How do I edit JPG File Title, Subject, Comments, a

Question

How do I edit JPG File Title, Subject, Comments, and Tags/Keyowrds?*

I have already tried asking this question here:

The Exif information provided was helpful, but in the end did not actually solve the real riddle I was working on. So I'll take another angle at describing the desired result:

I want my VB.NET app to allow me to edit the following details of a Jfile (see image):

Title, Subject, Comments, and Tags/Keyowrds

• I had a handy image to include but not enough points to post it. Weak.

• RIGHT CLICK A .JPG IN WINDOWS and select PROPERTIES

• Win XP: Select the "Summary Tab" and Look at the "Description" group
• Win7/Server 2008R2: "Details Tab" and look at "Description" group

Can anyone explain how to edit those fields through VB.net in Visual Studio?

EDIT:

The ultimate goal is to use the image viewer/editer that I built, to sort thousands of images of random webjunk I have collected over the years. Upon viewing the image (say "00001.jpg") and figureing out what it is ("ceiling cat sends son" picture of a lol cat), I want to type in the description (already done in the form). When I hit enter I want to rename the file (from "00001.jpg" to "ceiling-cat-sends-son.jpg", then fill in the keywords, title, subject, and comments fields with the same data: "ceiling cat sends son".

This will help with local indexing and with my (later) automating a SQL server referential database for use with site wide searches on my website. The ONLY thing I can't seem to figure out is how to modify those four fields as if I had right-clicked the file and added the keywords.

Answer 1

I can only offer you a starting point, since I don't use VB.Net and I only read EXIF data. In C#, if you open file in a System.Drawing.Image instance using:

Image image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile("path/to/file.jpg");

You can access the raw EXIF data by using image.GetPropertyItem(0x0112), where the list of all available property items are listed here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms534418%28VS.85%29.aspx

Likewise, there's an image.SetPropertyItem(0x0112) method, but I think that will only set it in memory and you will have to save a copy of the image in order to write it out. I think what you want though is the ability to modify the EXIF without touching the actual image, which I do not know how to do.

Using metadata

As I've said in my comment, I recommend that instead of editing the image header information, you should create a Media class that holds that kind of information:

public class Media
{
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string Subject { get; set; }
    public string Comments { get; set; }
    public string[] Tags { get; set; }
    public string PathToFile { get; set; }
}

Then you would store this record in the database, which makes it really easy to search on. If you need the actual file, use the PathToFile property to locate it.