Is there a way in PGV 4.2.3 to really "manage" your multimedia etc?
What I mean is that I notice that the amount of files are growing large.
So now I would like to create sub-folders etc, would be nice to do this on the fly.
Not step by step for every source/multimedia document.
If I move sources/multimedia on the server itself, it will break the link(s) with person(s) etc.
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You are correct - if you create subfolders and move your media manually, it WILL break your links. Further, you are correct again, there is no batch file or folder manipulation feature in PGV media management. You will have to manage each object, step-by-step.
I suppose you could export the gedcom, manipulate the media via some grep commands and reimport. In other words, this would require you to redirect each
0 @Mxxx@ OBJE
1 FILE xxxxxx/xxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxx.xxx
into the subdirectory folder you wish to establish.
I think doing this in PGV would be more direct, although an extraordinary amount of effort if your media count is anything like mine (over 3,000 OBJE). A graphical AJAX driven media interface would be nice for this type of media manipulation, but it would be a huge memory hog and strain the system resources.
Hope this helps, Stephen
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Matthijs
Well, technically - it is still media management, just doesn't manage it in a manner you'd desire or prefer. And renaming of files is easy-peasy. I do it almost daily when one of my users fails to follow my naming guidelines. I don't usually do it from the media management as this procedure takes way too long to load my many media files into memory. I just open the media edit and rename it. The system will take care of the rest, including creation of a new folder or sub-folder if necessary.
As to any changes within the next PGV release (and I wouldn't hold my breath on that), it is extremely unlikely that any media management changes will take place. Frankly, media in PGV is designed as a nice-to-have, pretty-to-look-at feature, but it is not a high priority portion of the project, nor are there a great number of media-interested developers.
Stephen
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Matthijs
From the EDIT DETAILS MEDIA (viewing the media item from selecting this option from an INDI or FAM, you can create subfolders to your media directory simply by renaming the file. John0123.jpg can become Arnold/John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg simply by renaming it in the file name field. PGV will create the Arnold folder and move the now named John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg file into it, changing the DB pointers as well. This could just as easily be tombstones/John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg or surnames/arnold/John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg or any fashion by which you wish to organize your media objects.
Gerry's the real PGV guru on this matter and you can search previous media organizing threads for much advice, or perhaps he'll comment when he can.
-Stephen
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THANKS, didn't know about this but seems to work perfect :-)
I worked from the manage media, which doesn't work the way I want (link gets broken).
But from the INDI or FAM it seems to work fine, link and file-name are modified as needed.
Cheers,
Matthijs
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As many as you want.
See the help from the ADMIN > Manage Gedcoms > Edit Config > Multimedia
MULTI-MEDIA DIRECTORY LEVELS TO KEEP
A value of 0 will ignore all directories in the file path for the media object. A value of 1 will retain the first directory containing this image. Increasing the numbers increases number of parent directories to retain in the path.
For example, if you link an image in your GEDCOM with a path like C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Pictures\Genealogy\Surname Line\grandpa.jpg, a value of 0 will translate this path to ./media/grandpa.jpg. A value of 1 will translate this to ./media/Surname Line/grandpa.jpg, etc. Most people will only need to use a 0. However, it is possible that some media objects kept in different directories have identical names and would overwrite each other when this option is set to 0. Non-zero settings allow you to keep some organization in your media thereby preventing name collisions.
Hope this helps. Just know that you will probably have to micro-manage user uploads from a location and naming aspect as this may make perfect sense to you, but probably no one else ;-)
-Stephen
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Photos aren't a major part of "serious genealogy," but I suspect that an media user interface that is intuitive to folks who grew up with point/click interfaces, not too glitzy, but glitzy enough to not turn off the facebook generation (but hopefully MUCH simpler than facebook!) might be a factor in luring more collaborators to join your site.
As for management, I'm thinking it might not be too hard to add a way to rename folders as well as individual images. Hardest part would be updating all the paths in the individual OBJEs.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Photos aren't a major part of "serious genealogy,"
Maybe I’m doing something wrong. Whenever I have an image of a source document I’ve been attaching a SOUR and an OBJE to the appropriate entity.
