Changes

Changes in Version 1.130 beta

With very large databases (in excess of 25000 images) importing a very small number of images took an excessively long time to re-sort the database. This is due to the sort algorithm and now if only a small number of images are being imported they will be inserted into the correct position instead of simply adding and then resorting.
The Add/Remove categories dialog has been modified so it can now be resized and also categories can be added and deleted with a single mouse click.
ImageDB always used to do a sort of a database when it is opened. However with very large databases this can be very slow and unnecessary. this has now been made an option with the default being off.
Added an option to automatically copy the image index to the caption and description fields when importing images.

Changes in Version 1.129 beta

Improved the ImageDBReader interface by removing modifying options from all menus.
Added a Duplicate Image option to allow images to be copied out of the database. The originals remain and the database remains linked to the originals. This is somewhat different behaviour to the current Move/Copy Images action.

Changes in Version 1.128 beta

Fixed bug in EXIF data reading.

Changes in Version 1.126 beta

Added the ability to resize images when creating a website.
Added a new keyword full_category_list to allow generation of a full category listing in the thumbnail page on web generation

Changes in Version 1.125 beta

Unmounted images now show "Unmounted" for their location in image properties.
The background shade of grey used when printing thumbnails can now be set in Options (0 black to 255 white). This should help avoid excessive use of printer ink!
The order of display of fields in the "Thumbs With Data" view can now be defined using the new option Image - Data Display Order.
The Categories - Edit Search Criterion option now has an extra keyword field for searching all image fields (including the user defined fields).
Added two new keywords to allow insertion of the image index instead of the image caption into web pages.

Changes in Version 1.123 beta

Added option to display the image caption instead of the index with the thumbnails.
Added the option to display the image caption overlaid over the image when displaying images full size.

Changes in Version 1.122

Fixed problem with scrolling in the Active Collection listing view.
Fixing problems caused by the introduction of the relative paths feature.

Changes in Version 1.12

Ironing out a few bugs from the major 1.11 release
Viewing the database by folder with Thumbnail Limiting not enabled was not working - now fixed.
There is a new option to set all image locations to be "relative" to the database file location. This allows the entire database (images, local thumbnails, database file) to be easily moved to a new location such as a CD.
A new read only version is now available - ImageDBReader - this is free for personal use but a license fee must be paid for legal distribution. For example distributing it on a CD with a copy of an ImageDB database for others to view.
Added ability to "escape" from a "scan for unimported images that is taking too long. Usually because a folder has been selected that has a very large number of subfolders and files in it.

Changes in Version 1.11

A new "thumbnail limiter" option has been added to only load images for the current view selection. ie. if it is not in the current view it is not loaded. This should significantly reduce any reduction in response for very large databases. However each time you change the images being viewed (eg. changing the current category selection) any thumbnails in the new view selection that are not already loaded will need to be loaded. This option must be explicitly selected (default is off) in View - Options for each database that you wish to use it.
Some operations such as importing images that were not permitted whilst images were being loaded are now allowed.
You may find image thumbnail loading somewhat faster depending on the speed of your system. On my faster machine it is now almost twice as fast but on my slowest system there is very little difference. It depends on how well your system can multithread.
In View - Options you can now specify a different application to the Windows default to use when selecting Image - Open.
The various folder views have been improved. Creation of new folders is faster and there is now a context (right button) menu allowing folder renaming and deleting. This includes the left pane of the browse view mode.
When re-entering browse mode it should now automatically reopen the previous location. This was not happening on XP systems.
You can now view the database by folder using the same left view as in browse mode.
There is now a view mode that scans for images that have not been imported into the database. You select a folder as in a normal folder browse view, but it will now scan this folder and all sub-folders for images not in the database. If you select a high level folder this may take some time and currently cannot be interrupted! To see what folder each images is in simply view its properties, alternatively select to view data with thumbnails.
Even if shrink to fit is enabled you can now manually zoom a "shrunk" image. The next image viewed will revert to the normal shrink to fit status.
There is now an option in the Categories menu to search for and optionally check named categories.
You can now copy the categories of a selected image to a "category tree template". This can then be edited and pasted or copied to a selection of images.

Changes in Version 1.104 beta

Added option to specify preferred date format for displaying and inputting dates.
Added user defined fields in Image properties
Added sorting the viewed images by any combination of fields
Added setting the value of a user defined field for all selected images

Changes in Version 1.10

Provided a "step" option in the Image Properties dialog which, when checked, will automatically select the next image in view and reload the image properties dialog.
Added dragging a selection of images over a category to add that category to all of the images.

