Re: [Tracker] nikon project

[Debarshi Ray <debarshi ray gmail com>]

> > Before i start actual coding i need to know what is where located. I
> > mean if do DCIM interpreter, should it be located in tracker-extractor
> > or in photo downloader. It seems like it will be better than interpreter
> > will be inside of the tracker and downloader should only update file
> > paths in tracker database.

> I think Debarshi thinks about a stand alone, tracker enabled photo
> importer.

Yes, a tracker enabled photo importer looks a better idea to me.

A DCIM filesystem is not going to be around as long as a normal
filesystem. The user will plugin in the camera copy the files to some
other storage and then unplug it a few minutes later. So if Tracker is
going to mine the DCIM filesystem it will have to update itself again
when the files are moved. To avoid this, we can just ask the camera
importer to do the job of extracting the DCIM information.

Moreover the camera importer should also allow the user to attach tags
to the files being imported.

> That is, it would be a regular binary (invoked by the desktop environment
> when a camera device is detected) which would import the photos to a
> standard location (presumably the XDG dir), and insert extracted/inferred metadata
> into Tracker.

Exactly.

We might have to figure out how to avoid overwriting other files when
importing a new set of photos. (It would be good to avoid asking the
user to create and specify a unique location.)

> > > I don't think it is a good idea to have a 'camera importer' inbuilt in
> > > Solang. We used to have this earlier, but it is much better to have a
> > > stand alone application (not tied to a particular photo manager) that
> > > benefits the entire desktop.
> >
> > No no, i'm not about 'camera importer' here. Please take a look at the
> > screenshots at this page:
> > http://docs.google.com/View?id=d57752n_27ddtp6qzj

Displaying the information that has already been inserted into Tracker
from the DCIM filesystem is one thing, and inserting the information
into Tracker is another different thing. My idea is to have a separate
program do the DCIM to Tracker, and let the photo managers and other
programs handle presenting this information to the user.

Happy hacking,
Debarshi
-- 
One reason that life is complex is that it has a real part and an
imaginary part.
    -- Andrew Koenig