MacSanta is coming to town
Posted on December 15, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, PlistEdit Pro, iPhoto Library Manager | Leave a Comment
I’m happy to be participating this year in the MacSanta promotion! Generously set up by Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba, MacSanta offers deals from now until Christmas on products from five new Mac software companies every day. iPhoto Library Manager and PlistEdit Pro are both being featured today (December 15th), and you can get 20% off by using the coupon code MACSANTA07 when purchasing.
Also be sure to check out the Extended Deals page, which lists all the products that have been featured so far in the month, and you can still get 10% off any of those products by using the coupon code MACSANTA07TEN anytime until the end of December (this also applies to iPhoto Library Manager and PlistEdit Pro after today). There is also an RSS feed available, so you can continue to keep up on new deals that appear between now and Christmas.
iPhoto Library Manager 3.4 released
Posted on October 30, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | 6 Comments
At long last, iPhoto Library Manager is ready for Leopard! OK, it hasn’t really been that long since Leopard came out (4 days?), but it seemed like a long time. The new version is available for download and as usual, is a free update for existing customers. Leopard compatibility was the biggest change in this new version, but it also includes a bug fix or two as well. Enjoy!
iPLM Leopard update
Posted on October 24, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, iPhoto Library Manager | 4 Comments
Just a quick note on iPhoto Library Manager compatibility with Leopard:
- I am currently working on the update, but Apple has decided not to give developers an advance copy of the final version of Leopard until it ships, which means that I won’t truly be able to start final testing until this weekend. I’m hoping that it won’t take too long and that the iPLM update will be out sometime next week.
- Similarly to major iPhoto updates, so far the basic library switching in iPLM seems to work fine in Leopard, it’s just the advanced photo copying stuff that will need additional work, so upgrading to Leopard isn’t going to cut you off from your iPhoto libraries or anything
- The update will be free, so if you buy a copy of iPhoto Library Manager now, you won’t have to pay to upgrade, you can just download the new version.
That’s all for now, I’ll try to keep updates coming as I know more.
iPhoto Library Manager and Leopard
Posted on October 12, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under Development, iPhoto Library Manager | 1 Comment
I just thought I would drop a quick note regarding plans for Leopard compatibility for iPhoto Library Manager. The short version is that iPhoto Library Manager will support Leopard fully by the time Leopard comes out. Yay! Since things can change and break things at the last minute with new OS releases, I won’t actually be releasing a Leopard compatible version of iPLM until I can actually test it with the final version of Leopard, but I’ve got the big stuff figured out already. For those interested in the nerdy technical details, read onward.
Leopard will require some changes in the way iPhoto Library Manager works under the hood. iPLM uses the Input Manager mechanism of Mac OS X to load a bundle of code into iPhoto which supplements iPhoto’s Applescripting capabilities, which is what makes features such as copying albums and merging libraries possible. Some other programs, such as Inquisitor and 1Passwd also use input managers to implement their functionality. However, as has been reported by Ars Technica and discussed on some other blogs, input managers are no longer going to be supported under Leopard.
Other developers have found other methods to do what they need to do under Leopard, such as 1Passwd, whose developers say they are going to switch to a WebKit plugin, which works well for them since their product is web browser oriented. iPhoto Library Manager is going to take a different approach though.
One difference between iPLM and some other apps that use input managers is that iPLM only actually needs its code to be loaded when it’s actively doing something with iPhoto, like copying some albums between libraries. It doesn’t matter if the code is loaded every time iPhoto is launched, unlike say, Inquisitor, which pretty much always has to be there to be of any use.
So, instead of a plugin based approach, under Leopard iPLM will use a handy little feature of the OS X dynamic linker, the DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES environment variable. Basically what this does is allow you to load additional dynamic libraries in an application (and even substitute for libraries the application is already linked to). The most well known usage for this feature is the MallocDebug developer application, which loads a custom debug version of the malloc library that replaces the normal system library and provides all sort of information on memory usage in the application being debugged.
The downside to this approach is that it requires relaunching the application in question in order to load the additional code, since you have to set up this environment variable and then launch the application yourself. So, for something like Inquisitor, launching Safari directly from the dock would not load the code automatically. There would have to be a separate program that performs the special setup and launch Safari itself, which would be a pain in the butt for users. However, this isn’t really a problem for iPLM, since it has to relaunch iPhoto multiple times during an album copy anyway, so having to do the special setup doesn’t really change the flow of things at all.
