Using existing photo library with 10.000+ items

nordlicht

Joined: 2005-07-22
Posts: 14
Posted: Fri, 2009-12-11 14:13

Hi,

I have an existing directory tree from the last 4 years with more than 10.000 photos inside.
Is it possible to use Gallery 2 to display those photos without importing them again to a second/new location?
I just want to use G2 (or maybe G3) as an easy to use interface. It would be good, if G2 will detect additional new photos and includes them automatically to the library. So I'm looking for a tool like Picasa, but web based.

Any ideas?

regards,
Stefan
 
alecmyers

Joined: 2006-08-01
Posts: 4342
Posted: Fri, 2009-12-11 14:24
Quote:
Is it possible to use Gallery 2 to display those photos without importing them again to a second/new location?

No. But if you're on a linux/unix system you can import them as symlinks to the original files, though.

G2 demands photos are stored in its private/exclusive directory structure. It's designed as a gallery system and not as a system for managing existing collections of photos.

Quote:
It would be good, if G2 will detect additional new photos and includes them automatically to the library.

No, it won't do this. There are one or two scripts floating around on this forum that claim to import photos automatically but there is nothing with any kind of official support.

Quote:
So I'm looking for a tool like Picasa, but web based.

That's not G2 - I don't think it's G3 either, but someone with more G3 experience will have be definitive.
 
nivekiam
nivekiam's picture

Joined: 2002-12-10
Posts: 16504
Posted: Fri, 2009-12-11 14:56

Nope, it's not G3 either :)

Gallery is all about your photos on your website. To display your photos. It's not a photo management tool like a few people want it to be, it's not a photo editor like a few people want it to be, it's main purpose in life is to display your photos on your website.

That being said, G2 and G3 are very flexible and someone could write functionality to make it into a pretty powerful management system as well as similar to one of the 100s (or is it 1000s by now) of online photo editors.

Either way, Gallery still is intended to maintain control over the files you import into it. No version of Gallery watches a file system for new files like Picasa or any other desktop system. The majority of people run on shared servers and you're just talking about another complex process and can eat up system resources at this point. Also, no version of Gallery uses an existing file system, you need to import photos into Gallery.

struck that out, reading back over Alec's post he covered everything, much more concisely :) G3 does behave the same as G2 in that regard and also:

alecmyers wrote:
demands photos are stored in its private/exclusive directory structure. It's designed as a gallery system and not as a system for managing existing collections of photos.

In G2 and G3 (and G1), if you were to go into any of their directory structures and delete/rename a photo, you'll bork the system. Well not totally mess it up, but there would be a missing image and Gallery would still think the image was there when it wasn't.

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nordlicht

Joined: 2005-07-22
Posts: 14
Posted: Fri, 2009-12-11 15:48

Ok, thanks for clarification. It was clear to me what Gallery is designed for, but I just wanted to know if somebody has modified it in that required way.

regards,
Stefan
 
alecmyers

Joined: 2006-08-01
Posts: 4342
Posted: Fri, 2009-12-11 16:51
Quote:
I just wanted to know if somebody has modified it in that required way.

It would require rewriting very large chunks of core code, rather than some simple additions or modifications.

 
nivekiam
nivekiam's picture

Joined: 2002-12-10
Posts: 16504
Posted: Fri, 2009-12-11 17:11

Yeah, and I think the same for G3 as well. I think it would be pretty extensive changes you'd need to make, essentially rewriting a lot of core logic for importing and storing the photos.

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floridave
floridave's picture

Joined: 2003-12-22
Posts: 27300
Posted: Sat, 2009-12-12 01:02

@reading a direcotry for changes:
Bharat was thinking of adding this feature as zenphoto has a feature like this. You add items to a folder on the server and they show up in the album automatically.

Dave
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alecmyers

Joined: 2006-08-01
Posts: 4342
Posted: Sat, 2009-12-12 01:14

To match what I understood the OP wants, it would have to continually scan all existing folders for changes too. Having said that it would make a lot of people very happy.
 
nivekiam
nivekiam's picture

Joined: 2002-12-10
Posts: 16504
Posted: Sat, 2009-12-12 01:29

Yes and make Gallery hella easier than it already is. Just FTP (better to SFTP) your photos and you're done. If you have added descriptions/keywords/titles/etc in EXIF/IPTC it just uses that and you're done. It would be really frickin' awesome for sure.

I'd love to see this feature. And being able to delete a file from the file system and Gallery removes it from the DB would be great too. But this is a lot more work and checking and if your install has tons of files it's going to be a huge resource hog too. But if it's purely just importing into Gallery's directory structure that's a simpler way to go and still a cool feature.
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