Is there any portable app that create Sidecar files?

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starstuff
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 7:06 pm

Is there any portable app that create Sidecar files?

#1 Post by starstuff »

Hello!

Im looking for a portable app that can create Sidecar files based on the file/folder name.

I just recently found out about search programs that can search inside text files like Agent Ransack/FileLocator Lite, and can't believe how useful they are!

I like to use these Sidecar files for tags/metadata, and use search to find these again

example of application that uses sidecar file
This is used in Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/ using a ".opf" inside a folder to store ebook metadata

Tagspaces is also in the process of implementing sidecar using json to store the tags, https://tagspaces.uservoice.com/forums/ ... up-filames

and pydio https://pyd.io/ using .ajxp_meta to store file tags

also Mac OS also use sidecar files to store metadata (DS_Store)

Is there any app that make Sidecar files?

the manual way is to create a text file, change the file extension, edit it using a text editor with metadata you like.

Thank you!

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__philippe
Posts: 687
Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2013 2:09 am

Re: Is there any portable app that create Sidecar files?

#2 Post by __philippe »

If you prefer creating discrete sidecar files, rather than storing metadata right into the original target files,
you might consider Phil Harvey's classic ExifTool (provided you don't mind Command Line utilities...).

See this relevant ExifTool forum topic discussion: "Using sidecar files instead of image files"

Likewise, the following paper about the pros & cons of various metadata storing schemes might be of interest:
http://www.dpbestflow.org/metadata/metadata-handling

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