Pop up window

[ulrik]

Hope all is well.

When I upload something there is sometimes a pop window coming and sometimes not.

Is there a way to ensure it newer happens?

Its a problem when automizing workflows.

Thanks.

Ulrik

[ahoward]

Screenshot of the window? I don't know of a setting that makes something only happens sometimes. Typically a specific action triggers a resulting behavior.

[Kirk Baker]

Ulrik,

When I upload something there is sometimes a pop window coming and sometimes not.

It is likely a progress dialog.  Depending on how many images there are to process, you may or may not see it.  Does it only appear when you have several images selected and never appear when you only have one or two?

-Kirk

[ulrik]

Kirk,

That is a good question.

Im not sure. I think you could be right about a certain about of photos. I tried it with around 200 yesterday when it happened.

Just the inconsistency means automatic worklflows sometimes doesnt work.

I will look into it.

Thx.

[ulrik]

Just trying it now.

The pop of window came up with only 6 photos and then the whole automatisating stops.

And then I tried again and it went through without the pop up. And all went well.

Thanks.

[Kirk Baker]

Ulrik

Im not sure. I think you could be right about a certain about of photos. I tried it with around 200 yesterday when it happened.

Just the inconsistency means automatic worklflows sometimes doesnt work.

What makes up an automatic workflow?  Are you using other apps/utilities to add this automation?  If so, which ones?

Thanks,

-Kirk

[ulrik]

Im using Keyboard Maestro. Doesnt matter I think as it also happens just by doing it without. Its somehow, as you wrote, the process dialog.

It just goes through the shortcuts and then when the pop up window comes it of course stops as that is not part of the workflow.

If the pop up was always there I guess there would be a short cut to close it and it would be fine. Its just when it sometimes happens and sometimes not it creates problems.

I tried it for Photo Mechanic 6 and its the same behaivor.

Thanks.

[ulrik]

Is it the same process when ingesting?

WIth ingesting it has the attached options!

[Kirk Baker]

Im using Keyboard Maestro. Doesnt matter I think as it also happens just by doing it without. Its somehow, as you wrote, the process dialog.

It just goes through the shortcuts and then when the pop up window comes it of course stops as that is not part of the workflow.

If the pop up was always there I guess there would be a short cut to close it and it would be fine. Its just when it sometimes happens and sometimes not it creates problems.

The progress dialog is always created, it just is only shown if the work being done takes longer than a specific amount of time (usually 1.5 seconds).  Why does this matter to the automated workflow?

Thanks,

-Kirk

[Kirk Baker]

Is it the same process when ingesting?

Ingest has a scan phase that runs with a progress dialog that will appear if the scan takes too long, but it's always there, just hidden until the time duration is exceeded.

-Kirk

[ulrik]

Thanks.

It matters in this case:

Imagine a workflow where you upload 1-star photos to FTP X and 2-star photos to FTP Z.

It looks like this (done through Keyboard Maestro but could be any software):

Show 1-star photos → Upload to X FTP (using a new shortcut) → Return to contact sheet - Show 2-star photos → Upload to Z FTP → Return

This reduces 6 button presses (or more before the current beta version, which also required dropdown changes) down to just 1 button. Big time saver.

The problem with pop-ups:
Automation software (e.g., Keyboard Maestro) fails when a pop-up appears. It tries to trigger "show 2-star photos" but stops because the pop-up lacks that keyword, halting the workflow.

Ideal solution:
The app should either always show a pop-up (with a dedicated shortcut to close it) or never show one. An AI agent might work someday, but I might not trust it as uploading the wrong photos could cost me a job (shortcuts is nice as they are consistent).

For now, we need reliable, consistent workflows to maximize efficiency and we can actually do a lot of things in Photo Mechanic.

Potential benefits:
Solving this could shrink a 7-8 button process (plus mouse clicks) to a single Command+S, for example, in current beta version. That means faster uploads (more revenue) and more time to shoot the event A true double win.

Workaround idea:
Add a shortcut step that safely closes the pop-up without affecting the contact sheet (so its the same workflow no matter if it goes to the pop window or not). Not sure which one closes the pop window now.

Let me know if you need more details.

Thanks!

Ulrik

[ulrik]

So possible solutions, if possible:

1. Make it an option to see the pop up or not. And people can just double click under tasks to see it.
2. remove it completely when sending and people can double click to see it.
3. Option to change the 1.5s to another level.
4. It always comes but then have a shortcut to get back to contact sheet.
5. Keep it like now but have a shortcut which closes the pop window (or goes to contact sheet in another way) while not doing anything if shortcut is used with contact sheet opened.

