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[Doof]

It's baaaack! New build available. Version 0.9 Beta

New Features

• You can now select a playlist to get the list of images from
• The plugin is now seperate from Playing Now so you can listen to music and edit image captions at the same time
• Added a file listing so you can now see the list of images you're working with
• File list will only add images
• Added color options to the file list so you can see which images have captions and which don't

Screenshots and download available at http://www.dooftoo.com

[Doof]

Not sure if anybody tried it, but if you did, re-download it and give it another try. For some reason I couldn't get it to run on a test machine, but it seems to be working now. I hope.

[Mr ChriZ]

Hi Doof.
I'm getting a failed to create plugin message.
I don't think your Regasm is taking place for some reason in the setup.
I just manually Regasm'd it, and it then continued to work ok.

By my reckoning your installation script's run section should look like this
[Run]
Filename: "{win}\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\regasm"; Parameters: "/Codebase MC_Captionater_3000.dll";          WorkingDir: "{app}\"; StatusMsg: "Registering Plugin"; Flags:runhidden

That part of my documentation I know is a tad iffy.  I think it will be easier if much
of the renaming is eventually automated.

[Doof]

Ah, yeah... I renamed the DLL at the last minute, but I forgot to update the installation script. It should be all set now.

[johnnyboy]

Screen shots?

[Doof]

Coming right up...

First time run.
Adding captions.

[marko]

Doof...
one word. brilliant.

added some captions to an old picture album in a matter of minutes. it's on the perbcast directory if you're interested.
What do you think about the playlist selection code that @l@n posted? useable?

thank you very much for putting this together. love that "create [caption] field" button.

-marko.

[Doof]

Thanks, I'm glad you found it useful.

I'm actually working to implement the playlist selection stuff into the Lyrics Editor plugin. I figured I'd start there since it seemed to be the more popular of the two plugins. Once I get it working there, I'll definitely be adding it to the Captionater.

And then I gotta find a better name for it, I think.

[marko]

[deep hollywood trailer voice]

Captionater 3000..... it will be back!

[/deep hollywood trailer voice]

[Doof]

Just posted 0.9 Beta. It includes all of the playlist selection/file list stuff that Lyrics Editor has.

[marko]

got it. will install and play in about 30 minutes - ish

should have a precious couple of hours I can call my own (save for the interuption of the groceries being delivered) and messing around with my image library(s) is part of the master-plan

[KingSparta]

The screen shot url should be.

http://doof.monadnockdesign.com/Plugins/Captionater%203000/Screenshots/cap09.jpg

the one in the first post renders

Not Found
 
The requested URL was not found on this server.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servage.net Clustered Webhosting running enhanced Apache Webserver

[Doof]

The screen shot url should be.

http://doof.monadnockdesign.com/Plugins/Captionater%203000/Screenshots/cap09.jpg

Thanks for pointing that out. It's fixed now. Strange that the download link had the space in it as well but wasn't affected.

[marko]

Doof, this is really pretty neat. Now, as I have really no idea as to what's possible and what's not, allow me to just type freely and perhaps you can make some sense from it?

1st of all, a bug...

leaving the plugin view and heading off somewhere into MC's internal My Computer, then hitting the back button is either crashing MC (one of those silent vanishing act type crashes) or offering up the following dialogue....

clicking OK here loads the plugin view, but it's just an empty window, no buttons, nothing, just the background. Clicking away from it then back again loads it up correctly.

=====

some thoughts on what it does atm...

It would be nice if the plugin could remember the last chosen playlist? Perhaps defaulting to playing now if that playlist has since been removed?

As the main task here involves typing captions, reaching for the mouse to click on the next button gets old very quickly.
I found that hitting the enter key applies the caption and moves the selection on to the next file in the list, albeit to the sound of the windows "default beep"

=====

been playing some more inbetween typing this stuff... got more crashes... one of them was a "has encountered a problem and needs to close" affair, which I'm pretty sure left the following in the event log ...

.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.42 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A05E2B3) (80131506)

mean anything to you?

=====

I've been thinking about having another go at igniting some discussion with regard to MC and it's image handling.
Bear in mind that 99.99% of the time I might be working on images, there is also music playing...

One of the major sticking points for me has been previewing images. The action window is no good (too small).
I've found that using MC's display in windowed mode works pretty well, but only for previewing. I find that a lack of any way to set flags on the current image is really prohibitive, even access to the send to.. menu would be better than nothing...

But, before I got into that, I checked out captionator....