So for example where ever I have a CENS entity it is linked to a SOUR that spells out Year, Census Place, Roll, Page and Image. And the CENS entity is also linked to an OBJE that points to a .jpg of the actual census page. I have several 100 census page .jpg images alone. Similar situation for wills, probate documents, deeds – basically I try to have a scanned or photographic image for as many documents/sources as possible.
And this is one of PGV fantastic capabilities – the Individual “All” display. On one screen anyone can verify my conclusions about the individual. They have the ability to read the source documents by looking at the .jpg images (as well as seeing my notes) – fantastic.
Phred the 2nd
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Phred
You are certainly not wrong, nor are you entirely correct. It is more a matter of personal preference and applicable laws on reproduction and distribution of certain media objects. I find the GED-Fact Assistant, Census module transcription of the original document to be a more satisfactory solution as there can be no legality questions and I don't bog down my bandwidth with serving images that are not necessary. I do retain within the source the URL to that image so if I or another user wishes to refer to it directly, they can do so easily. I generally find the graphical interface of PGV to be bandwidth hungry enough without further burdening my server. You may not be using or may not be familiar with this relatively new feature, so here's a link to a family where it is displayed: http://www.myarnolds.com/family.php?famid=F29325&ged=Arnold.ged
Same goes for the ALL tab. Personally, I don't like it as it becomes far to extended, requiring too much scrolling and is usually a quick turn off for most visitors. That's why I prefer the P&D-Indi tab as the default tab. But again, this is very personal and one of the terrific features of the software - flexibility to suit each admin's preferences.
Similarly, we don't display SOUR information to casual visitors since it may contain very personal information about the person(s) who provided the data. We don't want to expose phone numbers, addresses or e-mails of living persons, but find it convenient to house this information at the SOUR level for future reference.
PGV is not an archival media vehicle, and it can easily be burdened with too many objects, especially when trying to manage them. Just keep that in mind.
-Stephen
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I agree that PGV gets too bogged down with displaying images. However, one of the most important functions of any database is the ability to house all related information in an easy to store and retrieve place. While a GEDCOM database is not modern in many ways, the basic idea for images (again, IMHO) is that you can store, relative to the place it is used, actual documentation / proof of the facts that you have found. Recreating the document with text (in a fact based, proof oriented endeavor) is not complete.
When I started using GEDCOM 12 years ago my goal was to develop the database to support fact/proof documentation. Most products using GEDCOM have not done a great job doing this and my hope with PGV was the product that would break through. I realize that confidentiality of information is very important, and confidentially is one of the biggest reasons I have not opened my research site to the public. This is also why some compromise needs to be developed in future releases to aid the digitization and retention of documentation thus supporting fact/proof genealogy and at the same time it will support the display of general information that does not violate confidentiality.
I don't like the idea of having multiple data stores and multiple software products to support different views of the data. I tried this approach back when I was using PAF. The PAF database held much of the data but because it was not very robust with media I needed to maintain a separate library cataloging product to maintain my photos, books and archival documents. Then I generated a static HTML document for use on the web to display my findings.
Don't get me wrong. PGV is the closest I found yet to what I'm looking for in both archival, cataloging and display of what I consider genealogical and librarian correct functions. I realize that the developers of this product are only volunteering their time and I applaud them for their work. I've tried to write my own solution several times and I know the work that it takes to design, create and maintain these products, so I'm not complaining.
Photos are an important part of genealogy. In many cases they are the only source material for determining family member numbers and determining relative ages of individuals or time line of events, even setting death and birth dates. These photos must therefore be sourced and included in a comprehensive data store.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Is there a way in PGV 4.2.3 to really "manage" your multimedia etc?
What I mean is that I notice that the amount of files are growing large.
So now I would like to create sub-folders etc, would be nice to do this on the fly.
Not step by step for every source/multimedia document.
If I move sources/multimedia on the server itself, it will break the link(s) with person(s) etc.
