[plugin] PSE Photos (March 12 Update)

[SSDNAdmin]

Author: cncb (http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/private.php?do=newpm&u=8221)

Short Description: Photoshop Elements catalog viewer
Long Description: Allows you to view photos contained in a Photoshop Elements catalog. You can view specific photos by selecting the tags and collections defined in the catalog. You can sort the selected photos in various ways and can view them in a slideshow. Video files in the catalog are also supported.
Version Number: 1.3
Status:
Last Updated: March 12, 2006
Homepage: http://my.opera.com/cncb/
Installation Instructions: Go into the "Settings" for PSE Photos and add at least one catalog. Exit Beyond Media and restart to have PSE Photos load the catalog.
Release Notes: see docs.html
License: Free, donations welcome
Requirements:


Download removed by author's request


Download docs.html (http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/cncb/docs.html)


http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/cncb/view.JPG
http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/cncb/selection.JPG
http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/cncb/details.JPG
http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submissions/cncb/slideshow.JPG

[cncb]

One thing I forgot to add to the release notes: You can specify in the settings for each catalog the "root" tags that can be browsed and selected (People, Places, etc.). This is a list separated by a semicolon (';') that can easily run beyond the limits of the screen when editing it using the interface (it seems to be currently not possible to have scrolling text in the text editor window). If you need to add or remove items from this list you can edit the text directly in the "PSEPhotosSettings.xml" file.

[mattyx79]

This looks like a very useful plugin. I haven't used the built in photo viewer in BM because he seems short on features. I am currently using Photoshop Album 2, any idea if that catalog will work or do I need to upgrade to the latest version? Thanks for the plugin.

Matt

[cncb]

I am currently using Photoshop Album 2, any idea if that catalog will work or do I need to upgrade to the latest version?

I think it will work assuming they didn't change the catalog too much. I have only tried it with Elements v3 (not even the newest v4 because I haven't felt the need to upgrade) so I only know for sure that it works with v3. Let me know if it doesn't work for you and I can try to fix it.

-Craig

[RiderFan]

I can't get this to work. Too bad too as I would love to have this functionality. I have tried using Photoshop Album 2 catalog and photoshop Elements 3 catalog and neither will load. I just get a could not load catalog error. I have restarted BM as well. I have BM on 2 different computers and could not get it to work on either.

Any suggestions?

[cncb]

I would just stick with PSE 3 for now. Create a new catalog in PSE 3 and add just a couple photos. See if you can load this one and let me know.

[RiderFan]

I can get this plugin to work with elements 3, but not with photoshop album 2. I made small catalog files for both as a test. (In the process, I screwed up my real catalog and now NONE of my pictures have any tags!! AArrgg! My backup catalog is screwed too...automated backup overwrote the good one with the bad one...lol)

Anyway, any chance on modifying this to work with the album 2 psa files? (My Elements 3 is only a trial)

Looks good though...thank you.

[RiderFan]

Can anyone confirm that this plugin works with Photoshop elements 4? If so, I may upgrade to version 4 as version 3 is no longer available on their website.

[cncb]

Anyway, any chance on modifying this to work with the album 2 psa files? (My Elements 3 is only a trial)

If you can post a small PSA 2 catalog here I can take a look and try to make it work.

[RiderFan]

If you can post a small PSA 2 catalog here I can take a look and try to make it work.

Here is the psa file from Photoshop album 2 (with only 2 pictures)
Hope it helps.

I had to rename the psa file to txt because this forum would not alow me to upload a psa file as it is not a valid extension. When you download it, just rename it back to .psa and it should work fine.

[nanook105]

Photoshop Elements 4.0 is available on Amazon for $49.99 after rebates

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/software/B000AP89JE/rebate-info/103-2690360-6783062?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[cncb]

I was able to get this to load the PSA2 catalog RiderFan posted. Unzip the attached file to the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond Media\Plugins\PSEPhotos


I will wait to hear from those of you with PSA2 to see if this works ok before submitting an update to the plugin.

[RiderFan]

Thanx! I will be gone for a few days but I will try on Sun or Mon.

[ZetaVu]

I got this to work with elements 4. Awesome plugin, now I'll need to spend hours organizing my photos. What would really be cool would be to be able to do this with video files as well, then launch into a playlist of videos. I haven't tried doing any of that with elements, although it did recognize the quicktime files my camera made.

