[KPhotoAlbum] Maintenance / Merge duplicates

[Martin Jost]

Am 29.05.2013 22:33, schrieb Johannes Zarl:
> Hi,
> 
> Sorry for the long delay of my response...

No problems; I'm not that fast myself on answering...

> 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.

Bug 320471 - "Maintenance / Merge Duplicates" should default to "do nothing"
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=320471
[Ok, maybe the bug wasn't needed for that one...]


>> 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.


Bug 320473 - "Maintenance / Merge Duplicates" needs to handle two
entries for same image correctly
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=320473

BAD !!!!
It really deletes the only existing image !
(I created a backup before trying)
I thus set the priority to "critical"

> 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...

Thanks for the idea with import/export. I will give it a try were
feasible. The point is, I most often run accidentally in this situation.
(Modify DB on one computer; forget to copy it over to the other one;
modifying the DB there too; finding the mishap and start cursing...)

>> 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.

Bug 320480 - "Maintenance / Merge Duplicates" should be able to sort the
found duplicates by pathname
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=320480

>> 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)

I will have a look at the perl extension Image::Kimdaba .

> 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.

See list above.
I searched for a way to mark these entries as connected, but failed.
Let me know, if I can improve the entries in this regard.

Thanks for looking into this

Martin