You are correct - if you create subfolders and move your media manually, it WILL break your links. Further, you are correct again, there is no batch file or folder manipulation feature in PGV media management. You will have to manage each object, step-by-step.
I suppose you could export the gedcom, manipulate the media via some grep commands and reimport. In other words, this would require you to redirect each
0 @Mxxx@ OBJE
1 FILE xxxxxx/xxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxx.xxx
into the subdirectory folder you wish to establish.
I think doing this in PGV would be more direct, although an extraordinary amount of effort if your media count is anything like mine (over 3,000 OBJE). A graphical AJAX driven media interface would be nice for this type of media manipulation, but it would be a huge memory hog and strain the system resources.
Hope this helps, Stephen
Yes … so it's not really manage multimedia .. as you CANNOT manage it :-(
Also renaming files etc would be nice feature, so I hope it will come in some next release.
Thanks,
Matthijs
Matthijs
Well, technically - it is still media management, just doesn't manage it in a manner you'd desire or prefer. And renaming of files is easy-peasy. I do it almost daily when one of my users fails to follow my naming guidelines. I don't usually do it from the media management as this procedure takes way too long to load my many media files into memory. I just open the media edit and rename it. The system will take care of the rest, including creation of a new folder or sub-folder if necessary.
As to any changes within the next PGV release (and I wouldn't hold my breath on that), it is extremely unlikely that any media management changes will take place. Frankly, media in PGV is designed as a nice-to-have, pretty-to-look-at feature, but it is not a high priority portion of the project, nor are there a great number of media-interested developers.
Stephen
I just open the media edit and rename it. The system will take care of the rest, including creation of a new folder or sub-folder if necessary.
Could you explain this?
I guess there are two steps to do a rename or move:
1) Rename or move files (media)
2) Modify the linked media to correct file
Is there an easier way .. like you say; the system will take care of the rest?
Thanks,
Matthijs
Matthijs
From the EDIT DETAILS MEDIA (viewing the media item from selecting this option from an INDI or FAM, you can create subfolders to your media directory simply by renaming the file. John0123.jpg can become Arnold/John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg simply by renaming it in the file name field. PGV will create the Arnold folder and move the now named John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg file into it, changing the DB pointers as well. This could just as easily be tombstones/John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg or surnames/arnold/John_Arnold-I237-hdstn.jpg or any fashion by which you wish to organize your media objects.
Gerry's the real PGV guru on this matter and you can search previous media organizing threads for much advice, or perhaps he'll comment when he can.
-Stephen
THANKS, didn't know about this but seems to work perfect :-)
I worked from the manage media, which doesn't work the way I want (link gets broken).
But from the INDI or FAM it seems to work fine, link and file-name are modified as needed.
Cheers,
Matthijs
One more quest … is there a way to gave more than 1 level in media directory (or maybe I do something wrong here)?
Would like to have something like:
./media/<surname>/Documents/<file-name>
./media/<surname>/Photos/<file-name>
Now I only have one level like:
./media/<surname>/<file-name>
As many as you want.
See the help from the ADMIN > Manage Gedcoms > Edit Config > Multimedia
A value of 0 will ignore all directories in the file path for the media object. A value of 1 will retain the first directory containing this image. Increasing the numbers increases number of parent directories to retain in the path.
For example, if you link an image in your GEDCOM with a path like C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Pictures\Genealogy\Surname Line\grandpa.jpg, a value of 0 will translate this path to ./media/grandpa.jpg. A value of 1 will translate this to ./media/Surname Line/grandpa.jpg, etc. Most people will only need to use a 0. However, it is possible that some media objects kept in different directories have identical names and would overwrite each other when this option is set to 0. Non-zero settings allow you to keep some organization in your media thereby preventing name collisions.
Hope this helps. Just know that you will probably have to micro-manage user uploads from a location and naming aspect as this may make perfect sense to you, but probably no one else ;-)
-Stephen
Photos aren't a major part of "serious genealogy," but I suspect that an media user interface that is intuitive to folks who grew up with point/click interfaces, not too glitzy, but glitzy enough to not turn off the facebook generation (but hopefully MUCH simpler than facebook!) might be a factor in luring more collaborators to join your site.
