Shared storage and Photo Mechanic

[convergent]

I am about to implement a new NAS (Network Areas Storage) in our office and would like to know if Photo Mechanic can deal with this, if I have multiple people using it.  What I want is to store the database for Photo Mechanic on the NAS, and have 2 or more workstations be able to access it so that I have once set of data.  Most of the time there won't be more than one user at a time, just different workstations... however, it is possible that occaisionally 2 people are working at the same time.  Thoughts?

[Kirk Baker]

I am about to implement a new NAS (Network Areas Storage) in our office and would like to know if Photo Mechanic can deal with this, if I have multiple people using it.  What I want is to store the database for Photo Mechanic on the NAS, and have 2 or more workstations be able to access it so that I have once set of data.  Most of the time there won't be more than one user at a time, just different workstations... however, it is possible that occaisionally 2 people are working at the same time.  Thoughts?

Photo Mechanic does not currently have a database.

Using multiple copies across a network is fine, but you can have problems if two people try to perform an operation on the exact same file at nearly or exactly the same time.  Meaning, if user A is IPTC captioning File1.jpg and user B is IPTC captioning File1.jpg in the same folder and they both OK the IPTC Info dialog at about the same time, then it is possible for File1.jpg to be damaged.

To be safe, keep your users working on separate folders and then there is nothing to worry about.

HTH,

-Kirk

[convergent]

What I was looking for was something that would let me rank and organize things, that would stay that way regardless of what workstation I was using.  I use PM now, but not for that.  So far every solution I've found is either painfully slow, or wickedly expensive.  I'd love to have PM's speed, and allow multiuser capability at the same time.

[Kirk Baker]

What I was looking for was something that would let me rank and organize things, that would stay that way regardless of what workstation I was using.  I use PM now, but not for that.  So far every solution I've found is either painfully slow, or wickedly expensive.  I'd love to have PM's speed, and allow multiuser capability at the same time.

Your color class ratings (and soon the 5-star ratings in 4.5) will stay persistent for multiple users.  The data for the ratings is either stored in the image files themselves, or in sidecar files.  Photo Mechanic does not use a monolithic database for this.  I guess you could say that Photo Mechanic uses many databases since there is a 1:1 correspondence between the rating and its storage location.

So the basic thing here is that Photo Mechanic will do what you want.  I was just warning you about multiple users updating the same file at the same time can cause problems since there is no per-file locking in Photo Mechanic.

HTH,

-Kirk

[convergent]

That should be fine... I'm not anticipating two people trying to edit anything at the same time.  I keep trying other tools and coming back to PM for its speed.  Whatever you do, it seems to do it very fast compared to other tools I've tried.  The thing that I give up is the library and search I guess..