Good questions. The title+description method available from the pane is just a relatively quick, but effective way to add titles and descriptions that are stored in the folders
page.yml file.
alexhenes wrote:1. Will existing IPTC data be visible in the panel?
At this point no. It would be a bit pointless to just display it if you can't edit it no? It is a bit extensive task to add a web-based exif/iptc editor for images, so for now this is not possible.
Basically the new panel-option allows you to add titles and descriptions to X3 without hassle. If you prefer to use titles/descriptions from IPTC/EXIF, then as you know, the X3 frontend supports that, but then you must currently use your own workflow/application for managing the images IPTC data.
alexhenes wrote:2. What happens if we populate title/description in the panel when this data already exists on the image?
I believe the title/description added from the panel and stored in the folders page.yml file would outrank any existing IPTC data.
alexhenes wrote:3. What specific IPTC fields is the panel updating?
It's not updating IPTC fields! It is using x3-native generic title + description, stored in the page.yml file ... Although X3 supports IPTC items, one of the reasons its difficult to work with, is because there are virtually 1000's of items stored across various formats IPTC, EXIF and XMP ... Also, the same settings often have different names, depending on the device, camera or application that created them ... its a bit insane.
We will be looking further into this in the future, as the ultimate solution would be to store a files info in the file, so it travels wherever the file goes. For now, this is a simple, but effective solution for setting titles and descriptions.