Statamic Asset Metadata Importer Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Build vs. buy for media metadata handling. This package turns a recurring "we need EXIF/video metadata" backlog item into a configuration exercise rather than a bespoke integration. If your product surfaces image/video asset metadata (captions, alt text seeds, copyright, GPS, duration, codec, resolution) inside Statamic, this is a candidate to adopt instead of building extractors in-house.
• Feature scope for media-heavy products. The v1.1.0 adapter system (Native, Exiftool, FFprobe, ImageMagick) expands what you can credibly promise: still images across 100–200+ formats and video files (MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV). This unlocks roadmap items like automated alt-text seeding, asset library filtering by camera/GPS/duration, and DAM-style search.
• Platform upgrade sequencing. Statamic 6 and PHP 8.5 support means this package is no longer a blocker for a Statamic/PHP upgrade. If it was holding back a platform modernization track, that dependency is now cleared.
• Roadmap de-risking via configuration, not code. adapter_mapping with fallback and '*' wildcards lets PMs scope "support all file types" as a config decision and a documented dependency (Exiftool/FFmpeg/Imagick), not an engineering sprint. This shortens estimation cycles and reduces scope ambiguity.
• Use-case prioritization. Adapter choice is now a product tradeoff you can reason about explicitly: Native (zero external deps, narrow coverage), Exiftool (broadest tag coverage, external binary), FFprobe (video), ImageMagick (widest format coverage via PHP extension). PMs can pick per file type based on infrastructure constraints rather than a single all-or-nothing capability.
• Operational readiness as a release gate. Improved exception handling for missing binaries/extensions and null-safe config handling reduce the "surprise failure in production" risk that typically pushes a feature out of a release. This supports committing to a launch date.

When to Consider This Package

Consider it when:

• You run Statamic (now including v6) and need automated metadata extraction on uploaded or re-uploaded assets.
• Your product requires broad format coverage (images beyond JPG/TIFF) or video metadata, and you can provision Exiftool/FFmpeg/Imagick.
• You want a low-code, config-driven integration with a clear migration path — v1.1.0 is fully backward compatible, so adoption/upgrade carries minimal regression risk.
• You value documented, modular guidance (configuration, adapters, troubleshooting) that reduces onboarding and support load.
• Your infrastructure team is comfortable managing external binaries and PHP extensions, and you can set ffmpeg_path/env vars.

Look elsewhere when:

• You are not on Statamic or need a framework-agnostic metadata pipeline.
• Your environment cannot install or maintain external binaries (Exiftool, FFmpeg) or the Imagick extension — you'd be limited to the Native adapter's narrow format set.
• You need real-time or high-throughput extraction at scale where a binary-per-file adapter chain is a performance concern; evaluate batching/async before committing.
• You need metadata management (editing, taxonomy, rights management) rather than extraction/import — this package imports; it is not a full DAM.
• Vendor lock-in or long-term maintenance of a community addon is a concern and you'd rather own a thin internal extraction service.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For executives: This release materially expands what our media features can do — from basic image metadata to video and 200+ image formats — while being fully backward compatible, so there's no migration cost or regression risk. It clears our Statamic 6 / PHP 8.5 upgrade dependency and converts a previously custom-engineering effort into configuration, reducing build cost and time-to-market for media-rich features.

For engineering: v1.1.0 refactors metadata extraction into a pluggable adapter system (Native, Exiftool, FFprobe, ImageMagick) with per-extension adapter_mapping, fallback, and wildcard support. It adds Statamic 6 and PHP 8.5 compatibility, hardens exception and null-safe config handling, and ships focused docs plus a streamlined README. Upgrade is drop-in; new capabilities are opt-in via published config and environment variables (ASSET_METADATA_IMPORTER_FFMPEG_PATH). Prerequisites for full coverage are Exiftool, FFmpeg, and/or the PHP Imagick extension — plan infrastructure accordingly.