This is what the next gen of BM needs, proper cataloging of media and the ability to launch slideshows or playslists. Too bad you have to buy a $50 piece of software to do this, what BM really needs is to be able to edit tags in its interface (or a web interface, it really should be done with mouse and keyboard) without the external software, but then again, we'd also need an id3 edittor, etc.

Oh, speaking of mouse I had a pain figuring out that you cannot select with a mouse click, same issue with movie showtimes plugin. You have to use the enter button or it doesn't save.

[cncb]

Glad you got it to work with PSE 4.

Oh, speaking of mouse I had a pain figuring out that you cannot select with a mouse click, same issue with movie showtimes plugin. You have to use the enter button or it doesn't save.

It seems to work with the mouse for me. What selection isn't working for you?

[RiderFan]

I was able to get this to load the PSA2 catalog RiderFan posted. Unzip the attached file to the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond Media\Plugins\PSEPhotos


I will wait to hear from those of you with PSA2 to see if this works ok before submitting an update to the plugin.

I could not get my PSA2 album to load with your fix. I can get PSE3 and 4 (trial version) working, but not PSA2.

Thanx anyway, I gues the tech is just to different from the older version.

[pdaughe]

This is what the next gen of BM needs, proper cataloging of media and the ability to launch slideshows or playslists.

I agree wholeheartedly -- without organization, data is just data.

Thanks for letting us know it works with PSE version 4.

[cncb]

I could not get my PSA2 album to load with your fix. I can get PSE3 and 4 (trial version) working, but not PSA2.

Thanx anyway, I gues the tech is just to different from the older version.

I would just make sure that you unzipped the .dll file to the correct directory and that it overwrote the old one. You can make sure by looking at the properties of the file and verifying that it says version "1.1.0.0". I was able to load your test catalog so at least that should work for you.

[RiderFan]

I have registered my PSE3 now, so I uninstalled PSA2. Thanx for working on it.
I have got the plugin installed on my 2 computers with BM and they both share the same catalog file. So changes to my catalog will show up on both computers.

This is a huge improvement over the BM picture viewer. Thanx again!

A way to print the pictures to a printer from this plugin would be way cool. It may be something that you may want to look into. Me not being any sort of a programmer, I have no idea how hard this may be to do, but my wife would love to just click a print button and have the picture come out.

[ZetaVu]

Glad you got it to work with PSE 4.



It seems to work with the mouse for me. What selection isn't working for you?

I would select catalogs, and if I used mouse clicks to select the catalog, and go through the selections, click done, then go and review (edit catalog) it would not show up. If I did the same with the arrow keys/enter button, then it added the catalog fine. Again, issue is left click of the mouse where enter would be pressed.

[cncb]

I would select catalogs, and if I used mouse clicks to select the catalog, and go through the selections, click done, then go and review (edit catalog) it would not show up. If I did the same with the arrow keys/enter button, then it added the catalog fine. Again, issue is left click of the mouse where enter would be pressed.

Maybe I don't understand where exactly you are having problems but I can add a catalog using just the mouse. I click add catalog, navigate to the .psa file by clicking with the mouse and click on the catalog file. When I select the file it goes right to the Edit catalog screen for the new catalog (there is no "done" to click). When I exit the edit screen and click on Edit Catalog the new catalog is listed. Are you seeing something different?

[RiderFan]

I was playing with this plugin for a couple hours tonight and I noticed something...

When I pick a combination of 2 tags that should result in no pictures, both tags show up. example: I went to China Last year, without my dogs. When I pick China and Dogs, I get both tags...all of China and all of Dogs, instead of nothing. To be fair, PSE3 does the same thing, but places the pictures in the "close" category. If I uncheck the close option, then nothing is displayed... the way it should be.

Would there be a way to select "Best" and "Close"?

My wife really enjoyed watching her slideshow with the Christmas tags listening to Christmas music while we put up our tree. She wanted me to thank you.
You have just improved the WAF in my home. :bowdown:

[cncb]

I was playing with this plugin for a couple hours tonight and I noticed something...

When I pick a combination of 2 tags that should result in no pictures, both tags show up. example: I went to China Last year, without my dogs. When I pick China and Dogs, I get both tags...all of China and all of Dogs, instead of nothing. To be fair, PSE3 does the same thing, but places the pictures in the "close" category. If I uncheck the close option, then nothing is displayed... the way it should be.

Would there be a way to select "Best" and "Close"?

