Philoking.comfrom Jason Burns’ perspective…

I am designing what I want my next step of my application to look like and do and two things occurred to me that I want to cover.

1. Sometimes you take photos in different places before downloading your card
2. This is 2008 man, you’ve got to support tagging so you can search your photos contextually with the operating system.

With those two features in mind, here are my ideas I will start on tonight and probably not have a working mock up till after the weekend.

And now things get hard…
Gosh, this means I will have to put more thought into how it works. I have quite a few ideas on this short list (which isn’t short at all) and Photo Transfer is going to grow from a file copier to a real photo transfer, sorting, backup and meta-data management system.

First I want to add a filmstrip metaphor at the bottom of the screen that you can use to multi-select or single select the photos that you want to manage.

In keeping with this concept, many photographers like to sort photos in a rating system (e.g. keeper, trash, 1-5, etc.) so it would be nice to be able to sort the work and archive files into that type of file system. That means a big preview screen to make snap judgements on things like focus, exposure, etc.

It also means actual RAW file support which to me means this app has now become Vista only (or XP if you have the right stuff installed) as I will most likely use Windows Presentation Foundation.

Stealing a bit from the iTunes metaphor for managing mp3 meta-data, I want to be able to assign tags, sub-folders and even possibly comments to photos one or many at a time. This means adding EXIF support and a UI for managing a default tag list and a session tag list, also managing the tags currently used on the photos you are working with.

Another gimme’ with adding bulk-edit would be the ability to name and auto-generate named sequences for groups of photos. (laketahoe1.jpg, laketahoe2.jpg, etc.) Again helping file system search capabilities.

I intend to leave real after the fact management to programs like Microsoft Expression Media, but we all know it’s garbage in, garbage out, so if the process of importing your photos cleans up your meta-data, you are better off, also at this point those of us that import to a laptop on the road, then merge to a master archive after the fact get the benefit of keeping it all consistent.

Looks like there is a lot of work and learning ahead for me, and I will likely re-write most of what I have done so far to make it more stable and efficient so I can just plug it into this new UI framework and bolt on features as I go.

Keep an eye on the blog, it should be an interesting ride.

So you saw my list of updates I wanted to make to this little application I assume, if not, my want list is:

• The ability to separate RAW and JPG files into separated folders if you shoot in RAW+JPG modes.
• The ability to save your previous source and destination folders
• pre-populate the new folder name with the date/time formatted how you want
• Removing the status text and using a progress bar with a label to indicate the current action
• add a preview box so you can view the photos being transferred
• add a cancel button to stop the process

I got some of my updates in so I am posting a new version for your downloading pleasure, unfortunately I didn’t get everything in so there is still no separating RAW and JPGs into different folders and I haven’t added the prepopulate date/time to the new folder dialog but the updates are:

• Different UI Look to support images and progress
• Ability to cancel an operation in progress
• Ability to save and clear your source, work and archive locations
• JPGs being transferred are previewed during transfer
• Progress is tracked on a folder per folder basis
• Status displays current folder being copied and destination
• Fixed Recursive Delete Functionality

Here is a little screen shot of how it looks now, slightly different than the previous version.

As before the source and executables are available for download:

• Visual Studio 2008 Project
• Zipped Executable

Here are some ideas for the next dev sit-down for my Photo Transfer application, please give me your thoughts on which ones are valid, which ones aren’t and what I am missing…

• The ability to separate RAW and JPG files into separated folders if you shoot in RAW+JPG modes.
• The ability to save your previous source and destination folders
• pre-populate the new folder name with the date/time formatted how you want
• Removing the status text and using a progress bar with a label to indicate the current action
• add a preview box so you can view the photos being transferred
• add a cancel button to stop the process

Those are my current tweaks I will add next, I have decided to make this an interesting project. I am going to build this application from the genesis yesterday and the resulting code I banged out last night, and blog each iteration as well as my comments, thoughts and ideas, and then when this project is done, or at least at a full version number, you can see the entire development lifecycle chronicled and see how it changes from concept to completion.

I decided I needed a little app to make me more diligent about backing up my photographs and being sure I don’t destroy them while I am making web previews, edits, etc.

I started today with a little user scenario that goes something like this:

I insert a CF card into my computer. Autoplay launches and asks me if I would like to open the photos. I say yes with Photo Transfer and the application is launched.

My source folder is pre-filled in from AutoPlay and I browse a working folder location of my desktop, and a archive folder of my external hard drive’s “Photo Archive” folder.

I enter “06-03-2008 Walkabout Photos” as my new folder.

I check a box to delete the files from the card after I move them.

I click start and blam, my photos are copied to two folders, and the source files are deleted.

Well, I am almost there. Version one is fully functional minus one feature and has one bug (so far!)

So far I haven’t figured out the AutoPlay functionality quite yet. I will ask some of the .net Gurus at work…sometimes it’s handy to work @ Microsoft!

The bug is that so far if you have chosen a folder with folders beneath it, and selected the box to delete the source files, any files in folders aren’t deleted.

It’s a start though! I am uploading the project and a zipped copy of the executable if you want to use it or play with it. By all means let me know of any hiccups that you notice.

• Visual Studio 2008 Project
• Zipped Executable