Gimp 3.0 get Metadata with Python

[Volker]

Eventually I found the time for a closer look at my metadata problem.

Code:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
metadata = image.get_metadata().serialize()
root = ET.XML(metadata)

I detected the reason for the parse error I encounter with python's elementtree. The element Iptc.Envelope.CharacterSet has the value "%G". This seems to be a parsing fault, see https://github.com/james-see/iptcinfo3/issues/32.

Instead it should read "UTF-8".

So I replace the invalid string with "UTF-8" and am happy thereafter.

Code:

def get_metadata_tree(metadata):
   try:
       root = ET.XML(metadata)
       return root
   except:
       metadata = metadata.replace("%G", "UTF-8")
   
   # 2nd try in case that there still are invalid entries
   try:
       root = ET.XML(metadata)
       return root
   except:
       return None

I've never since encountered another error and can read the values of Gimp metadata elements in a pythonic way.