Hello Peter!

1.) Modifying EXIF data
Yes, not all should be allowed to change but keywords, description, author and copyright (don't know if it's available in EXIF...must look in the docs) should be ok.

If GPS is already stored it should not be changed, unless the user wants to change it.
The other thing is, you may want to ADD this information, because your camera doesn't support it (only very expensive professional cameras have a GPS module), but you have the data (e.g. PDA with GPS module,...).

I know it's some work to implement this stuff, because you allways have to check the user input and some parts of EXIF are grouped together (e.g. Software and Date/Time)

2.) updating EXIF information
If I change the picture with PMView (also saving it under a new name) should always update the timestamp and application tag. But you can of course add a checkbox in the options.

3.) IPTC (http://www.iptc.org/)
Iptc has the copyright info. Here everything should be able to change and add.
But this format is complex (http://www.iptc.org/site/subject-codes/index.html), so a subset should be ok.

Maybe you also want to take a look at this program (Win only):
http://photothumb.com/iptcext/

Regards,
Juergen Ulbts (Germany)

Hi Peter!

One more note on EXIF and other MetaData:

1.) It would be nice if the user can modify the EXIF Data by himself.
Adding Keywords, Picture Description, GPS Data (I'm currently working on a Web Photoalbum to search for coordinates, make and model of camera,...), Name of the Person who edited the file,...

EXIF Software and Date/Time are not updated when using "Save as..." (look at the example below).

[Exif] Image Description - Communications
[...]
[Exif] Software - Adobe Photoshop 7.0
[Exif] Date/Time - 2002:07:19 13:28:10
[...]
[GPS] GPS Version ID - 2 2 2 2
[GPS] GPS Latitude Ref - N
[GPS] GPS Latitude - 48"51'28.200073
[GPS] GPS Longitude Ref - E
[GPS] GPS Longitude - 2"17'49.19998
[GPS] GPS Time-Stamp - 12:59:4 UTC
[GPS] GPS Map Datum - WGS84

2.) Maybe you can also add JPTC support.

[Iptc] Directory Version - 2
[Iptc] Caption/Abstract - Communications
[Iptc] Writer/Editor - Ian Britton
[Iptc] Headline - Communications
[Iptc] By-line - Ian Britton
[Iptc] By-line Title - Photographer
[Iptc] Credit - Ian Britton
[Iptc] Source - FreeFoto.com
[Iptc] Object Name - Communications
[Iptc] Date Created - Thu Jun 20 00:00:00 CEST 2002
[Iptc] City -
[Iptc] Province/State -
[Iptc] Country/Primary Location - United Kingdom
[Iptc] Category - BUS
[Iptc] Supplemental Category(s) - Communications
[Iptc] Urgency - 53
[Iptc] Keywords - Communications
[Iptc] Copyright Notice - ian Britton - FreeFoto.com

Maybe the Java Code will help you to get it supported.

http://drewnoakes.com/code/exif/
or
http://www.instituteofthefuture.org/exifomatic/

First link currently down, but should be up again.

Regards,
Juergen Ulbts (Germany)

eMail: julbtsNOSPAMPLEASE@bigfoot.com
(Remove the uppercase word from the address!)


PS: I think you are still involved in the PMMail development, so also note the following stuff...

I hope there will be an updated version of PMMail/2 soon.
There are severals things missing now (look at the forum " Updates for os/2 version?", where I magog posted them some time ago - e.g. Spamfilter, ISO 8859-15? [normal Latin 1 with added Euro Sign - currently not recognized --> annoying], updated HTML display, ASMTP,...).