UX: Hybrid Photo and Video Viewer

[graciousgrey]

At the moment we use photoswipe as photo viewer. As there are some limitations we plan to implement one on our own.

The new photo viewer should solve the following issues:

• Proper support for videos (see UX: Build photo viewer with video support #1278 & UX: display video player in lightbox #843 & More prominent play button for videos in single item view? #1261)
• Provide a way to view all photos of a stack (UX: Indicate if photo is stacked in lightbox view (fullscreen mode) #386)
• Customize which actions are provided (UX: Customize which actions (archive, set labels etc) can be done in fullscreen mode #508 & UX: Add full context menu to photo viewer #660)
• Option to use full window to show photos ("Fit" photo to full window by default? #1379)
• Improved zooming (UX / Improve zooming #247)
• Dynamically loading more items (Slideshow should play all items in set, not just the ones loaded in the UI #1498 )
• Allow Urls to be bookmarked (Allow URLs to be bookmarked / shared. Don't lose page when reloading #831)
• Optional sidebar with metadata

[jucor]

Is there any worth to "just" build an interface on top of Photoswipe rather than rewriting the whole viewer?

[lastzero]

Well, it's architecture is not really extensible. It would all be ugly workarounds. Already did that in large parts, but need to make a cut somewhere.

[jucor]

Makes sense :) Thanks for the answer!

…

On Sun, 20 Jun 2021, 11:24 Michael Mayer, ***@***.***> wrote: Well, it's architecture is not really extensible. It would all be ugly workarounds. Already did that in large parts, but need to make a cut somewhere. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1307 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAFBERNUDSWMVOHGICIONDDTTW6VTANCNFSM45GW63TA> .

[tribut]

When this gets implemented, I would really appreciate some sidebar/overlay for media information. Having to go to the edit view just to look up the file name or assigned tags is cumbersome.

Screenshots from librephotos and lychee, to make it clear what I'm looking for:

[RandomHacks-Git]

I was going to open an issue but I guess the solution would be implemented as part of this new photo viewer.
After briefly testing photoprism I'm currently using another solution for the sole reason that there is no easy way to skip to the next video (or go back to the previous) inside the lightbox, always having to exit the lightbox and open the next video is quite cumbersome and not very intuitive.

[graciousgrey]

@RandomHacks-Git Yes, that is one of the main reasons why we need to build our own photo viewer :)

[aravindhsampath]

I am here from the context of People Recognition work. It would be wonderful if the new photo viewer considers to implement an UI wherein the photo shows tags/labels associated with it visually like how Facebook photos with people. It may be triggered upon mouse hover in the area, or a button on the top that says"labels" or "tags" may be clicked to show this info.

When manual tagging of people gets implemented in Photoprism, it would be very useful to see "who all appear in this photo". Perhaps, also adding the ability to manually tag people right there while viewing the photo.

[IssueHuntBot]

An anonymous user has funded $50.00 to this issue.

---

• Submit pull request via IssueHunt to receive this reward.
• Want to contribute? Chip in to this issue via IssueHunt.
• Checkout the IssueHunt Issue Explorer to see more funded issues.
• Need help from developers? Add your repository on IssueHunt to raise funds.

[lastzero]

Please don't add funds to IssueHunt anymore! 🎁

While we like IssueHunt and are grateful for the donations we've received so far, it hasn't proven to be a sustainable funding option for us as we spend much of our time maintaining existing features and providing support.

If we don't have enough resources to provide support and bugfixes, we can't start working on new features.

[shadow82]

As for new photo viewer I'm voting for:

• True fullscreen in photo view and slideshows
  To have this:
  
  Instead of this:
  

• Configurable timers how quick next photo should show in slideshow

• Assure that 30 sec video during slideshow will play all content (and won't switch on next after 5 sec)

• Few options to choose photos transition when viewing pics manually and in slideshow (swipe, dissolve, etc.), like here: https://streamable.com/s9sky7

[porterbhall]

Would love to see a slideshow feature where I could set the duration for slides

[lastzero]

Note that I've been trying to improve the usability of our current video player over the weekend. You can now find the result in a feature branch or you can use the current photoprism/photoprism:test image on Docker Hub.

With these changes, the player for example supports playing multiple videos like the photo viewer when you press the left and right keys on the keyboard. However, I have found that much more is needed to make this work well on all mobile browsers/devices, especially Apple iOS. Achieving good stability, as with the current solution (which lacks features, yes), also takes time.

So, instead of adding more workarounds that will ultimately be insufficient and also might break existing functionality, let's focus on developing a unified photo and video viewer that works well with our other components and the backend API. That is, as soon as we have the time (more than a weekend) to do so.

[shadow82]

I did a quick check deploying photoprism:test and it works for Video tab.
But it doesn't in Albums tab (videos doesn't autoplay when viewing album with photos & videos.
Is it a big thing to add videos autoplay for albums?

[lastzero]

@shadow82 This is one of the reasons why we should have a unified viewer instead of using separate viewers for photos and videos. Supporting keyboard (edit: or touch) events, like when the user presses the left (prev) or right (next) key, is otherwise very complicated and error-prone. For example, if the photo viewer would automatically play videos, then the video player would take over and pressing "right" would play the next video instead of the next photo in an album. With a large team and months of time, all of this could certainly be worked around, but it's less work (and therefore the only way to get it done for us) to develop a solution that meets the actual use case and works well with our existing front- and backend.

[NewMountain]

I have recently migrated to Photoprism (hosted on my k8s homelab!) and am so happy and grateful. I wanted to add just one thought. The only "missing" feature I'm looking for is to random play an album. To be more concrete: to randomly select a next image in the album as opposed to showing the next sorted sequential image. Apologies if this already exists and I missed it. My use case is digital pictureframe, tv in living room that doesn't feel quite as stale/predictable.

Excepting this one feature, the app is, for me, perfection. Thank you so much!

[j08rebelo]

The feaure to play videos and photos in random mode, does it already exist?

[gschintgen]

As for new photo viewer I'm voting for:

* True fullscreen in photo view and slideshows

@shadow82 Thanks for posting your comparison pictures. I'd also like a proper slideshow/fullscreen mechanism in Photoprism, without large borders all around. I would immediately trade that in for many of the more advanced features. After all I'm not doing my photo management with Photoprism but my photo viewing.
But apart from this issue, Photoprism is brilliant!

[generalconsensus]

This would be so wonderful!

[stephanschorer]

stupid question:
does the feature to create a random slidshow of one album already exist?

I dont mean a random slideshow of all pictures:
library/browse?order=random

Thanks!