[Digikam-devel] Renaming imported photos (was: Re: [Bug 106928] Digikam custom filename format from date and time)

[Renchi Raju]

sorry, i guess i forgot to reply to this email.

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005, Andreas Mair wrote:

>> this weekend I tried the camera import dialog again.
>> This time I tried to also add the folders where the photos should be
>> stored. I've organised my photos in folders like <digiKam photo
>> path>/<year>/<month>/<photos>.jpg
>> So I tried to set the filename pattern to "%Y/%m/%Y-%m-%d_%%02d". But I
>> couldn't manage to get this work :(

that will not work. the renaming box is not meant to create subfolders for 
you.

>> So my question:
>> Am I supposed to store all my photos in a single folder? Well, that's not
>> what I want...

you are stretching things here. you have the option of selecting folders 
where you want to download the photos. there is also an option to create 
auto-subfolders based on dates. but the folder names are not customizable 
currently. you file a wishlist for it. And also the auto-subfolders will 
create subfolders only one level deep and it looks like you want a three 
level subfolder.

>>>>> A "make the filename unique" feature, so if I have the "%Y-%m-%d"
>>>>> filename template .....
>>>>
>>>> if you want to make it unique, you will have to add the sequence
>>>> number
>>
>> But this simply adds a sequence number to every imported picture. It does
>> not check if it's really needed.

i don't see any point in checking for unique filenames since adding the 
sequence number will guarantee that. with the sequence number you will get 
a nice list of file names like: 2001-10-12_001.jpg, 2001-10-12_002.jpg,
2001-10-13_002.jpg.

what you are suggesting is to have file names like: 2001-10-12.jpg, 
2001-10-12_01.jpg, 2001-10-12_02.jpg . And i don't see why such an option 
should exist.

>> Above that: what happens if the destination file already exists?

you will be prompted if you want to overwrite the file/supply a new 
name/abort.

>>
>>>> for a completely custom template, turn off both "add datetime" and
>>>> "add sequence number" and add the template manually in the prefix
>>>> box. i'm not sure what template you are looking for, but i can give
>>>> you an example which will ensure a unique number with date added.
>>>>
>>>> photo_%Y-%m-%d_%%03d (the %% in the last term is not a typo)
>>>>
>>>> so the names will be of the type:
>>>> photo-2001-01-04-001.jpg
>>>
>>> Hey, that's almost what I want!
>>> But AFAIK it uses one sequence for all photos listed in the import
>>> dialog. So it doesn't start again with "1" if photos are taken on
>>> another day? An example:
>>> I think digiKam would rename the photos to 2005-07-01_001.jpg,
>>> 2005-07-01_002.jpg, 2005-07-01_003.jpg, 2005-07-03_004.jpg,
>>> 2005-07-03_005.jpg, 2005-07-04_006.jpg ...
>>> Whereas I'd prefer to get 2005-07-01_001.jpg, 2005-07-01_002.jpg,
>>> 2005-07-01_003.jpg, 2005-07-03_001.jpg, 2005-07-03_002.jpg,
>>> 2005-07-04_001.jpg ...

  the camera renaming tool is not (and not meant to be a) full-fledged
file renaming tool. what it does currently will serve the purposes of 90+% of 
the populace. for more advanced file renaming make use of the other tools 
available out there like krename.

>> Would it be possible to get an option for getting unique filenames that
>> calculates the appended number from the destination filename? So if
>> there's no file matching "2005-07-01_???.jpg" name it
>> "2005-07-01_001.jpg" but if some exist name it "2005-07-01_<next free
>> sequence number>.jpg".
>>
>> Maybe this can be presented on the GUI by a "Keep filenames unique"
>> selectbox having the options "across all files", "in folder", "using per
>> file sequence".
>> Where "across all files" should number all images known to digiKam
>> uniquely. "in folder" would use a unique sequence number per folder. And
>> "using per file sequence" will do what I tried to explain above.
>> Maybe this select box can have a "no" option to disable adding a sequence
>> number.

please see my reply to this above.

renchi