Admin Configurations

[sirJ]

I have been evaluating Daminion Server to use as a centralized image server for my company. We only want to catalog photos and videos from our site visits and make it easy to find afterwards. This software looks very promising. That being said, I think I am missing something because there is very little documentation, and almost no configuration control for the admin?

 

For an example, where is this feature? Is it coming in a future version?

https://www.daminion.net/feature-tour/daminion-server/control-access-to-your-content

I am assuming some menus are blue because Daminion server thinks I am not an admin?

 

We want to force some keyword and category structure on the client ("controlled vocabulary"). (i.e., duck, duck(s) ducks, dcuk, should just be one choice of "duck", but not "ducks").

 

Also, the file re-naming and folder structure is forced when uploaded? This is not an ideal way for us to organize our photos. Can this be changed?

 

Am I missing something here, or is this software still in the development stage? The install went fine, but I feel like it is incomplete?

 

Thanks,

-Jeff

[Murat]

I think I am missing something because there is very little documentation, and almost no configuration control for the admin?

 

Hi Jeff! After installing Daminion Server on your server computer you can manage it via Daminion Administration Panel:

 

 

 

For an example, where is this feature? Is it coming in a future version?

https://www.daminion.net/feature-tour/daminion-server/control-access-to-your-content

 

This feature is not implemented yet. But this is our top priority feature that will be added soon.

 

I am assuming some menus are blue because Daminion server thinks I am not an admin?

 

Nope. We added some blue-menus to indicate that these features could be implemented in the future. We reset blue color after implementing the feature.

There are very few menus with blue color on the latest Daminion version (0.9.5).

 

We want to force some keyword and category structure on the client ("controlled vocabulary"). (i.e., duck, duck(s) ducks, dcuk, should just be one choice of "duck", but not "ducks").

 

I see two approaches for us here:

 

1. Adding some sort of controlled vocabulary, that can be edited on the server administration panel. You can specify to select tag values strictly from this list.

 

2. Restrict access to tag editing for non-admin users. Regular users might assign the tags only (this feature will be available after adding User Roles)

 

 

Also, the file re-naming and folder structure is forced when uploaded? This is not an ideal way for us to organize our photos. Can this be changed?

 

There are two ways to import the files to Daminion Server:

1. Upload files to the server PC. You can specify some file/folder renaming rules for uploading files optionally.

2. Import links to the files. All the files remain on their original locations. The files should be located on shared locations, so server PC and client PCs on your local network might access them.

 

Am I missing something here, or is this software still in the development stage? The install went fine, but I feel like it is incomplete?

 

Daminion is in the development stage, and it will be continuously developed and improved even after releasing it. The beta version of the Daminion Server is available on the market since Apr 2010, and it's stable enough. We have a lot of companies who already bought Daminion Server despite the fact that the program is Beta yet. Our 1-Year free maintenance period will starts from the Release date for these companies.

 

Jeff, please update your Daminion to 0.9.5 (576) version. There are a lot of improvements and bug-fixes since 0.9.0 (525) version:

- Rescan Folders

- Displaying tags with sub-tags

- Localization

- ...

The full list of changes will be available on our blog soon.

[sirJ]

Murat, thanks for your reply. The version is probably the first thing I should have checked.

 

This feature is not implemented yet. But this is our top priority feature that will be added soon.

 

When do you see user roles functionality being released?

Will we be able to integrate with Active Directory?

 

There are two ways to import the files to Daminion Server:

1. Upload files to the server PC. You can specify some file/folder renaming rules for uploading files optionally.

...

 

I got some "invalid character" errors with the custom renaming. Probably because %place and %event tags were nul? Is it possible to reorganize folder structure after these tags have been added?

Now, when I uploaded, it put the files in the wrong directory with the wrong structure.

 

We have a dedicated drive for the image storage, and I am looking for this structure (approximately).

Folder: D:\Image Library\%place\%event [%yyyy-%mm-%dd]\

File: %place - %event - %yyyy-%mm-%dd %HH_%MM_%SS - %inum.%ext

 

 

 

FYI, the three main features I would like to see before I think we can deploy Daminion on our network are:

1. User Roles
   
2. Custom tag mapping (For example, customizing Places structure for world-wide)
   
3. Folder structuring and restructuring with tags
   

 

Comparing to the other DAM solutions I have been evaluating, I have to say Daminion has the best UI so far. It is between Daminion and 2 others now, but I think Daminion is pretty promising.

I hope my feedback is helpful. I look forward to seeing it finished! I hope we can wait that long.

[Murat]

When do you see user roles functionality being released?

Will we be able to integrate with Active Directory?

