ufraw integration and raw file version management

[chris <ruppie30 yahoo com>]

hello,

i am a new f-spot user and i'm trying to see where it will fit into my workflow.  my process goes something like this:

1) take pictures (raw)
2) copy them to the computer
3) put them in a folder organized by date and description (i.e. 2008.06.24-yellowstone_np)
4) open files in ufraw, make adjustments
5) save the image's .ufraw file (next to the raw file)
6) run a perl script that executes ufraw-batch on the photos using the .ufraw file that was created in step 5 to create jpgs and then publishes the photos to a custom web site

i would like to be able to open the photos from f-spot in ufraw (possible with a right click in f-spot currently) and have ufraw save only the .ufraw config file for the photo when i hit 'save' in the ufraw window.  in ufraw this is possible by passing the '--create-id=only' option at the command line.

also, is it possbile to run an external script from f-spot, in my case for developing and publishing the photos, on a the selected photos?  if this is possible my workflow might look like this:

1) take pictures
2) copy them to computer
3) import them to f-spot
4) review/edit/develop them in f-spot/ufraw
5) from f-spot run my script on a group of selected photos to publish them (pusing the date and possibly description and tags from ufraw as meta data)

it's only one less step than my current process, but would be a huge improvement in usability for me.

for versioning of the raw files, the .ufraw files could be used - ufraw has the ability to specify which conf file is used to open an image (--conf=...).  this would allow for a very lightweight database: a user would need a large raw file and each version of that photo would require only a .ufraw which is <10k (compared to .cr2 files which are 10-13m).

has something like this been done?  is it possible to configure the options used when opening ufraw from f-spot?  how much mono knowledge is required to write an extension that would allow a user to run an external script (i have only developed in php and visual basic)?

thanks!