188: coinitialize issue
I have a few field reports that people are getting "coinitialize" error after upgrading to a new version (188 thus far).
However it all seems to be related to the recent keys introduction, and is, in fact, fixable in place by following these simple steps.
1) make sure you have the latest version (use About dialog to see your version). Keep in mind that nothing before 186 would work, 188 is the most current as of this moment - but better check the website (if you already have 188 or newer you can also use Help|Check for updates).
2) launch S*E, do not connect
3) go to Options|Account, hit Clear Hash, close the dialog.
4) Connect manually (F9) - it should ask for SM password (just this once)
5) Perform "Get Albums"
As a result all the albums should display some data in the right-most Album Key column of the album list.
Great bit of software, but I'm not quite sure if It can do what I want, I've read the thread and seen mention of syncing abilities, but I can't quite seem to get it working.
I use lightroom to manage my photo's, and the directory tree is like this
I've got a category of "Photo Archive", Sub Cats of 2004, 2005 etc, and then the album names such as 01-01 under those as required. I've manualy created all the Sub Cats, and used the Add Folder autocreate to make the albums and upload the photo's, and it worked great.
What I'd like in future though, is once I've added more photo's to my lightroom collection, is just to be able to hit a button and have it upload any new files, creating the album names as it goes, what would be even better is to be able to have it create Categories and Sub Catagories as needed based on the directory tree. That way I can do all my management in lightroom, and just let star explorer take care of keeping smugmug up to date.
I've got a feeling I'm just missing something here, is this possible?
Great bit of software, but I'm not quite sure if It can do what I want, I've read the thread and seen mention of syncing abilities, but I can't quite seem to get it working.
I use lightroom to manage my photo's, and the directory tree is like this
I've got a category of "Photo Archive", Sub Cats of 2004, 2005 etc, and then the album names such as 01-01 under those as required. I've manualy created all the Sub Cats, and used the Add Folder autocreate to make the albums and upload the photo's, and it worked great.
What I'd like in future though, is once I've added more photo's to my lightroom collection, is just to be able to hit a button and have it upload any new files, creating the album names as it goes, what would be even better is to be able to have it create Categories and Sub Catagories as needed based on the directory tree. That way I can do all my management in lightroom, and just let star explorer take care of keeping smugmug up to date.
I've got a feeling I'm just missing something here, is this possible?
Thanks
Tim
Tim,
Welcome to Dgrin and thank you for trying Star*Explorer!
Unfortunately LR has no apparent SDK, so what you want is rather hard to achieve. Maybe later...
What you can do now is to tell S*E to ignore/replace the duplicates and then simply use upload/download commands to keep your stuff in sync. And future versions will most likely make that synching much easier.
HTH
What I'd like in future though, is once I've added more photo's to my lightroom collection, is just to be able to hit a button and have it upload any new files, creating the album names as it goes, what would be even better is to be able to have it create Categories and Sub Catagories as needed based on the directory tree. That way I can do all my management in lightroom, and just let star explorer take care of keeping smugmug up to date.
Tim:
This is exactly what I am looking for as well (although more generically, not Lightroom-specifically). Having the software compare Smugmug categories/subcats/galleries/content with local drive folder structure/content...... and figure out the proper steps needed to synchronize them.
This would allow me to simply store jpegs in a certain local folder (or move them between local folders) with the comfortable knowledge that the software will ensure synchronization to the proper category/subcat/gallery in SM. I wouldn't have to remember what photos I added, moved, or changed. Similarly, I could make changes in SM, knowng that the changes will synchronize down to my local folders.
This holy grail software product would also compare more than file names in detecting duplicates, it would compare file-dates to determine if the SmugMug-stored version of the file is older/newer than the local version... and then appropriately ensure the newest version exists in both places.
It would also allow me to make captioning changes in either SM or local and have changes replicate to the other side.
There are several products, including StarExplorer, that are helpful and appear to be headed somewhere in this direction. I am certainly rooting for this to happen!
...
There are several products, including StarExplorer, that are helpful and appear to be headed somewhere in this direction. I am certainly rooting for this to happen!...
Star*explorer seems to be freezing when it opens-- a "checking for updates..." dialog comes up and freezes everything without ever going away.
Anyone else having issues? I can't seem to access the star*explorer website either. Does S*E need access to the starexplorer.com site to be able to work properly? I also see a "http://www.starexplorer.com/se_info.ini" on the bottom of the page when it's trying to update. Doesn't seem able to connect.
