What is the best way to merge two sets of digiKam-managed photos?

[Tom Moertel]

Hi.

I use digiKam on my main workstation to manage photos.  I love digiKam,
so when I travel I use it on my laptop, too.  That way, I can manage the
photos I take on the road.  The problem is, when I get home, I now have
two sets of digiKam-managed photos:  one on my main workstation and one
on my laptop.  Is there a good strategy for merging these sets of photos
while preserving my tagging, etc?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,
Tom
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[Marcel Wiesweg]

> Hi.
>
> I use digiKam on my main workstation to manage photos.  I love digiKam,
> so when I travel I use it on my laptop, too.  That way, I can manage the
> photos I take on the road.  The problem is, when I get home, I now have
> two sets of digiKam-managed photos:  one on my main workstation and one
> on my laptop.  Is there a good strategy for merging these sets of photos
> while preserving my tagging, etc?

That's recently been discussed here:

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202709

There is no complete solution currently.
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[Milan Knížek]

Tom Moertel píše v So 08. 08. 2009 v 08:09 -0400:
> on my laptop.  Is there a good strategy for merging these sets of photos
> while preserving my tagging, etc?

I am interested in this kind of work-flow, too. I have not tested it thoroughly, but the following could work with 1.0.0-beta3:

x on desktop computer:
    allow synchronisation of Metadata with images
    synchronise all images with database
x on notebook:
   create a new digikam collection and database on the notebook
   copy some images / albums from the desktop to notebook using a file
manager
   tag/comment/rate the images

Then copy the images back to the desktop computer overwriting the
original files. Even when digiKam is running, it would not notice that
tags have changed. Also, synchronising of database with images does not
help.

Now, there are two alternatives:
x delete the database on the desktop computer and let it rebuild (time
consuming)
x search and select the migrated images and choose "read metadata from
images" in the right pane Caption/Tags (it is hidden under "more" icon
at the bottom).

Rebuilding database from scratch may not be a good idea in case that
from whatever reason you have various texts written in metadata objects,
where digiKam assumes they have the same text (e.g. IPTC keywords,
Dublin core Subject and xmp.digikam.keywords). I have not tested that,
so it may or may not cause problems.

The latter alternative did not work fully with 1.0.0-beta2, but with
beta3 seems to be okay - I am going to use it soon on my vacation
trip...


regards,

Milan Knizek
knizek (dot) confy (at) volny (dot) cz
http://www.milan-knizek.net - About linux and photography (Czech
language only)

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[Marcel Wiesweg]

> Then copy the images back to the desktop computer overwriting the
> original files. Even when digiKam is running, it would not notice that
> tags have changed.

You must trigger a rescan manually.

> Also, synchronising of database with images does not
> help.

That was a misnomer

>
> Now, there are two alternatives:
> x delete the database on the desktop computer and let it rebuild (time
> consuming)

I wouldn't do that ;-) ...

> x search and select the migrated images and choose "read metadata from
> images" in the right pane Caption/Tags (it is hidden under "more" icon
> at the bottom).

Cleaned up for beta4, now prominently in the menu and using the exact same
code as an initial scan.

>
> Rebuilding database from scratch may not be a good idea in case that
> from whatever reason you have various texts written in metadata objects,
> where digiKam assumes they have the same text (e.g. IPTC keywords,
> Dublin core Subject and xmp.digikam.keywords). I have not tested that,
> so it may or may not cause problems.
>
> The latter alternative did not work fully with 1.0.0-beta2, but with
> beta3 seems to be okay - I am going to use it soon on my vacation
> trip...

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[Milan Knížek]

Marcel Wiesweg píše v Ne 09. 08. 2009 v 00:09 +0200:
> > x search and select the migrated images and choose "read metadata from
> > images" in the right pane Caption/Tags (it is hidden under "more" icon
> > at the bottom).
>
> Cleaned up for beta4, now prominently in the menu and using the exact same
> code as an initial scan.
>
Thanks for comments, Marcel, they're helpful.

I would add that this approach would work only for images, which can
have the metadata synchronised (I use JPEGs for tagging and keep raw
files untagged in another folder).

regards,

Milan Knizek
knizek (dot) confy (at) volny (dot) cz
http://www.milan-knizek.net - About linux and photography (Czech
language only)

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