jAlbum 16.1 has an interesting new folder linking behavior called "Mirror content". What "Mirror content" does is to create a folder tree mirroring the structure of the added folder, just like when you copy a folder to jAlbum, but the mirrored tree is filled with file links to the contents of the added folder instead of copies. This preserves disk space while allowing complete separation of jAlbum project files and your images.
Background
Historically, when link-adding folders, jAlbum has simply created folder links pointing to the added folders. Folder links preserve disk space and allows you to create new collections of folders in your albums without moving any physical files or folders. They also have the advantage of responding to changes in the target folders. The downside is that you may wander inside a linked folder and unknowingly be managing your original images which resides in a different location than the album project's tree of folders. File deletions made now affects real files, not copies or file links! Pay attention to the address bar above the thumbnails as it tells you what folder you're currently working in.
Usage
If you feel folder links are scary for above reason, consider the new "Mirror content" choice! This will ensure that whatever you do thereafter within jAlbum only affects that album project.
Try for instance to link-add your main image folder, hopefully containing a ton of images, then select "Mirror content" in the popup that shows.
Now you can go wild with the mirrored tree and for instance use jAlbums Organizer to reorganize the tree of file links, for instance by year, followed by month or location. The only thing that gets reorganized are file links within that album project, (and jAlbum's metadata files are kept with your album project too).
David Ekholm 3 years ago
Hi mark,
No, still haven't implemented auto-synk. Thanks for reminding me about it. I don't see it as a worse idea now than then. I guess it's the lack of feedback in general that acts as a de motivator.
Mark Worthington 3 years ago
Hi David,
I'm not sure if this will get seen, given it's age .... Did you ever implement your "auto-synk"?!
You said "Mark, it's a one-off, but you can quickly update a folder by deleting and re-adding it."
But I see 2 ways of deleting a folder .... in the Project Pane, right-click Delete will delete the folder link, and dragging it back in re-builds.
However, right-click Delete the folder icon in the main Explore window will actually delete the folder itself and so there is nothing to drag back in.
ibaneza gs 4 years ago
very useful article!
David Ekholm 5 years ago
@scuba_fan, yes this is the obvious drawback. We'll see if it can be improved to pick up additions. It would mean a new type of folder then, and auto-synked folder of links.
scuba_fan 5 years ago
Really like this new link option, but looks also to create a mgmt headache when adding content. The mirrored folders doen't look to automatically recognize new content added, and so we must manually add, which then is added only by Link and not mirror, so it seems that suddenly its a mixed use case. still working with this, but so far, seems clumsy. I'm clumsy as well, so perhaps its a match. lol
Jean Louis 5 years ago
Hello,
This novelty still allows to keep the option "make a copy", this event is very convenient when we must redo all the albums following a crash of the software what happened to me after the installation of the skin "Tiger" I had lost all projects ...
(google english translation)
David Ekholm 5 years ago
@Jean, sorry we don't have our blog multilingual too. I hope Google Translate is good enough:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto &tl=fr&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A% 2F%2Fjalbum.net%2Fblog%2Fentry%2Fjalbum-161-wi th-content-mirroring&edit-text=&act=url
Jean Louis 5 years ago
in french please.
Laca Molnar 5 years ago
@philjphotos: Do you mean to put a small shopping cart next to each thumbnail, or in the lightbox? When you add images to the cart, the cart will pop up when you leave the lightbox mode. I believe it's a bit easier selecting images on the thumbnail page, and adding them with the "Add selected" button, which will instantly bring up the cart. I just didn't want to pop up the cart every time when users add a single image.
philjphotos 5 years ago
Hi. Now using Tiger skin. which i like very much. My only criticism is the shopping car, when customers click on the small thumbnail to bring up a larger image the cart is at the bottom of the page where there is no information that people have to click on it to view prices. It would have been better to have put the cart on the right of the photo with a list of prices and sizes.
David Ekholm 5 years ago
@Mark, yes, I'm planning for it.
Mark Worthington 5 years ago
Thanks, David, understood.
An auto-sync, even if just an "update button", would be a worthwhile development, I think.
Regards,
Mark
David Ekholm 5 years ago
@Mark, it's a one-off, but you can quickly update a folder by deleting and re-adding it. I'm considering to implement some kind of auto-synk in the future.
Mark Worthington 5 years ago
OK, now I've re-read it, a question, please ..... does the "mirror content" respond to changes in the target folders, or is it a "one-off" event, a snap-shot?
Mark