Filesystem based Sync

Perhaps I'm just old-fashioned, but I love the simplicity of the file system as storage backend for my pictures.
I store them on a NAS and I run Picasa and Photoshop.
I'd like openphoto to act as a frontend and my existing set of folders and pictures. It can automatically scan the file system and create thumbnails and keep in sync with FS changes.
I do not like the idea of having to import (and duplicate!) my pictures.
Thanks

[hfiguiere]

OpenPhoto is not a tool to manage your collection it is one to put it online

WONTFIX

[jadient]

@hfiguiere: Are you serious? Let me quote directly from the web site:

http://theopenphotoproject.org

All your photos in one spot. Wherever you'd like.

http://theopenphotoproject.org/overview

Yes, your photos really are that important:

1. You decide where to store your photos
2. You let us scour your photo accounts (optional)

Has OpenPhoto changed direction? What's going on?

[hfiguiere]

Not changed direction. I don't think openphoto has ever been about "having your millions of photos".

It has always been about the one you share. And these you store then where you want (within the limit of the software, but you can change the software to push the limits if you desire)

Not a direction change.

And FWIW, @jmathai agreed before I closed the issue.

[jadient]

I feel like I'm missing something here. If users are required to upload their photos so that OpenPhoto can maintain them, then what's the difference between OpenPhoto and other open source photo management software (for example, zenphoto)?

[jmathai]

@jadient There's plenty of overlap between any self installed photo software. Here are the key differentiators of OpenPhoto.

1. We truly are agnostic to the underlying file system. This is part of the design from the first line of code. What this means is you can use the local file system (ZenPhoto and Gallery3 do this as well) but have the option of using something else like Dropbox or Amazon S3 or something you write an adapter for. This is different from something like an "S3 plugin" available for Gallery because Gallery treats S3 as some sort of afterthought addition via a plugin.
2. We're agnostic to the underlying database as well. We ship with MySql and SimpleDb adapters and have a pull request for Postgresql. This isn't some sort of SQL abstraction layer, it's a little lower than that. If you can get your iPhone to act as an HTTP web server then it could work as either a file system or database for OpenPhoto.
3. Our API is modern and uses OAuth. I couldn't find a ZenPhoto API (add a link if there is one) and they have you extend functionality using plugins. Gallery3 has an API but I think ours is significantly better (and again, more modern). Theirs, for example, doesn't use OAuth http://codex.gallery2.org/Gallery3:API:REST#Security_and_Authentication

There's probably a bit more but OpenPhoto isn't a "photo sharing/management application". It's a platform on which we just happen to have built a sharing and management application on top of. Adding an API to an application after it's already been built doesn't really turn it into a platform. And many things shouldn't be platforms. Gallery3 and ZenPhoto probably serve the purpose they solve really well. OpenPhoto isn't always a replacement though as I said there's some overlap and these can be seen as alternatives to one another.

Gallery3 and ZenPhoto are probably great pieces of software. I can't say as I haven't used either extensively. But I believe we're all trying to solve different problems...and that's a good thing.

[jmathai]

About this issue as a whole. File system sync isn't something we'd include into the frontend repository. It would probably be a separate repository of its own that uses one of our API bindings in conjunction with rsync.

It's not that I think file system sync is bad but it doesn't belong in this repository. Ideally what happens is someone creates an rsync/python script and we can create an actual repository out of it.

Hope that makes sense. Here's an example of how to upload every photo from a folder into openphoto. But remember, OpenPhoto needs to be able to index your photos (which it does through its upload API) in order to make them searchable.

https://gist.github.com/1274061

[ioggstream]

What do you think in storing the meta-data in photo (eg. name or exif) and using db like a searchable metadata cache?

In this way you would preserve metadata will remain consistent during migrations...And if you move files or change server, you won't loose the metadata you added on OP...

Then you should "just" re-index your photos...That's not properly like importing

[jmathai]

@ioggstream See issue #680 about writing data back to the photo file itself.

[ioggstream]

@jmathai roger ;)

[olberger]

FYI, this is being discussed in http://openphoto.uservoice.com/forums/141441-general-discussion-and-feature-requests/suggestions/2427078-file-system-sync-scan-no-import- too