Media Library Assistant and exiftool

Media Library Assistant default settings are thoughtful and powerful. exiftool helps take advantage of that.

Screenshots is an example asset pipeline workflowed before ingestion by Media Library Assistant.

Default Screenshots - Sources

On macos, iOS, and Ubuntu, screenshots are captured as PNG by default. xmp:title and xmp:description are available and empty by default in these PNG files. We can verify this with exiftool:

exiftool ‘Screenshot 2022-11-07 at 12-53-59 Dashboard ‹ Mean Business — WordPress.png’ -xmp:All XMP Toolkit : XMP Core 6.0.0

Setting the title and description - Source enrichment

Write xmp:title and xmp:description to the PNG file with exiftool:

exiftool -a -s -xmp:title="Media Library Assistant in the WP Admin" -xmp:description="Media Library Assistant defaults are thoughtful and powerful. exiftool helps take advantage of that." 'Screenshot 2022-11-07 at 12-53-59 Dashboard ‹ Mean Business — WordPress.png'

Confirm same by again reading the PNG file:

exiftool 'Screenshot 2022-11-07 at 12-53-59 Dashboard ‹ Mean Business — WordPress.png' -xmp:All

XMP Toolkit : Image::ExifTool 12.40 Description : Media Library Assistant defaults are thoughtful and powerful. exiftool helps take advantage of that. Title : Media Library Assistant in the WP Admin

Specifying xmp:title and xmp:description values with exiftool makes those values available to MLA. Defining explicit Standard field mapping Rules takes guesswork out of ingestion.

Ingestion to Media Library Assistant

• The IPTC/EXIF Settings screen has Standard field mapping Rules

• The available stubs for Standard field mapping Rules are Inactive by default.
• Update and Activate the ALT Text Standard field mapping Rule

Explicit field mapping Rules with EXIF/Template Value

• Map ALT Text and Description to xmp:description.
• Map Title and Name/Slug to xmp:title

EXIF/Template mapping with Content Templates

Core IPTC/EXIF rules

Media Library Assistant (MLA) documentation for gallery display content options

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