They could all solve the problem with automation.

Hope it helps.

Thanks again.

[Kirk Baker]

Ulrik,

So possible solutions, if possible:

1. Make it an option to see the pop up or not. And people can just double click under tasks to see it.

These (sometimes invisible, depending on time-out) progress dialogs do not appear in the Tasks pane as they are not ongoing tasks.

2. remove it completely when sending and people can double click to see it.

Because of them not being Tasks, there is nothing to double-click.

3. Option to change the 1.5s to another level.

Do-able.  Reducing it to zero will always show the progress dialogs and they will close on their own if not aborted.

4. It always comes but then have a shortcut to get back to contact sheet.

They close automatically (the only option they offer is 'Abort' which ends the operation with an error).  No shortcut that gets back to the contact sheet is needed.

5. Keep it like now but have a shortcut which closes the pop window (or goes to contact sheet in another way) while not doing anything if shortcut is used with contact sheet opened.

The only option on the progress dialogs is to abort--there is no close.  They close on their own once the work is done.

Now that you understand the above, is there anything you can do in your automation software to work around the issue, or would you like to go with option #3?  And if you do want to go with option #3, would you want this to apply globally (all functions that use progress dialogs will show them always), or only for Uploads?

-Kirk

[ulrik]

I werent clear with my 3 first options I think:

1. Make it an option to see the pop-up window or not.
2. remove the pop-up window completely for every upload.
3. Option to change the 1.5s to another level.

If the two first ones are not an option (best by far), I need to get some more information on the 3:

1. If 0s it opens always but when does it dissapear again? Only when finished? If only when finished then its not an option as it takes too long time and the automatization software cant handle that.
2. Can you set it to xxxxx seconds then so it never opens?

Anyway to suppress it or as above is highly appreciated.

Its all about ensuring the precise thing happens every time so whatever the automatization software do ends with the same.

Thanks.

[Kirk Baker]

Ulrik

I werent clear with my 3 first options I think:

1. Make it an option to see the pop-up window or not.
2. remove the pop-up window completely for every upload.
3. Option to change the 1.5s to another level.

If the two first ones are not an option (best by far), I need to get some more information on the 3:

The first two options are not possible.  The reason it is there is to prevent the user from doing something detrimental to the upload process.  This progress dialog appears for as long as it is necessary to copy all of the selected files to a cached location.  This prevents things like: the user closing the contact sheet, the user deselecting the images, the user renaming the images, the user deleting the images, the user moving the images to another folder, etc.

1. If 0s it opens always but when does it dissapear again? Only when finished? If only when finished then its not an option as it takes too long time and the automatization software cant handle that.

Yes, only when finished.

2. Can you set it to xxxxx seconds then so it never opens?

This would likely cause more support issues than we're willing to deal with, possibly even for you.  You'd have no way to abort the operation if you had to stop (other than force-quitting the application).  It would appear that PM is running, but if you tried to click in the Contact Sheet, it would just endlessly beep at you.  Users will forget that they made that setting and would kill the app to get out of it misbehaving.

Anyway to suppress it or as above is highly appreciated.

Its all about ensuring the precise thing happens every time so whatever the automatization software do ends with the same.

Understood.  Looking at your previous post that spelled out the automation workflow:

Show 1-star photos → Upload to X FTP (using a new shortcut) → Return to contact sheet - Show 2-star photos → Upload to Z FTP → Return

The part "Return to contact sheet", is that part of the automation that Keyboard Maestro does for you?

The reason I ask is that we could add an option to make the Upload progress window always start out minimized.  If this were implemented and you used it, then when the "Copying selected Photos..." progress dialog completed, you would be returned to the Contact Sheet automatically.  If your macro could just wait until the Contact Sheet became frontmost/active again, then it could continue with the second part.  Or if it can't wait like that, you could get the workflow down to two macros, each issuing one upload and then ending.  You'd just use the first one and wait for the Contact Sheet to become active, and then use the second one and wait for the Contact Sheet window to become active and then you'd continue doing other things that follow that workflow.

I'm sorry that we can't make the copy phase not have a UI, but we can prevent the upload UI from appearing (you'll see it in the Tasks pane and you can reopen it by double-clicking its entry in the list).  I hope that this change could support your automation efforts.

Thanks,

-Kirk