Temporary Categories / Keywords

[xnview]

I'm not sure what you're asking...

what do you think?

[aquahiker]

> So Categories can only be created with ui?"

Yes

> You can create new category in categories panel, but when you browse files, category tree is not changed (categories are imported as temporary if not present)?

Yes

[user0]

You can create new category in categories panel, but when you browse files, category tree is not changed (categories are imported as temporary if not present)?

Bridge:
- reimports keywords from image as temporary on selection
- writes keywords to image on checkbox state change

A - browsing

• A1
  1. start app
  no image selected, only Persistent keywords are shown

• A2
  2. select 1st image
  new keyword will be added to the Keywords list as temporary: Friends
  note: keywords in brackets [] are 'Excluded' and will not be assigned under certain conditions (not important for our case)
  3. select 2nd image
  another temp keyword will be added: Animals
  note: all temp keywords will disappear from Keywords list on app restart, unless they are made Persistent

B - creation and assignment

• B1
  4. new keyword is typed in search/create field
  
  5. press Enter/Return key
  • B2-1
    new temp keyword will be added to the Keywords list under new 'Other Keywords' group
    new keyword will be assigned to the image
  • B2-2
    6. restart app
    only 'Other Keywords' 'group' will remain, temp keywords will be removed from Keywords list
  
  5. press 'Create Keyword' (+) or 'Create Sub Keyword' (↵+) button
  
  • B3-1
    new persistent keyword will be created
  • B3-2
    6. restart app
    persistent keyword will remain in Keywords list

Actually, functionality of importing new keywords as temporary while browsing (A) looks fine.
In theory, this can be implemented as follows:

• Option 1 - Catalog Off
  Just allow editing Categories when Catalog is disabled, populate Categories pane only when file(s) is selected and update.
  When there is no file selected - empty Categories pane.

• Option 2 - Catalog On
  - add new 'Import Categories as temporary (session)' in Setting > Metadata
  - add new build-in 'Temporary' or 'Session' set in 'Category sets' pane
  - add indication for such keywords in italic in Categories pane
  - add 'Make persistent' command for them (like in Bridge)
  
  Creating&assigning temp keywords (B) looks clumsy because new keywords are inserted into special 'Other keywords' group.
  On one hand, it's fine to use parent keywords for grouping as it allows to transfer structure between different apps, Bridge even has [exclude] functionality for that.
  On the other hand, creating 'special' groups inside keyword list looks messy.
  
  XnViewMP has dedicated 'Category Sets' pane for such cases of managing 'special' groups of keywords.