Re: Adding Spotlight comment data to folder/file
Re: Adding Spotlight comment data to folder/file
- Subject: Re: Adding Spotlight comment data to folder/file
- From: Gerd Knops <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:15:40 -0500
On Jul 12, 2011, at 10:34 AM, Kyle Sluder wrote:
> On Jul 12, 2011, at 3:24 AM, Kevin Muldoon <email@hidden> wrote:
>
>> Of course, I'm not writing a file format but simply creating folders and moving files. Very enlightening stuff. Thanks for weighing in on the subject.
>
> Ah. Yeah, it would be nice if Spotlight were designed with this case in mind.
>
> I think they'd recommend creating a parallel tree of dummy files of your own type so Spotlight can run your generator on something, but if you support moving arbitrary files to arbitrary locations that will lead to syncing nightmares and still won't get you "Get Info" support.
>
> Sorry. Spotlight's design is at odds with what you want, which does sound useful. Do file a bug at http://bugreport.apple.com explaining what you want to do and why Spotlight doesn't work for you.
>
I filed a bug report about this very topic in April of 2008 (rdar://problem/5883633 text attached below).
Even for file formats that do support metadata there is no easy way of setting it. Case in point are PDF files: it is easy to generate them in Cocoa but I have yet to find an easy way to add metadata (such as author etc).
Another weakness is that Spotlight Importers are not hierarchical. For example say I find a way to add certain metadata to all graphical assets (PDFs, TIFFs, PNG, ...). Now the problem becomes that there is just on Spotlight Importer per file format. I can't say "for PDF files use the regular Spotlight Importer and add the results from my custom Spotlight Importer", or call a second Spotlight Importer from mine and add the data (at least it used to be that way when I last checked).
Spotlight is a very cool system that with some additions could evolve into something even more powerful.
Gerd
rdar://problem/5883633
23-Apr-2008 11:49 AM Gerd Knops:
With Spotlight becoming more important, the lack of a simple and well supported system to store arbitrary metadata is sorely felt.
All existing methods have serious drawbacks (besides no easy Cocoa interface):
- Resource fork: Uncertain future, single file that has to be rewritten for every change, no cross platform support
- Extended file system attributes: Limited capacity, poor tool support, little cross platform support
- Any other schema: Undesirable separation of metadata and file
A system to store generic metadata that is easy to use not only for Cocoa applications but also for scripts and tools, preferably platform independent, is needed.
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