 

Our roadmap for the near future includes:

1. Custom Tags, Optimizing performance, releasing Daminion Home Server (~1 month)

2. User Roles (~2 months)

 

Once we'll implement the user roles functionality it will be possible to integrate it with Active Directory. But usually it make sense for a large amount of users. How many users do you think will work with the Daminion Server in your company(or team)?

 

I got some "invalid character" errors with the custom renaming. Probably because %place and %event tags were nul? Is it possible to reorganize folder structure after these tags have been added?

Now, when I uploaded, it put the files in the wrong directory with the wrong structure.

 

There is a minor bug with %place tag! We will be fixed shortly. Thank you!

 

We have a dedicated drive for the image storage, and I am looking for this structure (approximately).

Folder: D:\Image Library\%place\%event [%yyyy-%mm-%dd]\

File: %place - %event - %yyyy-%mm-%dd %HH_%MM_%SS - %inum.%ext

I suggest you to use [%yyyy-%mm-%dd] %event template instead of the %event [%yyyy-%mm-%dd]\ because in this case all your folders will be organized chronologically in the Windows Explorer.

 

Some useful advises about selecting good file/folder renaming schemes can be found in our RoboImport articles:

Selecting the Best Folder Naming Scheme

Selecting the Best File Naming Scheme

 

FYI, the three main features I would like to see before I think we can deploy Daminion on our network are:

1. User Roles
   
2. Custom tag mapping (For example, customizing Places structure for world-wide)
   
3. Folder structuring and restructuring with tags
   

 

The first feature is presented in our feature list, and this is the top priority feature. The second two features needed some clarification: what do you mean by custom tag mapping? Could you please explain?

 

Restructuring files/folders with tags is possible, but you need to import the files at the second time. If you allow me to give you an advice, I'd recommend you to store your files withing a simple, datetime based folder structure, like:

folders:%yyyy/%yyyy-%mm-%dd %event

files: %yyyy-%mm-%dd_%hh-%MM-%ss-%inum.%ext

 

In this case all your images will be organized chronologically and you can easily access them by Windows Explorer.

 

Then you can organize your photos logically by Daminion, cover your physical folder/file structure. This allows you to assign multiple tags to the same media documents to quickly describe and locate them later. Just my 2 cents.

 

Comparing to the other DAM solutions I have been evaluating, I have to say Daminion has the best UI so far. It is between Daminion and 2 others now, but I think Daminion is pretty promising.

I hope my feedback is helpful. I look forward to seeing it finished! I hope we can wait that long.

 

Thanks for the kind words, Jeff! We'll continuously improve Daminion, and feedback from our users is the main compass...

[sirJ]

Our roadmap for the near future includes:

1. Custom Tags, Optimizing performance, releasing Daminion Home Server (~1 month)

2. User Roles (~2 months)

The first feature is presented in our feature list, and this is the top priority feature. The second two features needed some clarification: what do you mean by custom tag mapping? Could you please explain?

I think we mean the same thing for custom tag mapping and custom tags?

For the places tag, we might want to specify Europe, or Asia first, then the country, city, etc...

Or if we had a catalog of cars, we might want to know the make, then model under the tag "type" (like "place"). I know this can be done under "keywords" or "categories", which might be the easiest way, but it is nice to separate them.

 

I suggest you to use [%yyyy-%mm-%dd] %event template instead of the %event [%yyyy-%mm-%dd]\ because in this case all your folders will be organized chronologically in the Windows Explorer.

Restructuring files/folders with tags is possible, but you need to import the files at the second time. If you allow me to give you an advice, I'd recommend you to store your files withing a simple, datetime based folder structure, like:

folders:%yyyy/%yyyy-%mm-%dd %event

files: %yyyy-%mm-%dd_%hh-%MM-%ss-%inum.%ext

 

In this case all your images will be organized chronologically and you can easily access them by Windows Explorer.

When we look for a photo, it's usually because we know the customer(s), not the date. It would be nice to repeat this in the file structure, even though we would use Daminion to browse. However, I can see how this might increase the risk for duplicates. Something for us to consider.

 

Thanks for the kind words, Jeff! We'll continuously improve Daminion, and feedback from our users is the main compass...

I look forward to seeing the new features!

[vanitalo]

Hi,

 

Can you please let me know when this feature will be available. I'm currently evaluating Daminion Server v0.9.5.597.

 

https://daminion.net/feature-tour/daminion-server/control-access-to-your-content

 

I think you should indicate on your website which features are yet to be implemented... it is very confusing to read on your website that a certain feature is included, then you install the software and can't find the feature.

 

Regards,

Owen.

[Murat]

Sorry for the inconvenience. We'll mark this section that it is not implemented yet.

 

We plan to implement it during 2-3 months. "User Roles" is one of the core and high priority feature in our roadmap.