There are a couple other upsides to this approach:
- The code will only be loaded into iPhoto itself, unlike input managers, which load their code into any Cocoa application that runs. iPLM’s code doesn’t actually do anything unless it’s being loaded in iPhoto, but the input manager bundle still shows up in crash reports and such, which can be suspicious to others trying to debug a crash.
- Nothing needs to be installed! All the code can sit happily within iPLM’s application bundle, and there’s no need to update the bundle when iPLM is updated, or any of that hassle. This means I’ll actually be deleting more code than I’m writing in order to change to the new method.
The only feature that will be lost as a result of the change is putting the name of the current library in the title bar of the iPhoto window itself. This was a neat addition that I put in on a whim, but since the iPLM code will no longer always be running in iPhoto, this will be going away.
In retrospect, if I had known about this method of doing things back when I first wrote iPLM 3.0, I probably would have done it this way in the first place, since it’s less intrusive and uses a long standing feature of dyld that isn’t likely to go anywhere anytime soon. Like I said above, this method isn’t feasible for many programs that are currently using input managers, but this may still prove a useful technique to some other programs transitioning over to Leopard.
iPhoto 7 editing behavior
Posted on October 9, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under iPhoto, Tips & Tricks, iPhoto Library Manager | 1 Comment
While fiddling around with the editing controls in iPhoto 7, I came across a small bit of new behavior that I thought may be interesting to some. If you use any of the sliders in the “Adjust” palette, iPhoto 7 will actually remember the positions of those sliders if you come back to that photo to edit it a second time.
Picture after editing and reopening
This is in contrast to iPhoto 6, where opening this photo back up again would result in the “Temperature” slider being reset to 0. This is pretty cool overall, even if it prevents you from doing X-TREME 200% SHARPNESS adjustments by sliding the slider to 100% twice.
However, if you choose to edit your photo with an external editor, such as Photoshop or Preview, iPhoto will not remember these slider settings.
Picture after editing in Preview
Also note that when copying photos with iPhoto Library Manager, transferring both the original and modified versions of the photo does the equivalent of editing in an external editor, so the slider settings won’t be transferred.
iPhoto 7.1 update
Posted on September 27, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | Leave a Comment
Naturally, since I released an update to iPhoto Library Manager yesterday morning, Apple had to go and release an update to iPhoto about 5 hours later that broke some stuff. Worst. Timing. Ever.
A few things needed tweaking to maintain compatibility, but it wasn’t much, and I’ve posted a new update to iPhoto Library Manager (now version 3.3.2) to get everything working properly with iPhoto 7.1 You can download the new version from the main iPLM page.
iPhoto Library Manager 3.3.1 released
Posted on September 26, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | 1 Comment
iPhoto Library Manager 3.3.1 is now available for download, incorporating several bug fixes and a couple of new iPhoto 7 specific features. The new version is a free update for existing iPLM users, you can just download the new version and replace your old one with it. There were a couple common problems that people were running into with iPhoto 7, which should be alleviated somewhat with this new release.
iPhoto 7 seems to be a little flakier that previous versions when it comes to properly updating thumbnails for photos that have been edited. The thumbnail would end up reflecting the original version of the photo instead of the modified version, making it appear that the modified photos had not been copied over at all. I’d seen this happen on occasion with iPhoto 6, but it seemed to be become much more common once people started upgrading to iPhoto 7, and this update should hopefully prevent this from happening anymore.
iPhoto 7 adds the new ability to hide selected photos in your library, to help you be able to navigate your library and ignore photos you don’t need to work with at the moment. iPhoto does have an item in its View menu that will let you show/hide the photos you have marked as hidden, so you can still reveal them if you need to, then easily hide them again. However, iPhoto does not write out information for hidden photos to its AlbumData.xml file, which is what iPLM reads to display the library’s album list in its window, and is also used by iMovie, iDVD, Pages, and many other applications to let the user easily use their iPhoto photos in those applications. This behavior occurs even if you have elected to display your hidden photos in iPhoto’s interface, so there is no way to access hidden photos from other applications.
I actually filed a bug with Apple on this issue. The good news is I got a quick response, but the bad news was the response was “Behaves Correctly”. Grrrr. The explanation:
“The View > Hidden Photos option is to allow users to manage their hidden photos (photos marked hidden) without inadvertently making them available to other applications.”
