Allow entry of yyyy:mm:dd (only) for Date Subject Created

[birdbrain]

Request:  When entering "Date Subject Created", with the keyboard (not date picker), allow entry of only yyyy:mm:dd.  The time is to default to 00:00:00.  This would signify "I know the date; time of day has no meaning or value".  Time zone to default to local.

May need to include a "preference" to enable / disable as some users may want to keep the legacy approach.

Rationale: When archiving old photos (pre-digital era), time of day often has no value.  Indeed, the day or month may be unknown. Even the year may be unknown, rendering the photo "undated".

Having to type "00:00:00" is superfluous.

"Date picker" can be helpful sometimes, but requires many, many mouse clicks. Typing is always faster than a mouse (IMO).

Detailed discussion:  See https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=11358.0

[Mario]

The MD panel remembers your last n inputs for each tag. You can recall them from the drop-down menu.
You can also just add your timestamps to the thesaurus (F6) (Editing Metadata), and IMatch will suggest them when you start typing (no mouse needed!):



Just <Cursor down> and <Enter> to add the date. With time. In the correct format. Always correct, no mouse needed.

Using the features already offers will save you a lot of time. I don't see a need to implement special cases or additional treatment to guess values for invalid or incomplete timestamps.

[Mario]

I've decided to enhance the validation routine.
If a user only adds a date, the validation routine now appends the generic 00:00:00 time before validating the value.

[birdbrain]

Thank you for being responsive to the need, even if proposed by an atypical user!

My friends and family certainly think I'm atypical 

[birdbrain]

Is this slated for IMatch 2021 or an intermediate update?

[Mario]

This enhancement has been integrated into the IMatch 2021 code base.

[jch2103]

I've decided to enhance the validation routine.
If a user only adds a date, the validation routine now appends the generic 00:00:00 time before validating the value.

Thank you! Although this mostly only affects users dealing with scanned images, it should be a useful time-saver for those of us dealing with hundreds or thousands of scanned images with differing dates that need to be entered.

[Mario]

Thank you! Although this mostly only affects users dealing with scanned images, it should be a useful time-saver for those of us dealing with hundreds or thousands of scanned images with differing dates that need to be entered.

Always improving.

Having said that, unless each of your hundreds of thousands of images needs unique timestamps, relying on the "recently used" drop-down in the MD panel or quickly setting up the timestamps you want to use in the Thesaurus or quickly setting some MD templates or a MD template which copies the contents of a global variable into the XMP timestamps will bring you a looong way.

I have participated in many projects dealing with historical imagery, scanned photos and the like. And IMatch has the tools to deal with this easily.

[birdbrain]

Having said that, unless each of your hundreds of thousands of images needs unique timestamps, relying on the "recently used" drop-down in the MD panel or quickly setting up the timestamps you want to use in the Thesaurus or quickly setting some MD templates or a MD template which copies the contents of a global variable into the XMP timestamps will bring you a looong way.

You suggested this before.  I understand the benefit of the "recently used" feature. But having trouble with the idead of populating a thesaurus or using and MD template.  Here's a fictional example:

Suppose I have photos for every year from 1950 to 2000 that are scanned.  That is at least 50 dates (one per year).

And let's also say, on average, I know the dates for 3 special events for each of about half these years. That would be another 3 x 25 dates.

That's 50+75=125 dates in this example. The real world is much more, but agreed: not unique to each and every photo.

So anyway...are you suggesting creating 125 thesaurus entries or MD templates, one for each date?  Or am I totally misunderstanding your suggestion?  Always looking for ways to save time! 

Thank you,

Joe