Yeah, definitely an ISP glitch. I tried and tried and tried last night-- no dice even getting to the S*E website. Works perfectly now.
But that meant I was forced to use the SM uploader... it actually worked fine, but it seems slower and less feature oriented than S*E!
Ouch, sorry!
Next time this happens please go to Tools, Options, Miscellaneous, locate "Check for updates" below and set it to 0, at least temporarily.
You didnt seriously think I'd leave you guys stuck with a mandatory connection to S*E site, did you;-) ?
Ouch, sorry!
Next time this happens please go to Tools, Options, Miscellaneous, locate "Check for updates" below and set it to 0, at least temporarily.
You didnt seriously think I'd leave you guys stuck with a mandatory connection to S*E site, did you;-) ?
Of course not.
It's actually the first time this has happened (and I use S*E quite a bit) so this is good info to know. I appreciate the info, Nik.
JPG conversion (good) and lost tags (bad); online duplicates
I am currently evaluating Star*Explorer (1.0.0.188) and have a couple of questions. Just to complicate things, I was also a former PSE 5.0 user but am now using IDImager to tag/organize my local photos.
1. One of things that PSE 5.0 did for me automatically when uploading to SmugMug is conversion of my source image format (usually TIF) into JPG prior to upload. Poking around the S*E options, I see that there are a number of options re conversion of files, and in fact when I drag-and-drop a TIFF file into the S*E window, I see that a corresponding JPG file is created in the directory I've specified in the options - so far, so good.
But the queue list still shows the TIF file, and when I upload the queue everything churns along and then at the end fails, because apparently it's the TIF version that was uploaded and not the JPG version. Is there another step I'm missing? I was expecting the process to be something like
2. When I take a closer look at the JPG file that was created locally by S*E, there are no tags embedded in the JPG file, even though there are tags embedded in the TIF original. This is an issue, since I'm expecting these tags to stay with the image and show up once the image arrives at SmugMug. Are existing XMP/IPTC tags ignored by S*E when converting from a non-JPG format to JPG?
3. Another big potential benefit I see with S*E is checking for online duplicates; this sounds like (for example) when I make changes to tags on 10 of my 100 previously-uploaded-from-S*E files and later select those 100 files within S*E for upload, only the 10 with changes will be sent to SmugMug by S*E. Do I have this right?
I am currently evaluating Star*Explorer (1.0.0.188) and have a couple of questions. Just to complicate things, I was also a former PSE 5.0 user but am now using IDImager to tag/organize my local photos.
1. One of things that PSE 5.0 did for me automatically when uploading to SmugMug is conversion of my source image format (usually TIF) into JPG prior to upload. Poking around the S*E options, I see that there are a number of options re conversion of files, and in fact when I drag-and-drop a TIFF file into the S*E window, I see that a corresponding JPG file is created in the directory I've specified in the options - so far, so good.
But the queue list still shows the TIF file, and when I upload the queue everything churns along and then at the end fails, because apparently it's the TIF version that was uploaded and not the JPG version. Is there another step I'm missing? I was expecting the process to be something like
2. When I take a closer look at the JPG file that was created locally by S*E, there are no tags embedded in the JPG file, even though there are tags embedded in the TIF original. This is an issue, since I'm expecting these tags to stay with the image and show up once the image arrives at SmugMug. Are existing XMP/IPTC tags ignored by S*E when converting from a non-JPG format to JPG?
3. Another big potential benefit I see with S*E is checking for online duplicates; this sounds like (for example) when I make changes to tags on 10 of my 100 previously-uploaded-from-S*E files and later select those 100 files within S*E for upload, only the 10 with changes will be sent to SmugMug by S*E. Do I have this right?
Thanks!
-- Ben
Ben,
thank you for your inquiry!
Let's see
1) TIFF->JPEG and still uploading TIFF
Sounds like I bug, I'll check. Weird, tough, that feature was there for 3 years witout any changes, never heard any complains about it.
2) losing EXIF/IPTC tags during the conversion
Well, the whole feature was added as a favor to a less-computer savvy users with NO extra software at all, as well as for an easy treatment of bmp files. I'm using simple standard GDI+ API call to convert one graphic stream into another. It's highly possible that IPTC is lost... Possible soultion: I though SM accepts TIFFs, I suggest you exclude them from the conversion list and try to upload them directly. In any case, at the moment I don't have an access to some library that would carry the tags over.
