Cover image listing of all events - and selecting thereof

[ubacher]

It would be nice to have an summary of all events in the form of a thumbnail display
of all the cover images.
(On the dashboard there is such a display but only for recently added/viewed events.)

And just like on the dashboard, clicking on a thumbnail should open the event.

[Mario]

Why not use the Dashboard?

Where should such an "event cover image overview" be shown? In which View and form? What is the purpose of this overview for you?

Maybe we could use the Event List for that? It already shows all events in a compact list, with the event icon.
Using the event cover instead of the icon (or in addition) would be doable and not to expensive, development-wise

[ubacher]

Why not use the Dashboard?

It only shows changed or new events!

Where should such an "event cover image overview" be shown?

Instead of the timeline display.

In which View and form? What is the purpose of this overview for you?

Just like a thumbnail window. It is very compact.
Mind you it may not be very useful if the user does not set meaningful cover images.
(In which case it might also need the descriptive text.)
It would also be of interest when one has events for which the timeline is meaningless.

I envisage a normal display of (the cover) files with the only difference that double clicking
opens the associated event.

[Mario]

One of the major attributes of events is their arrangement in time, their duration and relation to other events. This is what the Event View is for, after all.
If you disable the file calendar, IMatch uses the most condense view for events, and unless you have hundreds of events, you see many events on a single screen page. With their cover images.
You did not comment on my suggestion for enhancing the event list, which shows all events (filterable) in a very compact overview. Just no cover images (yet).

If the time and duration of the events you create does not matter, maybe using events is not the best tool. Probably categories would be better?

[ubacher]

If the time and duration of the events you create does not matter, maybe using events is not the best tool.

When events are based on categories or a selection of files, then the time range of the event is usually of no interest.

Probably categories would be better?

One of the problems of categories is category creep. That happens when (sub) categories are created for the purpose
of naming the set of files in this category.
The characteristic of such categories is that, once populated, they members remain fixed.
So we would have, for example, a category of EVENT|Birthdays|Uncle Johns 60th.

Imatch EVENTS let us avoid this category creep.

But there are other categories where this will happen. I have a category WereUsed|BOOKS|NEW YORK 2019
It contains all images which went into the book and the PDF version of it. And with each new book a new category!
Another category where I have category creep is called PROJECTS....

I am now considering using EVENTS instead. (The name EVENTS, for this use, is obviously confusing.
Really, an EVENT based on a selection of files should really be a different tool, having a different name and
not organized based on a timeline. A name like GROUPS or ASSEMBLIES comes to mind.)
Maybe in a future version?

[ubacher]

I need to reply to:

You did not comment on my suggestion for enhancing the event list, which shows all events (filterable) in a very compact overview.

I find the event list shows me only four events, the rest needs to be scrolled. If I have hundreds of events this is no easy way to find
an event, cover image showing or not.

[Mario]

Use the Filter to find any event quickly.

I am now considering using EVENTS instead. (The name EVENTS, for this use, is obviously confusing.
Really, an EVENT based on a selection of files should really be a different tool, having a different name and
not organized based on a timeline.

I have the impression that you are trying to force events to work in ways they were never intended for.
An event is defined as a point in time and a duration. Like a birthday, wedding, vacation, trip or similar.
If time and duration that is not important for your use case, events are not the right tool.

A name like GROUPS or ASSEMBLIES comes to mind.)

In IMatch, we call these categories 

[sinus]

Hmm, an interesting thread.
I have to think about Events really better.

I have tried Events a short time, but then I stopped because ... I do not really know why.
Maybe simply because my system, what I currently have, is enough for me.

Maybe you can remember, I wrote once about it, I stack simply every shooting, private or business, 10 images or 1000 (yesterday a business shooting with 705 images).
I end up with one stack, and if collapsed, what hey usually do, I have 1 single image, what represents all others.
If I look back at the month February 2022 for example in my folder-system (year-monthly), I see only 15 collapsed top-stacks. But behind are totally 1356 images (it was a month with not a lot of shootings).

And with one view I can see and remember all events. This works (mostly) also years back, one view on one top-stack is enough to remember.
So for me such stacks a somehow "events".

And now with such top-category-images I can do a lot with categories. Per year, per week and so on.
The only thing, what I missed, was a timeline over several years to see it somehow better in relation of time.
And therefore (I guess, Mario, you remember) I worked quite a long time with creating a timeline in Design & Print and with a html-timeline. Both works still great, and from time to time I relax and look at such a timeline, specialy with my html-layout.

And if I read here correct, then Mario pointed out, that the Event from IMatch is basically to see images in relation of time.
Means the same as found also interesting (hence my own timeline).

Hence I see, if I have time, I ought to check the Event of IMatch, could be interesting for me.
And ubacher, hm, I wonder, if really categories would not better fit your desire.
I wonder, how many users works with Events.

But because I do not know Events of IMatch really good, I do not know more details.

[Mario]

Another, often overlooked way, to implement something similar is the use of folder/category thumbnails.
And then switching the tree control to show those thumbnails. This associates one proxy image with each category/folder and arranges them neatly. For example, in my demo database I get this:



And I sill have all the power and dynamics of categories. I can manually assign files and I can use formulas etc.

[ubacher]

It is true that I try to use events in a different way.
In its basic form events are a grouping of images/files which are given a name.

This is a fantastic addition to Imatch.

Now the way EVENTS are implemented is by mainly considering time-related groups of images.
I feel this is restricting and I am trying to find ways around this.
There is a lot of potential in EVENTS!! We just need to consider EVENTS as a grouping of files
or as Albums.

[Mario]

In its basic form events are a grouping of images/files which are given a name.

This describes categories (groups, clusters, buckets, heaps of files) - but not events.

An event is always anchored at a specific point in time and has a non-empty duration.
Categories don't use time, so they are much better suited for what you want to do.

[ubacher]

Categories are the workhorse of a DAM and very flexible.

You could, for instance, add a timeline display for categories to get the event functionality.

I have two objections to using categories they way you suggest:

- you get category creep. You are constantly adding categories just for the purpose
of giving this group of files a name. It's a one-time grouping of files.
No files are added to such categories at a later time: this
should be the criteria to decide if it should be a category or a "Group".

- Searching for a particular group of files means searching through categories - clearly doable but not
very convenient. (My way around this is to add a file with category INDEXtoXXX to each Group of files marked with a category'
By just displaying the INDEXtoXXX category I get summary of such groups (an INDEX). It is, unfortunately, not easy to
jump from such an INDEX thumbnail to the corresponding category. (Needs an App).

An event is always anchored at a specific point in time and has a non-empty duration.

Except for events based on a selection of files. Clearly, these also cover a time-span but it is irrelevant.
It's these events which caught  my interest for the reasons stated.