Star*Explorer Thread

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  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited December 24, 2007
    Nikolai wrote:
    Thanks Brad,
    but I hope you meant: time to upload with a new S*E mwink.gif!
    Cheers! 1drink.gif

    Nope, download the new version. thumb.gif

    And once again it works great under VMware clap.gif
    -=Bradford

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  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 25, 2007
    cmason wrote:
    Thanks John, you got it...althought I also had to raise the 'max file size' as well, since for video it is a huge limit, and S*E was refusing to upload it

    I am uploading 30 sec to 1 min avi's and they are 50-118MB in size. Of course, this means I won't get warnings on jpegs now, so it might be useful to have a separate file size limit warning for video and jpeg.

    Glad you have worked it out, and thanks John for quick help while I was slacking with my petty xmas thingies lol3.gif

    Yeah, I guess with the new videomongus stuff I do need to have different size limits for each, huh? mwink.gif
    Oh well, if not this year then next deal.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited December 26, 2007
    Nikolai wrote:
    Well, finally it's here: S*E supports Image Replace. wings.gif

    What it means is that you can quickly upload some SOOC jpegs, then process those you like/have been ordered, save them under the same name and simply upload them again. Provided you have specified the magic setting (Options, Sync Upload, Online Duplicates, Quick Check, Replace if detected), S*E will gladly replace the previous copies with the new ones. :ivar
    Can be pretty handy feature for you sports/wedding shooters! mwink.gif

    Okay, maybe I am doing something wrong, but it did not seem to work for me. Here is what I did. I touched up three photos. I then went into Star*Explorer. I made sure that the settings were checked as outlined. I did not find a way to say "sync upload" so I selected the album I wanted to replace within. I then used Add Files to... (Shift+cntrl+F). I selected the three files in the Windows browser window. I then selected Process/Upload Files (Control U) and watched as the files went up.

    I then got an error of "TWiddle-Dum: RPC-XML: system error (invalid album id) (5)

    So then I went and checked the photos. Nope still the same photos.

    What did I miss?headscratch.gif

    I get the same result in both Windows running as booted into or as a VMWare Session on the Mac side. I can forward over the log if that would help.
    -=Bradford

    Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 26, 2007
    Okay, maybe I am doing something wrong, but it did not seem to work for me. Here is what I did. I touched up three photos. I then went into Star*Explorer. I made sure that the settings were checked as outlined. I did not find a way to say "sync upload" so I selected the album I wanted to replace within. I then used Add Files to... (Shift+cntrl+F). I selected the three files in the Windows browser window. I then selected Process/Upload Files (Control U) and watched as the files went up.

    I then got an error of "TWiddle-Dum: RPC-XML: system error (invalid album id) (5)

    So then I went and checked the photos. Nope still the same photos.

    What did I miss?headscratch.gif

    I get the same result in both Windows running as booted into or as a VMWare Session on the Mac side. I can forward over the log if that would help.

    Brad, looks like your local cache (MDB file) is out of sync (possible since you're using two different machines).
    I'd suggest to perform Get Albums.
    Once this is done, Get Images Info for this album.
    Let me know.
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    Nikolai wrote:
    Brad, looks like your local cache (MDB file) is out of sync (possible since you're using two different machines).
    I'd suggest to perform Get Albums.
    Once this is done, Get Images Info for this album.
    Let me know.

    I will try that once I get home. For clarification/information more than anything else even though it is two different environments, it is one machine and data set. Using VMWare Fusion, I can launch the Windows Partition of my Mac. I created the partition using BootCamp and I can also boot into it, but it is one and the same hard drive image and data.
    -=Bradford

    Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
  • cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    I think the trouble comes when you don't use S*E for all uploads. It isn't so much the machine, but the tool. If you use S*E and also do Smugmug drag and drop, S*E gets out of sync. I use S*E for large uploads, and the plug-in for LR for smaller, onesy twosy uploads. But doing this gets S*E out of sync with my categories and galleries, esp if I create a new gallery outside of S*E. The trick is to always click the 'update galleries' button when first starting S*E.
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    cmason wrote:
    I think the trouble comes when you don't use S*E for all uploads. It isn't so much the machine, but the tool. If you use S*E and also do Smugmug drag and drop, S*E gets out of sync. I use S*E for large uploads, and the plug-in for LR for smaller, onesy twosy uploads. But doing this gets S*E out of sync with my categories and galleries, esp if I create a new gallery outside of S*E. The trick is to always click the 'update galleries' button when first starting S*E.