So this means that if you want to access photos from another application that you’ve marked as hidden, you need to actually unhide those photos, go do your thing with them, then come back to iPhoto and mark the photos as hidden again. Of course this means that you get to be the one to keep track of exactly what photos those were, then go find them again in iPhoto to re-hide them. Needless to say, I think this is exceedingly silly, especially since the View > Hidden Photos option would allow you do exactly the same thing with much less hassle. I’d encourage anyone who’d like to see this behavior changed to provide feedback to Apple, either via bug report or the iPhoto feedback page. And as always, be polite. 
But, the good news is that hidden photos are still accessible via Applescript, so iPLM 3.3.1 adds an option that will copy hidden photos, and also re-hide them in the destination library after they’ve been copied over. There are some other goodies in the new version, and you can find the full list of changes on the release notes page.
iPhoto Library Manager 3.3 released
Posted on August 20, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under iPhoto, News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | 5 Comments
I’m pleased to announce that iPhoto Library Manager 3.3 is shipping today, with full support for iPhoto 7! (On a terminology note, I’ve decided I’m going to at least try referring to this new iPhoto as “iPhoto 7″ and not “iPhoto ‘08″. All of Apple’s docs seem to use the ‘08 nomenclature, but trying to use it myself, it just sounds/looks really weird, so I’m going to stick with “iPhoto 7″ unless it causes mass confusion and riots.)
The update is free for all users and can be downloaded from the main iPLM page. iPhoto 7 support is the major feature of this release, so functionally speaking it’s mostly the same as 3.2.6, with a couple of notable exceptions.
- The first good news is that, as a result of changes in iPhoto 7, album hierarchies can now be preserved when copying between libraries! This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but just wasn’t able to in previous versions, so for iPhoto 7 users, that will be nice to have.
- I’ve made the look of the album list mimic the look of the iPhoto 7 album list, including the background color and separate sections with titles (you can click here to see how it looks). Older libraries will still be displayed with the plain look.
- Unlike in iPhoto 6, the list of events (formerly known as rolls) can now be sorted by their date in the iPhoto Library Manager window. This makes it somewhat easier to track down a particular event you’re looking to copy to another library.
So, there it is! I’ve of course tested the bejeezus out of it, but if anyone has issues that crop up, drop me a line at support@fatcatsoftware.com.
iPhoto 7/’08 observations
Posted on August 9, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under iPhoto, Development, iPhoto Library Manager | 13 Comments
I’ve only been playing around with iPhoto 7 for a little bit now, but I’ve found some interesting nuggets on how things have changed in comparison to iPhoto 6. And yes, the official version number for the new iPhoto is 7, even thought it’s part of iLife ‘08. Thanks for not making things totally confusing, Apple. *sigh*
Events are the new Rolls
As I suspected might be the case, it appears that the new Events feature in iPhoto 7 is, structurally speaking, a rebranded use of Rolls from iPhoto 6 and earlier. In fact, I don’t see the term “roll” used anywhere in the iPhoto 7 interface anymore. I’m happy with the new Events interface, as it is a marked improvement and much more useful than rolls were under iPhoto 6. At the core of things, they basically work the same, but there are a couple important differences in behavior.
Like rolls, events are mutually exclusive, so every photo belongs to a single event, no more, no less. However, in iPhoto 6, every distinct import was grouped into a single roll. In iPhoto 7, a single import can now result in multiple events, depending on what settings you have in the preferences, and the dates of the photos that were taken.
Library folders are now packages
In previous versions of iPhoto, your library folder was just that, a folder. It appeared as a normal folder in the Finder, and you could dig through it and mess with things just as easily as any other folder. In iPhoto 7, Apple has decided to make iPhoto folders into packages instead. A package is simply a folder that doesn’t appear as a folder in the Finder. Most applications are actually packages (or rather, a special type of package called a bundle), and many other things, from plugins to documents are also marked as packages. You can still see what’s inside a package by control-clicking it in the Finder and selecting “Show Package Contents”.
This may cause a little terminology confusion in the short run, as the term “iPhoto library folder” is used fairly pervasively, but I think in the long run this is a good move by Apple. Countless people have unknowingly borked their iPhoto libraries in various ways by moving stuff around inside the library folder. This is actually not unreasonable behavior, but iPhoto reacts very poorly to having its library messed around with. So, my basic reaction is, “What took them so long?”.
For those curious in the technical details, iPhoto libraries don’t require an extension, as is the norm for most applications that store their data in packages, but instead have their “Is Package” bit set so that the Finder displays it as a package, even without an extension. It also sets the type/creator on the folder so that the library is displayed as a pretty icon in the Finder, as well as a Contents/PkgInfo file containing the same information.
