Annotation dialog garbled: has the location or format of "layout.dat" changed recently?

[Andreas Schleth]

Hi Tobias,

thanks for the info - yes, I missed some release notes.
However, this is bad news (for me). The new method saves one layout for 
all different databases. Which does not work for me.

I missed out the first steps of the switch to QT6 because that would not 
compile on my system due to missing/unavailable dependencies (Leap 15.7).
Now I am on a Debian based OS (Tuxedo) and KPA compiles again. Since the 
switch to Tuxedo (and the newish git master with QT6) I have these problems.

So, my workaround is as follows:

a) preparation:
* remove kphotoalbumstaterc
* start kpa for one of my databases
* save the window layout (as read from the old layout.dat) - thanks for 
that!
* mv kphotoalbumstaterc to a different name
* repeat for all different setups

b) use:
start KPA from a script that moves the right *staterc to 
kphotoalbumstaterc before starting KPA
This is ugly but works for me (TM) - mostly: I cannot have databases 
with different setup open at the same time :-(

I think, the right way to do this, would be to save a layout per 
database (as in .config/kphotoalbumrc for the thumbnail sizes). It would 
be even better, if the layout is matched to the category names in a 
database. Then all photo-databases could have the same layout (no need 
to fiddle one for every db) and other uses (e.g. for films) could have 
another.

Now, when I know what to look for, I found the corresponding commits in 
the log: all from Aug. 30th. :-)
You obviously did not have my use case on the radar, because it probably 
is a case of "off label" use.

What this new state saving does not fix: the sizes of the different 
dialog boxes are not saved. Only their relative position. I think I 
wrote about that many years ago: I like the image quite large when 
annotating photos but it always comes up very small.

Thanks for the info and happy hacking!

Andreas

Am 28.12.25 um 10:03 schrieb Tobias Leupold:
> E-Mail von Andreas Schleth via KPhotoAlbum vom Sonntag, 28. Dezember 2025,
> 01:21:
>> Hi everybody,
>>
>> I have various databases for different purposes. So the layout of the
>> annotation dialog and the list of categories differ between these databases.
>>
>> Recently - maybe for some months now - I find my annotation dialogs
>> garbled every now and then with the different boxes all over the place.
>>
>> Just a few days ago I fixed one of the window layouts *and saved the
>> window layout* in the UI ...
>>
>> ... but I did not check whether the file was updated (then).
>>
>> OK, now (upon finding another garbled annotation dialog window) I
>> checked the files: the newest layout.dat is from March 14th 2025 ... m-|
>>
>> So, where did my recent "save" go?
>>
>> Did I miss some release notes or should I file a bug?
>>
>> I am on a pretty recent git master.
>>
>> Cheers, Andreas
>>
> Hi Andreas,
>
> the window state of all main windows (KPA itself and the annotation dialog) is
> saved to ~/.local/state/kphotoalbumstaterc -- like all others do since quite
> some time. This is the case since the Qt6/KF6 port. Before, we saved to a file
> inside the collection folder, layout.dat IIRC. But the problem was, besides
> the fact that everybody else did it via KDE Frameworks (as we also now do),
> that if you open KPA on another machine using that collection (e.g. shared via
> NFS) and have another screen resolution, you have a problem.
>
> That layout.dat file is once migrated on the first KF6/Qt6 KPA startup, but
> then never used again.
>
> Cheers, Tobias
>
>

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