Auto Rotate Image

Thanks for this question, which comes at an opportune time.

I am in the process of adding hooks to the IPTC/EXIF and Custom Field mapping functions for my next version. It’s possible that one or more of the new hooks will help you with this issue.

I would like some additional information so I can evaluate your issue and address it.

Can you tell me what plugin you are using to auto rotate the images? If it is available in the WordPress repository I will download a copy, see how it works and determine what, if anything, MLA can do to help. Any further details you can give me on when and how you are using the other plugin to process your images would also be helpful.

Thanks for any additional information you can supply.

I am using image rotation fixer which seemed the plugin that was updated most recently. I was able to set the priority so that it would run after mla but because the meta fields did not work on upload they could not get processed and the exif information was lost.

The problem with most of the plugins that work on images is that they lose all the exif data. And judging on what I read so far there is no easy way to reimport the exif in the new image.

Thank you for posting the additional information on the plugin you’re using. I installed it and ran some tests. I also looked through the source code.

As you observed:

The problem with most of the plugins that work on images is that they lose all the exif data. And judging on what I read so far there is no easy way to reimport the exif in the new image.

I regret to say there’s not much that MLA can do to defend against this loss of metadata. Even the new WordPress image editor support (Class Reference/WP Image Editor, introduced in WP v3.5) fails to copy metadata to altered images, although it DOES preserve the original image and allow for restoring the original.

I will have to give this issue some more investigation and thought. I can’t promise you any relief in the near term, but I will keep this topic unresolved and post an update when I have progress to report.

I regret the news is not more positive. Thanks for raising the issue and for your interest in the plugin.

I fully understand as I tried to find a solution myself already. But maybe something will turn up. Thanks again for your time.

I have released version 1.70, which can offer you some relief from the lost-data issues you’re having with the Image Rotation Fixer plugin.

Have a look at the “MLA Custom Field and IPTC/EXIF Mapping Actions and Filters (Hooks)” section in the Settings/Media Library Assistant Documentation tab. It contains an outline of the hooks I’ve added and a link to the mla-mapping-hooks-example.php.txt file; a simple stand-alone plugin you can use to hold any custom code you need.

In your case, the mla_upload_prefilter and mla_upload_filter hooks can be used to capture as much of the IPTC and EXIF information as you need. You can use the captured data to restore the attachment metadata in the `mla_update_attachment
_metadata_prefilterormla_update_attachment
_metadata_postfilter` filters.

You could also use the mla_mapping_ ... filters to map your captured data to standard fields, taxonomy terms or custom fields.

I am going to mark this topic resolved, but if you need more specific help with using the hooks, post an update here and let me know what data you want to preserve and where you want to store it. I am happy to give you as much help as you need to make good use of the hooks.

Finally, none of the hooks will let you preserve the IPTC and EXIF data in the image file itself after plugins or other code have altered it. I am looking into that, but it is a much more difficult problem and will take time to address. If you are interested in that topic, please follow this other support topic where I will be reporting my progress and any solutions I come up with:

Feature Requests

Thanks for your question and for your interest in the plugin. Questions like yours are a big source of ideas for enhancements and new features.

I have updated the mla-mapping-hooks-example plugin to preserve data that other plugins like Image Rotation Fixer remove during the upload process. It can’t restore images already altered, but will prevent further loss of metadata in future JPEG uploads. If you would like a copy of the updated plugin, send me a note with your e-mail address and I will e-mail it to you. You can use the Contact Us page at our web site:

Fair Trade Judaica/Contact Us

Thanks again for starting this line of development.