Calydos - 'How-To' Questions & Answers:



In any case you don't know how to perform a specific task: Try to invoke a context-menu over the object, that you are about to work with. If that doesn't help, the following Q&A-list will help you.
   

General Usage:

  How to put an Image into the Database
  Toggle between Insert- and Query-Mode
  Declare a Directory as 'Image-Domain'
  Specify Meanings for 'Subcontext-n' and 'Image-Class-n'
  Query the Database
  Update an Entry in the Database
  Mass-Updating the Database
  Rename an Image-File
  Move an Image-File
  Processing of Images in RAW-format
  Edit an Image
  Set Correct Orientation (Portrait / Landscape)

Working with 'Galeries'

  Create a 'Galery'
  Set Size of Thumbnails)
  Add more Images to a Galery
  Sorting a Galery

Publish your Images to the Internet ('Webalbum')

  A saved galery can be published in the internet. For this you need a web-server or a web-space, like is offered by many internet-providers. The web-space needs execution-rights for PHP. No database is required. The neccessary bootstrap-script is contained in the Calydos.zip and will automatically be uploaded to your web-space at first uploading a galery. Prerequiste is that you specify the FTP-login for your web-space in the Calydos-Settings, 'Web-Server'-page.

Alternatively, if you do not have a private web-space then you may make use of the Public Calydos Galery Server. Every user has free access to an amount of 5 MB of images. You may order more space, in units of 100 MB, for an anual fee of 20.00 € each.

For the Public Calydos Galery Server to use you need no configuration at all.

More info.

Example web-galery:
   




How to put an Image into the Database:

Of course, the image itself is not stored in the database, but only descriptive words and phrases, which will later help to find an image again, and to build groups of images (galeries).

Proceed as follows:
Step: Activity: Appropriate Section of Program:
1: Activate 'Insert-Mode'.
If you already have created Image-Domains then log in to one of these domains. Otherwise click on the coloured button 'Mode: Insert'.
2: Identify the image in question in the File-Browser.
3: Doubleclick on that image. This results in a small window popping up displaying a 'Preview-Image', small but large enough to let you see what is in that image. Look at the 'Criteria-Window' at the right side: in the bottom part the Exif-data will be displayed (if present in the image).
4: In the 'Criteria-Window' you can enter appropriate descriptions for the image.

All data are optional, except the 'Main Context', where you MUST enter some value, e.g. 'Sports', 'Vacation', 'Family' or whatever you like. Read more about 'Sub-context' and 'Image-Class' here.

All data entered in one of the 'Context'-fields may be terminated by the 'Return'-key. This results in making the value 'permanent', i.e. it is stored and can be retrieved from the drop-down-list pertaining to each of the Context-fields.
5: Finally click on the 'Insert'-button. A record is written into the database.

In case you have made any errors and want to correct the data all you need to do is enter the corrected data and click 'Insert' once again.
6: Process next image:
Click on 'Next Image'. The next image from the directory will be displayed and made ready for being inserted just the way it was with the previous image. Proceed with 4.

Automatic-Mode: As long as the 'automatic'-option is 'on' you need not click the 'Next Image'-button no more, instead the next image will be displayed automatically.





Toggle between Insert- and Query-Mode:

Both program-modes 'Insert' and 'Query' can be used in parallel and you can switch from one mode to the other without losing the current state of processing in each mode.

Usual way of proceeding:
  1. Log in to an Image-Domain: The Image-File-Browser is filled with folders (directories) and files.
  2. Insert some images.
  3. Invoke the Query-Mode, in order to search / edit some database-entries. Results that the Image-File-Browser 'disappears'.
  4. Work with Query-List.
  5. In order to get back to the File-Browser-view you must click on the button 'Mode: Insert' once again. This will make the Query-list 'vanish' and the File-Browser re-appear. Keep in mind: Even if you have created the File-Browser bei clicking on the 'LogIn'-button you must use the 'Mode: Insert'-button to switch back from Query- to Insert-Mode.
  6. To switch to Query-List back again: Click on 'Mode: Query' again. And back again, etc.
  7. Remember-1: Imagen this scenario: You have queried the database resulting in a query-list, showing some images. Now you toggle back to the File-Browser-view and insert a new image. Then after switching back to Query-mode it should be clear that the query-list not automatically reflects the newly inserted image, even if the search-criteria underlying the query-list would include the new image.

