Batch/Bulk edit description, caption

Julian,

I am answering you in this topic to keep our discussion separate from the unrelated issues raised in the “Description field…” topic. Please respond in this topic.

Your latest post reads:

Hi David,

thank you for the detailed answer. I’m sorry about the double post. Wasn’t sure which one was the right one.

I guess the main issue we face is in the Media Manager Modal Window. Not being able to search for tags creates a big problem. We will literally have 10’s of thousands of pictures and even filtering it down will not really help that much. So the only solution is to search for the images. But you can’t search for tags but for descriptions and captions.

So my thought would be to bulk edit the description and caption (because we have lets say 10 images that have the same description/caption) so one could search for them in the Media Manager Modal Window. Or if there is a way to implement a search for tags in the Modal window.

The IPTC/EXIF mapping sounds interesting and I’ve looked at it. Am I right in the assumption one would need to bulk edit the IPTC/EXIF data offline so it would map when uploading them? Or is there a way to map the tags one bulk edits in MLA to the description and caption?

If you have some idea how to solve this problem I would appreciate it greatly. Thank you so much for your help.

Julian

I agree that searching on taxonomy terms such as Att.Tag is the right way to meet your requirements, and I am thinking about this for a future MLA version. In the interim you can use the IPTC/EXIF mapping to add tag information to one of the searchable fields.

Pick one of the Standard fields, e.g., Alternate Text, Caption or Description. On the Settings/Media Library Assistant IPTC/EXIF tab, enter something like this in the text box under the “EXIF/Template Value” column:

template:(tag values: [+terms:attachment_tag+])

This is a Content Template that will fill the Standard field with the literal “tag values: ” followed by the Att. Tag values for any attachment that has them. If there are no tag values for a given attachment, no changes will be made to the Standard field.

Once the rule is in place, you can update all of your attachments by clicking the “Map All Attachments Now” buttons on the IPTC/EXIF tab. Since you have so many attachments, you might want to use the Bulk Edit area of the Media/Assistant screen, pick the attachments you want to update and use the “Map IPTC/EXIF metadata” button to map their values in smaller groups.

This is a crude solution to your requirements, but it may work for you. Let me know how it goes and if you have any further problems or questions.

I’m sorry you are still having trouble with this approach. Here are some things to look for.

1. My example assumes you are using the “Att. Tags” taxonomy. If you are using another taxonomy, such as WordPress “Tags” you will have to change attachment_tag to the appropriate taxonomy slug, e.g., post_tag.
2. Make sure the taxonomy you use is supported for attachments, i.e., the “Support” box is checked on the Settings/Media Library Assistant General tab.
3. Make sure you have values assigned to attachments for the taxonomy you’re using. You can see them on the Media/Assistant submenu table if you display the taxonomy column.
4. Make sure your Caption values are empty, since you’re using “Existing Text: Keep”. You could try changing this to “Replace” temporarily and mapping one attachment to force the mapping. Use the Media/Edit Media screen to map just one attachment.

I’ve just re-tested this on my system and it’s working properly for me. I’m sure we can make it work for you, too. Let me know if the above suggestions are helpful and how it goes from there.

Regarding your question about bulk-edit for Title and Description values, please have a look at this earlier topic:

Bulk Edit

I have a test version of MLA that supports bulk edit of several additional fields. If you’d like to help test this feature, contact me through our web site. Thanks for your interest.

The searching by tags idea has come up again and I am actively thinking about how to implement it. Have a look at this new topic, then post an update here with any feedback you have; thanks:

MLA search images by tag