    Yes, this is true. IT's nearly impossible to detect "external" changes automatically, that is without wasting a gobs of time, so I had to rely of user's awarenes of what s/he was doing, and if such situation indeed arises, click Get Albums/Get Caegories (or both). The only recent addition is that for the image replace functionality to work you'd also need to Get Image Info after such changes, at least for those externally updated albums.

    I understand this may be a hassle, but automatically synching of this info is really not an option for anybody with more than a dozen galleris and more than a hundred pictures, since it would take a looooooong time.

    And of course, if you always use S*E for all your uploads this is not an issue to begin with :-)
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    Nikolai wrote:
    Yes, this is true. IT's nearly impossible to detect "external" changes automatically, that is without wasting a gobs of time, so I had to rely of user's awarenes of what s/he was doing, and if such situation indeed arises, click Get Albums/Get Caegories (or both). The only recent addition is that for the image replace functionality to work you'd also need to Get Image Info after such changes, at least for those externally updated albums.

    I understand this may be a hassle, but automatically synching of this info is really not an option for anybody with more than a dozen galleris and more than a hundred pictures, since it would take a looooooong time.

    And of course, if you always use S*E for all your uploads this is not an issue to begin with :-)

    Here are some ideas:

    Why not just get the latest galleries and categories "in the background" after login? When I start up S*E, I don't want to wait for a sync everytime, but I also almost never start it up and immediately start doing uploads. I usually start it up, then go find the images I want to upload, then drag/drop them in. In that amount of time, you could have already done the sync without me ever having to wait.

    Isn't there also a feed URL that can help you discover new categories and albums without listing everyting?

    Is it also possible to do an upload time date search across the gallery and see if any images have been uploaded since this copy of S*E last ran and automatically do a "get" if there is new stuff you haven't seen?
    --John
    HomepagePopular
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  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    jfriend wrote:
    Here are some ideas:

    Why not just get the latest galleries and categories "in the background" after login? When I start up S*E, I don't want to wait for a sync everytime, but I also almost never start it up and immediately start doing uploads. I usually start it up, then go find the images I want to upload, then drag/drop them in. In that amount of time, you could have already done the sync without me ever having to wait.

    Isn't there also a feed URL that can help you discover new categories and albums without listing everyting?

    Is it also possible to do an upload time date search across the gallery and see if any images have been uploaded since this copy of S*E last ran and automatically do a "get" if there is new stuff you haven't seen?

    John, those are all valid ideas.

    However, it's very much user specific. For instance, for yours truly it would be a complete waste of time and bandwidth since I do all my SM work via S*E. And for those extremely rare cases when I don't I prefer to sync manually.

    I will most likely improve this whole sort of things in V.2, but I'm still in early design mode for it...

    (And no, there will be no charge for the upgrade:-)
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    Still stumped
    Okay Maybe something is broken. So I booted into Windows (no emulation or VMWare) I then did an update Albums (I did hide some "id" stuff in this post but have the whole log saved if you want it)
    12/27/2007 7:47:28 PM: Started Gettings list of albums
    12/27/2007 7:47:29 PM: Started Logging in with hash:
    12/27/2007 7:47:30 PM: Finished Logging in with hash: (0:00:01)
    12/27/2007 7:47:30 PM: Logged in: Session:
    12/27/2007 7:47:30 PM: Started Getting albums for My Smugmug
    12/27/2007 7:47:32 PM: Finished Getting albums for My Smugmug (0:00:02)
    12/27/2007 7:47:34 PM: Finished Gettings list of albums (0:00:06)
    12/27/2007 7:47:34 PM: Started Logging out of
    12/27/2007 7:47:34 PM: Finished Logging out of (0:00:00)
    12/27/2007 7:47:34 PM: Logged out: Session:
    12/27/2007 7:47:34 PM: Started Logging in with hash:
    12/27/2007 7:47:34 PM: Finished Logging in with hash:
    12/27/2007 7:47:34 PM: Logged in: Session:

