Cammello

Batch upload tool for Wikimedia Commons with full Structured Data on Commons (SDC) support: captions, creator (P170), copyright status (P6216), license (P275), depicts (P180), and created-during (P10408).

Cammello is a single-file PyQt5 desktop application aimed at photographers who upload many related files at once (e.g. a full press-photography session from a film festival) and want SDC statements set consistently on every file without post-processing each one on the wiki.

Highlights

• Upload settings hold the metadata that applies to every file in the batch: author + creator (P170), source, permission, license text + license (P275), copyright (P6216), other templates and fields, gallery prefix. The Wikidata QID fields are highlighted in light blue and only accept Q followed by digits; copyright defaults to Q73566113 (CC- licensed) and license to Q18199165 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
• Base description shared by every file in the batch: depicts (P180), created-during (P10408), categories, gallery suffix, and any extra wikitext or templates.
• Per-file description for anything that varies from file to file: captions in any languages, per-file depicts, per-file categories, extra wikitext.
• Wikidata name search: on the Creator, Depicts and Created-during fields you can type a name (e.g. "Harald Krichel") and pick from a live suggestion list showing label, description and QID; selecting inserts the QID. These fields are validated to contain real QIDs before upload.
• Bulk edit: select several rows and set one field (Depicts, Categories, Caption en/de or Date) for all of them at once.
• Two editing modes: structured single-line fields (default) or raw description_all text (expert mode).
• Drag and drop image files (or a folder of image files) onto the table; multiple files at once are supported, and unsupported entries in a mixed drop are silently skipped instead of aborting the whole drop.
• Settings (upload defaults, base description, optionally the current file's description) can be exported to and imported from a plain text file.

Installation

Requires Python 3.11 or 3.12.

pip install PyQt5 requests Pillow
python Cammello.py

To build a standalone executable:

python -m PyInstaller --onefile --windowed --name Cammello Cammello.py

Login

Cammello uses a MediaWiki BotPassword. Create one at Special:BotPasswords with the grants required for uploads and structured-data edits (High-volume editing, Upload new files, Edit existing pages, Edit Wikibase). The username in the login dialog has the form YourName@BotName.

The description_all format

Each row in the table has a per-file description. When the batch is uploaded, its content is prepended with the base description (which applies to every file), plus the creator=…, copyright=…, license=… lines taken from the corresponding Wikidata QID fields in Upload settings. The resulting text is a mix of key=value lines (which drive SDC statements) and free wikitext:

caption_en=Harald Krichel at the Berlinale 2026
caption_de=Harald Krichel auf der Berlinale 2026
creator=Q640
copyright=Q73566113
license=Q18199165
depicts=Q42; Q64
created_during=Q124692383
gallery_suffix=Berlinale 2026

{{en|1=Harald Krichel at the Berlinale 2026}}
[[Category:Harald Krichel]]

• caption_XX=… sets the SDC caption in language XX.
• creator, copyright, license, depicts, created_during become Wikidata-item SDC statements (P170, P6216, P275, P180, P10408). depicts accepts a semicolon-separated list; , is still tolerated for older data.
• gallery_suffix is appended to the base gallery path (if any) so that all files with the same suffix land in the same gallery page.
• Lines starting with # are treated as comments and stripped before upload.
• Everything else (templates, category links, plain wikitext) is passed through unchanged into the file's wiki page.

The per-file editor only offers the fields that legitimately vary from file to file: captions, depicts, categories, and extra wikitext. Everything else lives in the base description or in Upload settings.

License

CC0.

macOS note

The pyexiv2 wheel links against Homebrew libraries. If import pyexiv2 fails with Library not loaded: /opt/homebrew/..., run brew install exiv2 (pulls brotli, gettext and friends). Without pyexiv2 the IPTC and Culling tabs are hidden; the MediaWiki side works regardless.

UI language

The interface is available in English, Deutsch, Español, Français and Italiano. Pick one under Settings → Language; the change takes effect after a restart (it is stored as ui_language in QSettings). On the first start the system locale decides if it is one of the five, otherwise English is used. Log messages stay English on purpose, so a log file remains readable when reporting an issue.

Adding a string: wrap it in tr('…') (English text = the key) and add an entry to TRANSLATIONS in cammello/i18n.py. test_i18n.py fails if a key is missing, a language is incomplete, or a {placeholder} was lost in translation.

Mandatory depicts & category suggestions

depicts (P180) is mandatory for the MediaWiki upload: every file needs a QID, or one of the three override checkboxes under the depicts field ("No Wikidata item", "Not applicable", "Unidentified"). In a WikiPortraits context (a {{WikiPortraits ...}} template or a WikiPortraits category) the override adds the matching maintenance category automatically.

The "Suggest" button next to the per-file categories fills in Commons categories derived from the depicts entries and the "created during" event (Wikidata P373, label as fallback); an event without a year in its name gets the year from the Date column appended.

FTP / Flickr

FTP and Flickr share one tab: the file list on the left and the status area serve both services. The Flickr part uploads the files from the table (selection, or all) to your Flickr account; the Culling tab gets a -> Flickr send target. One-time setup: create an API key/secret at flickr.com/services/apps/create, enter both on the Flickr tab (or the Settings mirror), then run the two authorization steps (browser opens, paste the verification code). Files are uploaded as they are; the Flickr title is the target filename; privacy follows your account's upload defaults. A license picked in the upload group (CC BY-SA, CC0, Public Domain Mark, ...) is applied per photo right after the upload - 'Account default' leaves your Flickr setting untouched.

The IPTC tab is hidden in the release default; start once with --enable-tab iptc to bring it back (the choice persists).

Application icon

Drop icon.png into cammello/assets/ for the runtime window/Dock icon and the About tab logo. A real macOS Finder icon needs an app bundle (PyInstaller with --icon cammello/assets/icon.icns).

Hidden per-tab switches

The Culling, IPTC and FTP tabs can be switched off individually (including their references elsewhere: the Settings-tab sections, the Culling "-> FTP" button, the FTP tab's IPTC-driven upload button). There is no UI for this; flip a switch once from the command line and it is persisted:

python Cammello.py --disable-tab ftp      # names: culling, iptc, ftp
python Cammello.py --enable-tab ftp

The app then starts normally; the flags live in QSettings as feature_culling / feature_iptc / feature_ftp / feature_flickr (default: on). A missing pyexiv2 still disables all three regardless of the flags.