Make location namager as prominent as People and Events

[plastikman]

After using IMatch 2020 for a few weeks, I belief the location manager warrants a place next to People and Events in the top menu bar and some general interface enhancements similar to the other two.

So you would have:

• People
• Places
• Events

The functionality is already very feature rich but a bit hidden in panels and pop-up panels.

If you think of the people manager and then change people by places and their associated data you get my suggestion.

Maybe a nice feature for IMatch 2021. Maybe already planned, maybe you have other ideas... we'll see!

[jch2103]

I use location-based data-driven categories pretty extensively. How do you see a location manager being different from this?

[Mario]

The location manager allows you to store some pre-made locations for quicker assignments in the Map panel.
Or for automatic mapping via a Metadata Template. Just a small helper. One of the less used features in IMatch. It has not nearly the same impact as Events or People.

Do you know that IMatch automatically organizes your files by their location in the Category View: IMatch Standard Categories > Image > Location. This is probably what most users will ever need. Very easy to see files organized by location that way.

You can also create your own data-driven category if you need additional location-based levels.

[plastikman]

I use location-based data-driven categories pretty extensively. How do you see a location manager being different from this?

As I said the foundation is already there. There is already a location manager in the Maps panel but it is all hidden and buried deep if you ask me. I feel that Places should be much more prominent and that the ability to add Places should be in similar fashion as adding People in the new People Manager. To this database of Places similar fields and functionality could be added with a similar and familiar interface (see Events and People).

Also: the reason that is not used much is maybe because currently it is buried deep and people might also find it less intuitive to create and manage Places (Locations in the current app).

Mario: I am ware that 90% if not all of this functionality is already present. I am just suggesting maybe designing it in the same way as People and Events will make it more discoverable, useful and therefore more popular.

I don't see how people do not care about adding the correct place to their photos, and most cameras up to today don't have GPS (except smartphones and some point and shoots).

[plastikman]

Let me put it another way:

When looking for a photo, what are the first things that pop to mind:

• Where did I put it? Storage location (Media & Folders)?
• When was it taken? Date/time (Timeline)
• When was it taken? Named event (Events)
• Who is in the photo? Named persons(People)
• Where was it taken? At a named location (and thus Place)

All of these plus Collections ("how did I mark it") are in the top navigation bar, except for Place. To me, this warrants having Place/Location there where the navigation will show the Locations created by the user (E.g. "Family Home", "school", "Office" as well as a navigation tree based on Country/State/City/Location. The actually geocoding/map panel can stay where it is.

See screenshots for the elements I am talking about.

[Mario]

Not many people use locations at all. This is just a small convenience feature to avoid repetitive inputs in the Map panel.
It has been made virtually obsolete by the introduction of reverse geo-coding some years ago. Do you use automatic reverse geo-coding?
IMatch organizes your images by location (and lens, camera etc.) automatically in the category view.

Not sure if a separate "Places" View would be something many users need. If you need to see all images taken at a specific location, you can just use the corresponding category in a Filter or in the Category View directly.

Let's see what other users thing and if they +1 this.
This could be an interesting topic for the first app-based IMatch view. Among other ideas I have.

[Ron_S]

+1

[plastikman]

I do indeed use automatic reverse geocoding. But that only works when you have GPS data in your image.

For most of my images, I don't. So hence the need to assign locations manually (or GPS coordinates).

My preferred way:

• Look up the address/place using Google Maps or similar
• Select the right result and pull in all the data from the services like GPS coordinates, altitude data, and things like country code and correct spelling of all of these
• Augment the data of this lookup with my own data e.g. "House of Friend A", "Nature Reserve B" or "Themepark C" (or sometimes even "Rollercoaster D in Themepark C")
• Save all of this information as "Named Location A"

Next time I have a new import from a batch of images:

• I select all the images in the batch
• I then go to the Maps panel, pull up that interface in the screenshot before with shortcut key L
• I then pick the location I saved before
• When it is active I then use the checkbox icon to assign the location to all of my images

Ideally:

I select all of my images and hit the right button on my mouse for the context menu (see screenshot) and instead of Events > Create new event from selection I choose Places > Assign selection to named place (or even better: show that option plus the 10 most common or recent places I assigned). Just two-clicks or at most 3. If they can be saved to Favorites panel as well it would be 1-drag-and-drop action.

I could do the last thing with a metadata template but I think it is better to have this database driven like People and Events (for various reasons). And there is also the opportunity to have Events and Places link (since most events are at a place that is probably in the user's favorite list/address book of places). Another nice modal view would be place on top with a timeline with all the events at that location (again connecting the dots).

Another use I see is to have object under Places that can then be assigned to the metadata field Artwork or Object. E.g. I live close to Park Sanssouci so all the buildings there like:
- Chinese House
- New Palace
- Temple of Friendship
- Antique Temple

I now plan to add these to my Thesaurus for this metadata field but I think it would be more powerful and usable if they could be cross-referenced with a Places database.

Again, just brainstorming, most of it can be achieved through some way of various tools/techniques but I am trying to think of making it more simple/usable = more potential to attract new users.

I think creating these types of modal views (where you select the main modal e.g. People/Place/Event/Storage location/Time) and put it against another modal in a view is an under-explored area.

[Jingo]

Not many people use locations at all. This is just a small convenience feature to avoid repetitive inputs in the Map panel.
It has been made virtually obsolete by the introduction of reverse geo-coding some years ago. Do you use automatic reverse geo-coding?
IMatch organizes your images by location (and lens, camera etc.) automatically in the category view.

Not sure if a separate "Places" View would be something many users need. If you need to see all images taken at a specific location, you can just use the corresponding category in a Filter or in the Category View directly.