    So then I did a Get Categories
    12/27/2007 7:47:38 PM: Started Gettings categories
    12/27/2007 7:47:38 PM: Started Getting categories for My Smugmug
    12/27/2007 7:47:39 PM: Finished Getting categories for My Smugmug (0:00:00)
    12/27/2007 7:47:39 PM: Started Getting all sub categories for My Smugmug
    12/27/2007 7:47:39 PM: Finished Getting all sub categories for My Smugmug (0:00:01)
    12/27/2007 7:47:40 PM: Finished Gettings categories (0:00:02)
    12/27/2007 7:47:40 PM: Started Logging out of
    12/27/2007 7:47:40 PM: Finished Logging out of (0:00:00)
    12/27/2007 7:47:40 PM: Logged out: Session:
    12/27/2007 7:47:40 PM: Started Logging in with hash:
    12/27/2007 7:47:41 PM: Finished Logging in with hash:
    12/27/2007 7:47:41 PM: Logged in: Session:

    So then I did a get Image Info and told it to replace all the info it had
    12/27/2007 7:47:51 PM: Started Acquiring image info for My Smugmug
    12/27/2007 7:47:51 PM: Started Getting images info

    ~~snip~~
    12/27/2007 8:18:35 PM: Finished Getting images info (0:30:43)
    12/27/2007 8:18:35 PM: Finished Acquiring image info for My Smugmug (0:30:43)
    12/27/2007 8:18:35 PM: Started Logging out of
    12/27/2007 8:18:35 PM: Finished Logging out of (0:00:01)
    12/27/2007 8:18:35 PM: Logged out: Session:
    12/27/2007 8:18:35 PM: Started Logging in with hash:
    12/27/2007 8:18:36 PM: Finished Logging in with hash: (0:00:00)
    12/27/2007 8:18:36 PM: Logged in: Session:

    So then I tried just adding the three photos in question
    12/27/2007 8:19:18 PM: Started Parsing drag'n'drop items
    12/27/2007 8:19:18 PM: Finished Parsing drag'n'drop items (0:00:00)
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM: Started Uploading
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM: Upload files: 3, 4.86 MB
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM: Started Upload files: 3, 4.86 MB
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM: Started TSEUploadThread
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM: Started TSEUploadThread
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM:
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM: TWiddle-Dee: 1 out of 3: 071224 Snapshots-11.jpg
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM:
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM:
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM: TWiddle-Dum: 2 out of 3: 071224 Snapshots-17.jpg
    12/27/2007 8:19:28 PM:
    12/27/2007 8:19:29 PM: Started TWiddle-Dee: uploading 071224 Snapshots-11.jpg to album 235619422
    12/27/2007 8:19:46 PM: Finished TWiddle-Dee: uploading 071224 Snapshots-11.jpg to album 235619422 (0:00:17)
    12/27/2007 8:19:46 PM: Started TWiddle-Dum: uploading 071224 Snapshots-17.jpg to album 235619987
    12/27/2007 8:19:46 PM: TWiddle-Dee: RPC-XML: system error (invalid album id) (5)
    12/27/2007 8:19:46 PM:
    12/27/2007 8:19:46 PM: TWiddle-Dee: 3 out of 3: 071224 Snapshots-19.jpg
    12/27/2007 8:19:46 PM:
    12/27/2007 8:19:56 PM: Finished TWiddle-Dum: uploading 071224 Snapshots-17.jpg to album 235619987 (0:00:10)
    12/27/2007 8:19:56 PM: Started TWiddle-Dee: uploading 071224 Snapshots-19.jpg to album 235620267
    12/27/2007 8:19:56 PM: TWiddle-Dum: RPC-XML: system error (invalid album id) (5)
    12/27/2007 8:19:56 PM: Finished TSEUploadThread (0:00:28)
    12/27/2007 8:20:13 PM: Finished TWiddle-Dee: uploading 071224 Snapshots-19.jpg to album 235620267 (0:00:17)
    12/27/2007 8:20:13 PM: TWiddle-Dee: RPC-XML: system error (invalid album id) (5)
    12/27/2007 8:20:13 PM: Finished TSEUploadThread (0:00:45)
    12/27/2007 8:20:14 PM: Finished Upload files: 3, 4.86 MB (0:00:46)
    12/27/2007 8:20:14 PM: Finished Uploading (0:00:46)
    12/27/2007 8:20:14 PM: Started Logging out of
    12/27/2007 8:20:15 PM: Finished Logging out of (0:00:01)
    12/27/2007 8:20:15 PM: Logged out: Session:
    12/27/2007 8:20:15 PM: Started Logging in with hash:
    12/27/2007 8:20:16 PM: Finished Logging in with hash: (0:00:00)
    12/27/2007 8:20:16 PM: Logged in: Session:

    Still no change in the photos. Something I did notice is that the error indicates a different album number at times.

    So I am still stumped.headscratch.gif
    -=Bradford

    Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    Okay Maybe something is broken. So I booted into Windows (no emulation or VMWare) I then did an update Albums (I did hide some "id" stuff in this post but have the whole log saved if you want it)

    So then I did a Get Categories
    So then I did a get Image Info and told it to replace all the info it had
    So then I tried just adding the three photos in question

    Still no change in the photos. Something I did notice is that the error indicates a different album number at times.

    So I am still stumped.headscratch.gif

    Brad, I'm gonna switch to email now, OK?
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited December 27, 2007
    Nikolai wrote:
    Brad, I'm gonna switch to email now, OK?

    Yup...
    -=Bradford

    Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
  • darryldarryl Registered Users Posts: 997 Major grins
    edited December 28, 2007
    New feature request, Nikolai: support the new Hide Photo feature. :-}

    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=711465#post711465
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited December 28, 2007
    darryl wrote:
    New feature request, Nikolai: support the new Hide Photo feature. :-}

    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=711465#post711465
    It's not even 5 hours old lol3.gif
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 28, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    It's not even 5 hours old lol3.gif
    Laughing.gif!
    Oh well, I'll see how it goes with API ;-) mwink.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,008 Major grins
    edited December 29, 2007
    Seems like everything I download is a mdb file. I have v97 of M$ Access and
    they don't open. Any way to get a delimited text file?
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • devbobodevbobo Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,339 SmugMug Employee
    edited December 29, 2007
    Nikolai wrote:
    Laughing.gif!
    Oh well, I'll see how it goes with API ;-) mwink.gif

    it's in the api, smugmug.images.changeSettings and smugmug.images.getInfo have been upgraded.

    thumb.gif
    David Parry
    SmugMug API Developer
    My Photos
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 29, 2007
    Allen wrote:
    Seems like everything I download is a mdb file. I have v97 of M$ Access and
    they don't open. Any way to get a delimited text file?
    Try to upgrade the MDAC (link in S*E About), then even '97 may work, it should use whatever ADO version you have...

    HTH
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited December 29, 2007
    devbobo wrote:
    it's in the api, smugmug.images.changeSettings and smugmug.images.getInfo have been upgraded.

    thumb.gif
    Thanks David, u r da man! thumb.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited January 1, 2008
    Version 181 of Star*Explorer uploaded
    Thanks to Brad's patience and help bowdown.gif, one nusty bug with Image Replace has been isolated and fixed. New version uploaded.
    Caveat: It is not recommended to use old upload queues, at least if they contained image replace items. The rest of the images should be fine.
    Happy New Year! thumb.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited January 2, 2008
    It fixed my problem with updating the files clap.gif

    Thanks for working on it Nik!

    Now if it could help me take better pictures, lose weight, regrow hair... rolleyes1.gif
    -=Bradford

    Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
  • darryldarryl Registered Users Posts: 997 Major grins
    edited January 10, 2008
    Nikolai:

    I have to confess, I've never really given Star Explorer a thorough demo. As I look at it now, I think I'm running into the same issue that stymied me before.

    I don't really need a tool to manage uploads.

    What I want is to be able to see thumbnails of everything that is already up there, and if needed, delete (and ideally, when you implement the feature, hide) them.

    When I choose "Get Images Info" for a gallery, the terminal window pops up and I see stuff gets transferred, but I don't see *where*.

    When I tried "Download Images", again, terminal window, and I see in the Upload to Smugmug folder that my images are there.

