From a5b5f12832ebc3530f37880d48c224981bbd649e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mario Zimmermann <mail@zisoft.de>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2026 19:23:04 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] restrict metadata tag list in metadata editor

The metadata editor should only allow to edit tags which are supposed to
be user-editable.
---
 src/gui/metadata_tags.c    | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 src/gui/metadata_tags.h    |  4 ++--
 src/libs/export_metadata.c |  4 ++--
 src/libs/metadata.c        |  4 ++--
 4 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/gui/metadata_tags.c b/src/gui/metadata_tags.c
index 86d711ea93c9..9b280ee34d5e 100644
--- a/src/gui/metadata_tags.c
+++ b/src/gui/metadata_tags.c
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
     This file is part of darktable,
-    Copyright (C) 2025 darktable developers.
+    Copyright (C) 2026 darktable developers.
 
     darktable is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -85,7 +85,10 @@ static void _tree_selection_change(GtkTreeSelection *selection, gpointer user_da
   gtk_widget_set_sensitive(add_button, nb > 0);
 }
 
-GtkWidget *dt_metadata_tags_dialog(GtkWidget *parent, gpointer metadata_activated_callback, gpointer user_data)
+GtkWidget *dt_metadata_tags_dialog(GtkWidget *parent,
+                                   const gboolean user_editable_only,
+                                   gpointer metadata_activated_callback,
+                                   gpointer user_data)
 {
   GtkWidget *dialog = gtk_dialog_new_with_buttons(_("select tag"), GTK_WINDOW(parent),
                                                   GTK_DIALOG_DESTROY_WITH_PARENT,
@@ -124,9 +127,33 @@ GtkWidget *dt_metadata_tags_dialog(GtkWidget *parent, gpointer metadata_activate
   if(!taglist)
     taglist = (GList *) dt_exif_get_exiv2_taglist();
 
+  // list of user-editable tagnames for the metadata editor
+  const char *allowed_tag_names[] =
+    {
+      "Xmp.dc.",
+      "Xmp.acdsee.",
+      "Xmp.iptc.",
+      "Iptc."
+    };
+
   for(GList *tag = taglist; tag; tag = g_list_next(tag))
   {
     const char *tagname = tag->data;
+
+    if(user_editable_only)
+    {
+      // for the metadata editor we only want to expose user-editable fields
+      gboolean allowed = FALSE;
+      for(int i = 0; (i < sizeof(allowed_tag_names) / sizeof(allowed_tag_names[0])) && !allowed; i++)
+      {
+        if(g_strstr_len(tagname, -1, allowed_tag_names[i]) == tagname)
+          allowed = TRUE;
+      }
+
+      if(!allowed)
+        continue;
+    }
+
     char *type = g_strstr_len(tagname, -1, ",");
     if(type)
     {
diff --git a/src/gui/metadata_tags.h b/src/gui/metadata_tags.h
index e0f22682c7d3..5cce9e1d21d8 100644
--- a/src/gui/metadata_tags.h
+++ b/src/gui/metadata_tags.h
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
     This file is part of darktable,
-    Copyright (C) 2025 darktable developers.
+    Copyright (C) 2026 darktable developers.
 
     darktable is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 */
 
 gchar *dt_metadata_tags_get_selected();
-GtkWidget *dt_metadata_tags_dialog(GtkWidget *parent, gpointer metadata_activated_callback, gpointer user_data);
+GtkWidget *dt_metadata_tags_dialog(GtkWidget *parent, const gboolean user_editable_only, gpointer metadata_activated_callback, gpointer user_data);
 
 // clang-format off
 // modelines: These editor modelines have been set for all relevant files by tools/update_modelines.py
diff --git a/src/libs/export_metadata.c b/src/libs/export_metadata.c
index be126b1129e4..a8d0e80ba329 100644
--- a/src/libs/export_metadata.c
+++ b/src/libs/export_metadata.c
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
     This file is part of darktable,
-    Copyright (C) 2019-2025 darktable developers.
+    Copyright (C) 2019-2026 darktable developers.
 
 
     darktable is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ static void _metadata_activated(GtkTreeView *tree_view,
 // dialog to add metadata tag into the formula list
 static void _add_tag_button_clicked(GtkButton *button, dt_lib_export_metadata_t *d)
 {
-  GtkWidget *dialog = dt_metadata_tags_dialog(d->dialog, _metadata_activated, d);
+  GtkWidget *dialog = dt_metadata_tags_dialog(d->dialog, FALSE, _metadata_activated, d);
 
 #ifdef GDK_WINDOWING_QUARTZ
   dt_osx_disallow_fullscreen(dialog);
diff --git a/src/libs/metadata.c b/src/libs/metadata.c
index 066e5bb140bd..4e322988ae9a 100644
--- a/src/libs/metadata.c
+++ b/src/libs/metadata.c
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
     This file is part of darktable,
-    Copyright (C) 2010-2025 darktable developers.
+    Copyright (C) 2010-2026 darktable developers.
 
     darktable is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -743,7 +743,7 @@ static void _metadata_activated(GtkTreeView *tree_view,
 // dialog to add metadata tag into the formula list
 static void _add_tag_button_clicked(GtkButton *button, dt_lib_metadata_t *d)
 {
-  GtkWidget *dialog = dt_metadata_tags_dialog(d->dialog, _metadata_activated, d);
+  GtkWidget *dialog = dt_metadata_tags_dialog(d->dialog, TRUE, _metadata_activated, d);
 
 #ifdef GDK_WINDOWING_QUARTZ
   dt_osx_disallow_fullscreen(dialog);