Documentation
Description
The Image Management System (IMS) is designed to store and display catalogued images. There are plenty of other photo album web applications out there, but the IMS was developed to address specific needs that other systems appear to lack. It can:
- Store images in multiple categories
- Store and associate multiple versions of an image, say of different formats and resolutions, with a single instance of that image. For instance, you can have a high resolution TIFF image designed for print media associated with a low resolution JPEG formatted image for display on the web.
- Can handle more than just JPEG, PNG and GIF images (buggy, depends on the Image drivers supported)
- Can run on a range of database systems (MDB abstraction layer)
Basic concepts
- Category
- The most general level of images groupings. Holidays and Family photos could be separate categories.
- Subcategory
- Each category is made up of subcategories, so the category Family photos could contain the subcategories Christmas Gatherings and Grandparents. An image may belong to multiple subcategories, so a photo might be in both Christmas Gatherings and Grandparents if you held a Christmas gathering at your grandparents. Images can also belong to subcategories in separate categories.
- Subjects
- Images that belong to a single "thread" are given the same subject. So, you might give all photographs from Christmas 2001 a subject of the
same name. An image can only have a single subject.
- Primary Image
- A primary image is the "default" image displayed by the system. It is sized
appropriately for display on a web page and in a web compatible format. It is
the image that appears with the associated details when a thumbnail is clicked.
- Associated Image
- Associated images are related to a primary image, but may be of higher resolution
or the format may be different and possible not compatible with web browser display.
For instance, associated images may be supplied as a high resolution TIFF image
for the benefit of the print media.
- Weight
- The weighting determines how high an image or category is ranked when listed. The lower the weight the higher the ranking.
Administration
The administration area is where users can submit new images, edit image details and add or edit subjects.
Users with administrator privileges can also add new users, give them additional permissions
and add or edit categories and subcategories.
Note that an image may be listed multiple times in the administration area if it is in multiple subcategories.
This is scheduled to be fixed in the next version so that it matches the public image list.