IMatch 5.2.12

[AnaDia]

Hi Mario,

thank you for that quick intermediate release! I had some trouble with Metadata of Pentax RAW files with 5.2.10 and was thinking about going back to 5.2.8 for a while. But before I had the time to write a bug report, you solve my problems with version 5.2.12. Great!

[Richard]

I went through my normal steps for an upgrade.

1. Start the download.

2. While the download is in the process, back up my database. It may not be necessary but good to CMA (Cover My Ass) just in case something weird in my computer finds a glitch that was not found on Mario's computers.

3. Install IMatch.

4. Place a shortcut to Help on my desktop.

5 Open Help and read the Release Notes. They were certainly short this time. 

6. Open IMatch and follow any dialogs that may appear. Like update ExifTool.

All went as expected.

[Mario]

...just in case something weird in my computer finds a glitch that was not found on Mario's computers.

That may always be the case. Immediately after an update is released, the testing capacity increases a hundredfold...   

[JohnZeman]

Installed fine, seems to be working as it should.

And I LOVE the new color coded category history favorites!

[sinus]

All seems to be fine, thanks, Mario!

Also the Tag Manager seems now do, what it should. At the moment I wipe out quite a lot of tags. 

Finally, as long as the wiped out data are still in the file (or sidecar), can not happens something bad, because I could always change the Tag Manager and reimport the images.

Thanks for a good and specialy quick release! 

[ColinIM]

On the Tag Manager ...

I would have preferred the default logic on the tag selection / deselection to have included ALL metadata, until we choose progressively over time which groups or tags to DE-select - after considering which tags (per User) are the really redundant ones.

Perhaps I would feel happier accepting your default tag selections Mario if this new feature had been supported in advance (maybe here on the community Forum) by a list (yes, I admit it might be a large list!) of which tags can never feasibly be used to categorise any image file.  In other words, which tags are universally redundant, and which tags cannot be referenced fully in IMatch anyway due to reasonable limitations of ExifTool or of the IMatch Object Model.

But for this User (me), who is both cautious and keen to categorise my files on metadata parameters which I haven't even had time to contemplate so far, I'll choose instead to keep my database "heavy with metadata potential".  I will consider the 'lightening' of my database simply as a bonus when I do eventually de-select tags and groups of tags in the months ahead.

So, in the short term I'm now in the process of re-selecting all of the tag groups which were de-selected by default in Tag Manager.  (And because it's such a long long list of groups to tick, I'm also wondering whether I should raise a Feature Request for a Tag Manager "Select All" button! I've already tried using CTRL+A ... but that didn't do it!  So the Down-Arrow + SPACE-Bar-to-select scheme is working tolerably fast, being careful to watch for the occasional "partially-selected" group.)  Yes, I did detour from my still-open Tag Manager to here to make this post to add this comment.

I do accept that I can always rethink my tag selections later, and I could always RE-ingest any previously de-selected and trimmed metadata, but then - when I'm browsing among IMatch's metadata variables while I'm in "Panel tweaking mode" - I'd rather not have to keep reminding myself that "there might be more metadata lurking inside my image files that's not available at this moment because I've DE-selected it in Tag Manager".

This new feature also raises a question:

How will the Tag Manager handle cases where - as a hypothetical example - the developers of DxO Optics Pro RAW convertor add an entirely new tag into my processed images?  (I'll refer to these not-yet-anticipated tags as 'Other' tags.)

Will these 'Other' tags be ingested into my database by default when I add new images, pending an update to the Tag Manager list?  If not, then how will we ever know that we are not "missing" some newly invented tags?

Colin P.

[herman]

Hi Colin,

Thank you for describing my thoughts so well.
I am following the same line of thought as you are, but could never have expressed things as eloquently as you have 

I've already tried using CTRL+A ... but that didn't do it!  So the Down-Arrow + SPACE-Bar-to-select scheme is working tolerably fast, being careful to watch for the occasional "partially-selected" group.)

What I did:
Deselect the checkboxes in the lower part of the screen (Show only groups and tags with data and Sort by number of data records).
Select the first tag in the list
SHIFT+CTRL followed by END will now select all tags (at least on my system it does....)
Hit the space bar a couple of times until the tags show their checked state.
Hit OK and off you go 

[Ferdinand]

I'm also wondering whether I should raise a Feature Request for a Tag Manager "Select All" button!

I'd support such a feature request

How will the Tag Manager handle cases where - as a hypothetical example - the developers of DxO Optics Pro RAW convertor add an entirely new tag into my processed images?  How will we ever know that we are not "missing" some newly invented tags?

Good question.

[ColinIM]

@Herman ...
Thanks for that 'select all' tip. It worked perfectly on my (Windows 7) system too, on another of my test databases.

Although intriguingly, in spite of my "selecting all groups" in Tag Manager on that small database of 2,204 files, the subsequent diagnosis + optimise process still trimmed a bunch of "rows" from it! ...

Quote from the related im5diag.txt file in my TEMP folder ...
Trimming Tag Data:
Completed in 0s. 47181 rows removed.

I didn't think to grab a screen-capture of the pop-up summary offered by Tag Manager just before it closed, but for the record, I'm not overly concerned about what those removed rows were comprised of - even though I implicitly had no control over their "selection".

Given the scale (or magnitude) of this "metadata rationalisation" that Mario has introduced with the Tag Manager, I'm ready to accept that Mario has identified some scruffy corners and niches in our metadata that can be safely "dusted" (rows removed), without needing to present them to us for second-guessing on the Tag Manager list.

But with due respect to you Mario for your pre-selected tags in this version: On the general principle of selecting tags or tag-groups to be trimmed and subsequently excluded, I'll stick with my stance of preferring to choose myself, slowly and (more) deliberately, which ones to remove.

Colin P.

[ColinIM]

@Ferdinand
Thank you for your thumbs-up note about a Feature Request.

I've just added one ...

https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=3696.0

and I included a cross-reference to this post.

Colin P.