Package: pymdeco
PyMDECO - Python Meta Data Extractor and Collection OrganizerPyMDECO is a library which aims to facilitate the metadata extraction,
storage and manipulation of a large collection of photos and multimedia
(audio and video) files.
Rather than developing own metadata parsers for the multitude of file
types, it depends on third-party libraries and tools to extract the
metadata from the files.Example usageExample with a video file:>>> from pymdeco import services
>>> srv = services.FileMetadataService()
>>> meta = srv.get_metadata('/tests/big_buck_bunny_720p_surround.avi')
>>> print(meta.to_json(indent=2)) # to pretty print the metadata
{
  "file_name": "big_buck_bunny_720p_surround.avi",
  "file_type": "video",
  "file_size": 332243668,
  "mime_type": "video/x-msvideo",
  "file_hash": {
    "value": "b957d6e6212638441b52d3b620af157cc8d40c2a0342669294854a06edcd528c",
    "algorithm": "sha256"
  },
  "file_timestamps": {
    "modified": "2008-06-11 13:29:26",
    "created": "2008-06-11 13:29:26"
  },
  "video_metadata": {
    "streams": [
      {
        "sample_aspect_ratio": "1:1",
        "codec_type": "video",
        "codec_name": "mpeg4",
        "duration": "596.457",
        "nb_frames": "14315",
        "codec_time_base": "1/24",
        "index": 0,
        "width": 1280,
        "divx_packed": "0",
        "pix_fmt": "yuv420p",
# ... output truncatedExample with an audio file:>>> meta = srv.get_metadata('/tests/jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2.mp3')
>>> print(meta.to_json(indent=2)) # to pretty print the metadata
{
  "file_name": "jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2.mp3",
  "file_type": "audio",
  "file_size": 3169160,
  "mime_type": "audio/mpeg",
  "file_hash": {
    "value": "d7ebc161d5d8fb802659fea949204af2958906b91913ca7577cfaeece90ffb78",
    "algorithm": "sha256"
  },
  "file_timestamps": {
    "modified": "2012-01-09 20:02:23",
    "created": "2012-01-09 20:02:23"
  },
  "audio_metadata": {
    "streams": [
      {
        "index": 0,
        "sample_fmt": "s16",
        "codec_tag": "0x0000",
        "bits_per_sample": 0,
        "r_frame_rate": "0/0",
        "start_time": "0.000",
        "time_base": "1/14112000",
        "codec_tag_string": "[0][0][0][0]",
        "codec_type": "audio",
        "channels": 2,
        "codec_long_name": "MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)",
        "codec_name": "mp3",
... # output truncatedExample with an image file:>>> meta = srv.get_metadata('/tests/some_image.jpg')
>>> print(meta.to_json(indent=2)) # to pretty print the metadata
{
  "file_name": "some_image.jpg",
  "file_type": "image",
  "file_size": 159894,
  "mime_type": "image/jpeg",
  "file_hash": {
    "value": "844a8750f2c9e1a24175c8f158abb6d204ec2b79fc49aba512cded3cdb3a0111",
    "algorithm": "sha256"
  },
  "file_timestamps": {
    "modified": "2012-01-09 20:43:12",
    "created": "2012-01-09 20:43:12"
  },
  "image_metadata": {
    "Exif": {
      "Photo": {
        "LightSource": 0,
        "PixelXDimension": 900,
        "SubSecTime": "16",
    # ... output truncated ... Image details follow
      "Image": {
        "YResolution": 72,
        "ResolutionUnit": 2,
        "Orientation": 1,
        "Copyright": "Some Rights Reserved                                  ",
        "Artist": "Yovko Lambrev                       ",
        "Make": "NIKON CORPORATION",
        "DateTime": "2008-09-13 11:26:41",
    # ... output truncated ... XMP details follow
    "Xmp": {
      "iptc": {
        "CreatorContactInfo/Iptc4xmpCore:CiEmailWork": "yovko@simplestudio.org",
        "CreatorContactInfo/Iptc4xmpCore:CiAdrCity": "Sofia",
        "CreatorContactInfo/Iptc4xmpCore:CiUrlWork": "http://simplestudio.org",
        "CreatorContactInfo/Iptc4xmpCore:CiAdrCtry": "Bulgaria"
    # ... output truncated ... IPTC details follow
    "Iptc": {
      "Application2": {
        "CountryName": "['Bulgaria']",
        "Byline": "['Yovko Lambrev']",
