Lightroom plugin - can I change filenames?

Ferguson

I have the lightroom plugin to form the name from the title of an image.

Sometimes when I'm in a hurry I might upload an image without a title, then put in the title later.

The image goes up with a funky name which is partially blank (it also has date or time or something in it, which is correct).

But when it is re-published with the new title, the name does not reset.

And as I look around I don't even see a way to change the filename on the web interface, much less through republish.

Is that right? Is the file name a once-and-done-forever thing?

denisegoldberg

Ferguson wrote: »

Is that right? Is the file name a once-and-done-forever thing?

Unless something has changed recently, once uploaded the filename can't be changed.

>>> updated, the file name can be changed by a lightroom "Mark to Republish", per devbobo's post.

--- Denise

Ferguson

denisegoldberg wrote: »

Unless something has changed recently, once uploaded the filename can't be changed.

--- Denise

Ah, well.. thanks. Too bad, it's not like it is a real "file".

devbobo

The filename gets updated if the image is replaced, right-click and select "Mark to Republish" and that will make the LR upload the image again

denisegoldberg

devbobo wrote: »

The filename gets updated if the image is replaced, right-click and select "Mark to Republish" and that will make the LR upload the image again

Cool, thanks for the clarification!

--- Denise

Ferguson

devbobo wrote: »

The filename gets updated if the image is replaced, right-click and select "Mark to Republish" and that will make the LR upload the image again

Not so much for me.

I just did some experimenting and I can't get it to do so.

I tried marking it to republish by changing the title, and also by simply clicking the "mark to republish", and afterwards the title remained unchanged.

The file names are set by a custom rule in Lightroom in my case as follows:

{Title>>} - {Date (YYYYMMDD)>>} - {Sequence # (001)>>}

(except of course the >> is the single character version, I typed the above in).

So changing the title SHOULD change the file name. Except it isn't after the initial upload.

Here's a specific photo that has been republished several times:

http://www.captivephotons.com/Other/Test-Shots/n-vSVzH/i-kk8Lvfd

Removing it from the collection, publishing (to delete on SM), and adding it back to the collection does result in the new name (and of course a new photo ID which would break any remote links).

Ferguson

devbobo wrote: »

The filename gets updated if the image is replaced, right-click and select "Mark to Republish" and that will make the LR upload the image again

Ferguson wrote: »

Not so much for me.

I just did some experimenting and I can't get it to do so.

I tried marking it to republish by changing the title, and also by simply clicking the "mark to republish", and afterwards the title remained unchanged.

The file names are set by a custom rule in Lightroom in my case as follows:

{Title>>} - {Date (YYYYMMDD)>>} - {Sequence # (001)>>}

(except of course the >> is the single character version, I typed the above in).

So changing the title SHOULD change the file name. Except it isn't after the initial upload.

Here's a specific photo that has been republished several times:

http://www.captivephotons.com/Other/Test-Shots/n-vSVzH/i-kk8Lvfd

Removing it from the collection, publishing (to delete on SM), and adding it back to the collection does result in the new name (and of course a new photo ID which would break any remote links).

PS. My testing is on windows 8.0, Lightroom 5.2 64 bit, version 2.0.8.

devbobo

Our logs show that this file was original uploaded with the filename "CarTestTitle2 - 20131013 - 001.jpg" and replaced with filename "CarTestTitle2AB - 20131013 - 001.jpg".

The filename on the metadata window matches the filename of the replaced image...

Ferguson

devbobo wrote: »

Our logs show that this file was original uploaded with the filename "CarTestTitle2 - 20131013 - 001.jpg" and replaced with filename "CarTestTitle2AB - 20131013 - 001.jpg".

Is there a delay?

Notice on my screen shot. I changed it to CarTestTitle3 and uploaded. I then refreshed my gallery display, and clicked it, and can see the new title but the file name is still the old one.

I waited about 5 minutes.

There's just weird stuff happening. Here's another example:

http://www.captivephotons.com/Events/FGCUMBB/Hartford111213/i-TrkVBNc/A

That's been published several times, and on Smugmug it shows with NO title (the title in lightroom is and has been since the 2nd publish +/-) "FGCU v Hartford 11/12/2013". But no title shows in Smugmug HOWEVER the alt title (i.e. mouse hover) shows a file name with the title in it. This was last republished today also, trying to get them up.

Or here is one that hasn't been republished since yesterday 12:45pm eastern. It has the same title was above (FGCU v Hartford 11/12/2013) and the title appears in Smugmug, but the file name is "- 20131112 - 012.jpg". Notice the absent title portion.

How did the title get to Smugmug without going into the file name? But with it in the title.

It's like it works sometimes and not others.

PS. It's now been about another 5 minutes, and it still shows a file name of CarTestTitle2AB - 20131013 - 001.jpg when I look, for that first example. Still processing somehow? (The image is showing so it's not the typical processing, maybe more like what happens with keywords?)

devbobo

To explain why this is happening, I need to explain the current republishing logic...

The plugin stores the developSettings and metadata digest for each image, during a republish we check the digests and act as follows...
1. if the developSettings digest is different, the image is uploaded and the metadata is updated
2. if the metadata is different, but the developSettings isn't...only the metadata is updated
3. if neither the developSettings or the metadata are different, we assume that the image was "forced" to be republished and act as #1

If you have previously uploaded an image and then modify the title, the image will be marked to be published but republishing will take act on #2. So to force the image to be uploaded again, you need to mark the image to be republished a 2nd time and republish.

Ferguson

devbobo wrote: »

If you have previously uploaded an image and then modify the title, the image will be marked to be published but republishing will take act on #2. So to force the image to be uploaded again, you need to mark the image to be republished a 2nd time and republish.

Thanks, that makes sense, but it then causes another problem -- republishing an image with the mark-for-republish deletes the title from Smugmug.

It's just incredibly frustrating that every workaround encounters another bug/feature (one might argue that one shouldn't have to send the whole image to change attributes, including filename, but OK, I get it, filename is different).

If you want to see, I took the same photo and republished (without any other changes). Notice now it has no title at all.

This is one of the more serious issues, frankly -- far more than what I was hitting with file names. But it's been reported repeatedly and not addressed.

Any chance you might be able to get some action on it?

Here's the same example if you wan to see it.

http://www.captivephotons.com/Other/Test-Shots/n-vSVzH/i-kk8Lvfd/A

Notice now it has a proper filename (thanks for that info), but has lost its title.

devbobo

I'm aware of the Title issue, but have been too bogged down in LR tickets to take a look at that.

Ideally, the best solution would be to expose the filename via the API for updating and make the plugin do a metadata update without having to upload the image. But I need to think through all the consequences of that, as there may be people who have changed their filenaming method that don't want to update the filenames on SmugMug for images that have already been uploaded. It also has the potential to adversely affect image syncing.

Ferguson

devbobo wrote: »

I'm aware of the Title issue, but have been too bogged down in LR tickets to take a look at that.

Ideally, the best solution would be to expose the filename via the API for updating and make the plugin do a metadata update without having to upload the image. But I need to think through all the consequences of that, as there may be people who have changed their filenaming method that don't want to update the filenames on SmugMug for images that have already been uploaded. It also has the potential to adversely affect image syncing.

I may not be typical having a fast internet connection, but republishing would not be a bad answer if it didn't screw up the caption. And it might be a bit difficult to find out the filename MAY have changed since one could change rules as opposed to the title itself (though I guess that's more of a lightroom problem since it won't flag the image to need updating, will it).

Anyway, thanks for looking.