GNU MediaGoblin Wiki - User contributions [en]

Many images usecase

2014-09-02T15:28:11Z

Velmont: /* Transfer */

Eric is a enthusiastic photographer and takes many photos. He stores them in folders on his computer. As of now he has over 40.000 partly tagged files. They are quite easy to get to because of the folder hierarchy.

Eric uses DigiKam to organize his files, and is quite happy with that. However, he wants to store them on the internet as well, so that:

* people can see his best photos
* close friends can get access to all photos from an event and help him sort out the best ones for public viewing
* people can tag themselves and others (to help him organize everything)
* he can access it whenever he wants
* he doesn't have to duplicate the pictures on the server (they can be many hundreds of GB)

In a nutshell: Eric owns his own server where he has the full copy of his photo library which he syncs two ways. GMG on the server notices newly uploaded picture directories and imports them.

== After coming home from a weekend trip ==

Eric was at a cabin with 5 friends. When coming home he's got 1000 pictures to throw through.

=== Transfer ===

He transfers all the images to a relevant part in his Pictures-folder, and names it "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''". He goes through the pictures and tags a few people in them from DigiKam. DigiKam saves the tags inside the ''IPTC keywords'' inside the pictures themselves (or as an `.xmp` metadata sidecar file). And stars a few pictures that's especially good.

Eric wants to show his pictures, as well as back them up to a second computer. So he starts his ''file synchronization software'' (Unison, Sparkleshare, rsync, ...) . After a few hours, the syncing is done.

=== Importing from file system ===

Inside MediaGoblin, he either logs in and chooses «import/scan for new files», or MediaGoblin figures out that itself (from cron/celery beat).

MediaGoblin scans through the files, not touching them, but adding them to the database. It adds an import-job for each picture. When MG has scanned the full folder and found everything new, MG dispatches the job queue.

For each new pictures, MediaGoblin makes a thumbnail and possible other display versions and saves them in the "cache" folder that it keeps. Thus not meddling with Eric's folders and image files. It also extracts the ''IPTC'' and ''XMP'' fields. All the tags Eric added in DigiKam is thus recognized in MediaGoblin and immediately searchable after the import.

=== Making publicly visible albums ===

So now the pictures lie on the web server. Eric is happy that MG uses the path as metadata, so that it's easy to find and watch the new files. Having 40.000 pictures to sort through would be hard.

He marks 20 pictures that's really good and make an album called "''Frogneseteren''", and he makes that album publicly visible. Thus people with limited attention span can watch his site, and only get the best pictures. As well as he's sure he hasn't uploaded and made available some naked swimming photos.

Ada, one of Eric's friends visit the site, but she thinks Eric has left out too many good pictures and emails him. He gives her ''OpenID'' access to see the raw folder "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''" and to link pictures in there to albums. So Ada go through the pictures and add an additional 20 pictures to the public album.

=== Crowd tagging/captioning/commenting ===

Tom signs in with his ''OpenID'' tom.example.com, and goes ahead and tags more images with the names of people in them. He also comments on some pictures.

Eric gets an email saying there's tags and comments to be moderated. He recognized that all the work Tom has done is good, and just puts his ''OpenID'' in the instant-approve list.

MG thus approves all the changes, and it doesn't only write the changes to the database, but also fires up sync-jobs where the new tags and captions are written back to the file metadata.

=== File sync back again ===

When Eric uses his file sync software again (must be two-way, so Unison or Sparkleshare), it notices some files have changed, and sync those back to his computer. When Eric runs DigiKam with its "''read new metadata from files''", he can use all the new information entered in MediaGoblin by his friends to search for stuff in his pictures. He's happy he could crowd source that, and that all his metadata are safely stored inside the pictures so that it won't get lost.

Also it's great that all software can use the same metadata.

= Progress =

There has been some progress on the part of importing from the file system:

* [https://github.com/Velmont/gmg_localfiles gmg_localfiles] - GNU MediaGoblin plugin for importing files from your filesystem without duplication.

