Migration from IMatch3 to IMatch5.5

[lightchaser]

Dear Forum Members,
after some troubles to migrate to IMatch5 I have actually  succeeded (after some trials and crashes to migrate via database converter) to get my image and video folders step by step into Imatch 5. What I've not yet done is the conversion of my really large "category departement" and I als have not moved my Thesaurus to 5.5. And as assigning categories is an important part of my workflow I up to now use IM 5 only for getting used to it. I still use IM 3.6 as my working database.
Now I hear that there again is an IM upgrade to 5.5.
My questions:
- Do I have to do my missing upgrade steps from 3.6 with IM 5 or can I do this in 5.5 later?
- How can I convert my categories and my Thesaurus?
Any help really appreciated as I'm no young "techie" but an old landscape photographer who is really "in love" with IM3.6.
Regards
Franz

http://www.xdreamphoto.com/

[Mario]

IMatch 5.5 is the firts major upgrade for the 5.0 version released in June 2014.

The database format of 5.5 is the same as for the previous 5er versions. You can open your existing database in 5.5.
I'm not sure what the stage of your conversion is.

Usually you run the database converter and you're done.
it automatically converts the entire database, which includes the categories. No need to 'convert' your categories or anything separately.
With "thesaurus" to you mean the thesaurus visible in the old IPTC editor?
There is an import option for that in the Thesaurus Manager in IMatch 5. You can directly import your old IPTC thesaurus there.

Please give us more details about how you converted your database, the error messages produced by the database converter etc. The converter writes up to three log files with detailed information about the process. The help for the database converter explains this in detail, tells you where the log files are, which preparations to make etc. Did you follow the instructions?

[lightchaser]

Thank you Mario for your reply!
Actually I`ve made two trials to convert with the database converter (200.000 + images). Did'nt work and you gave me the advice to convert and step by step add folders to the database, what I've done and what worked fine. You told me in a former post on this platform, that you, if need be, would advice me afterwards on how to import my categories and my thesaurus from IM 3.6 that still runs on my system and  still is my working database. Now after all the images are in the database I'm pondering to make that step. As my huge collection of categories is important for me I would like to ask you for some advice how to make this step without big mistakes.
Thank you in advance for your help
Franz
http://www.xdreamphoto.com/

[Mario]

0. Make a backup of your database. In case something goes wrong, you can restore it and start over.

1.  In IMatch 3: Database menu > Import & Export > Export Category Schema.
Make sure you select the "with file links" format in the drop down list. Check the "@All" category and the option to export recursively.

2.  In IMatch 5, open the Import & Export panel, click the Run button on Category Import module and import the category schema created in step one above.
In the file browser dialog, select the IMatch 3 category schema format on the bottom right.

See Category Import in the IMatch help for detailed instructions. Just press <F1> while the Category Import dialog box is open.
There is even an extra section that explains how to import categories from IMatch 3. I recommend you read that first because it will answer your questions.


To import your legacy IPTC thesaurus into the IMatch 5 thesaurus, open the Thesaurus Manager (button in the Metadata Panel toolbar), click on the Import/Export button in the toolbar, choose "Import thesaurus". In the file browser dialog choose "IMatch 3 IPTC Thesaurus" and then locate your IPTC thesaurus file on your hard disk.

By default the file is in

C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatch

The name of the file you want to import is imiptcusr4.dat.

When asked, choose the "Merge" option. You don't want to replace your thesaurus in IMatch 5, you want to add your keywords and supplemental categories to it.

Click <F1> while in the Thesaurus Manager to open the help, which explains importing IMatch 3 IPTC thesaurus data in detail.

[lightchaser]

Thank`s a lot, Mario! Now I can use IM5 as my working DB. Just one more question: I'm so used to right click images and to copy or move them to another folder (previous used folders were suggested in IM3); I really like this possibility but couldn't find this in IM5. Did I miss something?
Franz

[Mario]

This functionality is available in the Favorites Panel

View menu > Panels > Favorites

This is a very powerful feature which will speed up your workflow a lot.
You can also copy or move files using the clipboard, drag and drop etc.

I suggest you read the For IMatch 3 Users help topic (right on the front page of the help system).
It explains this, and has answers for many of your other questions. It contains pointers to important help topic and reading it will bring you up to speed quickly.

[lightchaser]

Thank you Mario for your advice,
I think that I will come to grips with it, though it's hard to change long used procedures. One additonal question, when I highlight 10 images in the file window and go to open in Windows explorer, only one image of the ten images is highlighted in that folder. Would need all images highlighted!?
May I ask two more questions:
- Tried to install the dictionary according to the IMatch Help. The link to the OpenOffice dictionaries would'nt work. Any idea?
- Then I changed the "image open with" in preferences to Photoshop. Worked yesterday, but today I find the old setting?
Franz

http://www.xdreamphoto.com/

[Mario]

1. This is not possible. Windows Explorer does not support this.

2. Nothing is older than a link. OpenOffice moves their stuff around all the time. I just recently changed the link in the help. And at least here they work:

https://www.openoffice.org/lingucomponent/dictionary.html

3. You did that where? In IMatch? Windows Explorer? If you use W10, this may be again one of the gotchas. Windows 10 has it's own dialog for that now. Check the W10 help for details.