3) Online duplicates.
I'm afraid you got it a bit backwards.
S*E can either reject or replace the files that have been previously uploaded. Also, it doesn't go deep into telling the difference ebwteen an uploaded version and a version on yur HDD. It's a simple test - was this exact file uploaded to this exact gallery - or not.
I'm afraid I didn't bring you any joy with my answers...:cry
Well, the whole feature was added as a favor to a less-computer savvy users with NO extra software at all, as well as for an easy treatment of bmp files. I'm using simple standard GDI+ API call to convert one graphic stream into another. It's highly possible that IPTC is lost... Possible soultion: I though SM accepts TIFFs
Hey Nik... I'd use Imagemagik's 'convert' script to do the TIFF to JPG. It'll save you headaches and it probably does a better job anyways
AND.. SM doesn't accept TIFF's.. I wish they did though :cry (That and RAW files.)
New Star*Explorer version uploaded: 190 New: S*E can now both convert and resize your files before the upload (jpegs included). :ivar Quick and easy way to upload your crop faaaast. Caveat: no EXIF/IPTC info from the original files is transferred to the converted/resized web-resolution copy, so if you want your tags/keywords to be preserved please use some more advanced DAM tool. After all, S*E is just an uploader...
New: Separate size limits for photo and video files
New: S*E can now both convert and resize your files before the upload (jpegs included). :ivar Quick and easy way to upload your crop faaaast. Caveat: no EXIF/IPTC info from the original files is transferred to the converted/resized web-resolution copy, so if you want your tags/keywords to be preserved please use some more advanced DAM tool. After all, S*E is just an uploader...
New: Separate size limits for photo and video files
Bugfix: conversion didn't work, fixed.
Minor UI improvements
Check out Exiftool in the imagemagick toolkit. It'll let you keep the IPTC/EXIF info (I'm assuming that's what you're using now )
1. One of things that PSE 5.0 did for me automatically when uploading to SmugMug is conversion of my source image format (usually TIF) into JPG prior to upload. Poking around the S*E options, I see that there are a number of options re conversion of files, and in fact when I drag-and-drop a TIFF file into the S*E window, I see that a corresponding JPG file is created in the directory I've specified in the options - so far, so good.
But the queue list still shows the TIF file, and when I upload the queue everything churns along and then at the end fails, because apparently it's the TIF version that was uploaded and not the JPG version. Is there another step I'm missing? I was expecting the process to be something like
Check out Exiftool in the imagemagick toolkit. It'll let you keep the IPTC/EXIF info (I'm assuming that's what you're using now )
David
Well, I did check it out... Unless I'm gravely mistaken, I'd have to redistribute their dll... I already have two, which I'm dreaming to get rid of, so bringing another one onboard is not going well with my plans... Afterall, S*E is not a DAM tool, just a good SM uploader/downloader.
Square thumb setting in gallery creation?
Nicolai, any ETA on support for the square thumbs setting for creating galleries in S*E? I see that it's in the latest rev of the API.
Since Smugmug apparently made square thumbs the default for new galleries, if we want to create galleries in S*E and not have square thumbs, we're left with a bunch of manual work to visit each one and turn it off. And, you want to turn it off before any uploads because changing the setting doesn't regenerate pre-existing thumbs automatically. It would be real nice to get this checkbox added to S*E. Thanks.
Nicolai, any ETA on support for the square thumbs setting for creating galleries in S*E? I see that it's in the latest rev of the API.
Since Smugmug apparently made square thumbs the default for new galleries, if we want to create galleries in S*E and not have square thumbs, we're left with a bunch of manual work to visit each one and turn it off. And, you want to turn it off before any uploads because changing the setting doesn't regenerate pre-existing thumbs automatically. It would be real nice to get this checkbox added to S*E. Thanks.
John,
Thank you, I'll see what I can do...
Just for the record, I have created a whole bunch of galleries on Saturday, and none of them have square thumbs..
John,
Thank you, I'll see what I can do...
Just for the record, I have created a whole bunch of galleries on Saturday, and none of them have square thumbs..
That was a day before the new changes were made...
Comments
Twitter: @WolfSnap
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WolfSnapDesigns
SmugMug & Wordpress Customization - WolfSnap.com | Custom Domains
I have a few field reports that people are getting "coinitialize" error after upgrading to a new version (188 thus far).