Many images usecase

2014-09-02T15:27:04Z

Velmont:

Eric is a enthusiastic photographer and takes many photos. He stores them in folders on his computer. As of now he has over 40.000 partly tagged files. They are quite easy to get to because of the folder hierarchy.

Eric uses DigiKam to organize his files, and is quite happy with that. However, he wants to store them on the internet as well, so that:

* people can see his best photos
* close friends can get access to all photos from an event and help him sort out the best ones for public viewing
* people can tag themselves and others (to help him organize everything)
* he can access it whenever he wants
* he doesn't have to duplicate the pictures on the server (they can be many hundreds of GB)

In a nutshell: Eric owns his own server where he has the full copy of his photo library which he syncs two ways. GMG on the server notices newly uploaded picture directories and imports them.

== After coming home from a weekend trip ==

Eric was at a cabin with 5 friends. When coming home he's got 1000 pictures to throw through.

=== Transfer ===

He transfers all the images to a relevant part in his Pictures-folder, and names it "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''". He goes through the pictures and tags a few people in them from DigiKam. DigiKam saves the tags inside the ''IPTC keywords'' inside the pictures themselves. And stars a few pictures that's especially good.

Eric wants to show his pictures, as well as back them up to a second computer. So he starts his ''file synchronization software'' (Unison, Sparkleshare, rsync, ...) . After a few hours, the syncing is done.

=== Importing from file system ===

Inside MediaGoblin, he either logs in and chooses «import/scan for new files», or MediaGoblin figures out that itself (from cron/celery beat).

MediaGoblin scans through the files, not touching them, but adding them to the database. It adds an import-job for each picture. When MG has scanned the full folder and found everything new, MG dispatches the job queue.

For each new pictures, MediaGoblin makes a thumbnail and possible other display versions and saves them in the "cache" folder that it keeps. Thus not meddling with Eric's folders and image files. It also extracts the ''IPTC'' and ''XMP'' fields. All the tags Eric added in DigiKam is thus recognized in MediaGoblin and immediately searchable after the import.

=== Making publicly visible albums ===

So now the pictures lie on the web server. Eric is happy that MG uses the path as metadata, so that it's easy to find and watch the new files. Having 40.000 pictures to sort through would be hard.

He marks 20 pictures that's really good and make an album called "''Frogneseteren''", and he makes that album publicly visible. Thus people with limited attention span can watch his site, and only get the best pictures. As well as he's sure he hasn't uploaded and made available some naked swimming photos.

Ada, one of Eric's friends visit the site, but she thinks Eric has left out too many good pictures and emails him. He gives her ''OpenID'' access to see the raw folder "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''" and to link pictures in there to albums. So Ada go through the pictures and add an additional 20 pictures to the public album.

=== Crowd tagging/captioning/commenting ===

Tom signs in with his ''OpenID'' tom.example.com, and goes ahead and tags more images with the names of people in them. He also comments on some pictures.

Eric gets an email saying there's tags and comments to be moderated. He recognized that all the work Tom has done is good, and just puts his ''OpenID'' in the instant-approve list.

MG thus approves all the changes, and it doesn't only write the changes to the database, but also fires up sync-jobs where the new tags and captions are written back to the file metadata.

=== File sync back again ===

When Eric uses his file sync software again (must be two-way, so Unison or Sparkleshare), it notices some files have changed, and sync those back to his computer. When Eric runs DigiKam with its "''read new metadata from files''", he can use all the new information entered in MediaGoblin by his friends to search for stuff in his pictures. He's happy he could crowd source that, and that all his metadata are safely stored inside the pictures so that it won't get lost.

Also it's great that all software can use the same metadata.

= Progress =

There has been some progress on the part of importing from the file system:

* [https://github.com/Velmont/gmg_localfiles gmg_localfiles] - GNU MediaGoblin plugin for importing files from your filesystem without duplication.

