iphoto style albums via scripts?

[_waipeinan_]

I believe it's possible to create a script to allow searching of multiple drives and, or adding images from multiple sources into collections which remain intact rather like those in iphoto?
image albums rather than just volatile saved searches or duplicates of images in new locations.

Ihave thousands of images across several drives and was really hoping that bridge would be the magic solution.
bob from adobe scripting sugested a posting here to see if anyone could make this work, as this degree of programing is way out of my league:)

[_Bruce_Richards_]

I am working on just such a system. If you hang tight for a few days, I can let you know when it's ready for testing.

[john beardsworth]

I'm sure it is possible. While the intellectual journey of writing such a script may be enjoable, the script's routine performance will not compare to a cataloguing program such as iView, Portfolio or iMatch. You'd be better off investing in one of those rather than relying on scripts for this.

John

[_Dan_Culbertson_]

"the script's routine performance will not compare to a cataloguing program such as iView, Portfolio or iMatch"

That may be true for standard image formats however those programs you mention are not integrated with the changes made to settings in Camera Raw for raw digital images. I don't know if the original poster was considering raw formats but I sure am starting to collect them so I'd be interested in the results of this intellectual journey from a purely practical perspective. To use the other cataloging programs I would have to redo all the raw image settings in whatever system they use for raw conversion (not a realistic option for even a few hundred images) or store a jpg version of each image with the raw images (an awkward soltuion). When (and if) the other programs read the Camera Raw sidecar files (or preferably the internal data in DNG files) they may be the better option for me.

[john beardsworth]

In my response I only considered raw, not standard formats.

What you mean by "not integrated" is, I assume, the XMP metadata (eg rating or label) and perhaps the the large preview.

It is possible to get the XMP data into each of those cataloguing programs in their current versions. I am already doing this with DNG files and Portfolio 7 (it also works with Nikon and Fuji raws). The cataloguing programs also show the ACR-corrected/cropped thumbnails, though currently they don't extract DNGs' large previews.

To get the XMP data, you script the export of data from Bridge ( see here) and then import it into the catalogue - you don't touch the raw/DNG raw image settings. The coding isn't tough and any of the fields you see in Bridge's metadata panel can be exported, the camera raw settings too, if you want. OK, it's not a live link but the cataloguing vendors are working on this area and you'll see mapping to XMP within months.

Looking at it practically, try searching with Bridge on a keyword with a folder structure containing 10000 records in maybe 100 folders. Then repeat in a database. I like Bridge, but it's a file system browser and doesn't pretend to have the virtues of a database.

John

[_Dan_Culbertson_]

Hmm - I just read on another forum that Portfolio now *does* read the ACR adjustments in dng files (guess I might need to update). That would make a script far less interesting to me, presuming Portfolio is getting *all* the ACR adjustment data in the files. Script still might come in handy though.

Dan

[john beardsworth]

What Portfolio forum is that - the really reliable one is http://www.portfoliofaq.com/forum/.

The devil's in the detail. Portfolio 7.0.6 can read some XMP data, not all, but you can use the script I described to import all fields shown in the metadata panel of Bridge (whether that data is in the DNG file or in a sidecar). The DNG's thumbnail shows all ACR adjustments, but the preview is limited to 256 pixels.

John