Help! Sorting by time

[Rustylee]

Hi All,

I woinder if anyone can shed a bit of light on a problem that we are having at the moment?

I am part of a print on the day setup and we use BBPro to sort and html our files. Once this is done all the files are uploaded to a webserver for viewing at 4 terminals. Punters can then view (as per web page), add to basket and checkout then have the photo printed there and then.

The problem which is occuring is that, as there are sometimes up to 4 photographers out on circuit we thought it would be good to sort the images by time and upload in that fashion. Each tog has his own unique code so we would like to keep it that way and not have to renumber each gallery.

As our system is a bespoke (unique!) set up written by one of the guys we set him a task to set up our system to display the images that we take into time order.

We have tried to alter the settings but an error message (of sorts) says that the time settings can't be accessed?

Our website is Here (http://www.racing-line-photography.com)
If any one wants to have a look at code and stuff to see where we are going wrong or is it something that wouldn't work outside of BBPro?

Regards,

Russell Lee
Racing Line Photography

[DavidB]

I suspect that trying to do it in the bespoke application is doing things a bit late in the day, and is always likely to result in extra grief and work.

You don't say how you download, but, if you use DL Pro, you should at least set the option that makes the file time stamp the same as the EXIF capture time. It is also worth considering a file naming scheme based on date-time, as that will order the files in capture order.

An alternative scheme is to use BB Pro as follows:

select all the images in your batch
use Adjust image date/time with the default settings (no time change, update file stamp ticked) to make your file time stamps the same as the EXIF times.
(optionally) arrange your view by file name, select all again, and batch rename using the current view as the sort order and a renaming scheme such as %n_%o to 'freeze' this sort order for subsequent processing.

These aren't really complete instructions. It is work reading BB Pro Help on the functions if you are not familiar with them, but I hope that the pointers are useful.

[Rustylee]

Hi,

I should have added that the images are sorted with DLPro.

I don't think that the problem is with BBPro or DLPro it is when we try to take it forward to our system that it fails. I was just wondering if anybody else has had this sort of problem.

I run another site and on occasion another tog joins me and as I upload my galleries in BB there is no problem what so ever with the sorting by time.

The problem I "think" may be caused by our system seeing the time from when the images are uploaded not when they are taken.

All I am hoping is that some one may have come across this before and can give a pointer as to where to put it right.

Rusty

[DavidB]

Sorry if I misunderstood the question first time round.

I don't know, of course, which data items your system is trying to read. So far as I can see, from a quick look, the images on your site contain no EXIF data. This is quite normal in the generation of web galleries. It is also the case that servers will allocate their own time stamp to uploaded image files.

I still think that the only way to fix the problem is to nail it down at the point of gallery creation, or before, using data (e.g. file names) which neither your gallery creator nor your ISP's server will trash. In other words, it is a data rather than a programming issue.

The way in which BB Pro generates galleries deals with the data as I have suggested, so they upload in a predictable way. If you try to order the images server-side, this is bound to fail for want of the data needed.

[Chris Breeze]

It's hard say without having details of when the error occurs and your workflow. One thing that might help is to use Downloader Pro to name the images with the photographer's initials (e.g. using the camera name mapping or owner string), the time it was taken plus the image number or shutter activation count to avoid duplicate names when shooting at more than 1 fps.
A naming scheme like would mean that an alphabetical list of images would also be in chronological order.

[Clive]

Russell, I am still trying to work out precisely what you are wanting to do.

If the source images have not already lost their exif, you can sort by one of the stored date, and BBP will generate the html code in that order. It will be set at that point, and uploading cannot alter the order of the images on the already-generated pages.

If you are using this special "upload program" (ULP) to generate the html pages, then it must have a means of accessing the EXIF times. Can the ULP generate the html in time order even when the images are in alphabetic file order? If so just ensure the EXIF data is intact at that point. If not, then BBP's sort order will not set it up, as that order is internal to BBP, and is not read by other programs.

The EXIF data can be carried forward intact when using BBP to generate the html - by producing web-ready fullsize images which are 8 byte narrower that the size you want to create. BBP will simply modify the file name ("_thm.jpg etc)to suit its web protocol, and not alter the image or the metadata. Your ULP should then be able to read the EXIF data required.

What is the format of the source images, and which program creates the html? The order is determined by the html/jscript generation and is independent of the file order.

It seems to me to require that the images for an event from all photogs be placed into one folder, and be sorted by Timestamp (
I'm sorry for the ramble as I struggle to understand. You should be able to get the result you want, but perhaps not quite in the way you expect.