(click image for full size view)

Now that's what I call a preview window!! Which got me wondering about the text entry box for the [caption] field. It would be very neat if that had a drop down of different library fields, or some such, you with me?

In my mind, I see a workshop viewscheme that shows images tagged with things like "red eye", "orientation", "perspective", "crop" etc...
currently, I don't see a way to set a flag or a tag directly from any of the preview options on offer.

[Doof]

Yeah, that's the same bug that plagued LyricsEditor... it's a bug in MC's CreateFiles method.

If you open up regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Jukebox\Plugins\Interface\Captionater 3000, and then change the value of PluginMode from 0 to 1, that will take care of it. When I get more time, I'll post a new version that sets it that way during installation.

[marko]

will try that...

more lag with the edit above...
got hooked into watching Hostage on Sky...

apologies.

[Doof]

more lag with the edit above...

Yeah, the problem with setting the plugin to that mode is that it's running all the time in MC, not just when you're actually in it. The good part of that is that you can leave the plugin and come back and everything will be right where you left it. The bad part is that it chews up memory needlessly when you're not using it.

But until JRiver fixes the CreateFiles bug, or I come up with some workaround to it, I'm kind of stuck.

[marko]

Hi Doof. when I said "More lag with the edit above", I meant that there was a good two hours between my original post, and then the additional info I added to it by way of 'edit'. kind of made the thread read like a conversation in an old folks home for a bit, sorry about that.

any thoughts on my musings above?

If it's not possible, I think I may just use the caption field to flag these things.

Is it OK to be using the enter key to advance to the next picture? The "default Beep" sound is a little disconcerting, and I've had one or two tagging errors (please ensure the file exists and is not in use) that I'm not sure, could have been caused by my using the enter key?

I dimly recall reading that there is a problem with MC not passing key presses to plugins, or something like that? I do hope I got that wrong. This plugin could really benefit from being independant from the mouse.

-marko.

[Doof]

I replied to all of this once, but apparently closed the browser before hitting "Post". 

It would be nice if the plugin could remember the last chosen playlist? Perhaps defaulting to playing now if that playlist has since been removed?

I could probably do that.

As the main task here involves typing captions, reaching for the mouse to click on the next button gets old very quickly.
I found that hitting the enter key applies the caption and moves the selection on to the next file in the list, albeit to the sound of the windows "default beep"

It's designed to be used solely with the keyboard. The Next & Previous buttons are really only there if you want to quickly skip through the list looking for the image you're looking for. I wanted this plugin to make it as easy as possible to add image captions, and there's nothing easier than typing your caption, hitting enter and entering the next caption. I don't know why it's beeping, actually. I'll look into it.

been playing some more inbetween typing this stuff... got more crashes... one of them was a "has encountered a problem and needs to close" affair, which I'm pretty sure left the following in the event log ...

.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.42 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A05E2B3) (80131506)

mean anything to you?

No idea what that is. I've never seen it, but then again, I've barely actually used it. I keep getting wrapped up in writing the plugins that I never have time to actually use them, just a little here and there for testing purposes. I'll sit down some night and really pound on it and see if I can reproduce this.

I've been thinking about having another go at igniting some discussion with regard to MC and it's image handling.
Bear in mind that 99.99% of the time I might be working on images, there is also music playing...

One of the major sticking points for me has been previewing images. The action window is no good (too small).
I've found that using MC's display in windowed mode works pretty well, but only for previewing. I find that a lack of any way to set flags on the current image is really prohibitive, even access to the send to.. menu would be better than nothing...

But, before I got into that, I checked out captionator....

<snipped>

Now that's what I call a preview window!! Which got me wondering about the text entry box for the [caption] field. It would be very neat if that had a drop down of different library fields, or some such, you with me?

In my mind, I see a workshop viewscheme that shows images tagged with things like "red eye", "orientation", "perspective", "crop" etc...
currently, I don't see a way to set a flag or a tag directly from any of the preview options on offer.

Sounds like this could be a whole new project. It would probably have to be in order to do it right. Let me finish up all the half-started bits of code I have on Lyrics Editor and I'll get back to you on this. Maybe we could work together on a really good UI for this kind of stuff?

[marko]

Sounds like this could be a whole new project. It would probably have to be in order to do it right. Let me finish up all the half-started bits of code I have on Lyrics Editor and I'll get back to you on this. Maybe we could work together on a really good UI for this kind of stuff?

Sounds like a plan. Grab my attention when you're ready. I'm having yet another go at setting MC up for image management thanks to this plugin. What a neat idea.


-marko.