As for management, I'm thinking it might not be too hard to add a way to rename folders as well as individual images. Hardest part would be updating all the paths in the individual OBJEs.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong. Whenever I have an image of a source document I’ve been attaching a SOUR and an OBJE to the appropriate entity.
So for example where ever I have a CENS entity it is linked to a SOUR that spells out Year, Census Place, Roll, Page and Image. And the CENS entity is also linked to an OBJE that points to a .jpg of the actual census page. I have several 100 census page .jpg images alone. Similar situation for wills, probate documents, deeds – basically I try to have a scanned or photographic image for as many documents/sources as possible.
And this is one of PGV fantastic capabilities – the Individual “All” display. On one screen anyone can verify my conclusions about the individual. They have the ability to read the source documents by looking at the .jpg images (as well as seeing my notes) – fantastic.
Phred the 2nd
Phred
You are certainly not wrong, nor are you entirely correct. It is more a matter of personal preference and applicable laws on reproduction and distribution of certain media objects. I find the GED-Fact Assistant, Census module transcription of the original document to be a more satisfactory solution as there can be no legality questions and I don't bog down my bandwidth with serving images that are not necessary. I do retain within the source the URL to that image so if I or another user wishes to refer to it directly, they can do so easily. I generally find the graphical interface of PGV to be bandwidth hungry enough without further burdening my server. You may not be using or may not be familiar with this relatively new feature, so here's a link to a family where it is displayed:
http://www.myarnolds.com/family.php?famid=F29325&ged=Arnold.ged
Same goes for the ALL tab. Personally, I don't like it as it becomes far to extended, requiring too much scrolling and is usually a quick turn off for most visitors. That's why I prefer the P&D-Indi tab as the default tab. But again, this is very personal and one of the terrific features of the software - flexibility to suit each admin's preferences.
Similarly, we don't display SOUR information to casual visitors since it may contain very personal information about the person(s) who provided the data. We don't want to expose phone numbers, addresses or e-mails of living persons, but find it convenient to house this information at the SOUR level for future reference.
PGV is not an archival media vehicle, and it can easily be burdened with too many objects, especially when trying to manage them. Just keep that in mind.
-Stephen
IMHO,
I agree that PGV gets too bogged down with displaying images. However, one of the most important functions of any database is the ability to house all related information in an easy to store and retrieve place. While a GEDCOM database is not modern in many ways, the basic idea for images (again, IMHO) is that you can store, relative to the place it is used, actual documentation / proof of the facts that you have found. Recreating the document with text (in a fact based, proof oriented endeavor) is not complete.
When I started using GEDCOM 12 years ago my goal was to develop the database to support fact/proof documentation. Most products using GEDCOM have not done a great job doing this and my hope with PGV was the product that would break through. I realize that confidentiality of information is very important, and confidentially is one of the biggest reasons I have not opened my research site to the public. This is also why some compromise needs to be developed in future releases to aid the digitization and retention of documentation thus supporting fact/proof genealogy and at the same time it will support the display of general information that does not violate confidentiality.
I don't like the idea of having multiple data stores and multiple software products to support different views of the data. I tried this approach back when I was using PAF. The PAF database held much of the data but because it was not very robust with media I needed to maintain a separate library cataloging product to maintain my photos, books and archival documents. Then I generated a static HTML document for use on the web to display my findings.
Don't get me wrong. PGV is the closest I found yet to what I'm looking for in both archival, cataloging and display of what I consider genealogical and librarian correct functions. I realize that the developers of this product are only volunteering their time and I applaud them for their work. I've tried to write my own solution several times and I know the work that it takes to design, create and maintain these products, so I'm not complaining.
Photos are an important part of genealogy. In many cases they are the only source material for determining family member numbers and determining relative ages of individuals or time line of events, even setting death and birth dates. These photos must therefore be sourced and included in a comprehensive data store.