Semi-auto download pictures
One of the pieces I hadn’t nailed down after the move to Linux was the ability to download pictures automatically when I inserted my Compact Flash (CF) card into the card reader. In Windows I had a little canon application called Camera Window. Per my configuration it would automatically begin downloading pictures into year/month/day sub-directories of a preset parent directory when ran. Then after associating it with the CF card’s auto-run event, I could launch it when the card was inserted. The effect was the pictures were downloaded to the folder I wanted when the card was inserted. Then Picasa would add the pictures to our photo album when it detected the new pictures. The whole setup was so simple and hassle-free that Renee could run it without understanding how and where I wanted the pictures placed.
In the new environment, Digikam replaced and exceeded the portion filled by Picasa. KDE automatically mounted the CF card when inserted. But I failed to find the application that would transfer the pictures automatically into my photo directory like I detailed above. I began thinking the only way to do this would be through a shell script. While the power and flexibility of a shell script might impress a geek this would hardly win points on the wife’s scale of how a computer ought to operate. One could imagine Renee’s comments ofhow this was a step backwards from the Windows arrangement.
The solution after dinner.
4 Responses to “Semi-auto download pictures”
1 matt 4 November 2007 @ 3:17 am
hey! somebody feed this man, quick! it’s been half a year since he left to have dinner and I need him revived (resurrected?). The situation explicated here exactly mirrors mine and I want the solution. Please?
thanks!
2 matt 7 November 2007 @ 11:04 pm
System > Preferences > Removable Media > Camera
and change “gnome-volume-manager-gthumb %h” to one of the following. Which one depends on whether your camera mounts as a removable drive or not.
digikam –download-from %m
digikam –detect-camera
For the automatic creation of date-based folder names, see the [settings] tab on the far right hand side of the camera import window.
http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/extragear-graphics/digikam/using-kapp-camera.html
It’s still not as seamless as using Zoombrowser as user intervention is still required, but it’s much smoother with only a single button push now.
3 chris 18 November 2007 @ 9:57 pm
LOL! Sorry to leave you hanging, Matt, I’m not use to having an audience. Rest assured, I’ve ate more than my share since I made the post.
That is similar to what I did, although slightly different since I’m in KDE. I set up an action to download the pictures using the “digikam -download-from %m” and associated it with removable media. The effect is the same though, requiring I click on the CF card after KDE has auto-mounted it and choose my “Download pictures” action.
I’m tittering on writing a script that will automatically download the pictures, verify them (MD5 maybe), then wipe the card. Then have it automatically launch when that particular CF card is mounted. This would actually surpass Canon’s utilities; at least in how I want it to work. But as you have seen, my time gets chewed up by other things, so don’t hold your breath. Least that way no harm will come to my few readers.
4 matt 27 December 2007 @ 2:55 pm
Hi Chris, good to hear you are well fed after all
if/when you get around to writing that script please do add a comment. If in the intervening eon I learn how myself, I’ll do the same. Our camera doesn’t show as removable media so perhaps it wouldn’t work anyhow.
Live long and prosper.
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