[marko]

I've been doing some more work on my "stacks and version sets" project today, and thought you might like to know that captionator helped out with the task of picking "top of stack images".
I used the massive preview window to pick the images, captioned accordingly, then used MC's native "move/copy fields" tool to get the [top image] tag filled correctly. This plugins potential is enormous.

I've been trying it in split-view mode...


right-click an image, send to > chosen captionator playlist, refresh captionator, see large image preview, react accordingly via the film-strip above...

The question that's beginning to burn in my mind is why no-one else appears to be showing any interest in this?
It's almost as if, in reality, MC is a total non-starter for image management and I'm the only one who doesn't get it ?

I'm really pleased with the way my stacks project is going. It's taking a fair bit of work marshalling everything into place so that it works as expected, and if things continue the way they have been, I could see me happily use MC exclusively for my photo management. (note that I said if)

Who's got the best theory as to why take-up here is so slow?

-marko.

[Mr ChriZ]

I'm watching with keen interest.
Currently I've got my Audio well organised, my videos getting there,
and my photos are lieing in a mess randomly across my disks, and i can
never find the ones i want! 

I think Media Center has so much flexability,
learning how to use it most effectively takes along time!

[marko]

BUG?
captionator is causing MC to lock the file:
if captionator is closed, the file lock is not released....
or a different image is selected, the file lock is not released.
This can result in a whole raft of files being locked and so, force an MC restart to unlock them.

Due to MC's serious lack of image preview options, one of my most used right click commands for images in MC is "Send to... > external > acdsee" which opens the image in said programs' image viewer. From there I can edit exif data (mostly, correct original date on scanned photos) and then go back to MC and update from tags. I can't do this if the file has previously passed through captionator during the session.

[Doof]

Could be the way I'm getting at them, that's locking them. I'm not really sure.

[Mike Noe]

I'm really diggin' this little plug in.  I just started organizing my images if you could call it that, though they've been in MC for  some time.  I've only got about 5000 images and I'm a real newbie when it comes to digital pics and so forth.

Will you continue to upgrade the plug in?  If so, I'll post up some suggestions after using it for a while.

[Doof]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to get back to this one. I have a few things I'm working on for Lyrics Editor and then I'll be mostly focusing on the Captionater. There's another plugin I'm kinda playing around with, that right now is just in the planning phase, so I may split my time up a little between the two, but my primary focus will be on this one.

Until then, feel free to make all the suggestions you want. Just because I'm not actively working on it right now doesn't mean I'm not willing to talk about it.

[marko]

when clicking the refresh button, the playlist defaults back to playing now.

Is there any chance of sneaking the remember chosen playlist feature in here?

Have jriver been in touch yet re. purchasing the copyright for your work here?

[Doof]

when clicking the refresh button, the playlist defaults back to playing now.

Is there any chance of sneaking the remember chosen playlist feature in here?

Absolutely. It was because of your request for this that Lyrics Editor wound up with it, so it'll definitely make it into the Captionater (which I promise I will get back to soon!)

Have jriver been in touch yet re. purchasing the copyright for your work here?

Well, let's just say I haven't been able to buy that 60" HDTV I've been eyeing yet...

[marko]

getting to the end of the list (103 files) and hitting enter one more time produces the following error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: InvalidArgument=Value of '103' is not valid for 'index'.
Parameter name: index
   at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.ListViewItemCollection.get_Item(Int32 index)
   at MC_CaptionPlugin.MainInterface.btnNext_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Documents and Settings\MattG\Desktop\Projects\MC_Caption\MC_Caption_Solution\MC_Caption_Project\MainInterface.cs:line 178
   at MC_CaptionPlugin.MainInterface.txtCaption_KeyPress(Object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e) in C:\Documents and Settings\MattG\Desktop\Projects\MC_Caption\MC_Caption_Solution\MC_Caption_Project\MainInterface.cs:line 172
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnKeyPress(KeyPressEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ProcessKeyEventArgs(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ProcessKeyMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmKeyChar(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.TextBox.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
MC_Captionater_3000
    Assembly Version: 1.0.2334.26369
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Media%20Center%2012/Plugins/Captionater%203000/MC_Captionater_3000.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
MediaJukebox
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC/MediaJukebox/1.0.0.0__49bd708d2b9ce43d/MediaJukebox.dll
----------------------------------------

[marko]

Morning Doof. Tried the new setup.... (thank you)

If change on rating is selected, hitting [enter] does not advance to the next picture if no rating is set.
If change on rating is selected, the plugin crashes when rating the last picture in the list. (see previous post)
If change on rating is not selected, and no rating is set, hitting [enter] advances to the next image, if a rating is set, then again, [enter] does not advance to the next image.