However it all seems to be related to the recent keys introduction, and is, in fact, fixable in place by following these simple steps.
1) make sure you have the latest version (use About dialog to see your version). Keep in mind that nothing before 186 would work, 188 is the most current as of this moment - but better check the website (if you already have 188 or newer you can also use Help|Check for updates).
2) launch S*E, do not connect
3) go to Options|Account, hit Clear Hash, close the dialog.
4) Connect manually (F9) - it should ask for SM password (just this once)
5) Perform "Get Albums"
As a result all the albums should display some data in the right-most Album Key column of the album list.
Let me know if there is a problem.
HTH
Great bit of software, but I'm not quite sure if It can do what I want, I've read the thread and seen mention of syncing abilities, but I can't quite seem to get it working.
I use lightroom to manage my photo's, and the directory tree is like this
Photo Archive
--2004
----01-01
----01-02
--2005
----01-01
----01-02
I've got a category of "Photo Archive", Sub Cats of 2004, 2005 etc, and then the album names such as 01-01 under those as required. I've manualy created all the Sub Cats, and used the Add Folder autocreate to make the albums and upload the photo's, and it worked great.
What I'd like in future though, is once I've added more photo's to my lightroom collection, is just to be able to hit a button and have it upload any new files, creating the album names as it goes, what would be even better is to be able to have it create Categories and Sub Catagories as needed based on the directory tree. That way I can do all my management in lightroom, and just let star explorer take care of keeping smugmug up to date.
I've got a feeling I'm just missing something here, is this possible?
Thanks
Tim
Tim,
Welcome to Dgrin and thank you for trying Star*Explorer!
Unfortunately LR has no apparent SDK, so what you want is rather hard to achieve. Maybe later...
What you can do now is to tell S*E to ignore/replace the duplicates and then simply use upload/download commands to keep your stuff in sync. And future versions will most likely make that synching much easier.
HTH
Tim:
This is exactly what I am looking for as well (although more generically, not Lightroom-specifically). Having the software compare Smugmug categories/subcats/galleries/content with local drive folder structure/content...... and figure out the proper steps needed to synchronize them.
This would allow me to simply store jpegs in a certain local folder (or move them between local folders) with the comfortable knowledge that the software will ensure synchronization to the proper category/subcat/gallery in SM. I wouldn't have to remember what photos I added, moved, or changed. Similarly, I could make changes in SM, knowng that the changes will synchronize down to my local folders.
This holy grail software product would also compare more than file names in detecting duplicates, it would compare file-dates to determine if the SmugMug-stored version of the file is older/newer than the local version... and then appropriately ensure the newest version exists in both places.
It would also allow me to make captioning changes in either SM or local and have changes replicate to the other side.
There are several products, including StarExplorer, that are helpful and appear to be headed somewhere in this direction. I am certainly rooting for this to happen!
(...now stepping off my soapbox!)
Thanks,
Tom Kirkpatrick
kirkpatrick.smugmug.com
Woohoo!!:D
Congratulations to Eric Nelson who became S*E customer #500!
I want to thank dgrinners, smugmuggers and smugmug crew (esp. Andy and Devbobo) for helping me to make it possible!
The future is bright and I plane to improve existing code, streamline the workflow and add new exciting features in the months to come!
Anyone else having issues? I can't seem to access the star*explorer website either. Does S*E need access to the starexplorer.com site to be able to work properly? I also see a "http://www.starexplorer.com/se_info.ini" on the bottom of the page when it's trying to update. Doesn't seem able to connect.
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
Twitter: @WolfSnap
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WolfSnapDesigns
SmugMug & Wordpress Customization - WolfSnap.com | Custom Domains
Alright-- thanks for checking. It must be a local comcast issue. :cry I'm connecting fine to SM and dgrin, but not S*E.
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
Yeah, definitely an ISP glitch. I tried and tried and tried last night-- no dice even getting to the S*E website. Works perfectly now.
But that meant I was forced to use the SM uploader... it actually worked fine, but it seems slower and less feature oriented than S*E!
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
Next time this happens please go to Tools, Options, Miscellaneous, locate "Check for updates" below and set it to 0, at least temporarily.
You didnt seriously think I'd leave you guys stuck with a mandatory connection to S*E site, did you;-)
Another threshold, yay!
Of course not.
It's actually the first time this has happened (and I use S*E quite a bit) so this is good info to know. I appreciate the info, Nik.
