Author Topic: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)  (Read 8326 times)

Offline KeithRJ

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I have the need to have Logical Collections where I can specify a new collection based on logical combinations of other collections.

As an example:

New Collection = Collection 1 AND (Collection 2 OR Collection 3) NOT Collection 4

What this will do is create a New Collection that contains all images in Collection 1 and in either in Collection 2 or Collection 3 and NOT in Collection 4.

The New Collection would be dynamically updated if anything changes in collections 2 - 4.

This functionality is in Lightroom and works extremely well and I have found very useful, but I no longer use Lightroom.  If PMP can provide this function then I have everything I need to replace Lightroom completely.

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2020, 09:34:10 AM »
Keith,

How would one specify this "Logical Collection"?  Describe the user interface.

-Kirk

Offline KeithRJ

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2020, 08:44:42 PM »
Keith,

How would one specify this "Logical Collection"?  Describe the user interface.

-Kirk
Kirk,

If PMP created a variable for each collection then you could use those variables to build up your logic in a simple string variable specifying what the logic would be.  Taking the above example I would then use:

{Collection 1} AND ({Collection 2} OR {Collection 3}) NOT {Collection 4}

This would be the simplest to implement.  Lightroom allows you to build your logic in the GUI but as we already have variables and power users already know about how to use them then my suggestion above should be pretty simple to specify and to program.  Logic precedence would follow the standard precedence or can be explicitly specified using parentheses.  I don't think any programmatic checking of the logic would be necessary either as that could be caught using standard error processing.  Checking that referenced Collections exist would be required though.

As collections might use names already used by existing variables you could prefix the Collection Variable with something like {collection:Collection 1} or {coll:Collection 1} or something similar.

Does that sound feasible?

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2020, 09:09:03 PM »
Keith,

Yes, that makes sense though we probably won't be creating custom variables for the the Collections.  If we decide to implement the feature then it will be in some way symbolic.  Collections are just paths internally.  We could expose that via contextual menu.

-Kirk

Offline KeithRJ

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2020, 09:28:25 PM »
Keith,

Yes, that makes sense though we probably won't be creating custom variables for the the Collections.  If we decide to implement the feature then it will be in some way symbolic.  Collections are just paths internally.  We could expose that via contextual menu.

-Kirk

Kirk,

however you do it, it will be most useful.

Many thanks
Keith

Offline KeithRJ

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2020, 06:43:58 AM »
Was just wondering if this is being considered as it would be most useful to me in collecting and deciding on the best photo of subjects taken over the years.

Offline Bob Hendricks

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2020, 05:56:16 PM »
This discussion appears to be a more sophisticated version of the discussion I started about multiple copies of images if one activates two catalogs that have some of the same images in each.. 

What I was trying to do by generating two different catalogs and then activating both was a logical AND. The  contact sheet is a display of the logical AND of the two catalogs except that duplicate images appear twice, instead of once.

Are collections the same as catalogs? Are we talking about the same thing but in different ways?

The description given by Keith  sounds like it is what I am looking for, but may not know how to do.

Bob

 
Bob Hendricks

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2020, 08:53:51 PM »
Bob,

This discussion appears to be a more sophisticated version of the discussion I started about multiple copies of images if one activates two catalogs that have some of the same images in each.. 

What I was trying to do by generating two different catalogs and then activating both was a logical AND. The  contact sheet is a display of the logical AND of the two catalogs except that duplicate images appear twice, instead of once.

Are collections the same as catalogs? Are we talking about the same thing but in different ways?

No, collections are different from catalogs.  They're a 'virtual folder structure' that allows you to group images together but without having to copy/move anything around.

-Kirk

Offline KeithRJ

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2020, 10:55:24 PM »
Was just wondering if this is being considered as it would be most useful to me in collecting and deciding on the best photo of subjects taken over the years.

Kirk,

any consideration of this feature?  Any update would be appreciated.

Thanks
Keith

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2020, 07:12:35 AM »
Keith,

Was just wondering if this is being considered as it would be most useful to me in collecting and deciding on the best photo of subjects taken over the years.

any consideration of this feature?  Any update would be appreciated.

We consider all feature requests.  But at some point we have to ship the application and not all feature requests will be implemented before final release.  Some will be implemented later and some not at all.

I think your feature request has merit.  However, I don't know when it will be implemented.

-Kirk

Offline KeithRJ

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Re: Logical/Dynamic Collections (not the same as smart collections)
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2020, 05:32:06 PM »
Many thanks for your reply Kirk