MediaTypeRefactor

2012-12-23T02:09:35Z

Velmont: /* Feature ideas / use cases */

We're planning to extend the media type system so that it's more like plugins. This page is to document some of the things we wish media types to be able to accomplish.

See also: [[Feature_Ideas/Reprocessing]]

== Feature ideas / use cases ==

Dumping some feature ideas that could affect the design of this here, but don't actually describe how they'd be implemented necessarily.

=== File "History" ===

What if we would like files to have something like "design hub", where you can upload revisions of a project as you go along:

https://mairin.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/another-design-hub-mockup/

=== media-type-specific views ===

Maybe your media type benefits from submitting or adjusting some extra things after the fact?

Maybe your media type has a "special type of gallery", for example an audio playlist?

=== submitting media from the command line ===

Submission is very tied to the submit view. What if someone wanted a tool like:

./bin/gmg submitmedia moognu.gif

(How would this work also if plugins add extra things to the submit process though?)

=== supertypes of images (raw files) ===

Raw files are also images. They'd have all the usual JPEG variants plus the extra raw file. (The raw file could be connected as attachment though)

=== separation between originals and renderers ===

One of the files is special, because you can make every other asset from that one. It could make sense to split file storage from these cached files. In case you want to have the cached ones on volatile but fast storage for frequent access, and the originals on cheaper/more reliant/slower storage where they'd still be accesible, just not as much.

== Accurately describe mimetype ==

In feeds and etc, we want to share the mimetype of the entry, and maybe of the individual files? Should this be on a per-entry or a per-filetype basis?

== Additional field types ==
===File size===
For MRSS atom feeds (and probably also in the media "home" page, we need the file size of the media. Currently it is not stored at all. spaetz has a branch that implements a MediaEntry().file_size property. This works OK with local storages as it pulls the files and gets the file size on demand. But on remote storages (Amazon S3), we don't want to pull all files just to create the atom feed. We will therefore need to store the file size for each main media. Should this simply become part of the main MediaEntry table? Should it be part of an "extended Media Entry" table that is only queried on demand? I guess as we need this for all file types, so it does not make sense to put it in the per-type meta data table...
Elrond says: I think, we should have filesizes stored in the MedaFiles table. Because each resolution has its own filesize.

=== Mime type ===
Feeds etc need to be able to specify the mime type of a media file. Currently there is no way to get at the file's mime type. We'll need to think whether we store this per-file, simply in an extra field, or in an extra MimeType table? Or...?

16:13 < Elrond> We had a discussion on mimetype detection from bytes:
16:13 < Elrond> >>> import magic; ms = magic.open(magic.MAGIC_MIME_TYPE); ms.load();
ms.file("really_a_jpg.png")
16:13 < Elrond> 'image/jpeg'
16:14 < Elrond> Works also:
16:14 < Elrond> >>> ms.buffer(file("really_a_jpg.png").read(20))
16:14 < Elrond> 'image/jpeg'

Many images usecase

2011-07-16T21:30:37Z

Velmont: Clarified a bit.

Eric is a enthusiastic photographer and takes many photos. He stores them in folders on his computer. As of now he has over 40.000 partly tagged files. They are quite easy to get to because of the folder hierarchy.

Eric uses DigiKam to organize his files, and is quite happy with that. However, he wants to store them on the internet as well, so that:

* people can see his best photos
* close friends can get access to all photos from an event and help him sort out the best ones for public viewing
* people can tag themselves and others (to help him organize everything)
* he can access it whenever he wants
* he doesn't have to duplicate the pictures on the server (they can be many hundreds of GB)

In a nutshell: Eric owns his own server where he has the full copy of his photo library which he syncs two ways. GMG on the server notices newly uploaded picture directories and imports them.

== After coming home from a weekend trip ==

Eric was at a cabin with 5 friends. When coming home he's got 1000 pictures to throw through.