My wife really enjoyed watching her slideshow with the Christmas tags listening to Christmas music while we put up our tree. She wanted me to thank you.
You have just improved the WAF in my home. :bowdown:

Thanks. I'm glad you're getting some use out of it.

You are correct, it currently just gets all images for all selected tags (or "Close" as they call it). I certainly could add an option in the future to select which matching you prefer (although something like "All" and "Any" makes more sense to me).

[ZetaVu]

Ok, just noticed this

When playing slideshow and playing music, the music scrollbar is always in view, this should ideally fade out until music change, then 5 second view and hide. That's what the regular picture slideshow does and it is a big plus, can you implement this?

Also, how about a randomize picture option?

Otherwise, I am really growing onto this plugin.

[cncb]

Ok, just noticed this

When playing slideshow and playing music, the music scrollbar is always in view, this should ideally fade out until music change, then 5 second view and hide. That's what the regular picture slideshow does and it is a big plus, can you implement this?

This uses the same slideshow player as the standard "Photos" module so I don't know why it is not behaving the same. I will have to look into this.


Also, how about a randomize picture option?


Good idea. I will consider adding this.

[pdaughe]

I have got the plugin installed on my 2 computers with BM and they both share the same catalog file. So changes to my catalog will show up on both computers.

Question: Sharing the catalog. Are you referring to the PSE catalog?

I downloaded version 3 and defined a few tags. I did this on the Family computer. The PSE catalog contains the path names to the pictures:

(e.g. C:\Document and Settings\....\My Documents\My Pictures\*.jpg).

stored on the family computer. I viewed the path names by showing the properties window.

I "assume" that if I install the plug-in on the HTPC and use this catalog, the path names will be invalid. Is that correct?

I tried going to My Network Places (instead of My Pictures) to select the pictures to add in PSE, hoping that PSE would record the UNC path name. It doesn't -- it still uses the local path name (this technique indeed works with some software).

Isn't this a valid concern? It seems from your comment that you can indeed point the plug-in to a catalog that resides on a different computer. How did you resolve the path name issue?

The only way I see what you have working is that the pictures reside on a different computer than the one you are using PSE on? Is that correct? In that case, the catalog would indeed contain the UNC path and therefore be valid to share.

In my case, we use the Family computer for all video and picture editing. It's the work horse and equipped to handle the task.

I could maintain a copy of the pictures on the HTPC and do all the PSE work on the Family computer. That way, the catalog (residing on the Family computer) would contain UNC path names, thus allowing it to be shared.

Or, I could move PSE to a different computer (which is an option). Then, I wouldn't have to maintain a copy of the pictures. Using PSE on a different computer and pointing to the pictures on the Family computer would also result in the use of UNC path names.

I am VERY excited about this plug-in, but haven't had time to exploit it with the holidays and a couple of other projects going on. Sorry if I'm missing something fairly simple here. I just wondered how others are doing it and if my concerns are valid?

Your feedback is sincerely appreciated.

Paul

[cncb]

Paul,

Yes, any local paths in the catalog will not be resolved on a networked pc.

I have a similar situation and the way I do it works pretty well. I store all the pictures and the catalog file on the main pc that I also use to view Beyond Media. All other computers on my home network map the "p" drive to the shared directory containing the catalog and pictures. All pictures are imported from the P drive. Then, on the main pc I substitute the "P" drive for the local directory which is basically a local shortcut that doesn't have to go through the network. You can do this from the command line: ex. "subst P: c:\pictures". If you put a batch file (.bat) file with this one line in your startup folder it will substitute the drive every time you reboot, etc. This way you don't have to maintain 2 copies of the catalog.

[pdaughe]

Cncb,

Wow, now that is creative thinking! The good old DOS-like SUBST command. Really, very, very creative. And, I can see how I'm going to manage my setup --kind of reverse of what you're doing.

Impressive. Thank you very, very much!

Paul

[RiderFan]

What you also should do is when you are importing your pics into PSE is import them through my network places, and not locally.

[cncb]

I never heard from anyone using PSA 2, but I just submitted an update (1.1) to the plugin with the following changes:




Fix to (hopefully) allow loading of PSA 2 catalogs.
Added multiple Tag Matching options of “All” and “Any” which correspond to “Best” and “Best+Close” in PSE.
Added new menu that is displayed when you press Enter on a selected photo or video in the viewer.
Added random slideshow in photo menu.
Added photo details screen accessible via photo menu. This screen shows the image, basic properties of the image, and EXIF data. Note that just the "raw" EXIF data is shown with no special formatting.
Added small text below file viewer that displays some of the current settings..

