Data-driven Categories

[cthomas]

I have a category with about 3,000 .wav files in it. Would this be a good idea to make this Data-driven Categories? I have read the many times help but I still can;t figure out how to make a Data-driven Categories for the .wav file.  Would you tell me in detail how to make a .wav Data-driven Categories?

How can I get this unauto paused?

[Mario]

What do you want to achieve with the category?

The screen shot looks like you have a category named WAV Files with about 4000 images.
I assume you have assigned all your WAV files to this category manually and now you are looking for a way to make this 'automatic'? A data-driven category which automatically contains all files with the .WAV extension?

Assuming you want the category directly under @All (like the current WAV catgeory):

1. Select @All and press <Ins> to create a new child category.
2. Rename the new child category to WAV or whatever (we keep your original WAV category for now)
3. Right-click the new category to open the context menu, there choose Advanced Commands > Data-driven Properties.
4. Dial in these settings:



This creates a data-driven category based on the file.ext (Tag name in the Tag Selector: File Extension) tag. You don't want to group all non-wav files into an Other category so we set Other to 'No'. The filter option is used to filter out all non-wav files. That'ts is.

[cthomas]

So it doesn't mater where I lacteo the  Data-driven category. "What do you want to achieve with the category?" I don't know what all can I do with a Data-driven category? I was thinking that if I had more than 150 files of the same type. That I could use a Data-driven category to automatically put them in a category? Or what else could I use it for?

[Mario]

You can place data-driven categories anywhere.

Data-driven categories are used to automatically group your files based on metadata, e.g.
+ group files by rating
+ group files by the camera used
+ group files by country
...
+ group files by file format.

You can also group files by "same type", if your "same type" is somehow in the metadata.

[jch2103]

One data-driven category I've used is based on file extension (not just .wav, for example). See attached screen shot. This will automatically group all files in your database by file extension. This way, you can quickly find all files that are .wav files, or .mp3 files, files, etc. You could further customize this to create a data-driven category that shows just document files (e.g., .doc, .docx, .pdf files, etc.), another data-driven category that shows music files and/or video files, etc. There are many possibilities, depending on your needs.

[cthomas]

I have a category with about 3,000 .wav files in it. Would this be a good idea to make this Data-driven Categories? I have read the many times help but I still can;t figure out how to make a Data-driven Categories for the .wav file.  Would you tell me in detail how to make a .wav Data-driven Categories?

How can I get this unauto paused?

I can't grt this to work. Would please show me how to get this to work?

[cthomas]

I have a category with about 3,000 .wav files in it. Would this be a good idea to make this Data-driven Categories? I have read the many times help but I still can;t figure out how to make a Data-driven Categories for the .wav file.  Would you tell me in detail how to make a .wav Data-driven Categories?

How can I get this unauto paused?

I can't grt this to work. Would please show me how to get this to work?

Will this give me a Data-driven categorey that will automatic add all of my .wav files?  Another question, I can't click the OK buttion it stays greyed out all the time.

[Mario]

Did you set the settings like in my screen shot?
If you set the option like I showed you, you will get a data-driven category for all .wav files.

To change the enabled from No to Yes, click in that filed and then choose Yes from the drop-down. Or double-click.

You seem to try to create a data-driven category that filters for the WAV Author, a metadata tag that is only rarely filled.
Did you check your RAW files in the metadata panel? Do they contain data in that tag? Else it makes no sense to use it.

The other options you commented in red: Please see the extensive help (Press <F1> in this dialog) to get an explanation for what RAW and Trim does.

[cthomas]

I still can't get Enable to change to YES. A message come up and says: You can only enable this level after selecting a vaild Metedata tag. Also the OK button stays always GREYED OUT.

[Mario]

Try to select another tag. Usually this just works.

[cthomas]

Try to select another tag. Usually this just works.

I don't knok what I'm doing wrong but I can't get anything to work. 

Would you give me another example with explornations? 

[zematima]

Hi:
Yesterday I followed Mario instructions and it worked.
Please follow these steps:
1. Select @All and press <Ins> to create a new child category.
2. Rename the new child category to WAV or whatever (we keep your original WAV category for now)
3. Right-click the new category to open the context menu, there choose Advanced Commands > Data-driven Properties.
4. In Basic Settings FIRST choose Tag and click on the 3 dots at the right.
5. Choose the tab "Search all Tags" , in Group write imatch , in Tag write extension and then click on search.
You should see after a moment the tag choosen File Extension under IMatch Metadata. (File 1.jpg)
6. Click twice in File Extension and then OK. (File 2.jpg)
7. The field Enabled in Basic Settings should turn automaticaly to Yes. (File 3.jpg)
8. Then in Formatting change the value of Use 'Other' element to No. (File 4.jpg)
9. In Replace and Filter write wav on the field Filter Pattern. (File 5.jpg)
Click OK.
Done and working.
Best regards,
JRosa.

[cthomas]

I can't get any to show up after I click the Search button.

[Mario]

You don't need to search or anything.
All IMatch tags are right on the "Standard" tab, right on the top:



And when you search for the IMatch tag group, you already see all available tags:

[cthomas]

Wow! I got it to work! The bad thing is I don't know what I did to fix it.

Now this time it made two Wav categories. Why? Is there away to get the title to show instead of WAV?

[jch2103]

Now this time it made two Wav categories. Why?

I think, if you check the files in each group, you'll find that one group has .wav (lower case) and the other has .WAV (upper case). If you want just one category shown, use the 'Unify Spelling' option in the Data-Driven Properties dialog. See the attached screenshot, which shows available options.

