XnView IPTC Template Questions ?

I have been creating and successfully using XnView IPTC templates for quite some time.

I have several templates that contain heirarchical Keyword Tags that were themselves created within digiKam.

These digiKam tags, when applied via an XnView IPTC template, fall into place and align themselves properly within the digiKam tag heirarchy.

Now a question:

I changed the format of an XnView IPTC template from iptc to txt and opened it with the Text File Editor.

I was expecting to see each keyword tag's full heirarchy; however, all I see are the tags, with no hint of the preceding heirarchy.

One thing I did notice is each keyword tag is separated by exactly twelve spaces.

Please do not confuse my keyword tags with the IPTC template's numbered "tag"s which denote the IPTC fields.

My intention is to edit and create IPTC templates with appropriate heirarchical keyword tags while in Text Document form, copy/pasting some while typing in others.

Being able to do so will save me a ton of time as opposed to having to actually apply the tags to an image and then load the image into the IPTC Editor to then create the template.

My question is, how will digiKam know that these keyword tags are heirarchical and not simply first level tags ?

Okay; I just dove in to see what would happen.

I did a few test runs by simply entering the desired digiKam keyword tags exactly as they are typed in digiKam into the "<tag_25>" list in the Text Document Editor, following the proper procedure like so:

<tag_25>
<list>
<value>Quarterhorse</value>
<value>Henry</value>
<value>Red Sorrel_Chestnut Horse</value>
<value>Cimmaron County</value>
<value>Pine View Road</value>
</list>
</tag_25>

It doesn't look exactly like this in the txt file; I made sure to employ the exact number of spaces in my created template as were in the XnView created templates.

There are eight spaces between <tag_25> and <list>.
There are twelve spaces between <list> and the first Value and also twelve spaces between each Value.
There are eight spaces between the last Value and </list>.
And, there are four spaces between </list> and </tag_25>

I don't know what the outcome would be if the space count was different.

Once finished, I changed the .txt back to .iptc and put them back in the XnViewMP folder.

After I applied my newly created templates using the XnViewMP IPTC editor, I checked them in digiKam; I don't know how or why it happened, but my keyword tags were recognized in digiKam in exactly the right places within the digiKam tag heirarchy.

I am well pleased with how well this adventure turned out; adding the keyword tags to the templates using the Text Editor is a lot quicker/easier for me than the way I was doing it.

So far...., so good.