Auto import folder
I don’t see this mentioned anywhere in the documentation, but there is now a new folder inside the library named “Auto Import”. It appears that how this works is, if you put some photos into the Auto Import folder, then the next time you launch iPhoto, it will look in that folder and import any photos it finds there. It does delete any photos in that folder after importing them. There is also an “auto import” Applescript command, but calling it doesn’t seem to do anything, at least not as far as I can see. I have a feeling this may have been a feature that was pulled out late in development, and they just forgot to remove the Applescript command and the actual folder inside the library.
New keyword interface
Another iPhoto release, another new interface for assigning keywords. By my count, this is at least the 4th different interface iteration for this feature in iPhoto. I also think this is the first time that the new interface has actually been an improvement over the old one.
In iPhoto 7, you can actually edit keywords directly inside the main viewer. This is quite cool, as it will autocomplete existing keywords as you type, and if you type a new keyword and type a comma, it will automatically create a new keyword with what you typed. This is a vast improvement over iPhoto 6, where you had to go into the preferences window just to add new keywords to your list.
But how do you edit the keywords of multiple photos at a time? This actually took me a good while to find, as the info window no longer contains a tab for editing keywords as it did before, and the keywords pane/button no longer exists down in the lower left corner of the window. I eventually found it, under the Window menu, there is a “Show Keywords” item that brings up a window with all your keywords.
From this window, you can select multiple photos, and then click the keyword buttons to assign/unassign keywords to the entire selection. You can also drag keywords up to the “Quick Group” area above and assign one letter keyboard shortcuts to them. For example, if I have “n” assigned to the keyword “nebula”, anytime I have something selected in the main iPhoto window, I can just press “n” to add/remove the “nebula” keyword from the selected photos.
I think this is the first version of iPhoto that really has a good interface for assigning keywords. Don’t know what took them so long, but there it is. My only gripe would be to have a button available somewhere in the bottom section of the window to bring up the keywords window, as I can see many people never even realizing that it’s available. I was actively looking for it, and it took me a good couple of minutes to find it.
There are many other large and small new features in iPhoto 7, which I may go into in more detail later, but those are the things that popped out at me in the first couple of hours of playing with it. I’ll be posting more later with other nuggets as I find them.
iPhoto Library Manager and iPhoto ‘08
Posted on August 9, 2007 by Brian Webster
Filed Under Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | 21 Comments
Apple announced the release of a new version of iLife today, which includes an updated version of iPhoto. I don’t have any super-secret contacts inside Apple (yet!) that feed me advanced copies of iPhoto, so I don’t yet know what the compatibility status of iPhoto Library Manager is with the new iPhoto. In the past, the basic function of creating and switching between libraries in iPhoto Library Manager has been unaffected by updates, but the more advanced features such as copying photos and merging libraries has required an update, and I’m guessing that will probably be the case once again.
So, I’ll be getting my hands on a copy of iPhoto ‘08 as soon as I can, and I’ll have more information on what works and what doesn’t once I get a chance to play around with it some. For now, proceed with caution if you’re upgrading to the new iPhoto and use iPhoto Library Manager heavily, and I’ll be posting whatever info I find as soon as I find it.
Update: 8/9/07 The FedEx guy arrived today with my new copy of iLife ‘08! As I suspected, it appears you can still create and switch between libraries using iPhoto Library Manager with no problems. Also as I suspected, the following features of iPLM don’t work with iPhoto 7:
- Copying albums/rolls
- Merging libraries
- Direct import of photos
If you try to use any of these features, you’ll probably get a lovely looking error message along the lines of “*** -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil key”. Nothing bad will happen if you try to copy stuff between libraries, it just won’t work. So, I’ll be working on getting these features back up and running, I’ll have more of an idea of a timeframe once I get more of a chance to delve into the details.
You’ll probably also notice that the album list might look a little odd after you work with iPhoto 7 a little bit, as there are some new album types that are displayed in iPLM with a regular album icon. Also, the roll list will not display roll names properly. This is all due to the new “Events” feature in iPhoto 7, which is basically a rebranding of rolls that actually makes them a useful and integral part of the iPhoto experience (you can read more about events/rolls and some other iPhoto 7 changes here).
Also, anyone who encounters specific issues with iPhoto ‘08, please e-mail support@fatcatsoftware.com with your issue, as that will be the best way for me to keep track of them and give a response.
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