[SSDNAdmin]

Updated

[cncb]

Ok, just noticed this

When playing slideshow and playing music, the music scrollbar is always in view, this should ideally fade out until music change, then 5 second view and hide. That's what the regular picture slideshow does and it is a big plus, can you implement this?

Sorry, this must be annoying when trying to view a slideshow but I don't see any way for me to control the visibility of the music status bar from my plugin. The plugin uses the standard slideshow viewer so it's too bad that the hiding doesn't automatically happen.

I use the other plugin I wrote to listen to music with J. River Media Center from Beyond Media so I don't have this problem (I wrote the plugin so that it always hides the status information/overlay whenever a slideshow is played). However, to use this music player you would have to purchase additional software. Sorry.

[ZetaVu]

Sorry, this must be annoying when trying to view a slideshow but I don't see any way for me to control the visibility of the music status bar from my plugin. The plugin uses the standard slideshow viewer so it's too bad that the hiding doesn't automatically happen.

I use the other plugin I wrote to listen to music with J. River Media Center from Beyond Media so I don't have this problem (I wrote the plugin so that it always hides the status information/overlay whenever a slideshow is played). However, to use this music player you would have to purchase additional software. Sorry.

Well that takes a big bite out of it, have you contacted snapstream to see what changes would be necessary to autohide like regular slideshows? I would think the autohide should work with your plugin.

ANy chance the plugin for river could be modified to work with winamp? That might be an alternative to many of the problems with BM audio.

[cncb]

Well that takes a big bite out of it, have you contacted snapstream to see what changes would be necessary to autohide like regular slideshows? I would think the autohide should work with your plugin.

I will try but short of any response I can get on the forum there is not much I can do.


ANy chance the plugin for river could be modified to work with winamp? That might be an alternative to many of the problems with BM audio.

It wouldn't make much sense to modify the J. River plugin to work for Winamp since it is tailored for that program and would be like writing a whole new plugin from scratch (which someone interested in WinAmp could certainly do).

[ZetaVu]

Well, I hpe SS at least responds to the request for what can be done to autohide the music bar. Realistically I call that a bug since they are trying to get the users to develop plugins. If you are using the engine that does slideshows, then all the settings (such as music autohide) should work with your plugin as well.

Let me know if I shoudl start shouting, it's about all I'm really good for beyond that. Thanks.

[cncb]

Let me know if I shoudl start shouting, it's about all I'm really good for beyond that. Thanks.

You can do some shouting over here if you want:

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=29114

[cncb]

Just submitted the v1.2 update:




Add date range selection.
Show onscreen message when loading selection in browser so that it is clear that something is going on.
Hide Music status display when showing slideshow (uses settings in the standard Photos module). Note that it will stay in this mode until you go back to the “Current Playlist” screen in the Music module.

[ZetaVu]

You Rock!

[Kilrsat]

Updated

[cncb]

I just submitted the v1.3 update which adds my own slide show player. It plays videos sequentially, and rotates photos and displays captions based on EXIF data. Note that the Beyond Media slide show is still used by default – you need to select the new one in Options to use it.

[Kilrsat]

Updated.

[cncb]

If you have installed the 1.3 update already, please download and install again. I posted a fix for some occasional lock-ups I was experiencing using the new slide show.

[ZetaVu]

Alright, installed the update after I noticed the comment on videos. I have been looking for a good way to make video playlists play so I tagged several mpg files and tried that. Results are mixed but very encouraging

I select a video from my tagged collection. If I choose video it seems to play that video only. IF I choose slideshow, it shows a blank screen with my video name, and clicking starts video. I can ff and skip forward (and back) but cannot advance to next video. When video ends, I get a popup asking to return where I was or restart video (same as if I selected play video rather than slideshow. If I select return to in slideshow it goes back to the slideshow page I was on (maybe the next file) and within seconds starts playing the next video.

So, while this is incredibly cool it could really use a few fixes. First, can you eliminate the popup at the end of videos (and any delays) in slideshow mode (hell, who needs it in video mode either)? This lets us go from one video immediately to the next. Second, is there a way to advance to the next clip (Like chapters in a dvd)? Lastly, what videos and pictures really could use is a select box/select all feature (or even an add to playlist/slideshow feature which lets you select their order). Not so much for pictures but for videos so I can pick which videos out of a tag collection to play.

