I'd like to request looking into adding integration support for other Photo Catalog software such as Lightroom, Apple Photos, Capture 21, etc. It's certainly a big ask, I know.
I've looked into Lightroom, and the more recent versions of Apple Photos, both of which use SQLite for the backend database like Photo Mechanic Plus. And Apple now provides much better APIs and frameworks for working with Photos. I'm not sure about Lightroom APIs, but other software does integrate somewhat with it.
I've directly browsed the SQLite DBs for each program on my computer. It's almost uncanny how similar the architecture and DB design is across PM Plus, Lightroom, and Apple Photos. But that's not surprising given that each app is trying to solve similar problems with the same DB backend.
What gave me the idea to ask for this was seeing how a Mac app, PhotoSweeper, uses a Media Browser module that seems to leverage the newer Apple APIs for Apple Photos for integration with and browsing the Apple Photos catalog. They do something similar with Lightroom, and Capture 21, too.
Additionally, I've been playing with the newest iterations of Apple Photos, as well as browsing some of their developer documentation. It appears as integration support for Apple Photos is now finally much more robust than it ever has been, and actually seems to work.
I know you also maintain PM and PM Plus for Windows, and also try to maintain some backward compatibility with older OSes and PM versions, so I don't know how much would be feasible to implement just for MacOS. But I'd bet you could get a lot of support for it.
And I've seen some similar requests for this before in your forums. Now may be the time that the stars and planets have aligned enough for it to actually be feasible from a technical and useablilty standpoint. Whether it makes business sense for you is a question I can't answer as I don't have enough experience with PM or the PM user base to know.
Thanks!
Ed
