Hi, I’m interested in using Tropy for a large collective project, but I need to be sure that I will be able to export the metadata as CSV. I know this isn’t possible right now but could you perhaps provide indications as to how to make a CSV file from a JSON tropy export? I’ve tried to convert but it dosen’t seem to work for me - probably because I’ve never used JSON files.
Thank you
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We’re working on a plugin system, which will allow us to support multiple export formats or API endpoints. That said, we will probably not provide a ‘generic’ CSV export, because CSV is not powerful enough, but it should be very easy to add a plugin or just convert the JSON-LD data. The reason for not providing a generic CSV export is simply that there are many intangibles: do you want a line per item or per photo? Do you want to support items with different templates or do they all have the same template, and so on.
Please also note that Tropy is free and open source and not trying to hide anything (the project file is a SQLite database which you can also query directly) so I’d rest assured that you’ll be able to export the metadata. We’re also happy to help, if you let us know what data exactly you’d like to include in the file.
Hi I found this response as I was looking for CSV export too. I am uploading photos to a web map which will only take CSV and have tried to convert but cant find any instructions to ‘add plug-in or just convert the JSON-LD’ as you mention.
It would be great help if you could add a link to ‘Step by Step’ instructions on how to do this because we don’t all have access to techy helper, but it sounds like it is not hard to do?
All I want is the metadata and the tags added in as a field in the CSV. I am not using Notes and don’t need the Exif information either.
Probably lots of us are not using Trophy as first envisaged, but that’s a compliment to its flexibility and potential.
We have some developer oriented plugin documentation including a sample CSV plugin. Writing a custom CSV plugin is relatively easy, but it is definitely meant for users who know a little bit of programming already.
A generic CSV plugin will be more complicated, especially, because it will have to allow for various configurable parameters, because most applications using CSV will have their own special requirements (especially how to map multiple connected data, e.g., multiple photos of an item).
That said, we’re happy to help. Especially, because it will allow us to learn more about your CSV requirements in the real world. The Aeon Timeline plugin, for instance, is also just a custom CSV plugin. If you give me more details about your data and about the CSV you would like to produce, I can assist you in setting up a suitable plugin to export you data.
Since you want to upload your photos to the web, please note that a CSV file will contain links to your photos on your hard disk; if you’re uploading this to a website this would not automatically upload the photos themselves. So if your platform expect CSV files, it’s very important to know how it fetches the photo files.
Wow thanks for quick response.
I had a look at the developer docs and that not something I can do. However, when a colleague gets back from leave in a couple of weeks she may be able to help. The Aeon timeline does not look suitable. If we get stuck I may come back to you, but in any case we would be happy to share how we resolve this if that is helpful to you.
I am reassured enough to invest more time in making sure the metadata works for the image sets. We have over 10,000 photos ready for metadata and then potentially many more (I’m also following forum entries on collaboration and may ask a question there).
Images are held in file sets of between 2 and 150 images and the CSV for each set is loaded into the same file as the images. When uploaded lat and long fields position the image, with the rest of the metadata populating more details about each photo for users to read. Very simple really.
If we can make it work Tropy will save us time and improve accuracy.
In other words, you need to export all photos into a folder and include a CSV file which links each photo to respective metadata? This should be relatively easy to set up.
In this case it will probably make sense to move the files in your export plugin (unless you’ve already arranged the files in the groups of 2-150 before importing them into Tropy). We have prepared an archive plugin (not stable yet) which does something similar (move all the photos to a folder, add the JSON-LD, adjusting the paths to the photos, and zipping the folder) which does more than you’d need here. You would probably want to create a folder, move the photos there, and add the CSV with the metadata and the adjusted file paths).
In any case, I’m confident that you’ll be able to set this up. If you need our input, just let us know here.
Thanks again
Yes the images are already in the groups before import into Tropy. The only reason to have the image in Tropy is for users to view and add metadata about it so metadata export all we need for now.
However, I’m already thinking there might be more benefit for us in Tropy than this, so I’m going to spend some time exploring the features though uploading a few hundred photos and seeing what we can do with them.
If you would find it helpful to understand our use case (which will be a significant size) I would be prepared to share more off-line to this public forum, but probably best we get our heads around how things behave in the platform first.
Thanks again
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