Trying to adopt import workflow from B5 in ASP

[scorpi11]

Hi,

now that ASP seems to be at least a little bit alive, which is great, I try to migrate from B5 to ASP. The first thing is the import workflow from the camera flash media.

In B5, I browse the file system of the flash media, and select all pictures made at a certain occasion. Example: during a longer holiday, with a trip to friends XYZ, I'll select all pictures made during that trip and import it with a job name like "visiting XYZ". Then I select the photos from the next occasion and import them with a new descriptive job name. After this procedure, the pictures are sorted in year/month/jobname both on the hard disk and in the B5 catalog.

In ASP, this doesn't work.

1. I can't select a batch of pictures that I want to copy from the flash media to the harddisk and import them into the ASP catalog. It seems like copying the pictures is only done with the "Download" function. This doesn't let me select the pictures, it always copies the whole directory it is pointed to.

2. In the ASP catalog, the pictures are not sorted into the directory structure I configured in the download dialog. It always prepends the path where the downloaded images are saved (like /home/username/Pictures/imported/). I don't want that, because it requires additional screen real estate. Furthermore, when working with the images in ASP, I don't care where my pictures are saved in the file system. I only care about the hierarchy I configured in the download dialog (year/month/jobname).

Any hints how I could better adopt my B5 workflow to ASP would be welcome.

[afx]

1. I can't select a batch of pictures that I want to copy from the flash media to the harddisk and import them into the ASP catalog. It seems like copying the pictures is only done with the "Download" function. This doesn't let me select the pictures, it always copies the whole directory it is pointed to.

Only if you select a directory. If you explicitly select images and then send them to the queue, the queue will be run only on those images.

2. In the ASP catalog, the pictures are not sorted into the directory structure I configured in the download dialog. It always prepends the path where the downloaded images are saved (like /home/username/Pictures/imported/). I don't want that, because it requires additional screen real estate.

Yup. that's the new way ,-(

cheers
afx

[scorpi11]

1. I can't select a batch of pictures that I want to copy from the flash media to the harddisk and import them into the ASP catalog. It seems like copying the pictures is only done with the "Download" function. This doesn't let me select the pictures, it always copies the whole directory it is pointed to.

Only if you select a directory. If you explicitly select images and then send them to the queue, the queue will be run only on those images.
afx

The download function only asks what directory I want to use, I can't select any pictures.

In the import function, I can select pictures, but this function does not copy the files to the hard disk. It only adds references to the files into the catalog, if I get this right, and it lacks the automatic sorting into a generated directory structure (like yeah/month/jobname).

[afx]

The download function only asks what directory I want to use, I can't select any pictures.

As you have been using B5 before, I would expect you to know about a download queue. Do not the silly frontend via the file menu
See screenshot.

In the import function, I can select pictures, but this function does not copy the files to the hard disk. It only adds references to the files into the catalog, if I get this right, and it lacks the automatic sorting into a generated directory structure (like yeah/month/jobname).

Again, use a queue.
Works just fine.

cheers
afx

[scorpi11]

Thanks, now I got it. I just tried it, and I can select pictures that will be copied and inserted into the catalog.

However, only the last directory component of the "Save in subfolder" input field seems to be applied when inserting the pictures into the catalog. On the file system, everything looks fine.

I used "[date]/[jobname]", and in the catalog, a subfolder with the jobname is created, but no upper subfolder for the date. In the filesystem, the pictures are copied into the proper directory structure (e.g. 2013-08-16/job4/2013-08-16.CR2).

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

[afx]

The catalog should mimic the file system, so at first glance this looks like a bug ;-(

cheers
afx

[scorpi11]

Great. Do you have a hint how to handle that? I guess there is no bug tracker or something like this.

[afx]

For bug reports, use the link in my signature.

cheers
afx

[scorpi11]

I can't select version 1.2.0.7 there. It seems to be not too well maintained.

[afx]

Ouch...

I'll try to get someone at Corel to look into this.

cheers
afx

[scorpi11]

Thanks. The picture upload function at the end also throws a 404 error.

Meanwhile, I try to figure out the actual nature of the bug. As far as I can see, what I do now is the same like selecting pictures and sending it to the predefined "Download" queue.

This interessting fact is, that the predefined Download queue inserts the pictures with the full hierarchy into the catalog, but also prepends the full destination path in the filesystem. When I create a new queue to copy the images, only the last directory component is inserted into the catalog. So I have 2 behaviours, and both are wrong.

[scorpi11]

I guess I stumbled over some magic hidden by the user interface. In the configurations for the queues in ~/.AfterShotPro/batches I can see that the queues have some XML stuff to specify their behaviour. A diff between the default Download queue and a new copy+import queue reveals this:

- bibp:MoveCopy="2"
+ bibp:MoveCopy="1"

The icons in the catalog also have a different color. The subdirectories created by the default Download queue are grey, the subdirectories created by the custom queue are yellow, so ASP seems to handle them differently.

[scorpi11]

When I replace the MoveCopy="2" by MoveCopy="1" in the configuration file for the default Download queue, it behaves like a custom queue regarding the catalog path, so it does not prepend the filesystem path to the imported pictures, but also cuts of all but the last directory component.