=== Transfer ===

He transfers all the images to a relevant part in his Pictures-folder, and names it "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''". He goes through the pictures and tags a few people in them from DigiKam. DigiKam saves the tags inside the ''IPTC keywords'' inside the pictures themselves. And stars a few pictures that's especially good.

Eric wants to show his pictures, as well as back them up to a second computer. So he starts his ''file synchronization software'' (Unison, Sparkleshare, rsync, ...) . After a few hours, the syncing is done.

=== Importing from file system ===

Inside MediaGoblin, he either logs in and chooses «import/scan for new files», or MediaGoblin figures out that itself (from cron/celery beat).

MediaGoblin scans through the files, not touching them, but adding them to the database. It adds an import-job for each picture. When MG has scanned the full folder and found everything new, MG dispatches the job queue.

For each new pictures, MediaGoblin makes a thumbnail and possible other display versions and saves them in the "cache" folder that it keeps. Thus not meddling with Eric's folders and image files. It also extracts the ''IPTC'' and ''XMP'' fields. All the tags Eric added in DigiKam is thus recognized in MediaGoblin and immediately searchable after the import.

=== Making publicly visible albums ===

So now the pictures lie on the web server. Eric is happy that MG uses the path as metadata, so that it's easy to find and watch the new files. Having 40.000 pictures to sort through would be hard.

He marks 20 pictures that's really good and make an album called "''Frogneseteren''", and he makes that album publicly visible. Thus people with limited attention span can watch his site, and only get the best pictures. As well as he's sure he hasn't uploaded and made available some naked swimming photos.

Ada, one of Eric's friends visit the site, but she thinks Eric has left out too many good pictures and emails him. He gives her ''OpenID'' access to see the raw folder "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''" and to link pictures in there to albums. So Ada go through the pictures and add an additional 20 pictures to the public album.

=== Crowd tagging/captioning/commenting ===

Tom signs in with his ''OpenID'' tom.example.com, and goes ahead and tags more images with the names of people in them. He also comments on some pictures.

Eric gets an email saying there's tags and comments to be moderated. He recognized that all the work Tom has done is good, and just puts his ''OpenID'' in the instant-approve list.

MG thus approves all the changes, and it doesn't only write the changes to the database, but also fires up sync-jobs where the new tags and captions are written back to the file metadata.

=== File sync back again ===

When Eric uses his file sync software again (must be two-way, so Unison or Sparkleshare), it notices some files have changed, and sync those back to his computer. When Eric runs DigiKam with it's "''read new metadata from files''", he can use all the new information entered in MediaGoblin by his friends to search for stuff in his pictures. He's happy he could crowd source that, and that all his metadata are safely stored inside the pictures so that it won't get lost.

Also it's great that all software can use the same metadata.

Many images usecase

2011-07-16T15:24:01Z

Velmont: /* After coming home from a weekend trip */

Eric is a enthusiastic photographer and takes many photos. He stores them in folders on his computer. As of now he has over 40.000 partly tagged files. They are quite easy to get to because of the folder hierarchy.

Eric uses DigiKam to organize his files, and is quite happy with that. However, he wants to store them on the internet as well, so that:

* people can see his best photos
* close friends can get access to all photos from an event and help him sort out the best ones for public viewing
* people can tag themselves and others (to help him organize everything)
* he can access it whenever he wants

== After coming home from a weekend trip ==

Eric was at a cabin with 5 friends. When coming home he's got 1000 pictures to throw through.

=== Transfer ===

He transfers all the images to a relevant part in his Pictures-folder, and names it "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''". He goes through the pictures and tags a few people in them from DigiKam. DigiKam saves the tags inside the ''IPTC keywords'' inside the pictures themselves. And stars a few pictures that's especially good.

Eric wants to show his pictures, as well as back them up to a second computer. So he starts his ''file synchronization software'' (Unison, Sparkleshare, rsync, ...) . After a few hours, the syncing is done.

=== Importing from file system ===

Inside MediaGoblin, he either logs in and chooses «import/scan for new files», or MediaGoblin figures out that itself (from cron/celery beat).

