Synopsis

MediaKeg Fiddle is an online metadata viewer that also supports modifying image metadata.

Overview

MediaKeg Fiddle is an online alternative to installing desktop software for viewing and modifying image metadata. It uses ExifTool on the back end, a popular and trusted software utility for viewing and manipulating image metadata. MediaKeg Fiddle also reveals additional fields used by the MediaKeg, which can be helpful when developing MediaKeg library templates.

Supported Files

MediaKeg Fiddle supports uploading and viewing image metadata for all image file formats (including RAW) under 100MB. Video and audio files are not supported.

Support for writing metadata varies by file format and the capabilities of ExifTool. Visit the ExifTool website for more information.

Tiles View

The tiles view is displayed after uploading an image. It provides basic information about the image upload, including an image preview and a map with GPS capture location, if available.

Details View

The details view lists all metadata tags and includes a property inspector. The property inspector provides information about the selected tag and is used to edit its value if writable.

File Uploads

You must upload the image to view and manipulate to the MediaKeg Fiddle online service. Uploading enables you to view and write Exif metadata without the need to install software on your computer.

File Uploader

The file uploader is always visible at the top of the page while in MediaKeg Fiddle. The uploader has a blue drop zone. To upload a file, drag and drop the image onto the drop zone, or click the browse link if you prefer to use your system's file browse dialog.

Note: If dragging and dropping your image to upload, be sure to drop it into the blue area at the top of the page.

The file uploader shows upload progress as percent completion, as shown below. The time required to upload an image depends on various factors, including image size, your broadband speed, and how much traffic the MediaKeg backend service is experiencing. Image size is the dominant factor determining upload time. The file uploader shows the filename and size on the far left. You can cancel your upload at any time by tapping the progress indicator on the far right.

Note: After a file finishes uploading, the MediaKeg Fiddle service reads the image metadata. This read takes a small amount of extra time after the upload progress reaches 100%, during which time you may see a different progress indicator appear to indicate the service is busy working on your request.

After the upload is complete, the file uploader changes color and gives you the option to remove the file, as shown below.

• Clicking the remove file button (x) deletes the file from the server and resets the form to its original state, enabling you to upload another file.
• You can also drag and drop another file onto the uploader in its as-shown state and save a click to upload another file, and causes MediaKeg Fiddle to stay on the active view (tiles or details).

Note: See the File Uploads Policy section for details on how uploads are used and how long they are retained.

The uploader also displayes the filename and size. The filename reflects the name of the filed dropped into the drop zone (or selected using the browse dialog).

Tiles View

The tiles view appears after uploading an image and contains the following regions:

1. File uploader
2. Command bar
3. Image metadata
4. Image preview with overlay
5. Capture location (if available)
6. Status bar

The screenshot below shows the above regions labeled accordingly.

Note: The tiles view is updated and improved often. so the information layout may differ slightly from this documentation.

File Uploader

The file uploader is discussed in the previous section.

Command Bar

The command bar enables you to switch between tiles and details view, and provides access to commands that enable you to filter and edit metadta while in details view.

See Details View for more information.

Image Metadata

The tiles view shows partial metadata indicating the image source, date and time captured, and image format. This region is non-interactive.

To view all image metadata, click the show details button at the top, which takes you to the details view.

Image Preview

The image preview tile shows the uploaded image in preview form.

• An image overlay shows surfaces additional metadata fields.
• The preview image is cropped and scaled down to fit the page.
• Clicking the preview image shows a larger version of the uncropped image.

The quality of the image preview varies on the image file format. If the image upload is a RAW image file, then the preview image is extracted from the raw file. The quality of embedded preview images in RAW files varies by image format.

Some RAW files lack an embedded preview image, in which case no preview image is displayed. If the image file format RAW and contains no preview image, then this tile is not shown.

Capture Location

If the image contains GPS metadata indicating the location where the image was captured, then it is displayed on an interactive map.

If the image does not contain GPS metadata, then this tile is not shown.