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
website blog instagram facebook g+
I am currently evaluating Star*Explorer (1.0.0.188) and have a couple of questions. Just to complicate things, I was also a former PSE 5.0 user but am now using IDImager to tag/organize my local photos.
1. One of things that PSE 5.0 did for me automatically when uploading to SmugMug is conversion of my source image format (usually TIF) into JPG prior to upload. Poking around the S*E options, I see that there are a number of options re conversion of files, and in fact when I drag-and-drop a TIFF file into the S*E window, I see that a corresponding JPG file is created in the directory I've specified in the options - so far, so good.
But the queue list still shows the TIF file, and when I upload the queue everything churns along and then at the end fails, because apparently it's the TIF version that was uploaded and not the JPG version. Is there another step I'm missing? I was expecting the process to be something like
drag TIF to S*E ->
S*E creates JPG equivalent ->
S*E uploads JPG equivalent.
2. When I take a closer look at the JPG file that was created locally by S*E, there are no tags embedded in the JPG file, even though there are tags embedded in the TIF original. This is an issue, since I'm expecting these tags to stay with the image and show up once the image arrives at SmugMug. Are existing XMP/IPTC tags ignored by S*E when converting from a non-JPG format to JPG?
3. Another big potential benefit I see with S*E is checking for online duplicates; this sounds like (for example) when I make changes to tags on 10 of my 100 previously-uploaded-from-S*E files and later select those 100 files within S*E for upload, only the 10 with changes will be sent to SmugMug by S*E. Do I have this right?
Thanks!
-- Ben
Ben,
thank you for your inquiry!
Let's see
1) TIFF->JPEG and still uploading TIFF
Sounds like I bug, I'll check. Weird, tough, that feature was there for 3 years witout any changes, never heard any complains about it.
2) losing EXIF/IPTC tags during the conversion
Well, the whole feature was added as a favor to a less-computer savvy users with NO extra software at all, as well as for an easy treatment of bmp files. I'm using simple standard GDI+ API call to convert one graphic stream into another. It's highly possible that IPTC is lost... Possible soultion: I though SM accepts TIFFs, I suggest you exclude them from the conversion list and try to upload them directly. In any case, at the moment I don't have an access to some library that would carry the tags over.
3) Online duplicates.
I'm afraid you got it a bit backwards.
S*E can either reject or replace the files that have been previously uploaded. Also, it doesn't go deep into telling the difference ebwteen an uploaded version and a version on yur HDD. It's a simple test - was this exact file uploaded to this exact gallery - or not.
I'm afraid I didn't bring you any joy with my answers...:cry
AND.. SM doesn't accept TIFF's.. I wish they did though :cry (That and RAW files.)
Twitter: @WolfSnap
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WolfSnapDesigns
SmugMug & Wordpress Customization - WolfSnap.com | Custom Domains
Is it free? Just a source code or some dlls need to be redistributed?
Ah, awright... I guess I added this feature for something real, then:-)
New: S*E can now both convert and resize your files before the upload (jpegs included). :ivar Quick and easy way to upload your crop faaaast.
Caveat: no EXIF/IPTC info from the original files is transferred to the converted/resized web-resolution copy, so if you want your tags/keywords to be preserved please use some more advanced DAM tool. After all, S*E is just an uploader...
New: Separate size limits for photo and video files
Bugfix: conversion didn't work, fixed.
Minor UI improvements
David
Twitter: @WolfSnap
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WolfSnapDesigns
SmugMug & Wordpress Customization - WolfSnap.com | Custom Domains
No tags preservation yet, sorry
Nicolai, any ETA on support for the square thumbs setting for creating galleries in S*E? I see that it's in the latest rev of the API.
Since Smugmug apparently made square thumbs the default for new galleries, if we want to create galleries in S*E and not have square thumbs, we're left with a bunch of manual work to visit each one and turn it off. And, you want to turn it off before any uploads because changing the setting doesn't regenerate pre-existing thumbs automatically. It would be real nice to get this checkbox added to S*E. Thanks.
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John,
Thank you, I'll see what I can do...
Just for the record, I have created a whole bunch of galleries on Saturday, and none of them have square thumbs..
David
Twitter: @WolfSnap
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WolfSnapDesigns
SmugMug & Wordpress Customization - WolfSnap.com | Custom Domains
S*E lets you control your thumbs (Thank you John!)