more idle thoughts - about file metadata

Posted by jimspoon
Nov 12, 2012 at 04:12 AM

We need to be able to attach user-defined metadata fields to any type of file.

We do have some metadata capabilities with NTFS - we have file comments, and extended attributes, and “alternate data streams”.

The problem is - if this metadata is stored in the file system, rather than inside the file itself - it may be lost whenever the file is copied to another drive or location, or sent to another person, etc.

The metadata needs to travel with the file itself. And it does - for some kinds of files. JPEG images have very good built-in metadata capabilities - you have EXIF, IPTC, and XMP fields to hold all kinds of metadata. And when you copy the file to another location, it is not lost.

Problem - if you added such metadata fields to a simple text file - other programs, other operating systems, etc. would not know how to deal with it. For example - if you loaded such a file into a Linux text editor, it might show up as gibberish, and it could be easily corrupted.

Solution - there ought to be a cross-platform method of joining “application data” and “metadata” parts in one file. The operating system should mediate so that “dumb” applications would see only the “application data” part of the file, while “smart” programs would be able to see and manipulate the metadata section. The file could be sent anywhere without losing its metadata.