Propagate data to versions

[rolandgifford]

The context menu while in the file window has the option to propagate data to versions immediately, rather than being done as part of the Metadata Write-back process. I would like to see an option to do this by default whenever changing data on a master in a version set.

In my workflow I use labels against images to indicate that I need to carry out some action. Culling, identifying bird species, whatever. As I go through I remove the 'not done yet' label. This removes the image from the current view and means that I'm not able to use the option on the context menu.

Sometimes I will search metadata for something instead of using a label (no GPS data for example) but will then usually assign a label or set bookmarks to make corrections.

I am aware of the write-back immediately option which is off by default and recommended to stay off which would achieve what I want but with a significant performance hit. What I'm doing as a work-round is to regularly (every 100 images or perhaps less) is to write back metadata which is probably a worse performance hit.

[Mario]

This would be quite bad for performance and could even have unexpected side-effects due to delayed updates in the background.
It is much more reliably and predictable to perform this during normal write-back.

The "Propagate now" basically triggers a write-back, so you achieve the same when you just write-back the master or masters yourself. The difference is that the "Propagate" command in the sub-menu of the context menu triggers the propagation from the version so you don't have to locate the master.

For your use case, just to a write-back.

[rolandgifford]

I didn't realise that the Propagate now menu option triggered a write back.

I would prefer to be working just within the database as I only want to commit to the images themselves when I have finished (or at significant "I have completed that stage" points). It seems that I can't have that.

[Mario]

I would prefer to be working just within the database as I only want to commit to the images themselves when I have finished (or at significant "I have completed that stage" points). It seems that I can't have that.

This cannot work. Propagation copies data from the master (after writing it back) to the version via ExifTool.
This not only copies the data configured for propagation but also re-generates digests and checksums, performs updates of mapped tags, updates timestamps and a lot more. All this logic is implemented in ExifTool and I have no intention to even attempt to recreate this in IMatch. This would be a lot of work and prone to errors and inconsistencies.