Changes in Version 1.09

Whoops - the information on dates in the search criterion dialog was wrong (the "to's" and "from's" were the wrong way around - now corrected!
Fixed a problem with the thumbnail in the image properties dialog not being positioned correctly on some systems.
Fixed a problem with the Create Thumbnails function not working properly for local thumbnails.

Changes in Version 1.08

When loading images the status bar now gives a percentage indication of how much has already been loaded.
If available the current image thumbnail will now be displayed inside the Image Properties dialog.
When mounting unmounted images, if all the original files are not available you can now continue and mount anyway (you'll get some lost images).
The sequential renaming feature has been significantly enhanced allowing special control characters to be inserted to add date/time and the original index into the new new name sequence. See Image - Sequentially Rename for details. I'm rather pleased with this one!
The occasional unterminated thread bug that seems to be mainly a problem for the XP users has been fixed (hopefully). Please let me know if you have any recurrences.
The problem of the unregistered message appearing if you run ImageDB by opening a database directly (eg double clicking a .idb file from within Windows Explorer) has now be fixed.
Whoops - the information on dates in the search criterion dialog was wrong (I had my "to's" and "from's" the wrong way around - now corrected!

Changes in Version 1.07

Just a couple of bug fixes from the last release.
A fix in the last release to prevent selected categories in the left window from being cleared if new categories were added or old ones deleted caused the Clear All Categories button to stop working. This has now been fixed.
On importing images all import images are checked for duplicate indices in the database and the option given to skip them (recomended).

Changes in Version 1.06

Casio EXIF manufacturer tags added
Thumbnails can now be stored "locally" separate from the actual image file. On first running the new version on an old database you will be asked to choose a location for the locally stored thumbnails. This will allow the thumbnails of unmounted images to still be viewed even if the actual images are not available (eg on a CD) to do this you must select Categories/Include Unmounted.
Locally stored thumbnails will be drawn with a black border and non-locally stored thumbnails with a dark green border.
After editing the properties of an image whilst it is being viewed full size, if that image is no longer in the selection due to its changes the next image in the selection will now be displayed. This was a bug before resulting in the old image being displayed but if its properties were edited you would actually edit the properties of the next image.
There is now an Open menu option (and right click pop up menu) which will open the selected image(s) in your preferred image editor program.
If you clear a parent category when editing image properties it will automatically clear all selected children categories.
As well as the arrow keys the tab key can now be sued to move the image selection.
Some people have found selected images are not standing out clearly enough so I have added an option (in View - Options) allowing you to set the selection strength from 0 (black) to 255 (white) the current default is 220.
If you try to close the program with some newly categorised (but not yet imported) images you will now be asked to confirm.

Changes in Version 1.04

When a category is selected the parent categories will now have a grey indication, visible if the selected category has been contracted out of view.
In a named collection images can now be dragged and dropped "off the end" of the collection to move them to the very end.
Batch and single image resizing and rotating added. That's probably all the transformation I'll provide as most users will prefer their own editing applications for anything more complex, but I might add some other stuff later you never know!
Much better drag and drop handling added. You can now drag images into other applications such as PhotoShop or Paintshop etc. and also drag images files into ImageDB to import them. If you get any strange behaviour let me know. It was a rather complicated process trying to make sure I have covered all sensible and silly combinations of dragging and dropping - for example dragging in files that are already in the database - and I may not have covered all possibilities! I plan to add dragging and dropping in browse mode to move/copy files and also using drag and drop to assign categories to images.
Fixed a problem with browsing directories that contained the period '.' character in their name.
EXIF data can be automatically copied when importing. See program options.

Changes in Version 1.03 (beta EXIF version)

Moved images in browse mode are now correctly removed from the view.
Some dialog fields in Image properties have been made "smart". Previous entries are "remembered" and suggested as you type.
EXIF data handling added.
In the Folder Organisation dialog folders can now be renamed.
Page Up, Page Down, Home and End key support added. Also grey (numeric pad) + and - added for zooming.