[Mario]

Why? Is there away to get the title to show instead of WAV?

Switch to another File Window Layout. This looks as if you use the thumbnails-only layout.

[jch2103]

Is there a way to get the title to show instead of WAV?

Alternatively, if you're concerned about 'WAV' being the name of the category in the left-hand Category panel, you can rename it after clicking it.

[cthomas]

I want to thank all of you that helped me to understand  Data-driven Categories!    

Would each one of you tell me when and why you use a  Data-driven Category?

[jch2103]

I want to thank all of you that helped me to understand  Data-driven Categories!    

Would each one of you tell me when and why you use a  Data-driven Category?

Glad we could help.

I use a number of data-driven categories for different purposes:

- Camera-related information (e.g., aperture, shutter speed, camera make/model/lens): These are useful if I want to locate such information as shots taken with a particular camera make/model and lens (e.g., a specific wide angle or telephoto lens), or a shot taken with very low shutter speed, or fully-wide open aperture, etc.). See the Help for examples of how to do this.

- Location: Country (Level 1)/State (Level 2)/City (Level 3)/Location (Level 4). Assuming images are populated with this information, this category allows finding all images taken in, e.g., New York City or Utah. You should already have an IMatch Sample Category that shows how to do this. 

- Quality control information: This includes things like photos with missing GPS coordinates, or missing date information (mostly for scanned images).

- Special purpose tags. I use some metadata tags for specific special purposes, such as film camera used (for scanned images) and digital source type (XMP::iptcExt\DigitalSourceType\DigitalSourceType\0). Note that this is an alternative to using Keywords for the same kind of purpose. For example, I use hierarchical keywords to record the original photo type (e.g., Cabinet Card, Carte de Visite, Tintype, etc.) for historical scanned images. You can also combine the two techniques (i.e., create a data-driven category from these Keywords) to make it simpler to track these kinds of data.

So, bottom line is that data-driven categories give you lots of options for working with and keeping track of what's in your database. How to best use this tool is up to you, of course!

[Jingo]

Curious - is it ok to have many data-driven categories - or does this slow things down because they need to all be constantly updated each time metadata changes to an image or images are added to the catalog? 

[JohnZeman]

I use data driven categories but most of the time I prefer to use Formula categories instead.

[Mario]

Curious - is it ok to have many data-driven categories - or does this slow things down because they need to all be constantly updated each time metadata changes to an image or images are added to the catalog?

Data-driven categories are very fast. The performance impact of course depends on how large your database is (30,000 files or 300,000 files?), how fast your computer is etc.
You can always configure data-driven categories you don't need all the time to manual update. You can then manually trigger their update in the category panel when you need them.

[cthomas]

I want to thank all of you that helped me to understand  Data-driven Categories!    

Would each one of you tell me when and why you use a  Data-driven Category?

Glad we could help.

- Location: Country (Level 1)/State (Level 2)/City (Level 3)/Location (Level 4). Assuming images are populated with this information, this category allows finding all images taken in, e.g., New York City or Utah. You should already have an IMatch Sample Category that shows how to do this. 

I don't see a location in the IMatch Sample Category that shows how to do this. Would you show me how to do this? Country (USA), State (Montana), City (Fromberg).

[Mario]

The sample categories created by IMatch already include a data-driven category for this purpose:

@All > IMatch Sample Categories > Image Files > Location

it is colored green.

If you don't have this, you have deleted it.
But exactly this category is used as an example in the help for the data-driven categories. Just follow the steps there. Since it has three levels it's much to much to explain here. Just follow the steps in the help one by one. This will be a good learning experience as well.

[cthomas]

Sorry I looked right over it.     Would it be Ok If I recreated it and placed it in the Universal Catalog? My goal is to place all of my images in the Universal Catalog because it seems like all of my images will fit best in the Universal Catalog. Don't you think so?

[Mario]

It is usually a better idea to keep data.-driven categories (which are automatically maintained by the system) outside of the category hierarchy where you assign files manually (your Universal Catalog). This also prevents too deeply nested hierarchies, which are always harder to use and understand.

[cthomas]

My goal is to place all of my images in the Universal Catalog because it seems like all of my images will fit best in the Universal Catalog. Don't you think so?

What do you think of this?

[Mario]

I answered this in my reply.

[cthomas]

I answered this in my reply.

I don't guite unidestand. Would you try to  explane this again?

[Mario]

I said I would not mix data-driven categories into the Universal Catalog. It's usually better to separate automatically updated and user-updated categories.

[cthomas]

I said I would not mix data-driven categories into the Universal Catalog. It's usually better to separate automatically updated and user-updated categories.

All right I think I understtand now. Should I keep my new IMatch Sample Categories in the same place or should move them to a different place.  Like this.

Data-driven Categories and move your Data-driven Categories out of yours and put my new ones in its place.

and then  put mine in init place. Universal Catalog

[jch2103]

All right I think I understtand now. Should I keep my new IMatch Sample Categories in the same place or should move them to a different place.  Like this.

It's really up to you, in terms of which approach best meets you needs. There is no 'right' answer, just different ways of handling your data. The benefit of IMatch is that it gives you a variety of ways to do things; some will better fit your workflow than others.

But as Mario said, it's better to keep data-driven categories separate from user-updated categories. One reason for this is that data-driven categories needs be be refreshed after you do updates to your data. It's quicker to just refresh these separately.

I said I would not mix data-driven categories into the Universal Catalog. It's usually better to separate automatically updated and user-updated categories.