Status Bar

The status bar displays the following:

• MediaKeg formatted filename
• Download button

Filename

The status bar indicates if the image is importable or indeterminate. If indeterminate, then the asset lacks the metadata required for import and quarantined for corrective action. If the asset is determinate then the filename displayed appears as it would in a MediaKeg library using the default library template.

Note: The filename index (-00) may differ from the actual import name if the library previously contained another asset by the same name prior to the import operation. This can occur if the previously imported was modified prior to re-importing the original version.

If the asset is indeterminate, then the upload filename is displayed.

Download Button

Pressing the download button downloads the image upload to your Downloads folder. Any Fiddle modifications to the image occur on our servers and can be downloaded using this button.

Note: Uploaded images are stored on our servers in compliance with our upload policy. To help prevent access to your uploaded and modified images, a unique key pair is generated for each image. The key pair transferred securely over HTTPS protocol. You will not be able to download the image once you navigate away from the same Fiddle view used to upload the image, or after the server automatically deletes your image after exceeding the retention period.

Details View

The details view lists all image metadata in table format. To access the details view, click the show details button from the command bar.

The details view enables you to perform the following operations:

• View all image metadata (except as noted below)
• Filter metadata view
• Inspect metadata properties
• Modify metadata
• Sanitize image

The remainder of this section discusses each of these capabilities in detail.

View Metadata

The figure below illustrates the details view, which lists image metadata in table format. The table includes the name, location, and value for each metadata tag. Tag name and value are self-explanatory. The tag location specifies the embedded metadata's specific location, as described in the Tag Groups section of the ExifTool online documentation.

Note: Metadata tag names starting with an asterisk are virtual tags created by MediaKeg, synthesized from image metadata. These properties are not part of the Exif metadata specification and are not part of the embedded image data. See the MediaKeg documentation for more details.

Note: The Location column disappears if the page width becomes too narrow. If this column is not present, then widen your browser window. For mobile devices, you may need to rotate your device into landscape mode. The tag inspector also displays location information, as discussed below.

Filtering Metadata

The table can be filtered to display rows matching search criteria in the following ways:

• Search string
• Editable

Search String Filter

Use the search control in the command bar to display only rows containing text matching the search value. The search control contains a text field for entering the search value and displays filter results when empty. The search value is case insensitive, and matches on all columns for each row. For example, enter CanonCustom to display just tags having a Location value of CanonCustom (see example below), or AEB to view just tags containing AEB. Press the x button to the right of the text field to clear the search value.

Editable Filter

The table can also be filtered to display only rows containing editable tags by pressing the toggle button. The button appears to the right of the search control and appears as a pencil drawing in a small square, which turns blue when enabled. Click once to enable and again to disable.

Note: Editable tags also have the same icon as the editable filter button appearing to the left of the tag value.

Note: The editable filter can be used in conjunction with the search string filter.

Tag Inspector

The tag inspector contains additional information about each metadata tag in the table. To view the inspector, click the row in the table for the tag to inspect. The inspector appears as a drawer opening from the righthand side, as shown in the figure below. Press cancel to close the inspector.

Note: You can switch to a different tag while the inspector is open by selecting it from the table. It is unnecessary to close the inspector and re-open if this is your intention.

The tag inspector contains the following information:

• Property value
• Converted value (if applicable)
• Tag group information

Property Value

The property value embedded in the image metadata. If the value is read-only (as shown in the above figure), a message indicates so. If the property is editable, an input field is available to enter the new value. (See below for an example.)

Note: Clicking the small clipboard icon appearing directory to the right of the value causes the value to be copied to the clipboard so that it can be pasted elsewhere.

Converted Value

ExifTool converts some property values into a more human-readable form. If the property has a converted value, then it appears in the tag inspector as shown above. Otherwise, this field does not appear in the inspector.

Tag Groups

The inspector lists the groups for the tag selection. The groups are as follows:

• Information Type
• Specific Location
• Category

These groups correspond to ExifTool tag group family 0, 1, and 2, respectively. For more information about tag groups, refer to the ExifTool documentation on this topic.

Modify Metadata

The following metadate operations are supported now or in the near future.