-marko.

[Doof]

Yeah, I told you I whipped it up really fast.

If change on rating is selected, hitting [enter] does not advance to the next picture if no rating is set.

That wass actually by design. It's so if you're in a rating mood you can do that and zip right through and still be able to add a caption. But the more I think about it, the more that doesn't make sense. You can just not hit the enter key when you want to set a rating without moving. I'll change it.

If change on rating is selected, the plugin crashes when rating the last picture in the list. (see previous post)
If change on rating is not selected, and no rating is set, hitting [enter] advances to the next image, if a rating is set, then again, [enter] does not advance to the next image.

-marko.

I'll take a look at these two when I get time.

[marko]

As I mentioned earlier, there are several other fields I would like to have access to from the captionator interface, but none more so than a custom field I created called [needs editing]. It's a list type field and contains things like "red-eye", "crop", "rotate", "blemish" etc. etc.

These are things that often don't show up in the thumbs or the AW preview, and captionator is perfectly suited for that particular task. I've experimented recently with making two passes through captionator. The first pass being used to enter semi-colon delimited strings for moving across to the [needs editing] field, and the second pass to actually do the captioning. It isn't pretty though. If it's do-able, it would be neat if you could keep it in mind.

hope you don't mind me asking, I know you're pretty busy all around atm.

regards,
-marko.

[Doof]

Actually, I don't mind at all. Like I said before, when I can finally sit down on concentrate on it, I'd like for you and I to "sit down" together and hammer out some of these ideas of yours. I'm really interested in the way you're handling your image library in MC.

[Doof]

Ok, I (think I) took care of those three issues you mentioned. At least it seems to be working here.

Download it again, give it a try, and let me know what you think.

http://www.dooftoo.com

[marko]

seems to be working well here too.

btw, you're not off the hook.
As neat as the zone switching approach is, imvho, this is still a smoother approach, so keep on coding m8

-marko.

[RobOK]

Working great for me, although sometimes it does not correctly pull from Playing now.

I think if I launch a long music list and then play a photo list it does not pull them.

I am getting stuck on 1 file getting locked and not allowing updates.  Not sure if this is the plugin or something else MC related.

[Doof]

I am getting stuck on 1 file getting locked and not allowing updates.  Not sure if this is the plugin or something else MC related.

I've had this happen, too. I just haven't had the time to really did into it to see if there's somethng I'm doing wrong, some weird thing about that specific file(s), or just something about the way MC does its thing.

Working great for me, although sometimes it does not correctly pull from Playing now.

I think if I launch a long music list and then play a photo list it does not pull them.

Also, I just ran a quick test on this, and you're right. If you're playing music and images simulataneously, Captionater won't be able to retrieve the list of images that are in Playing Now. I'm assuming this is because MC doesn't actually put the images in Playing Now, but in some sort of internal Images Display Plugin.
 
If you add the images to some other playlists, even just create one for this purpose, you can choose that playlist from the dropdown and be good to go.

[RobOK]

Is it possible to have View Schemes show up in that drop down?

For me, the majority of playlists I have are for music, so I have tons of lists -- my full albums have playlists generated for them by the way I rip CDs so I have hundreds of music playlists and only a handful of image ones.

I can easily make the playlist way work, just another suggestion.  I can easily make a playlist that replicates a view scheme for Unrated Images. (or probably ___Unrated Images so that is shows at the top of your dropdown!)

I use underscore naming for Tivo and iPod playlists to get the right ones to the top!  LOL.

[Mr ChriZ]

Just started using this =)
Just one or two Feature Requests! 
1. I'd like to see multi select on the images,
where multi images could have the same caption, lazy I know
but I've got just under 1000 africa images to captionize (Or at least
will do when I get my 14 films back!)
2. Arrange file List by date picture taken.
Useful for arranging thoughts....
Rather than by A-Z
3. When you click in the caption area
the text "Enter Your Caption Here" should be cleared
4. Pressing a certain key in the caption area maybe page up/page down should
change to next image in list?
5. Plugin should read EXIF rotation information (Ideally even do that snazzy rotate function I've always wanted too ;-)
6. A place, people and maybe other textbox too? 
7. Media Center style interactive zooming! (This ones a if your really bored and want to flex you're C# Skills idea!)
8. Delete Photo + Remove from MC Library Button
9. Rotate 90 degrees buttons

Bug: Colouring of captioned stuff isn't working

Me with a pu$$y cat:
http://yabb.jriver.com/cpg/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0