path is stifling. But hopefully we can crack it....still feeling hopeful 😊

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