Improve the Current Exif Extraction G2 Plugin, adding database storage support(and searching) along with property editing for a subset of suitable items.

Currently G2 has an Exif plugin, which enables read-only access to embedded metadata in image files, this plugin also provides an admin interface to select which fields should G2 display on Basic/advanced view mode. Every time a user request to view an GalleryPhotoItem via the core.ShowItem view/controller, the underlying Exifer lib parses the original file Exif/IPTC Attributes, and the Exif block is embedded on the view, displaying the user-selected subset of the picture metadata.

There are several drawbacks of this approach. One of them, is the amount of load that impacts the server when the underlying Exifer/JPEG libs parse metadata entries, something really noticeable on big files. Other drawback is the unability to search such parsed properties just from the database.

I want to solve those current G2 issues, and provide additional functionality by implementing a base Metadata Interface, and two backend support modules for it, in a way that the backend can be chosen by the user, as already happens with the Graphical Toolkit. I also want to implement a MetadataEditor for Gallery, capable of setting metadata fields on a per-item and per-album basis, something similar to what the customfield module provides. Beside this, I want to extend the current Exif module capabilities to copy a selected field gathered from medatada to a GalleryItem field after adding new media to the Gallery. This will allow a G2 user the possibility to mirror any gathered metadata property to a user-selected property of a GalleryItem, replicating previous exif module functionality in a flexible, user-customizable way.

There has been previous attemps to do this, however, no further advance has occurred since then, and the issue is still active on the tracker, being also one of G2’s most requested features.