On Jul 12, 2011, at 10:34 AM, Kyle Sluder wrote: > On Jul 12, 2011, at 3:24 AM, Kevin Muldoon <caoimgh...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Of course, I'm not writing a file format but simply creating folders and >> moving files. Very enlightening stuff. Thanks for weighing in on the subject. > > Ah. Yeah, it would be nice if Spotlight were designed with this case in mind. > > I think they'd recommend creating a parallel tree of dummy files of your own > type so Spotlight can run your generator on something, but if you support > moving arbitrary files to arbitrary locations that will lead to syncing > nightmares and still won't get you "Get Info" support. > > Sorry. Spotlight's design is at odds with what you want, which does sound > useful. Do file a bug at http://bugreport.apple.com explaining what you want > to do and why Spotlight doesn't work for you. > I filed a bug report about this very topic in April of 2008 (rdar://problem/5883633 text attached below).
Even for file formats that do support metadata there is no easy way of setting it. Case in point are PDF files: it is easy to generate them in Cocoa but I have yet to find an easy way to add metadata (such as author etc). Another weakness is that Spotlight Importers are not hierarchical. For example say I find a way to add certain metadata to all graphical assets (PDFs, TIFFs, PNG, ...). Now the problem becomes that there is just on Spotlight Importer per file format. I can't say "for PDF files use the regular Spotlight Importer and add the results from my custom Spotlight Importer", or call a second Spotlight Importer from mine and add the data (at least it used to be that way when I last checked). Spotlight is a very cool system that with some additions could evolve into something even more powerful. Gerd rdar://problem/5883633 23-Apr-2008 11:49 AM Gerd Knops: With Spotlight becoming more important, the lack of a simple and well supported system to store arbitrary metadata is sorely felt. All existing methods have serious drawbacks (besides no easy Cocoa interface): - Resource fork: Uncertain future, single file that has to be rewritten for every change, no cross platform support - Extended file system attributes: Limited capacity, poor tool support, little cross platform support - Any other schema: Undesirable separation of metadata and file A system to store generic metadata that is easy to use not only for Cocoa applications but also for scripts and tools, preferably platform independent, is needed. _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
