NANY 2018 Release: TagMage - An Image Categorizer

[camerb]

NANY 2018 Entry Information

Application Name	TagMage
Version	0.80
Short Description	A simple method of categorizing lots of images quickly
Supported OSes	Windows Only
Web Page	This One
Download	Attached to this post
System Requirements	64-bit currently
Version History	v0.5 -- initial public release (alpha) v0.51 -- hotkey modifications v0.52 -- config behavior fix v0.80 -- added ability to filter, left key functionality to go back, and various error handling fixes

Description
A simple method of categorizing lots of images quickly

Screenshots
Initial Help Screen:
NANY 2018 Release: TagMage - An Image Categorizer
Categorization of images:
NANY 2018 Release: TagMage - An Image Categorizer

Background
TagMage operates on the basic concept that you can take photos of everything that you want to keep track of in your life. By taking photos of everything in your life (mail/bills, recipes, phone screenshots, and pictures), and then using TagMage to categorize each individual image, you can quickly sort all of these photos into categories for easier management.

Current Scope
TagMage started out as a quick little idea, and as I started exploring the concept it grew, I'm thinking that I will use this program to categorize all of my images, and practically just take pictures of everything that I may ever want to keep track of or use in the future. At this point this software is in alpha release and I figure I'll use TagMage as a proof-of-concept, and future version (or a separate future application) will allow me to explore this concept further.

Features
Quick tagging of images with as few keystrokes as possible
Autosave!

Usage
Installation
Unzip the zip file.

Using the Application
Open the exe file to launch the application
On the initial run of the application, a few configuration prompts will help you determine which folders will be used for the photos and for the categorization information. Also, a help dialog box will show you how to use the application on the initial run.

In order to use TagMage, observe the image on the screen and then place it into the appropriate categories by hitting "P" for Photos, "B" for Bills, "S" for Screenshots or "R" for Recipes. Note that you can see the hotkey to use by observing the underlined character in the checkbox description. Note that you can categorize a single photo into multiple categories. After tagging all of the appropriate categories hit the Right Arrow key to move on to the next image in the folder.

Uninstallation
Delete the unzipped folder.

Known Issues

• There are a few instances where the application does not handle errors correctly, primarily dealing with config files or image files that do not exist. I'll plan on addressing these before the application is released as v1.0

Future Improvements

• More categories (user customizable)
• Nested Categories
• Grouping of images (preferably you wouldn't have to give it a text title, you would see one of the images as the "title")
• "Multiple Catalogs" - suggestion from tomos
• Section for ongoing discussion about an image (or group of images)

[camerb]

I've released the alpha version of TagMage, and attached it to this post. We'll call it version 0.5 for now.

And as of 2018-01-02, I've released v0.51 of TagMage, which resolves odd behavior with the Right Arrow hotkey and resets categories when transitioning from categorized images to new (uncategorized) images.

As of 2018-01-18, I've released v0.80 of TagMage, which adds the ability to filter images based on their categories and only show certain images that match the filtering criteria. For instance, if you want to only show recipes, you can go to File > Modify Filters and then select the recipes filter. By default, TagMage opens up showing uncategorized images only, since the goal is to get all of your images categorized. This version also added a 'Help' menu so that you can revisit the Quick Start Instructions, if you need a refresher on how to use the program.

[tomos]

hi camerb, nice to see a release on this one

I'm having some trouble with it:
I start the exe
When I got to this stage, I went to alttab away to get a folder path and got the warning message as shown:

NANY 2018 Release: TagMage - An Image Categorizer

The next attempt I had a path prepared (copied), I pasted it and got a request for a path to store the image info, within a second I got the same error message again

NANY 2018 Release: TagMage - An Image Categorizer

Windows 7 x64

[camerb]

tomos: I see what you're referring to. I'll plan on including the fix for that in the next release. Thanks for pointing that out!

[camerb]

tomos: I went ahead and made a release to include the fix for the config behavior. I'm currently starting a bit of a refactor for an additional filtering feature, so I figured I would post the fix for you prior to the filtering refactor.

[tomos]

^ thanks, will try it tomorrow

[tomos]

I can now add a folder, and a location for the stored info, and add tags.
That's all functioning well

Looking forward to seeing how one will be able to view all this info.
And I know it's early days, but requesting the ability to make my own list of categories.

This could be a very handy app -- I would see myself using it to quickly sort a bunch of photos related to e.g. a particular job, or subject, or occasion. One could store the tags for each batch in the same folder as the photos.
So, this may also be a request:
the ability to have 'multiple catalogs' i.e. to easily access multiple locations for the photos & their respective related info.

[tomos]

bug:
if I add a photo directory, but dont add a location for the tag info, I get an error warning -
that's good, except it closes the app, and I get the same error on restart -- so I'm caught in a loop, and am unable to correct the problem. Note -- I know I can delete the ini file and start again.

I see I get caught in the same loop if I dont add a photo dir.

Note #2 -- know it makes no sense to do the above, I did it by mistake when testing.

[camerb]

tomos: I'm able to reproduce the error that you were getting. Overall, I think I'll have to revisit how I'm handling user input of the settings, I'll plan on doing that before I give it a v1.0 version number.

Also, I like your idea of having "Multiple Catalogs". It wasn't part of my initial scope, but I've added it to the list for future functionality. Neat idea!

[tomos]

Also, I like your idea of having "Multiple Catalogs". It wasn't part of my initial scope, but I've added it to the list for future functionality. Neat idea!

-camerb (January 18, 2018, 01:54 PM)

great!