    What I don't see is for a way to manage the attributes of those photos.

    Is this not a feature that Star*Explorer has? Or do I have to pay to see it? Or am I just using it incorrectly?

    Thanks!
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2008
    Darryl,

    thank you for your inquiry!

    Since S*E is primarily an uploader, it looks like it does not have the features you're looking for.
    Modifying image attributes is a feature I've been working on for quite some time, but it's still a long shot.

    As for the deletion - I'm really opposed to an idea to include any destructive actions in my tool. deal.gif I would really hate to have an email from Andy/Baldy telling me that somebody used S*E to wipe out clean 10 years of pictures - despite of 5 warning dialogs

    "Get image info" downloads meta information into S*E local database. This serves for syncing, image replace, search, reports and other advanced features.

    "Download images" does what it says - download your images from SM back to your HDD.

    Sorry to disappoint you. ne_nau.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • darryldarryl Registered Users Posts: 997 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2008
    Hey Nikolai:

    No worries, at least I hadn't paid for it yet. :-}

    --Darryl
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2008
    darryl wrote:
    Hey Nikolai:

    No worries, at least I hadn't paid for it yet. :-}

    --Darryl
    By the way things look, you prolly never will lol3.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited January 13, 2008
    Version 183 of Star*Explorer uploaded
    New: No-wait upload mode (OFF by default)

    It has been noted by many users that upload times out, especially during the "rush-hour" (weekends, usually). To eliminate this issue at its root a new mode has been added that allows you upload/replace images without waiting for Smugmug servers response. This also speeds the process up additional 15%..30%.
    To turn this mode ON set the flag in Options, Upload, Upload Method, Do Not Wait for Response.

    The Big Caveat: image ids are not retrieved, so all images assumed to be uploaded OK. Power and Pro users would have to Get Image Info after such an upload to ensure Image replace and other image ID-based functionality. Pro users can use additional flag to obtain such information automatically by checking Get Info After Fast Upload option.

    Due to the described nature of the new mode I do not recommend its usage on a regular basis - unless:
    1) you are experience timeout/handle in the wrong state errors frequently, or
    2) dealing with large uploads - in which case you can save some considerable amount of time.
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • swcolleenswcolleen Registered Users Posts: 158 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2008
    question-new to star explorer
    Hi! I just heard about Star Explorer (HAve I been under a rock??) But I downloaded the trial to try it out. I am most interested in finding out if this program has the ability to generate information on what photos have been downloaded, if they were not sold.

    Does it do this? If so, can someone tell me how to make that happen?

    Thanks!!
    colleen
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2008
    swcolleen wrote:
    Hi! I just heard about Star Explorer (HAve I been under a rock??) But I downloaded the trial to try it out. I am most interested in finding out if this program has the ability to generate information on what photos have been downloaded, if they were not sold.

    Does it do this? If so, can someone tell me how to make that happen?

    Thanks!!
    colleen

    Colleen,
    thank you for your interest in Star*Explorer! thumb.gif
    Unfortunately this information is not available, and I honestly doubt it ever will be.
    You can install a web counter yourself to your site (www.statcounter.com is a great choice) to monitor the page hits yourself, but that's about the extent of what can be possibly done.
    Please let me know if you have further questions/concerns.
    Cheers!
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • swcolleenswcolleen Registered Users Posts: 158 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2008
    Nikolai wrote:
    Colleen,
    thank you for your interest in Star*Explorer! thumb.gif
    Unfortunately this information is not available, and I honestly doubt it ever will be.
    You can install a web counter yourself to your site (www.statcounter.com is a great choice) to monitor the page hits yourself, but that's about the extent of what can be possibly done.
    Please let me know if you have further questions/concerns.
    Cheers!

    Thank you for the quick response. I didnt think there was an option but I wasn';t sure and I wanted to check before I drove myself crazy!
    Thanks!!
    colleen
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2008
    swcolleen wrote:
    Thank you for the quick response.
    That was the least I could do :-)
    swcolleen wrote:
    I didnt think there was an option but I wasn';t sure and I wanted to check before I drove myself crazy!
    Thanks!!
    colleen
    Sure. In any case I suggest you give S*E a try, use it a few times and see if you like it.
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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