if you want a catalog feature - speak up here!

[philb]

We haven't decided what version number we're going to introduce it in yet.

Some questions:

Will you use an "industry standard" database like SQL-Lite or MySQL?  Or will you have a proprietary flat-file like Extensis Portfolio?

Will there be import/export to other photo cataloging systems?

Is there support for scripts for various catalog actions?

On Windows, will you support XP, or just Vista and Windows 7?  32-bit or 64-bit versions of Vista/Windows 7?

Is there a product requirement document or specification available for review?  Can this be made available under non-disclosure?

Is there a rough timetable, e.g. 4Q 09 for the first release that contains cataloging features?

A desktop version and a server-based version for workgroups?

philb (first posting to this forum)

[Kirk Baker]

Phil,

We haven't decided what version number we're going to introduce it in yet.

Some questions:

Will you use an "industry standard" database like SQL-Lite or MySQL?  Or will you have a proprietary flat-file like Extensis Portfolio?

It will be using SQL-Lite as its database engine.

Will there be import/export to other photo cataloging systems?

Eventually, but not likely in the initial release.

Is there support for scripts for various catalog actions?

That is our plan.

On Windows, will you support XP, or just Vista and Windows 7?  32-bit or 64-bit versions of Vista/Windows 7?

XP and higher.

Is there a product requirement document or specification available for review?  Can this be made available under non-disclosure?

No, but the requirements will be fairly modest.

Is there a rough timetable, e.g. 4Q 09 for the first release that contains cataloging features?

I don't have a release date but expect some announcements in 4Q 2009.

A desktop version and a server-based version for workgroups?

We will have the capability of supporting multiple simultaneous users either locally or across the internet.

-Kirk

[philb]

We haven't decided what version number we're going to introduce it in yet.

Some questions:

Will you use an "industry standard" database like SQL-Lite or MySQL?  Or will you have a proprietary flat-file like Extensis Portfolio?

It will be using SQL-Lite as its database engine.

Kirk,

Thanks for the quick reply. 

I'm pleased that you will be using an open-source database engine.  That means a Photo Mechanic user with the right skills can use many publicly available tools if necessary, so you don't need to implement everything yourself.

I'm just getting started with a project to catalog all my photos, both film-based and digital.  I would like to be able to limit the total number of software applications that are involved in the "core" of my workflow. 

One more question I should have asked earlier:  Will there be a way to catalog film-based images, perhaps with some sort of "proxy" file?

Thanks again for a comprehensive answer.

philb

[Kirk Baker]

Phil,

We haven't decided what version number we're going to introduce it in yet.

Some questions:

Will you use an "industry standard" database like SQL-Lite or MySQL?  Or will you have a proprietary flat-file like Extensis Portfolio?

It will be using SQL-Lite as its database engine.

Thanks for the quick reply. 

I'm pleased that you will be using an open-source database engine.  That means a Photo Mechanic user with the right skills can use many publicly available tools if necessary, so you don't need to implement everything yourself.

I'm just getting started with a project to catalog all my photos, both film-based and digital.  I would like to be able to limit the total number of software applications that are involved in the "core" of my workflow. 

One more question I should have asked earlier:  Will there be a way to catalog film-based images, perhaps with some sort of "proxy" file?

I'm not sure quite what you're asking to be able to do here, but if you were to use a scanner on your film-based images you would have something that would represent them that could be cataloged by our product.

-Kirk

[philb]

One more question I should have asked earlier:  Will there be a way to catalog film-based images, perhaps with some sort of "proxy" file?

I'm not sure quite what you're asking to be able to do here, but if you were to use a scanner on your film-based images you would have something that would represent them that could be cataloged by our product.

-----------------

Kirk,

What I meant was I wanted to be able to catalog slides and negatives or even prints that haven't yet been scanned (and may never be scanned). 

Phil

[Kirk Baker]

Phil,

One more question I should have asked earlier:  Will there be a way to catalog film-based images, perhaps with some sort of "proxy" file?

I'm not sure quite what you're asking to be able to do here, but if you were to use a scanner on your film-based images you would have something that would represent them that could be cataloged by our product.

-----------------

Kirk,

What I meant was I wanted to be able to catalog slides and negatives or even prints that haven't yet been scanned (and may never be scanned).

You would need to choose some sort of representative image and then catalog that image in place of these other images.  Your metadata in these proxy images would have to suffice to clue you in to the existence of photos stored elsewhere.

-Kirk

[MontyM]

I'm not sure if this is a catalog feature, but I would really like it see this:

I would like to see a folder or container of some sort that would be able to hold shortcuts to images. Examples of a folder name could be "favorites" or "fireworks" and I would be able to create a shortcuts to images stored in many different folders.

LightRoom has a feature like this. I really found it useful. 

On another subject, do you allow users to download and try betas?  I would like to try out the catalog feature discussed in this thread.

Monty

[argos1]

I hope the keywords in the database are hirarchical and it is coming very soon. For the moment I work with PM, NX2 and iView Media Pro.
I want to rreplace iView.

