"so you can find your photos later."
What it is:
A photo database; a web based application for managing (storing, cataloging and retrieving) digital photos.
What it is NOT:
A system for putting up web galleries. This software is a storage system for your digital photos. There are lots of great software packages that export to HTML pages, etc. I may add that later, but for now – go check out some of the other packages and find one that fits your needs.
Who it’s for:
Anyone who is comfortable installing and configuring PHP & MySQL and wants to manage their digital photos.
What it costs:
This is donationware. You can download and use it for free with no obligation. If you end up using it a lot and find it useful please consider making a donation (~$25 or whatever you feel it is worth).
Why I built it:
When I started taking digital photos, I knew I wanted some sort of platform independant, web based or web enabled searchable management system for keeping track of them. One of the benefits of digital photography is the ability to take as many photos as you want since there are no film costs. The downside of that is you can quickly amass an unmanageable amount of photos unless you have some organization system to use. I wanted to be able to locate the photo I wanted without having to open a gazillion files.
When I looked for software to do this, I found a number of web based service sites, Windows only applications that were not web enabled, and a handful of Mac applications that did the same thing.
I eliminated all of the on-line services out of fear that they would dissapear and take my photos with them. This was also a bit of a fear with an application as well. If the company goes under, discontinued the product or I wanted to change to another platform I could be somewhat stuck.
Many of these applications involved importing all your photos into their database, not just referencing the files on the filesystem. Backing up such a large database is a real hassle.
Platform independance was important as a Mac user because I wanted to be able to run it locally on my computer and also on a hosted web server in the future. Having the option to run on Windows, Mac, Unix and Linux is just really convenient and keeps lots of options open for the future.
I imagine in the future, I’ll want to have access to this database over the internet. So going with something web based now just made sense.
So failing to find anything that met my criteria, I decided to try to build my own. After getting a number of features in and cleaning up the code, I decided to release it so other people can use it if they are looking for something similar.
You are free to modify, customize, upgrade the application as you see fit for your personal use. This and the fact that the information is stored in a standard database ensures that even if I stop supporting the app, you’re not left out in the cold.
Enjoy.
I can’t believe I just stumbled upon this. By some fluke of god, you happen to work on a Mac, be a photographer and have a smooth hand skill with a computer right when I need it most.
My sister is a professional photographer, owns a Mac, and I happen to be the smooth handed computer guy with Windows and Linux building a site for her.
This database is precisely what my sister doesn’t know she needs!
Thank you for this incredible contribution. If she makes good use of this, I’ll see to it that you receive a donation, if not at least a generous plug on her list of credits and contributions when the site is finished.
Sincerely,
Stew Brennand
Wow!
I’m a programmer and thought to make a similar application for my digital photos. Same problem when I want to find photos by date, keywords, …
I was thinking on JAVA code under TOMCAT with Oracle Database.
I’ll take a look to this, seems really good.
Nice!
I’ve been looking for a centralized DB for pictures for three days now and none could do what I want.
This looks promissing.
Well done!
This is absolutely fabulous!
I love to take pictures, but since I’m not that great at it I end up with far too many. I was considering writing an App to help me keep track of them, but this is better than anything I could possibly develop!
Great Job and Thanks!
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Sounds stunning…
but it doesn’t look like you are still making some active development on this project
is there the possibility that you are still upgrading this masterpiece?
Phew! Don’t know if I have the computer skills to use this but will give it a whirl.
Woooooow you´re a great programmer!!! This is real neat!! wish I could someday achieve something like that!!
My congrats to you mr OpenSource guy!!
Hmm … it’s been 3 years since the last development update. I echo Tom’s comment really, this is too cool to be abandoned.
I definitely would love to try out your photo album, but are you still going anywhere with this project? I don’t want to adpot and all of a sudden see it not be supported, etc… But it looks amazing!
I have about 500 college group photos with 40 people in each photo. I am looking for a system where you can enter an individuals name and the system will locate the photo and zoom in on the individual. Essentially I belive the database should contain individual details, photo reference and cordinates. Can you suggest where I might start?
Des,
I also looking to solve similar group photo problem. Did you get anywhere with this?
I think you and your software are interesting.
Since the last update was back in 2004, is there any chance that you would release this software under an open-source license? I’d love to use it, but if I make any changes to it, I’d like to be able to share them with others. I’d also like the ability to modify and/or distribute long after you have gone out of business :-). I’m not looking to make money, and there are open-source licenses that would require people like me to give you full credit for the original work. I’m just looking to preserve this code, and make sure it can survive you … no offense…
Not at this time, no.
OK, no problem. I certainly respect your decision. Again, no offense intended …
I have downloaded the software, but have not started to use it. From the screenshots, it looks awesome, and it looks like it will fit my needs perfectly… If it does, I will certainly add to your PowerMac fund
does the app write tags backing to the files themselves?
I’m looking for a photo database that can work with my the file system on my computer, so bulk edits and classification can be done, but i can still just click on the file in a folder, I need a database application like this that writes IPTC data back into the files
Hi Alex,
Your program looks great, very well thought-out! I wondered how many keywords are possible for each image? Is there any limit?
I have a ton of images to sort and am hoping to be able to use multiple levels of keywords…
Thanks!
I echo Alan’s question – does this program write IPTC to the image file?
Nevermind – I found the answer in FAQs – thanks!
http://alexking.org/[...]_import.html
Hi,
there.
I found this website very interesting since it has lot of info and sw’s .i am new to programming .Can i get source code for the above application for reference purpose.
thx
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