[Digikam-users] database on laptop and server/NAS

[Manuel Bock]

Using didkam for quite some years, my photo collection meanwhile takes up too 
much disk space to alway fully synchronize it to a small laptop with a total 
of 128GB. ;-((       Additionally I don't like the idea to  have that laptop 
stolen out of a hotel room and have someone potentially getting access to all 
the photos of my life.

Therefore I have my master collection on a local server, that I am accessing, 
e.g. to run the diashow on the TV, make some final post processing at a PC 
with a larger display having a color profile etc. Connecting the laptop to the 
server's DB via VPN is slow, shows timeouts or is sometimes impossible at all, 
depending on the internet connection.

The solution used so far was:
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1. manage a separate database on the laptop, that writes all tags into the 
images 

2. work with all the photos taken for example on a holiday trip on that laptop

3. copy all subdirectories into the server's digikam library tree on return 
and have a digikam instance in my home LAN import them on next start up into 
the server's DB

Disadvantages so far
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a. new tags created on the server have to be synchronized to the laptop (a 
generic picture with all tags assigned that is synchronized into the laptops 
is my manual workaround currently)

b. album properties, like comments or the icon assigned get lost (I usually 
postpone that step for being back home)

Issue
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With face detection (or manually marking faces), revisioning and 
nondestructive editing there seems to be more and more information not coming 
over to the server database with my workflow.

Is there a new way or best practice to "export/import to/from another digikam 
instance" that I missed or what other way is the best practice to transfer as 
much information as possible between two different digikam databases?

BTW: If some of the developers read this - GREAT SOFTWARE!!!!!!! - many thanks 
for all the efforts going into it!


regards
Manuel