Hi,
what about this two flags? are they written to XMP and/ or DOT files or stay only in the database?
DOP files and/or database
PhotoLab does not store “traffic lights” in .xmp (sidecars) and neither does Lightroom.
Pick and Reject are used in-app and it does not make much sense imo to export an image that has been rejected 
Not for export, but for “import”. I’m trying to use Fast RAW Viewer with DxO PL but have often problems with sharpness. I would like to verify later that a photo is really not quite sharp. So my idea is to set the “Rejected” flag in the XMP or DOP files and check it again later in DxO. But I can’t find the appropriate field in both files.
That is because the accept/reject flag is not an industry standard metadata flag. It is implemented differently in different software. In fact, FRV moves rejected files to a temporary folder, from where you can recover them in case of mistake.
PhotoLab will not export rejected files.
On macOS, you can use the coloured Finder tags, which are stored in the image files themselves.
I know. But as example FRV writes rating=-1 to XMP files for rejected files. DxO don’t honr this XMP standard. So my idea was with my own script map XMP rating=-1 to DOP rejected, but it loks like DxO writes it’s only to they own database.
Except it’s not an XMP standard. See this conversation as an example of the problems involved.
How about using the xml:label tag, which is commonly used for colour names, including in PhotoLab.
The only minor problem is that the tag is just simple text and is capable of storing anything, not just colour names. It can also be locale sensitive - or not - at the whim of the developer. I run PL6 in French and, if I choose “Rouge” for the colour label, PL writes “Red” into the DOP and XMP files.
Nonetheless, as long as any app that touches the xmp:label tag uses the same locale, it could give you a means of identifying rejected/accepted images.
That’s over 10 old discussion. Except DxO and C1 all others Programs (FSV, IMatch, Photo Supreme, Bridge…) are using xmp:rating=-1 to set file as rejected.
Of course I can work with labels. Rating is much easier for me, because on my keyboard is “x” key - rejected 
I have been heavily involved in metadata manipulation for my own keywording/rating/tagging/etc app for Mac and can tell you that the fundamentals are still true.
I have no quarrel with you on that, but that is because it has become a “de facto” accepted standard, but it is still not an xmp standard. In fact, with some apps on Windows, they use the ratingPercent tag to allowing “fractional” ratings.
I participated heavily in the PL5 beta when the DAM concept first saw the light of day, trying to assure standards compliance and multi-app compatibility of keywords. Not to be too bold but much of how keywords work now is down to my “insistence” 
However, coloured labels are still not right, since there should be a lookup table so that, like Bridge, you can make a given colour relate to any word(s), not just a colour name.
As for ratings, in my opinion, all that is needed is to write the xmp:rating = -1 value to the xmp file as well as writing the “reject” to the DOP.
Maybe a clearly defined feature request would be in order? Would you like to create one?
Let’s not mix rating with traffic lights and colour tags!
Rating is well established and uses the xmp:rating tag
Traffic lights (pick/reject) are good for the respective app only.
Colour tags can be transferred between apps, but fail in many cases (see @Joanna’s post above)
The usual suspects therefore don’t work without bending things just a little bit, knowing that someone else might not understand your interpretation or, that at a later time, you find that you want the mis-used tag for what it was actually meant for.
Possibilities:
- use rating “1” for rejects
- add the keyword “reject”
- bend whatever metadata field you like
The most sustainable method is probably to move images to a subfolder.
Agreed. I only suggested labels because they can look the same colour as DxO’s traffic lights.
My personal feeling is that, if the rest of the world (
) is using a rating of -1 for rejected, would it be a viable alternative for DxO to follow suit and add such an entry into the XMP file as well as the into the DOP file? And mu answer is, that this would automatically overwrite the rating tag, just to say that the image is rejected. Can you have a rated and rejected image?
This is yet another reason I love macOS. They provide Finder tags that can one of seven colours and/or text.
I just mark files with a red tag in Finder - job done.
correct. I try to make feature Request
No, because “-1” ist rating with “-1”
Ah! you are quoting from the adobe XMP specs, which are not universally accepted.
It is so strange that Adobe contributed to the MWG (Metadata Working Group) and not soon afterwards, started to bring out their own variations that sometimes contradicted the guidance document.
My personal feeling is to avoid any Adobe specific tags because I have found some of them to be either badly conceived, ambiguous and prone to change.
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I don’t know what kind of problems you as Apple user has with Adobe, but this is only one official available specs of XMP I know.
It’s your chise. It’s exactly the same here with Adobe as with Apple - if a standard is “too slow” because the participants can’t agree on anything, someone pulls and cooks his own soup
And rating=-1 is nothing “Adobe”
Hierarchical keywords are 100% adobe soup, but as example - I will don’t work anymore without
This is I think because your images already have 5 stars and DxO can’t handle “-1”, so it doesn’t see any change.
What you thought does not apply. The rating went up to five stars when DPL read the xmp sidecar with a rating of minus one. As I’ve set DPL to not sync metadata automatically, I was (and am) in full control as to when a dop or xmp file is read or written - and it does not matter if the xmp file was written by DPL or LrC or Fast Raw Viewer.
@Joanna, what does your app do when it encounters a rating of “-1”?
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Anything other than 1-5 shows the same as 0.
But then my app doesn’t cater for image rejection.
I’ve just re-checked the ExifTool docs and found that they now also state that a xmp:rating of -1 represents rejected. Obviously this has changed since I wrote my app, around the time that PL5 was released.
I shall be updating my app. I wonder if DxO will update PL by writing -1 to the XMP file as well as the DOP tag.