Thumbcat
Image Catalogue Application
3 Building Catalogues
There are two types of catalogue, a Thumbcat intercative catalogue which you
can edit and an HTML copy of a Thumbcat catalogue.
3.1 Interactive Catalogue
A catalogue is built by clicking on the Iconbar icon or selecting the
menu option "Define Catalogue" from the Iconbar menu. Once selected the
following screen will be displayed:
3.1.1 Action
Mode
When the window is first displayed this is set to "New
Catalogue" allowing you to define and build a new catalogue. If you wish to
do some maintenance on an existing catalogue then drag an existing catalogue
descriptor to the catalogue Location section adjacent to Thumbcat icon. The
mode will then change to "Maintenance".
Create a linked catalogue (R/W)
When selected this will treat all images in a RiscOS directory in parallel
with any images in an album. Such that any moving, copying, renaming or
deleting of an image in an album will do the same to the image in the
relevant RiscOS directory. All thumbnails and the data related to the images
are stored in the same directory as the images.
Create a linked catalogue separate (read only)
Similar to above except that
the RiscOS directory is read only. The thumbnails and data files are stored
inside the Catalogue descriptor.
Anywhere
When selected images in an album can be related to an image from any RiscOS
directory. If the album image is edited, in any way, the relevant RiscOS
image remains unchanged.
3.1.2 Image Source
Location
This specifies the top of the image tree to be
catalogued. It is set by dragging an existing directory to here.
A blank catalogue is created by dragging the folder icon from this section to
a filer window.
Name
This is the name of an existing folder or a user provided name for a
new folder.
3.1.3 Catalogue Location
Short Title
This defines the pseudo application
name of the Catalogue descriptor, excluding the pling. However if the pling
is specified it will be removed.
Long Title
This is the catalogue name that is
referred to in the Thumbcat menus and windows.
3.1.4 Action Options
Re-Create all thumbnails
When set all the thumbnails for an existing catalogue
will be re-created.
Calendar Order for directories
When set
all album short names (which are the same as RiscOS folder names) are
ordered by calendar month name in the catalogue (directory/album tree) view.
Calendar directories precede non calendar directories
When set all album short names/RiscOS folders that match a month name will
be listed before non calendar albums/folders.
Re-assess missing catalogue details
When selected any missing tag values or missing thumbnails for
any image in the catalogue are re-assessed or created.
Catalogue the top level directory only
When selected only the specified top directory is catalogued otherwise
Thumbcat will resolve references to all images in all subdirectories.
3.2 HTML Catalogue
An HTML catalogue can only be created as a copy of an existing interactive catalogue.
Once the relevant catalogue has been selected from the iconbar menu item Export HTML the
following options screen will be displayed:
3.2.1 Locate the Export
This section is used to determine where the HTML catalogue will be built and what the name of the
opening page will be. By default the opening page is called "index.html".
3.2.2 Image Reference
This section determines if the images are copied to the HTML catalogue or are
referenced from the Thumbcat catalogue. If a HTML catalogue is to be viewed on another
platform or used on another Riscos computer then all the images must be exported
(copied).
3.2.3 Scope
This section determines how much of the catalogue is exported.
3.2.4 HTML Template
Here you can drag a subfolder containing a template. The folder contains a single HTML file called "template/html" and any number of image files. The template file would render correctly if displayed using a web browser.
In order that Thumbcat can insert the relevant sections into the template file it must contain the following line :
<!--thumbcat-->
3.3 Modifying Catalogues
3.3.1 Adding an Album
A new album is created by selecting the "Add Album" menu option from the catalogue tree view.
Albums can be nested and the new album will be a sub album of the one that the mouse pointer is located over.
The following add album dialog box will pop up:
The album name is the name given to the underlying RISCOS directory whereas the title is how
the album is referred to in Thumbcat.
3.3.2 Adding an Image
Simply drag an image to the album view. That's it ! Thumbcat then builds a thumbnail view of the image then the image is analysed to see if it contains any EXIF tag data which is then used to build the
database for the image. Thumbcat will extract tags from Digital Camera EXIF still images, AVI video clips and TIFF files. The large thumbnail used for detailed views is built on the fly when the detail view is displayed for the first time.
Please be aware that an album is simply a Thumbcat view of an underlying RISCOS directory. Therefore if
you drag an image from the actual directory to the album view you are in essence copying the image
over itself. Thumbcat will issue a warning message if this is attempted.
Multiple images can be dragged to an album view exactly the same as dragging between filer windows.
3.3.3 Changing Titles
Catalogue titles can be changed by selecting the "Change the Catalogue Title" menu item from the catalogue display window. Likewise album titles can be changed by selecting the "Chnage the Title" menu item from the album display window menu.
3.3.4 Renaming Directories
The underlying RISCOS directory that the album is linked to can be renamed from within Thumbat by selecting the "Rename Riscos Directory" menu item from athe album display window menu. For albumviews of arbitrary collections, views or search results this menu item will be greyed out.
3.3.5 Changing Catalogue Options
When the "Options" item from the catalogue display window menu is chosen then the following window will popup :
The two options that can be changed are:
- To specify that calender named folders precede non calendar named folders.
- To specify that calendar named folders are displayed in month order instead of alphabetic order.
.