MediaGoblin scans through the files, not touching them, but adding them to the database. It adds an import-job for each picture. When MG has scanned the full folder and found everything new, MG dispatches the job queue.

For each new pictures, MediaGoblin makes a thumbnail and possible other display versions and saves them in the "cache" folder that it keeps. Thus not meddling with Eric's folders and image files. It also extracts the ''IPTC'' and ''XMP'' fields. All the tags Eric added in DigiKam is thus recognized in MediaGoblin and immediately searchable after the import.

=== Making publicly visible albums ===

So now the pictures lie on the web server. Eric is happy that MG uses the path as metadata, so that it's easy to find and watch the new files. Having 40.000 pictures to sort through would be hard.

He marks 20 pictures that's really good and make an album called "''Frogneseteren''", and he makes that album publicly visible. Thus people with limited attention span can watch his site, and only get the best pictures. As well as he's sure he hasn't uploaded and made available some naked swimming photos.

Ada, one of Eric's friends visit the site, but she thinks Eric has left out too many good pictures and emails him. He gives her ''OpenID'' access to see the raw folder "''Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011''" and to link pictures in there to albums. So Ada go through the pictures and add an additional 20 pictures to the public album.

=== Crowd tagging/captioning/commenting ===

Tom signs in with his ''OpenID'' tom.example.com, and goes ahead and tags more images with the names of people in them. He also comments on some pictures.

Eric gets an email saying there's tags and comments to be moderated. He recognized that all the work Tom has done is good, and just puts his ''OpenID'' in the instant-approve list.

MG thus approves all the changes, and it doesn't only write the changes to the database, but also fires up sync-jobs where the new tags and captions are written back to the file metadata.

=== File sync back again ===

When Eric uses his file sync software again (must be two-way, so Unison or Sparkleshare), it notices some files have changed, and sync those back to his computer. When Eric runs DigiKam with it's "''read new metadata from files''", he can use all the new information entered in MediaGoblin by his friends to search for stuff in his pictures. He's happy he could crowd source that, and that all his metadata are safely stored inside the pictures so that it won't get lost.

Also it's great that all software can use the same metadata.

Many images usecase

2011-07-16T15:21:25Z

Velmont: /* After coming home from a weekend trip */

Eric is a enthusiastic photographer and takes many photos. He stores them in folders on his computer. As of now he has over 40.000 partly tagged files. They are quite easy to get to because of the folder hierarchy.

Eric uses DigiKam to organize his files, and is quite happy with that. However, he wants to store them on the internet as well, so that:

* people can see his best photos
* close friends can get access to all photos from an event and help him sort out the best ones for public viewing
* people can tag themselves and others (to help him organize everything)
* he can access it whenever he wants

== After coming home from a weekend trip ==

Eric was at a cabin with 5 friends. When coming home he's got 1000 pictures to throw through.

=== Transfer ===

He transfers all the images to a relevant part in his Pictures-folder, and names it "Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011". He goes through the pictures and tags a few people in them from DigiKam. DigiKam saves the tags inside the IPTC-keywords inside the pictures themselves. And stars a few pictures that's especially good.

Eric wants to show his pictures, as well as back them up to a second computer. So he starts his file synchronization software (Unison, Sparkleshare, rsync, ...) . After a few hours, the syncing is done.

=== Importing from file system ===

Inside MediaGoblin, he either logs in and chooses «import/scan for new files», or MediaGoblin figures out that itself (from cron/celery beat).

MediaGoblin scans through the files, not touching them, but adding them to the database. It adds an import-job for each picture. When MG has scanned the full folder and found everything new, MG dispatches the job queue.

For each new pictures, MediaGoblin makes a thumbnail and possible other display versions and saves them in the "cache" folder that it keeps. Thus not meddling with Eric's folders and image files. It also extracts the IPTC and XMP fields. All the tags Eric added in DigiKam is thus recognized in MediaGoblin and immediately searchable after the import.

