[theturninggate]

First of all, congratulations on the 1.6 release. It's great! Unfortunately, it's done nothing to address the thing I'd most like to see in a new PixelPost release. I want more tags for EXIF and IPTC data (XMP metadata).

XMP Metadata is more prevalent than ever, with major photo and work flow management software such as Aperture, Lightroom, Photoshop, and many lesser applications making it easier for photographers to organize their photos, and to keep the data accompanying each photo embedded in the image.

Magnificent as PixelPost is, it doesn't do much to promote or utilize all of this progress.

There are plugins like extra exif and the IPTC data plugin, but they leave much to be desired. Extra exif adds a bit of support for Nikon users, but doesn't do anything for the rest of us (I use Canon). And the IPTC plugin offers but a single tag that calls in everything, disallowing users from customizing the IPTC output - users cannot omit pieces of data, apply CSS classes, or rename output titles without editing the PHP powering the plugin.

PixelPost now supports keyword entry and tagging for uploaded images. If I've already tagged my images in my XMP data, why not allow those tags to be imported with the image on upload? If I've already titled and captioned my photo in the XMP data, wouldn't it be wonderful if PixelPost could call that information in the forms? And wouldn't it be grand if I could pull out individual items of XMP data to be displayed in my image information, the way that I can now display aperture, shutter speed and other basic information?

A part of the problem is that PixelPost currently relies upon the Exifer library, which, according to the author's website, is no longer being developed. Exifer 1.5 is a far cry from being a complete solution, and PixelPost's reliance upon this library effectively leaves its EXIF support dead in the water.

Professional photographers already making heavy use of XMP metadata would be more likely to begin using PixelPost if it supported the organizational efforts already present in their work flow. And PixelPost users would be more likely to begin using XMP metadata to organize their photo libraries, knowing that their photoblogging software supports it.

Just imagine the sorting possibilities users could employ in their archives!

PixelPost is a magnificent photoblogging application, but I would strongly encourage you to prioritize greater support for XMP metadata. Library organization in applications like Lightroom and Aperture relies heavily upon XMP metadata, and its these organizational attributes that help to set the applications apart from the competition and make them the premier applications in their class. XMP could do the same for PixelPost.

I hope you'll give consideration to these features for your next release, or at least for the heralded v2.0.

Cheers,
theturninggate