New MetaDiver beta is out!

  Well there has been a lot happening on the project and otherwise the past few weeks and I'm really excited that the new beta has been released!

Beta v1.0.8 - Release notes

  This release has a lot of improvements. A few are: processing time, PDF's metadata is extracted, error handling is better, and the column's order a bit better so it doesn't look like like a complete mess.

  The code is in place to handle PDF's (you read that right). It's still needs some more testing with it improving each day but so far it seems pretty solid!

Go get it

Requirements: You'll need at least the .Net Framework 4.0 and Windows 7 or later to run it.

You can grab the latest version at easymetadata.com/Downloads.

Enjoy!

Notes

  I have started working on a website to house my various projects. You can check it out at www.easymetadata.com. It's just a simple site right now for something fancier later.

  On some system's Excel claims the xlsx output is corrupt but the data seems fine. If you have problems just use a different output. There are minor UI tweaks, an About screen and a lot of plumbing you don't see.

  Still no install package. Microsoft did away with the simple Setup projects after VS2010 and went to Wix Toolset which I am having to learn. It looks powerful but more work (aka, distraction) than I had planned on. If you are interested in learning more I am planning on putting together a post on Wix once I have a handle on it.

Feedback

*Please send or post Feedback if you find this tool useful, have issues running it or feature requests! Post your feedback to twitter #MetaDiver.

MetaDiver update and next steps

  Let's talk about what's been happening since my first post about MetaDiver. I've been excited to see the views to the blog since the MetaDiver post and that has me feeling there could be a lot of interest in this project.

Headache's  w/PDF

  I've been been putting a lot of testing and research into Shell32's PDF handling. Unfortunately I found that Ad*b* reader's pdfshell.dll is broken or unreliable on 64 bit OS. I know it worked on my two computers until recently so something has changed. I've tried every scenario I could find or think of to no avail to make the 32bit dll work properly with Shell... My takeaway is it's clear that we can't depend on Ad*b*'s dll with Shell32. To avoid this issue altogether I'm pulling the PDF meta-data outside Shell. Below you can see the meta-data I am able to pull so far. Not bad!


 

 For those that would like to see PDF details in Shell and Property->Details in Explorer there is a solid product available. It's trial-ware with a $40 cost to purchase after 30 days. If you are cool with that then go that route, it works very well. It's called PDF-ShellTools you can find it here.

Here's the project status so far!

 Going Forward

  I may only provide the Shell version for free and a Pro version with all the extra work included as a 30 day time based Beta. This is evolving and ongoing so we will see. I want to make sure that the base version of MetaDiver is very functional, reliable and add's value to many people and organizations while remaining simple and strait forward.

Here's where it's at

Working on Website and Wiki for MetaDiver.  <-- Domain and hosting package purchased
Working on Exception logging so I can give you a Manifest success and failures.  <-- ETA is Soon
Working on Bug squashing and speed improvements. <-- ETA is on going.
Working on Exif GPS parsing and decoding using.  
Requested - XML output.
Ability to specify a matter name for organizing information. <-- ETA is Soon

Other features that may or may not be part of a buy up/donate version

Working on Testing PDF handling with library outside shell. <-- ETA is Soon
Database support via ODBC and/or SQLite/OLEDB database table
Other file formats.
Requested - Profile's allowing you to only pull the Field Column's you want.
Column reordering.
Requested - Windows placement memory.

 

Wrapping up

  As you can see a lot is going on. For those interested in a super duper MetaDiver version stay tuned!

New Beta this Friday.

Keep coding