[KPhotoAlbum] Maintenance / Merge duplicates

[Johannes Zarl]

Hi,

Sorry for the long delay of my response...

On Sunday 12 May 2013 16:05:59 Martin Jost wrote:
> I just discovered "Maintenance/Merge duplicates".
> 1.
> Wouldn't it be better to default KPA to *no*t do any action on the
> photos, instead of merging to the first one in each list ?
> It sounds somewhat dangerous to me and the first thing I did was a click
> "Select None" at the bottom.

You're right. I think having the candidates unselected at first seems like the 
safe thing to do. I'll have a look at it and change it.

> 2.
> Most of my duplicates seem to be two entries in index.xml for the same
> photo. (Same complete path-name)
> This is probably from me messing with the file in an editor. (E.g.
> merging two independently edited/updated versions)
> a.
> Would KPA handle this correctly at all ?
> (Meaning discovering, that it is just one image and NOT trying to delete
> "one of them" - meaning the only one in this case ?)

I'd have to look in the code for this. It certainly is not some situation that 
KPA expects, because KPA would never create two entries for the same path in 
the first place.

If you regularly get into situations like this one: Did you try the 
export/import feature? With this you could export the part of the database 
that you want to edit manually, and then import it again. KPA will then detect 
duplicates and give you some options to merge them.

> b.
> Should KPA show this differently, as just one line, noting that two
> entries exist ? (Or even as two sections in the list)

I'm somewhat sure that you can avoid the mess in the first place using the 
import/export feature. Still, it would of course be great if KPA dealt with it 
correctly. Could you add a feature-request for this?

> Explanation:
> I have more than one computer running KPA; and if I'm unlucky enough my
> index.xml run out of sync and I need to merge the mess, resulting from
> my carelessness.
> (Being able to play tricks like this, is one of many, many reasons, why
> I like KPA that much !)

I don't personally use KPA with the database shared between computers, but I 
know you are not the only one doing it. Perhaps we should collect tips/tricks 
on how to get a workflow for this and add it to the handbook...

> 3.
> I would like to see the list (optionally ?) sorted by pathname - that
> would make it easier to see in cases like 2. when I duplicated a whole
> bunch of entries for a complete photo session.

Seems reasonable.

> 4.
> I would like to export the list of duplicates as a text file, giving the
> line number in index.xml.
> Preferably this should be 'grep -n' like output (because emacs
> understands this and can jump from location to location, when using such
> a list)

IMO this one would be better addressed by an external script

> Please let me know if I should create bug tracker entries (probably as
> "wishlist item") for some of these.

Yes, please do that.

  Johannes