Cataloging - is it still under development?

[ostonica]

It's been over 3 years since we were told that cataloging features were under development and over a year since we were told that some kind of announcement would come in 2009. But I could not find any mention of this development in any posts since July.

I can't see how there would be severe enough development problems to cause such a long delay for a team as talented as the PM team,  so I'm guessing that it's a marketing issue.

I've been investigating IDImager for some months, while waiting for news, but have not truly committed to it because I expect that PM's cataloging program will be a great one.  But I've now reached the point where I really do need a program that allows me to organise images into Projects, Collections and/or Portfolios.

I expect the reply will be "we are still working on it, but don't have an ETA" but I'm just hoping that this time there might be more information.

Fingers crossed.

Jim Swift

[Kirk Baker]

Jim,

It's been over 3 years since we were told that cataloging features were under development and over a year since we were told that some kind of announcement would come in 2009. But I could not find any mention of this development in any posts since July.

I can't see how there would be severe enough development problems to cause such a long delay for a team as talented as the PM team,  so I'm guessing that it's a marketing issue.

I've been investigating IDImager for some months, while waiting for news, but have not truly committed to it because I expect that PM's cataloging program will be a great one.  But I've now reached the point where I really do need a program that allows me to organise images into Projects, Collections and/or Portfolios.

I expect the reply will be "we are still working on it, but don't have an ETA" but I'm just hoping that this time there might be more information.

We are indeed still working on it, but harder than ever (it took the back seat to a bunch of other things that were considered higher priority at the time) and will be demonstrating it to some of our larger clients in the next few weeks.  That said, a final release is still some months away.  I can't give you an exact date but things are coming along nicely and the feature set may be quite impressive for some (depends on what your expectations are, I suppose.)

Thanks for your interest.

-Kirk

[ostonica]

Thanks very much for the positive update, Kirk.

If I start using IDImager seriously in the meantime, is there a possibility that I could migrate the contents of the IDI database (SQLLite) to the PM database?

Jim

[Kirk Baker]

Jim,

Thanks very much for the positive update, Kirk.

If I start using IDImager seriously in the meantime, is there a possibility that I could migrate the contents of the IDI database (SQLLite) to the PM database?

While we're using SQLite as well, we won't have any migration tools at initial release.  If there is enough need, we'd likely add such features if they're even possible to accomplish.

-Kirk

[Woodie]

Another vote for conversion capability as I also use IDimager now for cataloging.

[Kirk Baker]

Another vote for conversion capability as I also use IDimager now for cataloging.

It may not be possible to convert their database to ours.  If your metadata is stored in your images or in XMP sidecar files, re-cataloging it in PM should preserve everything.

-Kirk

[photomy]

Another vote for conversion capability as I also use IDimager now for cataloging.

It may not be possible to convert their database to ours.  If your metadata is stored in your images or in XMP sidecar files, re-cataloging it in PM should preserve everything.

-Kirk

Yes, getting all information inside XMP sidecar files or a combination of embedded and XMP sidecar files prior to conversion would work. Verify what is getting in the files to your comfort level by using Exiftool.  If all the info is saved this way, it should be easy to upload to any new catalog program that can read and integrate XMP sidecar files.  PM is so good at cleanly reading and writing (and erasing) embedded data, that if you want to go back to catalog stored data only after conversion, it should not be too hard.  If you are able to do it with only XMP sidecar files, just delete the sidecar files after the new catalog is up and running.

I prefer to always have embedded data AND sidecar files, in case the catalog program ever has a problem.  Also, my side keywords and contact information need to be in the files anyway for the world to see.

[Woodie]

The data is embedded so that's not a problem.  But without a conversion of the database,  I presume that means rereading all the images.  Not an impossible task.  I did that when going from IMatch to IDImager.  It's just time consuming.

[heavymeister]

I am looking forward to the cataloging tool. Infact our company right now is searching for a picture database that meets our needs and budget. We would like to use IPTC/XMP as metadata that is not only stored with the picture itself but also in the database, so that changes in the database are also made to the picture's metadata so that this metadata is available when exporting the file.
Will your cataloging tool work like this way? Some of the media asset tools we were looking at would not meet this requirement.
Will it be a server/client solution with PM as frontend?

Please hurry up your development, as we are drowning in pictures in a vast file system.

HM

[Kirk Baker]

I am looking forward to the cataloging tool. Infact our company right now is searching for a picture database that meets our needs and budget. We would like to use IPTC/XMP as metadata that is not only stored with the picture itself but also in the database, so that changes in the database are also made to the picture's metadata so that this metadata is available when exporting the file.
Will your cataloging tool work like this way? Some of the media asset tools we were looking at would not meet this requirement.
Will it be a server/client solution with PM as frontend?

It is indeed a client/server architecture.  It will definitely update the IPTC/XMP metadata as it is changed.

Please hurry up your development, as we are drowning in pictures in a vast file system.

I don't think that's possible.  We're working on it already at full capacity.

-Kirk

[Brendan]

I`m looking forward to test it!

[sidewinder]

Is this going to be a product the average user will be able to afford?

S-

[Kirk Baker]

Is this going to be a product the average user will be able to afford?

Absolutely.

-Kirk

[JAS Photo]

Any ETA?

[Kirk Baker]

Joe,

Any ETA?

No, sorry.  We don't project release dates for our software anymore.  Rest assured that we're working on it as hard as we can and that it will come out as soon as it's ready.

-Kirk