[lightchaser]

Thank you Mario for your reply,
I understand that we no longer have the functionality that I really appreciated in Imatch 3.6: Choose images in the file window, right click and send this images directly to folders you want to in an easy way. The best thing for my workflow was that when you right clicked and chose move or copy files to a folder you had a long list of prior used folders suggested and you even could create new folders and subfolders right away. One also could choose whether to add the new folders to the database. Would really be great to get this functionality back in Imatch 5! Would indeed be a strong reason to upgrade to the latest version!
Another question, maybe I'm missing something: When I did a file search in 3,6 this did'nt take more than 2 seconds for my 200.000 images database to get the image displayed. I easily could copy the file name out of the file window. Now with v5.1 I have to Strg C the image and Strg V into the search bar in the file window. Afterwards I have to reduce the path name to the file name and then I`ve to change to the main database button in media&folders then make sure that I have set pause for more then 1000 images (otherwise this would take a lot of time to show all the images in the DB) and then to my surprise it still takes quite some time, in any case much longer than in 3.6, to show the single file. Am I missing something?
Regards
Franz
http://www.xdreamphoto.com/

[Mario]

ould really be great to get this functionality back in Imatch 5! Would indeed be a strong reason to upgrade to the latest version!

This functionality is available in the Favorites Panel.  It maintains a list of the last 50 used folders and categories. From there you can copy and move one or more files to another folder or category. This is explained in the "For IMatch 3 users" help topic, and of course in the Favorites help. This feature works a lot better than what we had in IMatch 3. That's your "menu".

In addition, you can create your own favorites for folders just by dragging the folder from the Media & Folders tree to the Favorites panel. Maybe even make you own tabs if you like. Works like bookmarks / favorites in your web browser.

You search for what in which scope?

[lightchaser]

Thank you Mario,
I search for file names in the whole Database (Database node?). There was a special "search for filenames-button" in IM3. It worked like a charm. In 5.5 this is far more complicated and time intensive as described in in my previous post.
My request concerning file transfer doesn't mean that I want to move files within the IM DB. Thats not a problem. But when I prepare to send images via FTP to clients, when I'm going to copy folders and files to a external drive to transport files to a backup drive at another location, the old features of IM 3 worked great. Can I do the same with favourites in IM5?
Regards
Franz

[Ferdinand]

When I did a file search in 3,6 this did'nt take more than 2 seconds for my 200.000 images database to get the image displayed. I easily could copy the file name out of the file window. Now with v5.1 I have to Strg C the image and Strg V into the search bar in the file window. Afterwards I have to reduce the path name to the file name and then I`ve to change to the main database button in media&folders then make sure that I have set pause for more then 1000 images (otherwise this would take a lot of time to show all the images in the DB) and then to my surprise it still takes quite some time, in any case much longer than in 3.6, to show the single file. Am I missing something?

If I understand you correctly, I have some sympathy.  This may help:
https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=4725.0

If you want quick access to the script, you can add it to a key combination like F8,S. 

I'm not sure I understand your point about copy and paste.  I use F2 and CTRL-C to copy the file name of the file with focus before I run the script.  I guess a button could be added the the script dialog to do the same thing.

[sinus]

If I understand you correctly, I have some sympathy.  This may help:
https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=4725.0

Me too. I can remember, this search-possibility in IMatch 2 or 3 did Mario also introduce later. That is why created in IMatch 5 also a script (not so good like yours), where I can simply push a button, enter a word and IMatch searches for it. And if the search is only in the file-name, the search is also very fast.
I created some categories, where the files will go instead brings up a result-pane. In this "result-cat" I made some sub-cats with some special interesting formulas for me, so with one search I see all images, what have been found, and some other stuff, like all jpgs, all master, all version and so on.

But I understand Mario's concept, what does normally search in the actual scope. But we see here also: IMatch give us the possibility to do, what we want.

[Mario]

1. You can drag files from the IMatch file window to Windows Explorer or another application.
2. You can use Favorites, but not for arbitrary folders which are not in the database.
3. If you only want to search in file names and you do that with the file window search bar, make sure you set the option to search only file names. Especially when you always run it on 200,000 files. If you don't do this, IMatch will also search metadata, and this can be real slow with 200,000 files and probably 2 million metadata fields to search on each run.
4. You can also use the file name filter directly, for even more options and control.

[lightchaser]

Thank you Mario,
concerning the search functionalities I've missed quite some possibilities of IM5. Thank you for giving me quick advice. In terms of files management I think I'll really miss the IM3 possibilities.
Franz

[Mario]

I'll really miss the IM3 possibilities.

I don't understand. IMatch 5.5 has more in any area. Or do you mean that the problem you're having is that you cannot create Favorites for folders unknown to IMatch (not in the database)? If you need that so badly, add a feature request. Other users can see and Like it. I doubt that many users move/copy files out of IMatch to other non-indexed folders than often. Or often enough that the build-in features (Ctr+C in IMatch, Ctrl+V in Windows Explorer or just dragging files from IMatch to Windows Explorer) are not sufficient.