[digikam] [Bug 375703] Moving grouped images into another album removes groups

[Jens]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=375703

--- Comment #19 from Jens <jens-bugs.kde.org at spamfreemail.de> ---
True - removing features must always be well thought out and there must be a
migration path (= database migration). I thought about this some more. The
concepts are indeed very similar, only little change would need to be done to
enable "pseudo grouping" using subfolders:

+ Albums would get a new property setting whether 
  - the album should be treated as a folder as it is now, with
    - a entry in the albums tree view
    - a separate section in the main view)
  or
  - as an image group inside the main thumbnails view, not in the albums
sidebar
    - using the album's folder thumbnail image as thumbnail
    - and the thumbnail image's metadata to sort this thumbnail

+ Such "group" albums would also allow metadata changes to the main thumbnail
image and optionally apply them to all images inside the group.

+ There must be a migration function which converts grouped images to "group
folders"
  for all future Digikam versions (since we don't know what versions people
will use)
  which automatically activates on startup so future Digikam versions don't
modify old databases.

Advantages:
- We can get rid of a huge ton of complexity regarding grouped images
  (moving, copying, external manipulation, reimport, etc.)
- Image groups are represented in the file system and not just in the database
  (better for external image manipulation)
- Import grouped images into Digikam is much easier since (almost) all you need
to do is create the appropriate subfolders. Maybe it would even be possible to
create ".xmp" files inside folders with appropriate folder properties for
Digikam, this would make data transfer even easier.

Disadvantages:
- There will be two types of "albums" for the future.
  This might require modification of existing code regarding albums.
- 

I think it would be worth it. Image groups are a really great feature but right
now the feature is somewhat unstable and so I am still a bit hesitant to use it
intensively.

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