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Doesn't Lightroom use a MySQL database to store the users metadata/tags? Windows Vista/7 Photo Gallery did the right thing, it stored the users metadata in the

by frik 11y ago

Doesn't Lightroom use a MySQL database to store the users metadata/tags? Windows Vista/7 Photo Gallery did the right thing, it stored the users metadata in the pictures (EXIF, XMP, etc metadata formats) inside the JPEG/etc formarts. Windows Media Player stored the song user rating in the MP3 files in their ID3 tags too. iTunes does the contrary, stores everything in a SQLite db.

4ad 11y ago
I don't know what Lightroom uses to store metadata, but it stores data in files, which is what I'm most interested in. I have no particular opinion on Lightroom metadata, but I sure would hate if simply assigning ratings to songs would alter the file. I sure hope metadata like that is stored outside the file.
- frik 11y ago
  What "data" are you talking about that Lightroom stores in files? How is your "data" different than what is known as "metadata"? If I tag a photo or picture, I want the metadata to go with me. I can create a dynamic playlist of photos on all my devices based on the metadata on multiple different platforms (even in my car). If I choose to strip my personal metadata later, it's just a single click. What is idiotic is to store metadata only in silos (iTunes, Lightroom, iPhoto databases), it's a vendor lock-in that will hurt the customer in the long term.
  - 4ad 11y ago
    > If I tag a photo or picture, I want the metadata to go with me. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what the tag means. > I can create a dynamic playlist of photos on all my devices based on the metadata on multiple different platforms (even in my car). Here we just have to disagree. When it comes to music, I don't want to alter metadata as part of regular operation. > What is idiotic is to store metadata only in silos (iTunes, Lightroom, iPhoto databases), it's a vendor lock-in that will hurt the customer in the long term. Sure, that is my pet peeve as well. But the problem is that these program suck, not that they don't store metadata in the original files. They should use some documented, stable format, and it would be great if many programs used the same format! But even when they use sqlite this is not the case, the schema is not fixed, not documented, the data inside the database opaque, and interoperability with anything else piss poor. At least Lightroom manages all your photographic files as files, rather than importing blobs in a database, like Photos does. It would be great if the metadata would be open, it's annoying, but that's a much minor problem for me.
    - frik 11y ago
      Many common file formats have one, two or more metadata storage formats. JPEG/JPG stores Exif (camera data), IPTC & XMP (authors data). MP3 stores ID3 (authors data) Editing the metadata doesn't reduce the quality of the file content itself. So you won't get a degenerated music file or a lower quality picture. So I really don't understand your sentense: "I don't want to alter metadata as part of regular operation."
      - 4ad 11y ago
        Some people scribble books with yellow highlighters, other people are driven insane by highlighted books. If you are not a person in the latter category, I am afraid I can't explain to you why I don't want to change my music files when I do a trivial operation in my music player.

by frik 11y ago

4ad 11y ago

I don't know what Lightroom uses to store metadata, but it stores data in files, which is what I'm most interested in. I have no particular opinion on Lightroom metadata, but I sure would hate if simply assigning ratings to songs would alter the file. I sure hope metadata like that is stored outside the file.

frik 11y ago
What "data" are you talking about that Lightroom stores in files? How is your "data" different than what is known as "metadata"? If I tag a photo or picture, I want the metadata to go with me. I can create a dynamic playlist of photos on all my devices based on the metadata on multiple different platforms (even in my car). If I choose to strip my personal metadata later, it's just a single click. What is idiotic is to store metadata only in silos (iTunes, Lightroom, iPhoto databases), it's a vendor lock-in that will hurt the customer in the long term.
- 4ad 11y ago
  > If I tag a photo or picture, I want the metadata to go with me. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what the tag means. > I can create a dynamic playlist of photos on all my devices based on the metadata on multiple different platforms (even in my car). Here we just have to disagree. When it comes to music, I don't want to alter metadata as part of regular operation. > What is idiotic is to store metadata only in silos (iTunes, Lightroom, iPhoto databases), it's a vendor lock-in that will hurt the customer in the long term. Sure, that is my pet peeve as well. But the problem is that these program suck, not that they don't store metadata in the original files. They should use some documented, stable format, and it would be great if many programs used the same format! But even when they use sqlite this is not the case, the schema is not fixed, not documented, the data inside the database opaque, and interoperability with anything else piss poor. At least Lightroom manages all your photographic files as files, rather than importing blobs in a database, like Photos does. It would be great if the metadata would be open, it's annoying, but that's a much minor problem for me.
  - frik 11y ago
    Many common file formats have one, two or more metadata storage formats. JPEG/JPG stores Exif (camera data), IPTC & XMP (authors data). MP3 stores ID3 (authors data) Editing the metadata doesn't reduce the quality of the file content itself. So you won't get a degenerated music file or a lower quality picture. So I really don't understand your sentense: "I don't want to alter metadata as part of regular operation."
    - 4ad 11y ago
      Some people scribble books with yellow highlighters, other people are driven insane by highlighted books. If you are not a person in the latter category, I am afraid I can't explain to you why I don't want to change my music files when I do a trivial operation in my music player.