Let's see what other users thing and if they +1 this.
This could be an interesting topic for the first app-based IMatch view. Among other ideas I have.

Reverse-geo is what I was thinking as well..  I also use keywords for places - perhaps I use keywords TOO much because I find it so very easy to find images using keywords (and they easily transfer to other applications too).  For places that I use often (ie: Home) - I just setup a Metadata template as a favorite that adds the location details plus keywords.
 

[plastikman]

Reverse-geo is what I was thinking as well..  I also use keywords for places - perhaps I use keywords TOO much because I find it so very easy to find images using keywords (and they easily transfer to other applications too).  For places that I use often (ie: Home) - I just setup a Metadata template as a favorite that adds the location details plus keywords.

This suggestion would combine all of those elements and make the process smoother and more importantly easier to understand for a larger group of people.

Your keywords would be assigned similar to those in the People Manager (and hopefully the categories in the Events manager) where you can look them up in the Thesaurus and they are automatically applied to your entire library that is linked to that geo-location. If you update it there, all your images will be updated as well without any extra effort on your side. This is the power of database-driven "Manager" modules and People and Events are showing the way!

[bekesizl]

+1

At least make this dialog available more easily. I was looking for calling it in the menu, but only found a search dialog call.

I would also like to use it for "Favorite locations" or "Most used locations" where I don't want to search for it every time on the map.
I might be only 10 locations from my side, but those 70% of my photos were taken on these 10 locations and are without GPS data.

[plastikman]

I would also like to use it for "Favorite locations" or "Most used locations" where I don't want to search for it every time on the map.
I might be only 10 locations from my side, but those 70% of my photos were taken on these 10 locations and are without GPS data.

Same here!

[Jingo]

+1

At least make this dialog available more easily. I was looking for calling it in the menu, but only found a search dialog call.

I would also like to use it for "Favorite locations" or "Most used locations" where I don't want to search for it every time on the map.
I might be only 10 locations from my side, but those 70% of my photos were taken on these 10 locations and are without GPS data.

Try setting up a metadata preset with the location data and keywords and then set it as a favorite... one click and you get all data you want directly added to the file.

[Mario]

That would also be my suggestion. Locations are mainly designed for the Map Panel. They have been superseded by reverse geocoding mostly anyway.

And a Metadata template allows you to add the same info to the file as a location, plus keywords and other data. And you can create Favorites from Metadata Templates and run them with a single click or a keyboard shortcut.

[Tveloso]

I too still use locations.

For the professionals here, probably reverse geocoding is the thing...but the majority of the file's I'm adding to my database these days are Mobile Phone Photos (which already contain GPS coordinates), and a large percentage of those, have been taken at the same few locations for which I have defined IMatch Locations. 

So with my Indexing Initialization MD Template set to "Automatic - Use existing GPS data in image", this acts sort of like an  "at-ingest, local-only, reverse-goecoding"...very cool.  And of course the locations themselves are there to be assigned manually to files that lack GPS coordinates.

[plastikman]

That would also be my suggestion. Locations are mainly designed for the Map Panel. They have been superseded by reverse geocoding mostly anyway.

And a Metadata template allows you to add the same info to the file as a location, plus keywords and other data. And you can create Favorites from Metadata Templates and run them with a single click or a keyboard shortcut.

I will dive into this. But this is much more complex for the average Joe then the People Manager or Events manager.

And with the arguments against a Locations manager, what are the arguments for People Manager or Events manager? These can just as well be managed with metadata templates and favorites in the purest sense (but of course managing face annotations is a different story, but the same can be said for the map panel).

[Mario]

And with the arguments against a Locations manager, what are the arguments for People Manager or Events manager?

Many people use (think in) Events and People.

Only very few user ever create locations in the Map Panel.

You can always see your files organized by Location in the "Location" category in the Category View.

[mastodon]

A have problems with location, as a certain GPS point can have different location name as street address/building name/name of the location (home, someones office etc.). And some of the buildings and street have been renamed (this is very frequent in our country).
I can not write all the 3 or even more names (and the aliases) in the location tag, and that makes me headaches. Because when I am searching for a place, a does not remember, how I have named it.
---> aliases for locations would be a nice feature, and maybe this location manager could do that,l ike the person manager.
But it does not make sense to make a "location manager" just for the aliases.

[Mario]

Why not use Metadata Templates? And add all the previous names as keywords, or in the description/headline/title or another tag. This way you can later find it easily by searching the metadata.

[mastodon]

I do use Matadata templates, great feature! Yes, I could manage it with keywords, but somehow I "feel" that this data should be in Location field. in my system description/headline and reserved for descipting data of the moment/event in the picture.
But maybe I should take up with the idea of using more keyword.

[Mario]

The name of a location can definitely be a useful keyword. Or several keywords, if the name of the location varies over time.
There are also other location "name" tags you can use - unless you exchange data with agencies or clients. If you use your images only in private environments, you are free to use these tags as you see fit.

[Jingo]

I do use Matadata templates, great feature! Yes, I could manage it with keywords, but somehow I "feel" that this data should be in Location field. in my system description/headline and reserved for descipting data of the moment/event in the picture.
But maybe I should take up with the idea of using more keyword.

Maybe I'm just old school.. but I've been using keywords as a primary method of data organization and tagging for over 20 years..  those original images are *still* in my database and easily found with a simple keyword search. With the advent of more and more phone images in my database (and the wonderful GPS data already embedded), reverse geocoding is simple to add location data to the location fields...

For my camera images - it is obviously more work and that is where I use metadata templates... images from my home can be tagged with keywords and location data all in one click.