[RELEASE] MyPicsDB: Pictures DB with EXIF, IPTC & XMP tags

This add-on allows you to scan picture tags and to store them into a database.
It's an add-on originally developed by solexalex.

Features:

• Recursive JPG picture scanning
• EXIF, IPTC & XMP pictures metadata scanning
• Filtering by date, folders or tags like keywords, categories, persons or country.
• Advanced filter wizard that lets you select several tags at once.
• Support of local or remote pictures with the latest add-on version. Required MyPicsDB version for remote scanning: Eden 1.3.4 and Frodo 2.0.0
• Sets home window properties for last added or shooted pictures and random pictures. Skinners look at thread WIP Glass
  

Installation: (edit)
1) It's now part of the official XBMC repository.

Main menu


Filter wizard:


Browse by tags:

This addon is also available on Passion-XBMC repository : http://passion-xbmc.org/addons/?Page=Vie...e.mypicsdb

For skinners, you can use home properties set by this addon to populate widgets and statistics as in Glass :



See Readme.txt or below to now to set and use properties :

a) MyPicsDB can be called with following parameters to populate window properties :

XBMC.RunScript(plugin.image.mypicsdb,0,?action='setproperties'&method='Latest|Random'&sort='Shooted|Added'&limit=10)

Parameters are :

- action='setproperties' to store in main window properties and in CommonCache DB

- method='Lastest' to get Latest pictures from DB
- method='Random' to get random pictures from DB

- sort='Shooted' to get latest pictures sorted by Shooted date (EXIF DateTimeOriginal)
- sort='Added' to get latest pictures sorted by Added in DB date (DateAdded)

- limit=10 to get only 10 pictures

Properties set to main window (ID=10000) :

MyPicsDB<Method>.Count = Number of pictures returned (max=limit)
MyPicsDB<Method>.1.Path = Path to picture #1
MyPicsDB<Method>.1.Name = Name of picture #1
MyPicsDB<Method>.1.Date = Shooted date of picture #1
MyPicsDB<Method>.2.Path = Path to picture #2
MyPicsDB<Method>.2.Name = Name of picture #2
MyPicsDB<Method>.2.Date = Shooted date of picture #2
...
...
...
MyPicsDB<Method>.10.Path = Path to picture #10
MyPicsDB<Method>.10.Name = Name of picture #10
MyPicsDB<Method>.10.Date = Shooted date of picture #10

b) To run a slideshow when user clicks on a picture :

<onclick>XBMC.RunScript(plugin.image.mypicsdb,0,?action='slideshow'&method='Random'&current=1)</onclick>

Parameters :

- action='slideshow' to run slide show

- method='Lastest' to get Latest pictures from DB
- method='Random' to get Random pictures from DB

- current=1 to start slideshow with Picture #1

c) Statistic properties

MyPicsDB<Method>.Categories = number of categories in DB
MyPicsDB<Method>.Collections = number of collections in DB
MyPicsDB<Method>.Folders = number of folders containing pictures in DB

MyPicsDBRandom.Categories = MyPicsDBLatest.Categories, same for Count, Collections and Folders but we don't know which method each skinner will use so I make the job twice

Great to hear.

I've been trying the new version out and it's really nice. I especially like the new wizard - it really makes selecting the images easier. Though one question pops up: Am I right in asuming that the wizard only supports OR and not AND? Selecting for example to persons all the images where one or the other is included, and not as expected, where both of them are included?

FFY

Currently same tag types are combined with or and different tag types with and.
If you select person xycl & fungify and country germany & denmark then you'll get pictures which contain:

• xycl & germany
• xycl & denmark
• fungify & germany
• fungify & denmark
  

Edit: Only one tag of the above example isn't sufficient! The selected pictures must contain one selected person and one selected country.

Perhaps I can include a checkbox which enables an and for same tag types.

OK - that confirms my observations. Would really like to see a checkbox or something as this would make my life a bit easier

Consider this scenario:

I need to find a picture of my son with his grandfather. I have about 3.500 pictures of my son and around 100 of his grandfather. Currently a search for both of these people would return a result of 3.600 pictures - which wouldn't make my life any easier. A search with and instead would return the 10 or so images that I'm really interested in.

This is a problem I've recently experienced but I'm sure there are many other scenarios where AND search would be nice.

Once again thank you for the effort. I've taken the liberty to point the developers of the Aeon Nox skin in the direction of this addon, as I would really like to see widgets included in that skin as well.

FFY

Will this Add-On do a 'better' job for general pic viewing as well?

This is one area - for whatever reason - that all my current Dharma installs really choke. Browsing to a folder of standard jpegs take several minutes.

As far as I understand it this is due to the lack of optimization for all things photo in current XBMC design. My question make sense?

TIA

From experience - yes.

When navigating to a folder in regular XBMC all images seems to be read once (for thumbnails I would imagine). MyPicsDB doesn't do this, so viewing a regular folder is actually faster.

But the thing that MyPicsDB is actually best at is letting you navigate your images based on the tags you've (or your phone / camera has) included in the photo.

Want to find all pictures you've taken in London, England?
Want to find all pictures of your mom?
Want to find all pictures that shows your mom with a gorilla and a broom, taken in Holland during the 80's?

MyPicsDB currently does all of the above.

FFY

XBMC creates a thumbnail when a picture is displayed the first time in a list. The next times the already created one is used and therefore the lists are filled much faster.

And:
1) Make sure DDS fanart is enabled
2) Use Eden because of the new JPEG decoder. See changelog.

Of course, even with tags stored in a DB XBMC has to load the pictures to display it.

Yes - viewing the image takes the same amount of time, but entering a folder with (lots of) images in regular XBMC takes (on my HTPC with Core i5 and 8GB RAM) 10-15 seconds of precaching of the images each time. This does not happen when selecting Image Folder in MyPicsDB. This was what I meant above - sorry if that wasn't clear.

FFY

i have installed right now the widget works but ignores the exif information. it does not rotate the photos.
it is skin or plug in related?