odog502 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a basic Win32::OLE question. Im just trying to retrieve the values of properties for files using OLE. Specifically I want to retrieve the "Date Picture Taken" value from my JPG files. But to start off I cant even get these basic properties...

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

use Win32::OLE('in');

$tp = Win32::OLE->GetObject("C:\\testpic-1.JPG");
print "Readable Attribute Value: $tp->{'Readable'}\n";
print "File Name: $tp->{'FileName'}\n";

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When I run this I get the following output:

C:\>test.pl
Readable Attribute Value: [object]
File Name: [object]

C:\

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Can someone please tell me how to retrieve file properties and specifically the "Date Picture Taken" property?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Getting file attributes/properties using Win32 OLE
by Ollie Jones (Novice) on Jan 04, 2010 at 03:24 UTC
    If you're working with camera-produced JPEG files, you might consider using the Image::MetaData::JPEG module to retrieve the picture's timestamp directly from the JPEG metadata.
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      Thanks for the suggestion Ollie. You helped me find the solution to the problem. I didn't use Image::MetaData::JPEG but I did use one similar to it, Image::ExifTool::Exif. Your suggestion got me looking for the right thing though thanks. I downloaded the module from CPAN, then I was able to do what I set out to accomplish. Heres the code I wrote for anyone that is interested:

      #!/usr/local/bin/perl
#
# PicRenamer.pl 
# script to rename pics and videos based on the date
# in the following format "YYYY-MM-DD_HHmmSS_Event.JPG"
# 
# Written by: odog502
# backup all your files before trying this!!! Im not responsible
# for any missuse of this script
#

    $dir = 0;
    $event;
    $property;
    $filetype;

    print 'Enter location of files to be renamed (ex. C:/test): ';
    chomp($dir = <STDIN>);
    print 'Enter the name of event that describes these pictures(no sp
+aces): ';
    chomp($event = <STDIN>);
    print 'Enter the exif property that contains the date(eg Date/Time
+ Original): ';
    chomp($property = <STDIN>);
    # examples "File Modification Date/Time", "Create Date", "Date/Tim
+e Original"
    print 'Enter the extension of the filetype you want modify(e.g. \'
+jpg\'): ';
    chomp($filetype = <STDIN>);

    chdir ("$dir");

#
# gets appropriate files and sorts them by file name
#

    @files = <*.$filetype>;
    @files = sort {$a cmp $b} @files;

#
# Go through each filename and use exif to get its properties.
# Loop through each property until you find the one with the date
# Rename the file to the date found in the property, add the custom
# "event" name to the end.
#

    $i = 0;
    
    until ($i > $#files)
    {
        print "working on file: $i $files[$i]\n";
        open (FILEPROP, "C:\\Image-ExifTool-8.00\\exiftool.pl \"$dir\\
+$files[$i]\" |") or die $!;
        while (<FILEPROP>){
            chomp;
            if ( $_ =~ /$property\s*: (\d{4}):(\d{2}):(\d{2}) (\d{2}):
+(\d{2}):(\d{2})/){
                print "Changing to: $1-$2-$3_$4$5$6_$event.$filetype\n
+";
                rename "$files[$i]", "$1-$2-$3_$4$5$6_$event.$filetype
+";
            }
            $j++;
        }
        close FILEPROP;
        $i++;        
    }

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Re: Getting file attributes/properties using Win32 OLE
by Anonymous Monk on Jan 03, 2010 at 22:41 UTC
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      I already have the GetObject function in my script. Or are you implying that I am using it incorrectly? Despite the link being all in VB as far as I can tell Im using it correctly. My only guess is that Im not specifying the optional object class, but since your link is VB I dont know what the perl syntax would be for this.

      The perl example that I am basing my script off of is what I learned from here List Page File Properties

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        GetObject can return anything, it varies from system to system.

        So you're supposed to use some calls (i'm guessing QueryObjectType, see in Win32::OLE and on MSDN ) to find what type of object you have, and then look up the available $obj->Methods and $obj->{Properties} on MSDN.

        On my system I get MSHTMLDispHTMLDocument, which is some kind of .NET object ( DispHTMLDocument ), and it doesn't have a FileName or Readable property.

        Maybe you can try Win32::OLE Type Library Browser

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