XnView Software

I'm new to XnView. First off, I'd like to commend you on how well-written XnView is. It's amazing that XnView's installation is 3.5MB and iMatch's is 60MB, yet xnView handles 99% of the image filing/tagging/browsing tasks I use every day.

I did a forum search and it appears that the answer is no, but I'll ask anyway. Is there currently a way to process an image collection and automatically create XnView categories from IPTC keywords? I don't need a hierarchy of categories, a flat list will do.

In general, when categorizing images, I want to rely only on keywords in the files, so that the effort I'd put into keywords remains portable between apps, and is not broken by changes to the file system. On the other hand, I want the benefits of app-specific categories: instant access and fast searches.

The only way I can think of to do this right now, is to manually search the collection for an IPTC keyword, wait a few minutes till the search is done, assign the found images to a new category - repeat for each keyword. Very tedious and inefficient, since the whole collection needs to be searched many times, instead of once.

I realize that such an automated system of category management would have to scan all files every few weeks or so (or on demand) to refresh the category list. That's OK, as long as I don't have to do this manually.

Hi Element,

I also think this would be a good idea: As soon as you browse a folder, all IPTC keywords of the pictures in this folder should be added to the XnView category list (or, if the keyword is already in the Xnview category list, the "new" pictures should be linked to the already existing XnView category).

This wouldn't have to be done every few weeks or so, if the assignment of new IPTC keywords to pictures worked vice versa: I.e., just drag a picture or several pictures to an XnView category, and this category is written to the IPTC keyword list. Picajet (which is in many respects a buggy and inefficient program) does ist like that - it works brilliantly!

Frank

element wrote:IIs there currently a way to process an image collection and automatically create XnView categories from IPTC keywords? I don't need a hierarchy of categories, a flat list will do.

No, but i'll add it

Peronally, I'd prefer if XnView scanned all files, as opposed to adding categories only from pictures I've browsed. When I want to see images tagged with "car", I want to see all images with cars, not just the ones I've browsed.

Here are the reasons why I'm proposing a one-way sync (keywords to categories only, not vice versa):
1) One-way sync is much easier to code and thus more likely to get implemented sooner, and I need this feature now.
2) One-way sync is far less touchy and error-prone compared to two-way sync. I'm referring to both user mistakes ("oops, did I just overwrite all my keywords...?!") and software bugs.
3) I don't know about you, but XnView is not the sole source of my IPTC keywords, so it can't keep track of keywords coming in from other sources. E.g., I wrote a Perl script which updates IPTC keywords based on the image path, so that images filed under ".../architecture/Baroque/Italy" are automatically tagged with "architecture", "Baroque", and "Italy". I do this is because I hate manual tagging and I prefer if software does it for me (since I have to file incoming images somewhere, I may as well put them in meaningfully named folders). I believe PicaJet can also do this.

BTW, my script reports that there are currently ~1000 distinct keywords in my collection. If we're going to create categories based on keywords, I may want to limit the number of categories to, say, top 50 based on frequency, or use a project-specific list. E.g., if I'm working on a project involving architecture, I'd give XnView a list of keywords I'm interested in, like "architecture", "church", "monument", "castle" etc. XnView would scan the files and categorize them using only those keywords. In this way, XnView would have to manage only a few categories and I wouldn't have to wade through 1000 irrelevant entries in the list. These category "sets" could also be saved for future use, so that if I ever need the "Architecture" category set again, I can load it up, have XnView refresh it and off I go.

I'm trying to make this proposal as bare-bones as possible, so that it actually gets implemented...

Oops, the above message was posted by me, element, but I wasn't logged in properly. It's in reference to:

This wouldn't have to be done every few weeks or so, if the assignment of new IPTC keywords to pictures worked vice versa:

Anonymous wrote:Peronally, I'd prefer if XnView scanned all files, as opposed to adding categories only from pictures I've browsed. When I want to see images tagged with "car", I want to see all images with cars, not just the ones I've browsed.

What do you means by "scanned all files"?? You would like that xnview check all files on your drive?

No, of course XnView shouldn't scan all files on disk, just my picture collection. I'd select the collection folder in a dialog box I'd get when making categories from IPTC tags. Better yet, the collection folder would be specified by the user in XnView's options. By "all files" I mean that categories should reflect the entire collection, not just the images I've browsed so far.

xnview wrote: No, but i'll add it

Hello Pierre,

This would be a very useful function.

When is this likely to be implemented?

Thanks

PETER

Wow, I need this feature !

I have old photo archive with categoties, which were created by PicaJet.

Now PicaJet is dead product, and so, I search another one.

I like XnView, but I need restore the big categories tree from old program.

PicaJet can store all categories into IPTC. Now I want to restore all stored categories into XnView. But XnView can't do it !

Well, I can try write addon, which can create XnView categories from IPTC (easy, plain, or PicaJet format tree). Where I can download Addon SDK (I can't find it) ?

Wow ! Thank you for very fast answer. I have downloaded SDK and will try to write PicaJet import plugin. (And, by the way, category saver/restoretr into IPTC)

It's pity, but plugin SDK hasn't possibilities for categories access (as I have understood).

I need in:

1. Take filename from XnViev (+)
2. Create category names by metadata or by any anothed data from file. This is the main contents of plugin. (+)
3. Send created category to XnViev (-)

First and second steps are possible.
Third step is impossible (as I have understood)

Laryx wrote:Now PicaJet is dead product, and so, I search another one.

Huh? Is PicaJet going out of business?

Hello,
It would be better if in a next XnView version, the search result could be stored directly as a new custom category (as option) not only for the IPTC keywords result .
http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=15417

indeed I think it would be useful whenever I assigned an image to a category to also add the category to the keywords in the IPTC tags