    In a scenario such as this you must refresh the query-list by clicking the 'Find'- or the 'QuickSearch'-button again.
  8. Remember-2: To rebuild the actual view (Query-list or File-Browser-list) you must:
    • File-Browser-list: click the 'Mode: Insert'-button again
    • Query-list: click the 'QuickSearch'- / 'Find'-button again (resp.)




Declare a Directory as 'Image-Domain':

Right after having installed Calydos there are not yet any Image-Domains. Though you do not actually need them to work with Calydos it is highly recommended for the sake of speed of work and optimizing the work-balance for the Image-File-Browser.

In order to declare a specific (sub-) directory as an Image-Domain proceed as follows:
  1. in File-Browser: point mouse-cursor to that directory, invoke context-menu (right mouse-button)
  2. Select 'define as Image-Domain'.
You can declare as much Image-Domains as you like.
After there exist Image-Domains a single click on the 'Mode: Insert'-button will log-in all Image-Domains (instead of all drives in your computer).

If you want to log-in only one Image-Domain you can select it from the Drop-Down-list and click the 'LogIn'-button.

To remove an Image-Domain proceed as follows:
  1. Select the Image-Domain in question from the Drop-Down-list ('<select an Image-Domain>')
  2. Invoke the context-menu
  3. Select 'Remove Image-Domain'.
Of course, only the entry in Calydos is removed, not the directory pertaining to that Image-Domain.




Specify Meanings for 'Subcontext-n' and 'Image-Class-n':

The Calydos-Image-Database contains some user-customizable fields, these are: 'Subcontext-n' and 'Image-Class-n' (n=1,2,3). To 'customize' means: give them labels, which describe best your personal image-organization The labels are intended to express a certain meaning, for example...:

For Context: For Image-Classes:

Change the labels:
Point mouse-cursor onto label in question, then invoke context-menu. Select 'Set Semantics'.




Query the Database:

In order to find an image in the database there are two different ways of procedure: QuickSearch:
In the 'QuickSearch'-mode you simply specify one search-word which will be used to lookup all database-entries. Case is ignored. Click the 'QuickSearch'-button. This procedure is convenient and fast, but may have the disadvantage of sometimes finding more images than you want, because of impreciseness of the search-word. For maximum precision you must use the Detailled Search.

Detailled Search:
Every field that has been entered into the database when the image was processed can now be used as a search-criteria. Simply open the Criteria-Window (button 'Criteria') and type in whatever search-criteria you want to apply.

Whenever the mouse-cursor leaves a criteria-field a spin-button is exhibited letting you select logical operations AND or OR to build complex logical expressions. (The logical operation for 'Content' is always AND.)

Finally click the 'Find'-button.

Fields with a blank content are not used for the query.




Modify a database-entry:

You may want to modify the database record which belongs to a picture. This may typically occur when you want to change the search-criteria or add a description to the image.

There are two ways to modify a database-entry:
  1. treat the image as you did when you stored it for the first time, or
  2. invoke the Update-function from within the database-query-report.
Ad 1.:
Use the Image-File-Browser. Locate the image-file in question. Double-click on the image-filename resulting in the Criteria-window to be displayed. Note: Only those data which are not empty are shown. Enter your data, then click on 'Insert' (though it is an 'Update').

Ad 2.:
In the Query-Report-listing: invoke the context-menu over the image in question. Select 'Prepare for update'. After having done this the push-button in the Critera-window changes from 'Find' to 'Update'. Enter your data, then click on 'Update'.




Mass-Updating the Database:

There are cases where you want to modify many records in the database by one single 'strike', e.g. setting a different context. This is done as follows:
  1. Select the records to modify in the database-list (<CTRL>-click or <SHIFT>-click)
  2. Make the Criteria-dialoge visible (if not already is)
  3. Via contextmenu -> 'Modify selected' -> 'Set Criteria'
You get a confirmation which tells you how many records are to be updated. Then click OK (or cancel).

Note:
The new data to be written into the records must be entered in the Criteria window before you invoke the context-menu.




Rename an Image-File:

Please be reminded that every modifcation that affects the file-path of an image must be performed through Calydos, once the image is stored in the database. Changing the name of an image does affect its file-path.

Renaming is simple: In the Image-File-Browser or the Database-Query-List: Invoke the context-menu over the image in question and select 'Rename'.




Relocate an Image-File:

Please be reminded that every modifcation that affects the file-path of an image must be performed through Calydos, once the image is stored in the database.

