Incomplete cataloguing

[Per-BKWine]

Starting to experiment with Daminion and have done a first import/cataloguing of some images.

 

Two issues have popped up:

 

1. Some images seems to have not been catalogued properly. Instead of a thumbnail there is just an icon with a broken chain (?). The thumbnail appears if I do "update thumbnail. Any suggestion what could be the problem?

 

2. On many thumbnails there is a small question mark in the upper right hand corner. What does this mean?

 

And:

3. My guess is that this has to do with incomplete cataloguing. How do I find all items that have not been catalogued completely? (Suggesting "look for the question mark / chain icon" is not an option. It has to be done with a command. With thousands of images it is not feasible to go through it manually.)

[Murat]

Starting to experiment with Daminion and have done a first import/cataloguing of some images.

 

Two issues have popped up:

 

1. Some images seems to have not been catalogued properly. Instead of a thumbnail there is just an icon with a broken chain (?). The thumbnail appears if I do "update thumbnail. Any suggestion what could be the problem?

 

The icon with a broken chain appears when the actual file become unavailable when Daminion tried to update an image thumbnail. Could you please right click on such thumbnail and navigate to the "Locate in Explorer" menu option.

- Was the file selected and located in the Windows Explorer?

- Can you view it?

- Is the "offline" status of image dissappeared if you select this image and press the Ctrl + B?

 

2. On many thumbnails there is a small question mark in the upper right hand corner. What does this mean?

 

It means that that file is offline. For example your NAS device was inaccessible when Daminion tried to reach the file, or the access rights to this folder or file was changed. But in most cases this icon appears when the actual folder or files was rename or moved outsidely using external tools (or via the Windows Explorer).

 

And:

3. My guess is that this has to do with incomplete cataloguing. How do I find all items that have not been catalogued completely? (Suggesting "look for the question mark / chain icon" is not an option. It has to be done with a command. With thousands of images it is not feasible to go through it manually.)

 

This feature is not impelemented yet, but we collected enough requests for this feature so it will be included to our closest roadmap. The major drawback of this feature is: we can't store this state in the database because this state can be changed externally (for example just by removing an external drive or renaming folders), and we need to check every file in your disk for all imported items. But we'll add this feature soon.

[Per-BKWine]

Hi,

 

So the question mark and the broken chain means the same thing, basically!

 

The files are all there and accessible and viewable. They are not off-line. For some reason Daminion must have had the impression that they were, but the network was not down and the server was continuously accessible. I can access them with Explorer and Portfolio.

 

This has happened to numerous images, perhaps 10% of those that I catalogued, distributed randomly in the set of images that I catalogued.

 

Yes, the ? and the broken chain disappears when I do "update thumbnail".

 

Having a search function that checks for

a) missing (or off-line) image files, and

b) incomplete cataloguing (e.g. missing thumbnails or incomplete extraction of metadata)

is very important. Not least in view of the result of this initial test. It is not practically possible to check it manually. There are just too many images.

 

(BTW Extensis Portfolio has such a search function that is indeed very useful. It has several "special" search / "find other" functions that are very useful: a) Placeholder Items, b) Document Text, c) Missing Originals, d)Duplicate Items, e) Partially Catalogued Items, f) Unreadable Items. a) and b) I never use, but c) & d) & e) & f) are all very useful for maintaining and cleaning the catalogue.)

[Murat]

(BTW Extensis Portfolio has such a search function that is indeed very useful. It has several "special" search / "find other" functions that are very useful: a) Placeholder Items, b) Document Text, c) Missing Originals, d)Duplicate Items, e) Partially Catalogued Items, f) Unreadable Items. a) and b) I never use, but c) & d) & e) & f) are all very useful for maintaining and cleaning the catalogue.)

 

 

c) and d) will be impelemented soon. Will think about the (f) feature.

 

But how does the (e) feature work? There are a lot of tags that could be assigned to an image? And some of them might not be filled for certain formats, or I don't care about them.

[Per-BKWine]

The "partially catalogued items" does not refer to that the user has not filled in "complete" info.

 

It has to do with images that have not yet been completely processed by the DAM system on import.

 

For example:

 

The import has three stages (this is my guess, but it seems to work this way, there may be more steps)

1) the file is registered and the metadata is read

2) a small-size thumbnail is created

3) a full-size thumbnail is created

 

Once 1) is completed the file can be accessed in the DAM, although it does not show any thumbnail. There is also a small yellow dot on the thumbnail indicating that the cataloguing is not complete. The "Partially Catalogued Items" search will find those items that have not completed all steps on import. Then one can do an "update item" on those files to complete the cataloguing. (Normally it should do that automatically but it does not always work.)

 

This is *exactly* the search that I think is needed (and that is necessary) to find the items that have the ? or the broken link icon in Daminion. (They are not off-line, they just have not been catalogued completely for some reason.)