Read Exif information in a JPEG file, ExifInterface

ExifInterface is a class for reading and writing Exif tags in a JPEG file. Here is a simple exercise to read Exif tags. To make it simple, it will read a fixed JPG file from SD Card. The name and path of the JPG file is hard coded.



Refer to the article "Create SD Card in Android Emulator and copy files into, in Eclipse, Emulator and DDMS" to copy a JPG file with Exif into SD Card. And also, you have to update the program code with your own path and file name.

Create a Android Application, AndroidExif, with the following setting.

Project Name: AndroidExif
Build Target: Google APIs/Platform 2.0/API Level 5
Application name: AndroidExif
Package name: com.exercise.AndroidExif
Create Activity: AndroidExif
Min SDK Version: 5



Modify the layout file, main.xml, to assign id on the TextView.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
<TextView  
 android:id="@+id/textview"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:text="@string/hello"
    />
</LinearLayout>

Modify the code, AndroidExif.java, to implement our Activity to read Exif.

package com.exercise.AndroidExif;

import java.io.IOException;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.media.ExifInterface;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class AndroidExif extends Activity {
 
 TextView myTextView;
 
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        
        myTextView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textview);
        
        //change with the filename & location of your photo file
        String filename = "/sdcard/DSC_3509.JPG";
        try {
   ExifInterface exif = new ExifInterface(filename);
   ShowExif(exif);
  } catch (IOException e) {
   // TODO Auto-generated catch block
   e.printStackTrace();
   Toast.makeText(this, "Error!", 
     Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
  }
    }
    
    private void ShowExif(ExifInterface exif)
    {
     String myAttribute="Exif information ---\n";
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_DATETIME, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_FLASH, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LATITUDE, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LATITUDE_REF, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LONGITUDE, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_GPS_LONGITUDE_REF, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_IMAGE_LENGTH, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_IMAGE_WIDTH, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_MAKE, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_MODEL, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_ORIENTATION, exif);
     myAttribute += getTagString(ExifInterface.TAG_WHITE_BALANCE, exif);
     myTextView.setText(myAttribute);
    }
    
    private String getTagString(String tag, ExifInterface exif)
    {
     return(tag + " : " + exif.getAttribute(tag) + "\n");
    }
}

Download the files.