Changes in Version 1.01

Some more minor cosmetic changes.
The original location of unmounted folders was not being saved properly - this has been fixed and a new button to mount directly from this location, as it is often going to be the same not requiring searching.
A new Sequential renaming feature added. See Image - Sequentially Rename.
The method of selecting categories has been changed slightly. Instead of clicking on the check box and having it cycle through 'is' (tick), 'not' (cross) and unchecked (empty). It is now done using the left or right mouse button. The left button toggles the 'is' (ticked) state and the right button toggles the 'not' (crossed) state. I think this is a little more friendly.
You can now unmount a folder that is not an 'IDB' folder itself but has 'IDB' folders below it.
You can now override the current thumbnail display size when creating thumbnails.
You can select in View - Options whether or not to display database files and unknown file types when browsing.
There is now a single Categories - Add/Remove Category to/from Images option instead of one for each of Add and Remove. With this option you can add multiple categories and remove multiple categories for a number of selected images all in one operation.
In named collections multiple images may be selected and moved to a new location in one action.
A database Merge facility has been added and a similar option added to the export of a Named Collection.
Thumbnails can now be viewed with image property data alongside.
"Contact Sheets" can be printed.
Horizontal or vertical mirror images transformations - more transformations planned for future releases.
The problem with some PhotoShop .psd files is fixed.

Changes in Version 1.00

Minor cosmetic changes including some new buttons and better invalidation of options when they are inappropriate in the current viewing mode.
When viewing a Named Collection the images displayed are now controlled by the category selections and search criterion. Before they were simply always all displayed.
The Autosave feature was not initiating properly - now fixed.
The sample website template files had accidentally been copied from my own complete with index links to my site! My apologies these have now been removed!

Changes in Version 0.5 (from the beta release 0.10)

Assorted minor bug fixes
Search Criterion enhanced to allow various keyword searches (some may have already downloaded a version with a beta implementation of this feature that was not documented)
Categories can now be selected for display in either an 'is' or a 'not' state. See the Category Tree.
The Accelerator key Ctrl+A has been shifted to be Edit - Select All to be more consistent with normal practice.
Two clear button have been added to the Image Properties dialog. Allowing all category selections to be cleared, and all other data to be cleared. If the next image being categorised is radically different from the previous image then the usually useful feature of defaulting to the previous image data may require a lot of unselecting of categories and clearing of data to be done. These buttons will make that task easy.
A "Load File Date" button has been added to the Image Properties dialog - clicking this button will load the image file's date into the date fields.
To make it a little easier to quickly view image properties when you have a very large category tree. The Image Properties dialog will initially only display those categories that are actually selected. This make viewing much easier. Categories can still be removed at this stage but in order to add any new categories the Show All button must first be clicked. Clicking it again will again reduce the view to only those categories that are selected.
When an image is viewed full size its pixel dimensions and the current zoom factor as a percentage is displayed in the status bar.
"Named Selections" have been renamed as "Named Collections". this has been done to try and reduce confusion over use (over-use?) of the word selection. Now if Selection appears on its own it refers to a selection of clicked images. If it appears as "category selection" then it refers to a selection of categories. I hope this helps a little and I also hope I have changed every occurrence in menus, dialog boxes, documentation etc. please let me know if you notice any I've missed!
This and the next listed change are the two big ones. First thumbnails are no longer to be stored using the same name as the image but in a folder called thumbnails. Instead ImageDB will now use the more conventional approach of a file name with a prefix or suffix stored in the same place as the image file itself. Code has been added to convert any thumbnails in your current databases to the new format when those databases are first loaded. There is a chance that you may need to go in and manually clean up and delete the old thumbnail directory if ImageDB fails to delete it itself.
The second big change is related to the above. Now ImageDB does not require all images in the database to be in a "images" folder. The images can be stored physically anywhere on the system and each image record in the database will record the location of the image file. This means that ImageDB will no longer need to make its own copy of images it can effectively "share" them with any other applications. Facilities have also been added to let you move or copy images to new locations. Due to this change the import mechanism is now different (and simpler). Management of the physical structure is view the Edit - Folder Organisation option.
Complete folders of images can be unmounted and remounted at a later date. This allows for storing images on removable media such as CDs.
ImageDB can now handle any file type, though it can still only display a limited number (see below). This allows other files to be imported and categorised, but they cannot actually be displayed. The thumbnail will be replaced with a box stating this.
Support has now been added for GIF, PGM, PPM, PNG, TGA, TIFF, JPEG, PCX, Photoshop PSD, Windows BMP, and Mac PICT. Though I have found one or two PSD files that cannot be read - as yet I have no idea why!
Thumbnail generation is improved - the thumbnails will now be sized to the maximum dimension specified in View - Options. Although this might be a little slower it is a much more precise generation.
Loading of images is now smarter. Whilst loading if you scroll to images that have not yet loaded they will be given priority and be loaded first. This is particularly useful when browsing images that have no thumbnails and the load can then be somewhat slow.