=== Making publicly visible albums ===

So now the pictures lie on the web server. Eric is happy that MG uses the path as metadata, so that it's easy to find and watch the new files. Having 40.000 pictures to sort through would be hard.

He marks 20 pictures that's really good and make an album called "Frogneseteren", and he makes that album publicly visible. Thus people with limited attention span can watch his site, and only get the best pictures. As well as he's sure he hasn't uploaded and made available some naked swimming photos.

Ada, one of Eric's friends visit the site, but she thinks Eric has left out too many good pictures and emails him. He gives her OpenID access to see the raw folder "Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011" and to link pictures in there to albums. So Ada go through the pictures and add an additional 20 pictures to the public album.

=== Crowd tagging/captioning/commenting ===

Tom signs in with his OpenID tom.example.com, and goes ahead and tags more images with the names of people in them. He also comments on some pictures.

Eric gets an email saying there's tags and comments to be moderated. He recognized that all the work Tom has done is good, and just puts his OpenID in the instant-approve list.

MG thus approves all the changes, and it doesn't only write the changes to the database, but also fires up sync-jobs where the new tags and captions are written back to the file metadata.

=== File sync back again ===

When Eric uses his file sync software again (must be two-way, so Unison or Sparkleshare), it notices some files have changed, and sync those back to his computer. When Eric runs DigiKam with it's "read new metadata from files", he can use all the new information entered in MediaGoblin by his friends to search for stuff in his pictures. He's happy he could crowd source that, and that all his metadata are safely stored inside the pictures so that it won't get lost.

Also it's great that all software can use the same metadata.

Many images usecase

2011-07-16T15:14:43Z

Velmont: /* After coming home from a weekend trip */

Eric is a enthusiastic photographer and takes many photos. He stores them in folders on his computer. As of now he has over 40.000 partly tagged files. They are quite easy to get to because of the folder hierarchy.

Eric uses DigiKam to organize his files, and is quite happy with that. However, he wants to store them on the internet as well, so that:

* people can see his best photos
* close friends can get access to all photos from an event and help him sort out the best ones for public viewing
* people can tag themselves and others (to help him organize everything)
* he can access it whenever he wants

== After coming home from a weekend trip ==

Eric was at a cabin with 5 friends. When coming home he's got 1000 pictures to throw through.

He transfers all the images to a relevant part in his Pictures-folder, and names it "Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011". He goes through the pictures and tags a few people in them from DigiKam. DigiKam saves the tags inside the IPTC-keywords inside the pictures themselves. And stars a few pictures that's especially good.

Eric wants to show his pictures, as well as back them up to a second computer. So he starts his file synchronization software (Unison, Sparkleshare, rsync, ...) . After a few hours, the syncing is done.

----

Inside MediaGoblin, he either logs in and chooses «import/scan for new files», or MediaGoblin figures out that itself (from cron/celery beat).

MediaGoblin scans through the files, not touching them, but adding them to the database. It adds an import-job for each picture. When MG has scanned the full folder and found everything new, MG dispatches the job queue.

For each new pictures, MediaGoblin makes a thumbnail and possible other display versions and saves them in the "cache" folder that it keeps. Thus not meddling with Eric's folders and image files. It also extracts the IPTC and XMP fields. All the tags Eric added in DigiKam is thus recognized in MediaGoblin and immediately searchable after the import.

----

So now the pictures lie on the web server. Eric is happy that MG uses the path as metadata, so that it's easy to find and watch the new files. Having 40.000 pictures to sort through would be hard.

He marks 20 pictures that's really good and make an album called "Frogneseteren", and he makes that album publicly visible. Thus people with limited attention span can watch his site, and only get the best pictures. As well as he's sure he hasn't uploaded and made available some naked swimming photos.

Ada, one of Eric's friends visit the site, but she thinks Eric has left out too many good pictures and emails him. He gives her OpenID access to see the raw folder "Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011" and to link pictures in there to albums. So Ada go through the pictures and add an additional 20 pictures to the public album.

