(database) ADVANCED DATABASE ENTRY / SEARCHING

From the main menu, select the "Database" menu, or you can click on the "Database" ICON on the button bar. Then choose "Database Advanced Record Editor / Searching".

The database information can be integrated into the CONTACT SHEETS and WEB PAGE GALLERY and Text Boxes Overlays functions. Click here for more integration information.

Photo Jockey has a built in database that can keep track of various things about your files. Below is a list of the database fields:

Category

Type 1

Type 2

Value 1

Value 2

Date Photo Taken

Keywords

Notes

You can Import / Export Data TO or FROM other databases as an added bonus.

If you want to use the simpler method of entering data and searching for records, use the Simple Record Editor /Searching screen.

This window has 3 main functions:

Database Entry

Database Searching

Functions for found records

DataBase Record Editor Panel:
This section allows you to edit all fields for the current record. A little preview window is shown depicting the file you are working on. You can also DBL-CLICK it to open up a more flexible Preview Window. The top field "Filename" is not editable, it's for viewing purposes only.

Every field, except the NOTES field has a pulldown next to it. If you click on it, it shows you ALL of the previously used values for the field that are found in the database. This is a great time-saver if you are trying to be consistent with what you enter for the fields. The Date-Taken field has to be in the YYYY-MM-DD format. The Keywords and Notes fields can contain multiple lines of text.

NOTE: There is a "Deleted Status" checkbox to indicate if the record is marked for deletion or not. All records with this option checked are removed from the database when you do a Compact / Fix database function.

Once you are done editing a record, you can click on the "Update" button. You can also skip around to various other records using the VCR buttons. As you hold down on the VCR buttons, the record browsing goes faster and faster.

HINT: If you want to take the record information from one record and put it into a different record WITHOUT A LOT OF RE-TYPING, you can use the COPY/PASTE buttons. Just display the source record and click "COPY" then display the destination record and click "PASTE".

TIP: You can click the ON-HOLD button to add the current file into the ON-HOLD collection window.

TIP: You can click the Explore Folder button to open the File Explorer/Manager window to show all files in the folder that contains the current database record.



DataBase Search Panel:
This panel allows you to do various types of searching for the database.

WHAT RECORDS TO SEARCH:
The first thing you need to specify is what to search. The following are the available search options:

ONLY NON-Deleted Records: Only records that don't have a checkbox in the "Deleted Status" field are searched.

Either Deleted or NON-Deleted Records: All records in the database are searched. This is the default setting.

ONLY Deleted Records: This will show you all the records that are marked for deletion (Deleted Status field is checked).

ONLY Corrupted Records: This will show you all of the records in the database that appear to be corrupted in some manner.

SEARCH FIELDS:
The next step is to enter search criteria in the various fields you are wanting to search for. For example: If you wanted to search the database for records that had "Cars" or "Trucks" in the "Category" field, you could enter "Cars, Trucks" into the "Category" field. Then click on the "Any Word Can Match". Then click on "Search All".

So, you can enter a word or words into various fields and when you search, you can elect to match on ALL words, or ANY word. This is basically known as ANDING & ORING.

NOTE: Enter text into a search field to search for the text ANYWHERE in the field. For example: "CAR" could find in that specific field.



HOW TO SEARCH:
Select a search option so that you can find matches in the database. Here's how you can search:

All Words Must Match: Every field that has search text in it must match with a record in the database for it to be put into the "Found From DataBase Search Panel" list. (More limiting)

Any Word Can Match: Any field that has search text in it needs to have at least one word match with a record in the database for it to be put into the "Found From DataBase Search Panel" list. (Less limiting)

Search All Fields: Check this if you don't know what field to search. So, you could enter "Cars" into the "Category" field and also check this checkbox. Then when you do the search, if "Cars" was found in ANY FIELD (except the filename field), then a match would be added to the found list. If you do NOT checkmark this option, then "Cars" must be found in the "Category" field before a match would be found.

HINT: If you want a more restrictive search, then enter values into several fields and select "All Words Must Match". If you want to find more records, then choose "Any Word Can Match".

TIP: If you are using the Type1, Type2, Value1, Value2 field to store a single word/number entry, then you can use the special RANGE searching option.

##   Searches a number range. 1##59 would find a match if a value of 1 up to a value of 59 was found in the field in a record.

59##1 would produce the same results

..   Searches an alpha sorted range.   Smith..Roberts   would find all records that contained names between Smith and Roberts in the database.

Roberts..Smith    would produce the same results

Make sure that the field you are using the RANGE search is used to store single word / number data. It will NOT work well or at all with multiword fields.

WHERE TO SEARCH:
You can search the entire database (Search All), or you can search database entries that refer to files in Photo Jockey's current viewing folder (Search Current Folder). If you have thousands of database entries and you know the records of interest are in the current folder, then you could select "Search Current Folder" to speed up the search and better yet, to limit the amount of possible records found matching.

FOUND From DataBase Search Panel:
After doing the "Search All" or "Search Current Folder", there will be some records listed in this panel if any records matched on the search criteria. As you click on an entry, you will see the database record editor panel show that selected record entry. If you DBL-CLICK on an entry, you will see the file opened into a Preview Window for additional manipulations.

Once you have some records in this "Found" panel, you can do various things with the records.

Check All: This checkmarks all entries in the list.

Check Flip: This reverses all of the checkmarks in the list.

Check None: This un-checks all of the checkmarks in the list.

NOTE: You can highlight multiple entries by using the CTRL key or using the SHIFT key in the standard way. After highlighting, click on the ALL, FLIP or NONE button to perform the cooresponding function on JUST the highlighted entries.

Once you have checked the files you are interested in, you can do some useful things with them:

Del: Mark all of the checked entries for deletion from the database (Checks the "Deleted Status" option) for each entry. It DOES NOT delete the actual file from your system.

Un-Del: Makes sure all of the checked entries are active (Un-Checks the "Deleted Status" option) for each entry.

Copy: Copies all of the FILES refered to by the checked entries to another folder.

Move: Moves all of the FILES refered to by the checked entries to another folder.

ON-HOLD: Places all of the FILES refered to by the checked entries into the ON-HOLD collection window for later review.

BATCH-DB: Perform Batch Database Operations on all of the checked entries.

OTHER BUTTONS:
Exit:
Exit this window.

Exit & View Photo:
Exit this window and return to the main Photo Jockey window and then attempt to load the currently selected file from this window into the main window.

Delete Database: You should never need to use this feature unless you want to recover the disk space used by the database. Typically the database size will be less than 40MB, unless you have tons of images. Basically, for evey 1000 images, the database will need 1MB to store it's data. So, a system with 32000 images would end up with a database of about 32MB.

Compact:
This allows you to get rid of the records marked for deletion (Deleted Status is checked). It also cleans up databases that have corrupted records. Click here to see more about the compact process.




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