Bug 389653

Summary: View albums as a flat folder list
Product: [Applications] digikam Reporter: MarcP <iwannaberich>
Component: Albums-TreeViewAssignee: Digikam Developers <digikam-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: wishlist CC: caulier.gilles, iwannaberich, johannes.lists+bugs.kde.org, jose1711
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 5.8.0   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In: 7.5.0
Sentry Crash Report:

Description MarcP 2018-01-30 18:40:01 UTC
Currently Digikam shows albums as a tree view, and I think it's not possible to change that. Other picture organizers (e.g. Picasa) also offer the option to view folders as a flat album list, putting folders and subfolders at the same level, usually sorted by capture date of the photos in each subfolder.

For me, each folder/album is an event, which I want them to appear chronologically sorted. A flat view offers a simpler album list, regardless of how they are organized in the original filesystem.
Comment 1 caulier.gilles 2018-01-30 19:21:54 UTC
Definitively no. This is how digiKam have been developed since a very long time, with this kind of concept at project startup, quickly rejected by end user in favor of nested tree view.

The album tree-view is based on folder hierarchy. If you want a flat list, use tags view. For time-stamp based flat list use Date view, etc...

Gilles Caulier
Comment 2 MarcP 2018-01-30 19:43:28 UTC
Ok, fair enough, but seeing the multiple ways of visualizing and sorting the albums already included in Digikam, I don't think it would be completely far-fetched to offer that option as well. I mean, there's even a "flat list" option for the icon view already, why not for the folder view as well?
Comment 3 Johannes 2020-04-11 09:18:56 UTC
@ MarcP: You can view all images of a collection by selecting the collection album (root album) in Albums (left sidebar)
and check the following:
View -> Separate Items -> Flat View
View -> Include Album Sub-Tree

With 
View -> Sort Items -> By Creation Date
all your images are sorted chronologically, not separated by folders.
Comment 4 MarcP 2020-04-11 09:24:47 UTC
Thanks Johannes, but it's not exactly what I meant. In another picture manager there was the option to see all folders/albums as a flat list, without hierarchies, sorted by date.

But in any case, I already got used to they way digikam works, so it's fine.
Comment 5 Jozef Říha 2021-05-01 21:48:51 UTC
Pity this won't be added. In Picasa this allowed for hierarchy of folders (albums) of arbitrary depth and at the same time enabling my family to navigate through the collection (b/c they remember everything by album name) easily.

Now try to explain 80+ year old a concept of tags, advanced searches and such. Even album tree navigation can be difficult to grasp.