Metadata templates are an important tool to edit metadata, in particular if you want to edit the metadata of a whole selection of images. The possibilities to batch-edit metadata are still quite limited otherwise in digiKam, but that will be subjet to another wishlist entry. So I put quite some work into creating a system of templates for different authors, years, locations (more general like "England" and more detailed like "England, London, Picadilly Circus"). But many times I lost all this work, first when I changed from ACDSee to digiKam, then when bought a new computer, then when I updated to 5.2.0. Now I'm a bit hesitating to create a new system of templates although I would need it so badly. digiKam makes 'organizing digital photographs a "snap".' I'm pretty sure it's a "snap" for a good developer to add a "Save" button in the Metadata Templates Manager so that one could save the whole collection of templates to an external file and an "Import" button to import previously backuped templates. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Select a pic in the Albums view 2. Click on Captions/Tags on the right sidebar 3. Select the "Information" tab 4. Click on the little button to the right of the Template-field to open the Template Manager Actual Results: You see no "Save" and "Restore" or "Import" button to backup the whole collection of templates externally. Expected Results: There should be a possibility to save templates externally. An (maybe even better) alternative would be a backup function for all the personal adjustments and preferences the user made in digiKam. In the input page for KDE bugreports it says in the "Severity" - section: "Say how serious the problem is, or if your bug is a request for a new feature." The "or" is wrong here. This is a request for a new feature *and* it is a serious problem!
The template file exists in fact. It's based on XML on your home directory. For 4.x, file are located to ~/.kde4/share/apps/digikam/ With 5.x, file must be moved to ~/.local/share/apps/digikam/ For technical reasons which give crash, the files are not migrated when you switch from 4 to 5. See this bug for details : https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=364258 So there is no need a save/load methods for templates. Gilles Caulier
O.k., I copied the template.xml from the 4.x location to the 5.x location and it works. digiKam comes up with my old templates. But: >For 4.x, file are located to ~/.kde4/share/apps/digikam/ This is not quite right, at least not for Kubuntu. The correct path is ~/.kde/share/apps/digikam >With 5.x, file must be moved to ~/.local/share/apps/digikam/ This is also not the path under Kubuntu, it's ~/.local/share/digikam/ >So there is no need a save/load methods for templates. And here I don't agree as a matter of principle. digiKam is a program for photographers, i.e. "graphic people", and those like to use GUIs and not moving around files by browser or even terminal (there are exceptions, I know). And even if they were willing to go through that "ordeal", how can they know where to find that file? So the absolute minimum IMHO would be a hint, a tipp within the template manager where to find that file.
Well for the last point, i'm not agree. As explained in bug https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=364258, the files must be moved to new location automatically. No need an extra rules for that. But for the moment, it's not clear why this is not yet done properly. Gilles Caulier
digiKam 7.0.0 stable release is now published: https://www.digikam.org/news/2020-07-19-7.0.0_release_announcement/ We need a fresh feedback on this file using this version. Best regards Gilles Caulier