FTP

[sam h]

I regularly have to send around a dozen pictures to eight separate picture desks/newspapers, the FTP program we currently use will not allow me to send to all 8 desks at the same time, I have to upload to each picture desk separately and wait until it has finished before repeating the process for each of the 8 desks. Will Photo mechanic allow me to upload/FTP to all 8 at the same time?

[Kirk Baker]

Sam,

I regularly have to send around a dozen pictures to eight separate picture desks/newspapers, the FTP program we currently use will not allow me to send to all 8 desks at the same time, I have to upload to each picture desk separately and wait until it has finished before repeating the process for each of the 8 desks. Will Photo mechanic allow me to upload/FTP to all 8 at the same time?

You should be able to have multiple server uploads going at the same time.  You will have to open up the FTP As dialog eight times, choosing a different server each time, but the uploads should go in parallel.  That said, you may find that unless you have really high upload bandwidth that running eight simultaneous uploads may cause the uploads to go fairly slowly and may even cause timeouts.

We offer a 20 day trial version on our website (http://www.camerabits.com/) so you can try this out for yourself.

-Kirk

[Brendan]

maybe he want to start only ONE TIME the upload progress, and not for every destination server, like me..

[Kirk Baker]

Brendan,

maybe he want to start only ONE TIME the upload progress, and not for every destination server, like me..

Then the FTP As dialog would need to have portions of its UI duplicated eight times.  That would be rather odd wouldn't it?

-Kirk

[Shadow]

Might be odd but it's something a lot of people might like to have.

Perhaps when the user sets up FTP destinations they can be grouped, so for example 10 different FTP sites can be grouped together and called 'Newspapers'. Then when hitting Apple-U the group can be selected and the images is then sent to the 10 selected FTP sites.

To improve this further I would like to suggest that each FTP destination could also have some other details added, such as the re-sizing of files. Then I could send a high-res file to one client and a smaller web version to another, both of which would be in the same group.

[Kirk Baker]

Might be odd but it's something a lot of people might like to have.

Perhaps when the user sets up FTP destinations they can be grouped, so for example 10 different FTP sites can be grouped together and called 'Newspapers'. Then when hitting Apple-U the group can be selected and the images is then sent to the 10 selected FTP sites.

To improve this further I would like to suggest that each FTP destination could also have some other details added, such as the re-sizing of files. Then I could send a high-res file to one client and a smaller web version to another, both of which would be in the same group.

Please describe what the UI would look like.  How would this be implemented?

-Kirk

[Brendan]

Shadow described that, what I also want!

kirk, I guess you know the Firefox grouped bookmark tabs. like this.

At present we can specifiy in FTP AS some parameter like size, crop, ... (and even missing SRGB and sharpen-feature)

Now we want be able to create a "meta ftp site", called, e.g. "newspaper", which contains some "FTP-As" items, so that we only have to fire once the button and all grouped ftp-sites get the pictures.

[Kirk Baker]

Shadow described that, what I also want!

kirk, I guess you know the Firefox grouped bookmark tabs. like this.

At present we can specifiy in FTP AS some parameter like size, crop, ... (and even missing SRGB and sharpen-feature)

Now we want be able to create a "meta ftp site", called, e.g. "newspaper", which contains some "FTP-As" items, so that we only have to fire once the button and all grouped ftp-sites get the pictures.

But what if each newspaper server destination had entirely different naming convention needs?
What if each one had different destination paths?
Also, if you send to eight different sites at the same time, the upload bandwidth will be used up entirely and all of them will upload extremely slowly.

What is the solution for each of these issues?

-Kirk

[Brendan]

But what if each newspaper server destination had entirely different naming convention needs?
What if each one had different destination paths?

Thats not a problem, because we use the already pre-defined FTP-connections, so we use for each destination their preferred configuration with image-size, path, username, password, compression, iptc-stationery-pad, ...

Also, if you send to eight different sites at the same time, the upload bandwidth will be used up entirely and all of them will upload extremely slowly.

What is the solution for each of these issues?

You´re right, this is an issue, if we dont have a really big internet connection. If we use this example with the high number of remote destination sites of 8, its more importand that all of the 8 receive shortly at least one picture, instead of that the last one in range receive their first after 1-7 received completely all images.

Their should be some kind of "load balancing" algorithm, dependend on the number of destinations and internet connectivity. for example, at some press centers you´ll have such a damn fast connection, you can upload even with 5 parallel connections each with 240 kb/s ... so, the only limiter seems the remote server.
in this case, PM doesnt need to throttle at all.

[Kirk Baker]

But what if each newspaper server destination had entirely different naming convention needs?
What if each one had different destination paths?

Thats not a problem, because we use the already pre-defined FTP-connections, so we use for each destination their preferred configuration with image-size, path, username, password, compression, iptc-stationery-pad, ...

There is only one IPTC Stationery Pad.  If each paper needed different IPTC Stationery Pad settings then there would need to be eight different IPTC Stationery Pads.

As for the destination path, the FTP Connection Setting only describes the base path (which of course could be the full path) and in the FTP As dialog there is a field for entering the rest of the path.  This part of the UI could need to be duplicated many times as well.

Also, if you send to eight different sites at the same time, the upload bandwidth will be used up entirely and all of them will upload extremely slowly.

What is the solution for each of these issues?

You´re right, this is an issue, if we dont have a really big internet connection. If we use this example with the high number of remote destination sites of 8, its more importand that all of the 8 receive shortly at least one picture, instead of that the last one in range receive their first after 1-7 received completely all images.

Their should be some kind of "load balancing" algorithm, dependend on the number of destinations and internet connectivity. for example, at some press centers you´ll have such a damn fast connection, you can upload even with 5 parallel connections each with 240 kb/s ... so, the only limiter seems the remote server.  in this case, PM doesnt need to throttle at all.

What you're describing sounds like a fair amount of work.  It could indeed be implemented, I'm sure.  I'll talk it over with the rest of the team and see what they think.  No promises on an implementation, however.

-Kirk

[Brendan]

There is only one IPTC Stationery Pad.  If each paper needed different IPTC Stationery Pad settings then there would need to be eight different IPTC Stationery Pads.

hm. there`s the feature to save a pad. whats about to say, that for newspaper XY a specified saved pad should be used? e.g. to add the information with the bank account etc to the caption - but in general no big modification on the entered caption..

What you're describing sounds like a fair amount of work.  It could indeed be implemented, I'm sure.  I'll talk it over with the rest of the team and see what they think.  No promises on an implementation, however.

for sure, for the first step it will be ok if there`s only a basic function, without intelligent load balacing and so one.

e.g.:
I´m at a sports-event in a sports-hall (or politics..) and I have to devliver images to some destination: 2 newspaper, two agencys and some destinations per email. It will take too much of attention and time at the moment, to handle all this during shooting.
For this we`re looking for some feature in PM that will simplify that.

And, still keep in mind for other uploaders like a gallery2 export.
So, there should be a "meta" UI before FTP, email, gallery2, photo-shelter, etc.

maybe I´ll draw a simple, "not-programmer"-like chart of that I keep in mind..


Greets
Brendan