[digiKam-users] Multi-user digiKam setup?

[Leo Gaspard]

Hello,

I'll try asking just one last time, by decreasing order of importance:
 * Is digiKam not unbearably slow when the pictures are on a WebDAV and
   the database a remote MySQL?
 * Does putting the digiKam database in MySQL put the WebDAV password in
   the MySQL?
 * Does digiKam work properly with collections on read-only filesystems
   and especially read-only WebDAV?
 * Does anyone have any feedback about sharing a digiKam database with
   other people (and not only other computers from the same person)?

(more details in the quote below)

Cheers,
  Leo


Leo Gaspard <digikam-users at leo.gaspard.io> writes:

> Hello world!
>
> I have tried IRC to bother the fewest possible people, but it looks like
> #digikam at irc.freenode.net is dead, so let's try here. Sorry for the
> noise!
>
> I am considering using digiKam, but as my use case is kind of peculiar,
> I thought I would first ask whether you think I have chances of
> succeeding at what I'm trying to do.
>
> Context: I'm trying to setup a shared photo database with my family for
> all our photographs. Photos will be shared over NextCloud, and hopefully
> digiKam would be used to both tag them and synchronize the tags. Now,
> the photo database is kind of huge, and not all computers are able to
> download it in full. In addition, not everyone has the same taste for
> photos, so I think it'd be better if everyone only had write access to
> their own directory, and read access to others'.
>
> My currently imagined solution:
>  * Each user puts their pictures in their write-for-them read-for-all
>    folder in Nextcloud
>  * Everyone runs a digiKam instances. Tags are synchronized either
>    through MySQL or by just adding the SQLite database to the Nextcloud
>  * digiKam is setup to directly fetch the photos from WebDAV from the
>    Nextcloud instance
>
> So my questions are:
>  1. Do you have advice on whether to pick MySQL or synchronize the
>     SQLite database over Nextcloud? (I will have linux, windows and mac
>     clients) Will sharing the database not risk sharing the WebDAV
>     credentials?
>  2. Does digiKam handle well-enough collections on read-only folders?
>  3. What do you think about the overall idea?
>  4. Bonus question: Ideally users could also have their own private
>     databases that are not shared. Does digiKam handles properly
>     switching between two databases, ideally  with one that includes the
>     other?
>  5. Trick question: If an answer is no, is there any project other than
>     digiKam that could handle these requirements and that you would know
>     about?
>
> I've searched a bit the manual and didn't find much about these
> questions, and I must say I'd rather request an opinion from someone
> knowledgeable before starting the setup, that will likely be kind of
> long and complex, especially if done with MySQL. Sorry if the questions
> are already answered someplace I didn't find!
>
> Cheers, and thank you for digiKam that looks like some nice piece of
> software!
>   Leo