        "BylineTitle": "['Photographer']",
    # ... output truncatedExample with a binary file:>>> meta = srv.get_metadata('/tests/minimal_ubuntu_11.04_natty.iso')
>>> print(meta.to_json(indent=2)) # to pretty print the metadata
{
  "file_name": "minimal_ubuntu_11.04_natty.iso",
  "file_type": "application",
  "file_size": 19922944,
  "mime_type": "application/x-iso9660-image",
  "file_hash": {
    "value": "8607e2c06090db13b06a216efbeb65d7aeff4ca8666904e6874cf4a5960f2366",
    "algorithm": "sha256"
  },
  "file_timestamps": {
    "modified": "2011-05-02 17:24:18",
    "created": "2011-05-02 17:24:18"
  }
}Example with the command line tool:python metadump.py -p /some/pathInstallationGetting the latest development version:hg clone https://bitbucket.org/todor/pymdecoInstalling from source:python setup.py installGenerating the HTML documentation:python setup.py build_docIf the installation is successfull the following code can be used to
confirm the installation is ok and all dependencies are present:Checking dependencies:>>> from pymdeco.utils import check_dependencies
>>> print json.dumps(check_dependencies(), indent=2)
{
  "pyexiv2": "pyexiv2: 0.3.2",
  "ffprobe": "/usr/bin/ffprobe"
}If any of the dictionary values are None, then PyMDECO is unable to find
some of the dependencies.DependenciesPython 2.7+ or Python 3.2+pyexiv2library (which is the Python bidnings toexiv2). It is used to extractEXIF,XMPandIPTCtags from photos
and images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc).ffprobebinary (fromffmpegsuite version 0.9.0 or later)
located in the system’s PATH. Older versions of theffprobe(prior 0.9.x) cannot output in JSON format.Sphinx (>= 1.0.0) - for building the documentationNoteAfter the installation of the library one please ensure thatffprobeexecutable is installed and available to the library
(the executable file must be available in one of the directories listed in
PATH environmental variable.Refer toffmpegdownload page on the best way to installffmpegsuite
(whichffprobeis part of).
Under Windows it is recommended to use the static version of the program.DocumentationDownloading the source and building the documentation (seeInstallationsection) will create HTML version of the API documentation.
The documentation includes tutorial which contains high-level overview of the
library and examples showing how to use and extend it further.LicensePyMDECO is licenced under GNU LGPL (Lesser General Public License) version 3 or
later. For details please refer to LICENSE.txt included in the source
distribution.Development and getting involvedThis library is at early stage, but is already capable to do enough useful
metadata collection. If you are interested in improving it further and want
to get involved, please send a mail topymdeco at googlegroups dot com.History and future directionsThe library was created out of necessity to manage large collection of photos
(tens of thousands) and video clips (many thousands) collected over a large
period of time from different sources and created by various models of
photo cameras, camcorders and webcams.I quickly found out that to identify duplicates and effectively manage the
backups I needed good and reliable metadata handling and storage.
After experimenting with half a dozen Python packages and tools I settled
on building a common API which makes use of well-established third-party
libraries and external tools.So far only the metadata extraction part has been mostly completed, but
development of some sort of persistent storage for that metadata is on the
roadmap (involving the usage of MongoDB or Sqlite as potential backends). This
persistent storage will be used to build collections with metadata and then
constructing queries like “is this file already in the collection”, “is there
asimilarfile in the collection”, “get all files with this metadata tag” or
“list all the files created by the same device on the same date as this file”.See TODO.txt for more details.