----

Tom signs in with his OpenID tom.example.com, and goes ahead and tags more images with the names of people in them. He also comments on some pictures.

Eric gets an email saying there's tags and comments to be moderated. He recognized that all the work Tom has done is good, and just puts his OpenID in the instant-approve list.

MG thus approves all the changes, and it doesn't only write the changes to the database, but also fires up sync-jobs where the new tags and captions are written back to the file metadata.

----

When Eric uses his file sync software again (must be two-way, so Unison or Sparkleshare), it notices some files have changed, and sync those back to his computer. When Eric runs DigiKam with it's "read new metadata from files", he can use all the new information entered in MediaGoblin by his friends to search for stuff in his pictures. He's happy he could crowd source that, and that all his metadata are safely stored inside the pictures so that it won't get lost.

Also it's great that all software can use the same metadata.

Many images usecase

2011-07-16T15:10:45Z

Velmont: My use case written as Eric's use case ;-)

Eric is a enthusiastic photographer and takes many photos. He stores them in folders on his computer. As of now he has over 40.000 partly tagged files. They are quite easy to get to because of the folder hierarchy.

Eric uses DigiKam to organize his files, and is quite happy with that. However, he wants to store them on the internet as well, so that:

* people can see his best photos
* close friends can get access to all photos from an event and help him sort out the best ones for public viewing
* people can tag themselves and others (to help him organize everything)
* he can access it whenever he wants

== After coming home from a weekend trip ==

Eric was at a cabin with 5 friends. When coming home he's got 1000 pictures to throw through.

He transfers all the images to a relevant part in his Pictures-folder, and names it "Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011". He goes through the pictures and tags a few people in them from DigiKam. DigiKam saves the tags inside the IPTC-keywords inside the pictures themselves. And stars a few pictures that's especially good.

Eric wants to show his pictures, as well as back them up to a second computer. So he starts his file synchronization software (Unison, Sparkleshare, rsync, ...) . After a few hours, the syncing is done.

----

Inside MediaGoblin, he either logs in and chooses «import/scan for new files», or MediaGoblin figures out that itself (from cron/celery beat).

MediaGoblin scans through the files, not touching them, but adding them to the database. It adds an import-job for each picture. When MG has scanned the full folder and found everything new, MG dispatches the job queue.

For each new pictures, MediaGoblin makes a thumbnail and possible other display versions and saves them in the "cache" folder that it keeps. Thus not meddling with Eric's folders and image files. It also extracts the IPTC and XMP fields. All the tags Eric added in DigiKam is thus recognized in MediaGoblin and immediately searchable after the import.

----

So now the pictures lie on the web server. Eric marks 20 pictures that's really good and make an album called "Frogneseteren", and he makes that album publicly visible.

Ada, one of Eric's friends visit the site, but she thinks Eric has left out too many good pictures and emails him. He gives her OpenID access to see the raw folder "Frogneseteren weekend trip, june 2011" and to link pictures in there to albums. So Ada go through the pictures and add an additional 20 pictures to the public album.

----

Tom signs in with his OpenID tom.example.com, and goes ahead and tags more images with the names of people in them. He also comments on some pictures.

Eric gets an email saying there's tags and comments to be moderated. He recognized that all the work Tom has done is good, and just puts his OpenID in the instant-approve list.

MG thus approves all the changes, and it doesn't only write the changes to the database, but also fires up sync-jobs where the new tags and captions are written back to the file metadata.

----

When Eric uses his file sync software again (must be two-way, so Unison or Sparkleshare), it notices some files have changed, and sync those back to his computer. When Eric runs DigiKam with it's "read new metadata from files", he can use all the new information entered in MediaGoblin by his friends to search for stuff in his pictures. He's happy he could crowd source that, and that all his metadata are safely stored inside the pictures so that it won't get lost.

Also it's great that all software can use the same metadata.