I'm not sure what symptoms you were having, but I just tried it and this is what happened:

catalog:setPropertyForPlugin - executed without error.

catalog:getPropertyForPlugin - caused an error with trapped message: "Could not copy value between states" - which the same error I get if I pass a "surelynottobefoundname" for the field-name.

Is there a secret?

Rob

Mark,

I used my own code, and I played with it a fair bit - tried "get"-ing in a separate with____Do gate... - I think its broken!

Chet? Mr. Drarvik?? - You didn't quit already did you??? - Too busy to read the forum???? - Policy not to respond?????

Rob

Mark,

I believe you're trying to read items outside of a gate. Try changing your code as follows:

local catalog = LrApplication.activeCatalog()

LrTasks.pcall(
    function()
        catalog:withWriteAccessDo( "Set some metadata",
                                    function()
                                        catalog:setPropertyForPlugin(_PLUGIN, "fred", "Some stuff")
                                        catalog:setPropertyForPlugin(_PLUGIN, "john", "Other stuff")
                                    end)
        catalog:withReadAccessDo( "Read some metadata",
                                    function()
                                        local linkIDList = catalog:getPropertyForPlugin(_PLUGIN, "fred")
                                        local linkNameList = catalog:getPropertyForPlugin(_PLUGIN, "john")
                                    end)
    end
)

Sorry for taking the liberty and re-formatting the code to my liking

PS: Also, keep in mind, you can't write and read inside of the same callback function, you must let the "write" gate to complete and come back, only then you can "read".

Mark,

If you are using two separate asyncronous tasks, chances are, they would be running in parallel. So the first task may still be "writing" when the second task is attempting to "read". Just something to watch out for.

Anyway, let us know what you find in your testing.

At some point in a Lr3 dot rev, Adobe nearly fixed this function.

@LR3.4.1, It *sometimes* works with private access, and it always(?) works with full write access.

I use a work-around now that just uses reglar lr-prefs-for-plugin and prefixes the catalog path (with illegal key chars removed) to the target property name.

Accomplishes the same thing for my purposes and is faster and more reliable and requires no with-do gate.

Rob