[davidkl]

same here but I stopped using iview - too slow.

[Bill Kelly]

I would like to see a folder or container of some sort that would be able to hold shortcuts to images. Examples of a folder name could be "favorites" or "fireworks" and I would be able to create a shortcuts to images stored in many different folders.

Hi,

Yes, we plan on supporting both containers of elements that are the result of a search (such as any images having the keyword "fireworks" in their metadata), as well as containers of elements that have been aggregated manually as you describe above (where you can drag-and-drop images to form a collection regardless of their metadata.)

Regards,

Bill

[Bill Kelly]

I hope the keywords in the database are hirarchical

Edit: Yes, the hierarchical keywords supported in the catalog module are likely to be similar to the Structured Keywords in Photo Mechanic.


Regards,

Bill

[bazography]

It is great news that cataloging will be here soon. I've been waiting a long time for somebody to do this right, and if anybody can, it will be the PM gang.

As a news photog at a smaller paper I had to put together a digital workflow back in the early days when there was no model to go by. Over the years the system evolved to using Portfolio to catalog images spread across various locations like my internal HD, an external HD, and eventually DVDs, and PM to ingest, sort, tag IPTC etc (PM is just sooooo much faster/easier/better at those tasks it was worth using 2 programs).

Through all the evolutions and different software I've used, the 3 main things I always wanted in ONE program never changed:
1) A blazing fast browser to deal with hundreds of images quickly on a deadline.
2) Easily and quickly allow me to tag with IPTC data so I can find images in the future.
3) Powerful search tools to find images and view thumbnails and previews of those images no matter where they are located.
PM already has 1 & 2 nailed, so if they can do number 3 too it will be a home run.

I always found Portfolio to be clunky, unintuitive, complicated and somewhat unreliable, but I must admit it had one heck of a nice search function. You can search any available camera data or IPTC info and save all your commonly used searches as favourites. Most importantly for speed, you could set which one was the default. For example, if you frequently use "Keyword" - "Contains" - "____________" "and" "Capture Date" - "Is After" - "______________" then you can make that the default so it pops up ready to go every time. Just hit command-F and start typing.

The other thing nice about Portfolio is the ability to view full-screen previews of images stored offline (unconnected drive, DVD) with the option of selecting the size of the preview the program generates during the initial cataloging process. This allows the user to decide whether he wants smaller previews (or no previews) to save HD space or larger previews if he has space to burn.

So, two questions:
1) Will new catalog program have the features mentioned above?
2) How will cataloging integrate with the existing PM? Will it simply become a new feature within the existing PM? Two separate products? An add-on optional component?

Thanks guys... really looking forward to this!

[Bill Kelly]

So, two questions:
1) Will new catalog program have the features mentioned above?

Being able to view previews of images stored offline, and being able to specify the size of the previews when they are generated is definitely on the roadmap.

Being able to save favorite searches is also planned.  Being able to set a default search template seems very reasonable and should not be a problem.

2) How will cataloging integrate with the existing PM? Will it simply become a new feature within the existing PM? Two separate products? An add-on optional component?

While I'm not authorized to speculate about how the software will be bundled or packaged, from an architectural standpoint the user interface for the cataloging module will be integrated into Photo Mechanic; however, behind the scenes the cataloger engine will reside in a separate process.

The effect is that when using cataloging it will feel like it's part of PM, but Photo Mechanic itself won't be penalized by the extra size or complexity of the catalog engine.  Thus, when cataloging is not being used, Photo Mechanic's startup time, speed, and memory footprint should be unaffected.  Additionally, by running the catalog engine in a separate process, Photo Mechanic's reliability should be unaffected by the presence of the cataloging features.

Regards,

Bill

[bazography]

So, two questions:
1) Will new catalog program have the features mentioned above?

Being able to view previews of images stored offline, and being able to specify the size of the previews when they are generated is definitely on the roadmap.

Being able to save favorite searches is also planned.  Being able to set a default search template seems very reasonable and should not be a problem.

2) How will cataloging integrate with the existing PM? Will it simply become a new feature within the existing PM? Two separate products? An add-on optional component?

While I'm not authorized to speculate about how the software will be bundled or packaged, from an architectural standpoint the user interface for the cataloging module will be integrated into Photo Mechanic; however, behind the scenes the cataloger engine will reside in a separate process.

The effect is that when using cataloging it will feel like it's part of PM, but Photo Mechanic itself won't be penalized by the extra size or complexity of the catalog engine.  Thus, when cataloging is not being used, Photo Mechanic's startup time, speed, and memory footprint should be unaffected.  Additionally, by running the catalog engine in a separate process, Photo Mechanic's reliability should be unaffected by the presence of the cataloging features.

Regards,

Bill

Fantastic! Sounds like the creators have gone the extra mile to make sure the new cataloging component maintains the speed and efficiency that made PM such a great professional tool in the first place. Well done guys!!

[Bjorn]

Will it have versions?
Meaning you can put together orginal raw, picture for web, picture for print etc.