Idea for improvement of metadata sidebar

[Jens Benecke]

Hi,

thanks for the feedback. There was also a PNG screenshot attached to my email which showed the original layout.
Regarding your comments:

1: This is not a left-side (= filter) sidebar but a right-side (= editor) sidebar. So clicking on the date should modify the selected image(s)’s date(s). „Select by date“ already exists on the left side of Digikam’s main window. If multiple images are selected, this should show a date range and editing this might even be used to shift dates (with a confirmation dialog asking whether to set all dates to the same value or to use the first selected image as base date and use the delta to shift all dates - just like the extra wizard does now).

2: Ratings are shown to the right of the filename. Basically just like now only that the basic image metadata isn’t spread over five different tabs.

3: The tags tree should stay. My original idea was not to replace multiple existing editing tabs but to only replace the (redundant) first one called „Properties“. I was looking for a quick and compact way to view and edit common metadata of selected images explicitly *without* having to use the tree. If selected images have a non-unique set of tags, the tag input field should reflect this (either show non-unique tags greyed out or something like that).

But coming to think of it, this dashboard would have the potential to clean up the whole right sidebar. Here’s my thoughts:

„Properties“:	replace	This can be completely replaced. As of now I do not see any use case that isn’t covered.
					Plus we save lots on translation strings we don’t need any more.
„Metadata“:	keep	This is a „more details“ version of Properties. It would stay.
„Colors“:		keep	This - for me - is nothing I use often (I use it on my camera often, but not in Digikam).
„Map“:		remove	The map would become part of the dashboard. Smaller, though.
„Captions“:
   Description	remove	- contains most of what the Dashboard will contain too.
   Tags		keep	- contain the tag tree and an entry field. The tree by itself won’t be replaceable.
   Information	keep	- contains IPTC information about the author. Also not replaceable.
„Versions“:	keep	This is not covered.
„Filter“:		keep	Also not covered.
„Extras“:		don’t know, these are tools that - IMHO - only belong into a menu, not an icon view.

I updated my mockup in the attachment plus added a screenshot so you can view it even without the correct fonts).




--
Jens Benecke - jens at spamfreemail.de <mailto:jens at spamfreemail.de>
Keine Lust auf Müll in ihrem Postfach? www.spamfreemail.de <http://www.spamfreemail.de/>


> Am 13.02.2017 um 00:22 schrieb Andrey Goreev <aegoreev at gmail.com <mailto:aegoreev at gmail.com>>:
> 
> Jens,
> 
> That looks interesting. I do have a couple of suggestions though.
> 
> 1. Click on the date should better show all images taken on that date. To edit date we better have an "edit" button beside.
> 
> 2. Ratings. I don't see them in your spreadsheet. Are these 5 little squares in top right corner tags? I opened the document via Libre Office Viewer app for Android which is still pretty raw so I won't be surprised if it does not show some embedded pictures or symbols.
> 3. I do like have Tags Tree uncollupsed when tagging my pics so Minimize/Maximize button would work best I think. When Minimized it looks and works just like you suggested. When Maximized it looks and works like it does at the moment.
> 
> Thanks for the awesome suggestion!
> Cheers,
> Andrey
> 
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Jens Benecke <jens-digikam at spamfreemail.de <mailto:jens-digikam at spamfreemail.de>>
> Date: 2017-02-12 3:12 PM (GMT-07:00)
> To: digiKam - Home Manage your photographs as a professional with the power of open source <digikam-users at kde.org <mailto:digikam-users at kde.org>>
> Subject: Idea for improvement of metadata sidebar
> 
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I'm not posting this on bugs.kde.org <http://bugs.kde.org/> since I would like some discussion 
> on this topic first.
> I originally come from iPhoto and similar commercial apps. My workflow 
> when importing images (and videos) into Digikam might reflect this a 
> little - I find myself constantly switching between tabs in Digikam to 
> perform simple image management / organizational tasks.
> 
> I think this can be improved a lot by modifying the layout and usability 
> of Digikam's "Properties" sidebar (the top one on the right) and 
> converting it into a summary-/ dashboard kind of sidebar which covers 
> 80-90% of all requirements in one single place. Currently it is just a 
> list of image and file properties and not used for editing at all - 
> which makes it kind of superfluous (IMHO).
> 
> I have created a mockup of how this sidebar can be improved by 
> incorporating simple editing tasks. The idea is that for simple asset 
> management tasks (adding titles, ratings and tags, editing dates and 
> viewing basic image metadata) you *only* need this single sidebar. The 
> idea is *NOT* to squeeze all possible metadata into one dialog.
> 
> This is a little inspired by  iPhoto's organization of metadata which I 
> found quite usable.
> 
> Please have a look and tell me what you think.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 

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