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

[Tobias Leupold]

E-Mail von Andreas Schleth via KPhotoAlbum vom Sonntag, 28. Dezember 2025, 
21:26:
> 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.

IIRC, we officially support using multiple databases meanwhile (do we?!)
So what you do seems to be a legitimate use-case we should support, as having 
different categories in different databases may make different layouts 
necessary.

Maybe, we could extend the window titles with the database base dir, so the 
dataset read would be automatically matched with the database in use, which 
also would allow multiple instances to run at once without collisions?

Just brainstorming ...

> 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