• Change tag value
• Add tag (comming soon)
• Delete tag (coming soon)

Change tag value

The tag inspector makes it possible to modify a tag value if editable, as shown below. The entry fields may differ depending on tag selection. Select apply to queue your changes.

Note: Selecting apply does not immediately update the image. Instead, it adds the update to a list, which gets processed after pressing the command bar's commit button.

After pressing the apply button, the new value appears in italic boldface as shown in the figure below. Also, the commit button is enabled whenever changes are pending. Press the commit button to write the change(s) to the image.

Note: If you wait several minutes or more before pressing the commit button, you may get a write error with a 404 code. This error means the image is deleted from our servers, and you need to reupload the image and start over.

If the write operation is successful and the change entries match their expected values, then the updated values have blue text, as shown in the figure below. If there were write errors or if the value is not as expected, then the value is shown in red text.

Add tag

The ability to add a tag value is coming soon.

Delete tag

The ability to delete a tag value is coming soon, unless removing all non-essential metadata tags using the sanitize feature.

Sanitize Image

The sanitize operation removes all non-essential metadata tags from an image, which is useful in scenarios where privacy matters, such as sharing photos on the Internet. To santaize an image, click the sanitize menu item in the more items menu (three horizontal dots located at the far right of the command bar).

The sanitize option does not work on RAW image files.

Note: Sanitizing an image can affect how it is displayed. For example, metadata indicating the capture device's orientation when the image was captured is used by some software to display the image in the proper orientation. In this scenario, images capture in portrait mode may appear sideways when after being sanitized.

Note: Since sanitize removes all metadata, the write operation occurs immediately after pressing the sanitize menu item, and there is no need to press commit as with other write operations.

File Uploads Policy

This section covers our upload policy for images uploaded to our servers when using MediaKeg Fiddle.

Retention Period

Images uploaded to our servers are stored for up to 30 minutes so you can manipulate then using Fiddle. This timeframe is called the retention period. After the retention period expires, the image is automatically deleted from the server. When an image is modified using Fiddle, the retention timer is automatically reset.

Security

We have taken precautions to ensure that your images cannot be easily accessed by a third-party. However, do not upload images that are cause for your concern if leaked to the Internet. This is a generally good practice, as with any service that accepts your photos.

To help ensure that your photos are accessible only by you, a shared secret (SHA256 hash) is included in the image upload response over HTTPS. This secret is stored in memory and is lost when you navigate away from Fiddle or close your browser, and is required to modify and download the image. The image download is streamed to your browser over an encrypted channel and is not accessible via an HTTP get operation. The image is not stored in a publicly accessible share or folder.

Analytics

The Fiddle upload page provides the option for you to give rights to Appyture LLC (dba MediaKeg) to retain your image for testing and analytics purposes. Shoud you agree, your image is retained in perpetuity and you grant Appyture LLC full rights to the image.

Licence Agreement

The SOFTWARE SERVICE (MEDIAKEG FIDDLE) is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. The SOFTWARE SERVICE is licensed, not sold.

By using the MEDIAKEG FIDDLE you are agreeing to this license agreement.

COPYRIGHT

All title, including but not limited to copyrights, in and to MEDIAKEG FIDDLE and any copies thereof are owned by APPYTURE LLC.

NO WARRANTIES

APPYTURE LLC expressly disclaims any warranty for MEDIAKEG FIDDLE, which is provided 'as is' without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including but not limited to any warranties of merchantability, non-infringement, or fitness of a particular purpose.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

In no event shall APPYTURE LLC be liable for any damages due to use of MEDIAKEG FIDDLE, to the maximum extent permitted by law. This includes without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, or lost information. In no event will APPYTURE LLC be liable for loss of data or for indirect, special, incidental, consequential (including lost profit), or other damages. APPYTURE LLC shall have no liability with respect to the content of MEDIAKEG FIDDLE or any part thereof, including but not limited to errors or omissions contained therein, libel, trademark rights, business interruption, loss of privacy or the disclosure of confidential information.