Bug 195426

Summary:	Reflect current selection inside the file system using symbolic links
Product:	[Applications] digikam	Reporter:	Julien Narboux <Julien>
Component:	Plugin-Generic-WishForNewTools	Assignee:	Digikam Developers <digikam-bugs-null>
Status:	REPORTED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	caulier.gilles
Priority:	NOR
Version:	1.2.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Mandriva RPMs
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Julien Narboux 2009-06-06 10:57:15 UTC

Version:            (using KDE 4.1.4)
Installed from:    Mandriva RPMs

When one wants to export pictures to a website there are two cases:
- either the website is supported by some kipi plugin (gallery, flickr, 23, picasa ...)
- or you have to use an external tool (ftp, web applet of the web site...)

When using this external tool you do not have access to all the searching and filtering features of Digikam.
For instance, if you want to export pictures which are rated three stars or more, it is difficult to do it outside digikam. Usually to solve this problem I copy the pictures I want to select in a temporary directory. It is not very convenient.

A solution could be to have a directory called "Digikam current selection", which would contains symbolic links to all the pictures which appear in the last selection of Digikam. This directory could be updated when selection change in Digikam.

Now, if I want to export some pictures to a web site which is not supported by any kipi plugins, I can just select all the pictures in the "Digikam current selection" directory.

Another solution of this problem could be to have Digikam filtering and saved search integrated somehow in the standard Kde open file dialog, but I think this would require system wide changes...

my 2 cents

Julien

Comment 1 Mikolaj Machowski 2009-06-07 12:33:56 UTC

This is similar to:

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109631

with public digiKam specific kio-slaves you could navigate through images in filedialog with eg. digikamtags://my-export where my-export is name of tag.

Comment 2 caulier.gilles 2018-11-03 11:00:16 UTC

WARNING : with digiKam 6.0.0 and later, we will not support kipi interface anymore. All tools are now located in digiKam core as well for a plan to provide a more power-full integration with Batch Queue Manager and to be able to export a workflow on a web-service.

All export tools are now available everywhere : album view, Image editor, Light table, and Showfoto. Previously, only album view from digiKam core was able to deal with export tools through libkipi.

All export tools are now located here :

https://cgit.kde.org/digikam.git/tree/core/utilities/assistants/webservices

All export tools use now a dedicated interface to communicate with the application :

- digiKam (database) :

https://cgit.kde.org/digikam.git/tree/core/libs/database/utils/ifaces/dbinfoiface.h

- Showfoto (files metadata) :

https://cgit.kde.org/digikam.git/tree/core/utilities/assistants/common/dmetainfoiface.h

There is not direct use of digiKam database for compatibility with Showfoto.

We plan later to provide a dynamic loading of export tools using a plugins mechanism. This will reduce overloading of the internal core libraries. A dedicated devel branch have been created for that, but it's not yet complete:

https://cgit.kde.org/digikam.git/tree/?h=development/dplugins

But take a care, digiKam export tools as plugins will not be shared with another external application. API will still private and only shared between Showfoto and digiKam core. The experience with libkipi was bad and complex to maintain/extend in time.

Gilles Caulier