Hey,

Could someone explain to me how to use the metadata search functionality? I mean, I have tons of JPEGs from a span of nearly ten years, all commented in the JPEG comment field (not EXIF). How do I search for a phrase that's in the comment field?

The "Find files/Folders" app, and it's "Contents" tab is next to useless. If I leave everything at defaults and just type e.g. "Japan" to the "For" field (Search metainfo sections: * for Japan), I should get a list of all my pictures which contain the word in some metadata field. End results, zero.

However, it seems that the indexing doesn't care about ID3 tags either, since that same search does not turn up the MP3 of "Big in Japan" by Alphaville, either.

So what good is this metadata search for, anyway? I can get better results with strings * | grep.

The weird part is that if I grep ~/.kde/share/apps/nepomuk/repository/main/data/sesame2/values.dat for those search terms, they DO turn up. So clearly the data is indexed.

Question is, HOW am I supposed to access all those hoards of info!

Running KDE 4.3.1.

The search tool you are trying to use does not use the search index created by Nepomuk.
Assuming the Nepomuk runner is activated, you can use Alt + F2 to perform the search.

You can use the search bar in Dolphin or type
nepomuksearch:/searchTerm
in Dolphin's addressbar, too.

JanGerrit wrote:You can use the search bar in Dolphin or type
nepomuksearch:/searchTerm
in Dolphin's addressbar, too.

Ok - this works. It doesn't tell you *why* something matches with KDE tools alone (I can check with e.g. jhead or a mp3 player though), since Dolphin only shows whatever has been stored in the KDE's own semantic desktop metadata system ("Tags", "comments", star rating). And I can't search with specific term (say, I'd like a list of all photographs that have > 1 second exposure time, to see all my "night shots"), since I don't even know what the terms are..

Anyway, basically this is good, as long as I edit the metadata someplace else.

I'm hoping that the tools (Dolphin, Gwenview, etc) will start showing metadata that's present in the file and use that as basis for whatever the semantic information uses. In my opinion, it's ok to have stuff in a database for indexing purposes, but if metadata is stored there, it'll only be gone if I move the file to another device.

I also find it a bit odd that in e.g. Gwenview, there's a separation between "Meta information" and "Semantic information". Semantic information shows the Rating, Tag, Description, but neither in Semantic or in Meta Information, JPEG comment is not shown at all in any form. Why would I have to re-enter a description for image when it already has one? And considering EXIF info is clearly used for stuff like exposure time, aperture, etc. why is comment (either JPEG or EXIF) not included?

In KDE 3.x, Konqueror showed the JPEG comments just fine. Anyway, hopefully this gets more work done in the future. But I'm glad that search at least works.