Now, this is all probably outside of your original scope, but I think this plugin could effectively replace the pictures and videos features for BM (for those of us that have elements). Even if you don't do anything else with it I am totally thrilled with it. Good work.

Now if there was a simple text editor or pluging that could create the catalog files so elements wasn't necessary... Then Snapstream could use this AS their format.

[cncb]

I select a video from my tagged collection. If I choose video it seems to play that video only. IF I choose slideshow, it shows a blank screen with my video name, and clicking starts video. I can ff and skip forward (and back) but cannot advance to next video. When video ends, I get a popup asking to return where I was or restart video (same as if I selected play video rather than slideshow. If I select return to in slideshow it goes back to the slideshow page I was on (maybe the next file) and within seconds starts playing the next video.


It works this way so as to support both pictures and videos in the same slideshow. It uses the built-in video player so it shows the name of the video as a placeholder in the slideshow. In the paused slideshow state you can advance to the next slide and if it is a video you can press the "up" key to play the video. When finished it will return to the slideshow in the paused state. If the slideshow is playing it will automatically play the video and when finished return to the slideshow, pause for a few seconds to give you a chance to pause the slideshow, and then move on to the next picture or video.

So, while this is incredibly cool it could really use a few fixes. First, can you eliminate the popup at the end of videos (and any delays) in slideshow mode (hell, who needs it in video mode either)? This lets us go from one video immediately to the next. Second, is there a way to advance to the next clip (Like chapters in a dvd)?

I wish I could get rid of the popup at the end of videos but unfortunately there is currently no way to do this with the built-in player. You can advance to the next video by just hitting "Escape" while it is playing which will return you to the slideshow and then will advance to the next video after the pause. You can reduce the pause after a video is played by changing the value of "AfterVideoTime" in "PSEPhotosSettings.xml" to 1.

Lastly, what videos and pictures really could use is a select box/select all feature (or even an add to playlist/slideshow feature which lets you select their order). Not so much for pictures but for videos so I can pick which videos out of a tag collection to play.

I see your point but this is a little more work than I would like to take on. I know this isn't what you want, but you can selectively play videos from the file grid with "Play Video" or manually advance through the slideshow in the paused state and play selected ones with the "up" arrow. Additionally you can create something like a "playlist" in a particular order by creating "Collections" of your videos in PSE.

[ZetaVu]

Thanks for the reply. I am still hoping that Snapstream will upgrade their audio playlist format to handle video playlists the same way (So we can play audio or videos in any order in a playlist). Media Portal does this now, which is one of their winning features. Your PSE plugin is one of the key features keeping my interest in Beyond Media, since Media Portal doesn't have anything like that. I like the idea of tagging video files, maybe if Snapstream upgrades their playlist to handle them this plugin could work as a front end to launch playlists?

[cncb]

I am still hoping that Snapstream will upgrade their audio playlist format to handle video playlists the same way (So we can play audio or videos in any order in a playlist).

Have you looked at J. River Media Center? I use it just for music but you can have video in your playlists too...

[cfaslave]

I'm trying to get the Slide Show to automatically "play" photos. In other words, show one photo, then after a few seconds, switch to the next photo. I can hit the right arrow button to get it to switch to the next photo, but is there a way to transition automatically?

[cncb]

I'm trying to get the Slide Show to automatically "play" photos. In other words, show one photo, then after a few seconds, switch to the next photo. I can hit the right arrow button to get it to switch to the next photo, but is there a way to transition automatically?

The "Enter" key starts and stops playing the slide show for both the Beyond Media player and the plugin's player.

[cfaslave]

Thanks Craig. I knew it had to be something simple like that, but I just failed to find it. Funny that I never even knew that for the BM picture player....

Thanks for the great work on yet another great plug-in :thumbsup:

[cfaslave]

Craig,

I am now using the J.River Media Center, Netflix and PSE Photos plug-ins. Each of them are great additions to Beyond Media and I for one appreciate your time and continued support.

It's not much, but I sent some beer money your way to show my appreciation. Cheers :toast:

Brent

[cncb]

Craig,

I am now using the J.River Media Center, Netflix and PSE Photos plug-ins. Each of them are great additions to Beyond Media and I for one appreciate your time and continued support.

It's not much, but I sent some beer money your way to show my appreciation. Cheers :toast:

Brent

Thanks, Brent. That's very kind of you. It is really gratifying to know that you are enjoying the plugins.