Compacting DB

[WIanB]

Probably a very silly question but how do I Compact the DB? I can find no option to do so, or does "Tools>Cleanup unused thumbs and previews" compact as well?

[weidmic]

WIanB,
goto preferences | Catalog | click Compact...

options.PNG (73.84 KiB) Viewed 13689 times

Cheers,
Micahel

[WIanB]

Thank you! I should have found that!! Sometimes the eyes just don't see

[blinkit0]

Probably a very silly question but how do I Compact the DB? I can find no option to do so, or does "Tools>Cleanup unused thumbs and previews" compact as well?

Like Ian, Intuitively looked in the Tools directory for compacting the DB and Thumbs. The help file was no help.

Juan

[Mike Buckley]

It really is counter-intuitive to look for compacting in a Preferences dialog menu. Compacting the databases is an action and doesn't belong in a dialog menu that configures Preference settings. Indeed, there are no other actions in the Preference settings for good reason.

I strongly recommend that this be changed if people are supposed to intuitively look for compacting or even become aware of it. I pity the new users who haven't used earlier IDimager Systems products and are not aware of the need for compacting. That's especially true while the manual continues to lack so much important information. Indeed, when I click "Compacting" in the Help file, there is absolutely no information.

[Hert]

I pity the new users who haven't used earlier IDimager Systems products and are not aware of the need for compacting.

You don't have to "pity" the new users, simply because the compacting is in the Preferences, haha.

Only old IDI users "intuitively" expect it in the Tools menu, because in IDimager that is where it is. I think Lightroom users will expect it in the "Catalog Settings"...and that is also where it is in PSU. So users that are already familiar with Lightroom will expect it exactly where it is now, which is better than in a Tools menu when this isn't a "tools", nor a relevant cataloging feature.

Hert

[Mike Buckley]

You don't have to "pity" the new users, simply because the compacting is in the Preferences, haha.

You're right, Hert, that I don't have to pity the new users for that but I do. I will always have a soft spot for new users that have never used a database having frustrating experiences that you folks who have been IT specialists for years perhaps understandably can no longer relate to. That's the whole reason I wrote the IDimager Version 5 Workbook. When I had been a new user, this is the sort of thing that had been frustrating to me because it made the product difficult to understand.

If you're only attending to the market of Lightroom users and are placing the Compact command in the Preferences dialog menu because of that, that's fine. But for someone such as myself who had never used Lightroom (and still hasn't), I wouldn't even know of the need to compact the database and, in my opinion, shouldn't have to hang out in the support forum to learn about it. That's a basic function that in my opinion should have been explained in the Help Screens upon the first release of Supreme. It is now more than two months later and we're up to version 1.5.0.80. Despite that the Help screen calls attention to the apparent need to compact, there is still no explanation of why that's so, that compacting rebuilds the database, or where to find the command. Perhaps it is at least explained in the Tips system of the latest version, which I have not installed; I hope so.

I agree with you that placing the Compact command in the Tools menu is not intuitive. It seems much more intuitive and logical to me to have a Maintenance tab. Doing so compels the user to mentally ask the question, "What should I be doing to maintain my database in optimum condition?" Items such as compacting, cleaning up unused thumbs and previews, and building missing thumbs and previews could be logical, intuitive menu items.

Just my thinking that perhaps is not very different from most of your new users.

[jstartin]

I think Lightroom users will expect it in the "Catalog Settings"...and that is also where it is in PSU. So users that are already familiar with Lightroom will expect it exactly where it is now, which is better than in a Tools menu when this isn't a "tools", nor a relevant cataloging feature.

I don't think it matters where "Compact" is located as long as new users without much experience of "databases" are told that compacting is necessary for good performance, and told clearly how to do it. The "compacting" section of the online help text has no content other than the word "content".

That said, I think Hert's reasons for NOT having it on the tools menu are quite bizarre; compacting seems as relevant to "cataloguing", and as much of a "tool", as most of the items that ARE on that menu.

An argument for not putting it in "preferences" is that, on my system anyway, the appearance of the preferences panel takes quite a long time (it must be the slowest thing in PSU), and then the frequently used compact buttons are not even on the front page.

[Mike Buckley]

the appearance of the preferences panel takes quite a long time

That panel displays almost instantaneously on my system, certainly in less than one-half second.

[jstartin]

the appearance of the preferences panel takes quite a long time

That panel displays almost instantaneously on my system, certainly in less than one-half second.

Ooohhh! 1.5.0.80x64 on my AMD A8 quad core system (and with a mere 20k images in the catalogue) takes 10+ seconds. Everything else is in the range of "pretty quick" to "flying". It takes nearly as long to open the panel as it does to compact the database

[Hert]

Jim, can you send me your Options.imb file?

Thanks
Hert

[blinkit0]

Only old IDI users "intuitively" expect it in the Tools menu, because in IDimager that is where it is. I think Lightroom users will expect it in the "Catalog Settings"...and that is also where it is in PSU. So users that are already familiar with Lightroom will expect it exactly where it is now, which is better than in a Tools menu when this isn't a "tools", nor a relevant cataloging feature.

Hert

Senor Hert
Well, I respectfully disagree. I have not used V5 for a long time and As a former System Tester I intuitively looked for compacting the database under tools. Preferences to me mean Settings, and setting are static. Compacting the database is not a static setting, is done on demand. Compacting the DB, is an activity more closely related to the activities under tools.

My two cents.

Juan

[jstartin]

In case users have missed it, the new CTRL+SHIFT+C shortcut for switching catalogue files brings up a small menu which includes compact database. Not obvious, but rather convenient.

[andy@damroundup.com]

Perhaps compacting the database should be an option box that pops up every 30 days when you close Idimager? Kinda like the LR backup reminder box? - Andy.

[weidmic]

Andy, yeah maybe a good thing; but only if you can switch off the reminder!