In order to move an image-file from one directory to another, identify that image in the Image-File-Browser. Invoke the context-menu over the image in question, select 'Pick up'. Now place the mouse cursor over the target-directory, invoke the context menu and select 'Drop here to move selected'.

Instead of moving just one image you may select a number of images by using (1) click and (2) <SHIFT>-click over the first resp. last image in the range.




Processing of Images in RAW-format:

Planned for the future.
At this moment images in RAW-format may be stored in the database but no viewing capability is provided in Calydos.




Edit an Image:

Editing an image is not possible in Calydos by its own means. Instead you must provide your own image-editor program, such as PMView. Be careful to use a program that is able to preserve the EXIF-data of the original image (e.g. PMView ver. 3.1 or later).

The image-editor of your choice may be started directly from within Calydos (use context-menu over that image or in the Preview-window). The first time you try to invoke your image-editor-program a dialogue pops up asking you for the file-path to that program. If later you want to switch to another program then you must first reset your current specification. Do this by using the main menu: -> Settings -> Reset -> Image-Editor.




Set Correct Orientation (Portrait / Landscape):

To display an image in its correct orientation requires that the camera which has shot the photo is capable of orientation-detection. Most modern cameras are and store the information in the Exif-data, but not all. Calydos always displays the correct orientation if this information is found in the Exif-data. For web-published images it is required that the image be resized in the upload-process (more info in the Publish-dialog).




Create an Image-Galery:

A Galery is a numer of images in the form of 'thumbnails', arranged in a rectangular form.

Start from the Database-Query-List: Select any number of images, then invoke the context-menu or click the push-button 'Galery'. A dialogue appears on the left side of the screen. Click on the Go!-button.

You may save a galery under any name you want: place mouse cursor over the frame (empty space) near any thumbnail image, invoke context-menu and select 'Save Galery'.




Set the Size of Thumbnails:

By default, the mini-images (thumbnails) in the galery are sized in a manner, that fit as many of them as possible into the galery-frame, but not being too small for recognizing the contents of the image. You may enlarge the size by just enlarging the galery-frame: drag the frame-border with your left mouse-button to any required size, the mini-images will be resized automatically.




Add more Images to a Galery:

Proceed as described here:
  1. Open an existing galery.
  2. Use the Rollup-Button (underneath the 'Image-Galery'-title-bar ) to make the Galery-window disappear.
  3. The images that you want to have added to the galery must be present in the Query-list. Make a selection by using left mouse-button and <SHIFT>-left mouse-button.
  4. Make the Galery reappear (using the Rollup-Button).
  5. Now you can drag (holding down right mouse-button) the selected range somewhere into any free area of the Galery. If there is no free area (because all space is occupied with thumbnail-images) then you must drag the selected range upon the title-bar of any image in the galery. While dragging you must hold down the <CTRL>-key.
Alternatively, to add just ONE more image (or one image at a time):
  1. Step-1 to 4 as above
  2. From the Query-List select the one image to add to the gallery, doubleclick on it to have it displayed in the Preview-Window
  3. Drag the preview-image onto some free space of the gallery
Note:
A source of inconvenience may be the fact that the Galery-window overlays (at least partially) the Query-List, making it difficult to browse through the Query-List, i.e. find the image(s) to be added to the gallery. Instead of clicking the Rollup-button to let the Galery-window disappear and later re-appear you may resize the Galery-Window to a rectangular which allows it to show (be visible) yet not hiding large parts of the Query-List.

Look at the screen-shot below. You can see the Gallery-Window being resized to a wide but low rectangular and positioned at the top of the Query-List, so an image-entry in the list can be identified and be doubleclicked upon to let it display. The image from the Preview-Window may now be dragged by the right mouse button on the Galery-Window.





Sorting a Galery:

The order in which the images appear in a galery is determined by the sequence of the originating image-records in the database-list (remember: A database-list is always the origin for images to be entered into a galery).

You may change this sequence by simply dragging a record to another position in the list. Use right mouse-button with <CTRL>-key held down.



Sorting the Galery:
A more "visual" way of sorting exists in the galery itself: You may rearrange the thumbnails to any order that you like. Just drag a thumbnail with right mouse-button to another image, drop it in the free area beneath that image. Watch the cursor turning into a red arrow while you are dragging the thumbnail. The center of the arrow (not its peak!) must be anywhere over the free space under the target image when releasing the mouse-button. The target image will always be shifted to the right.