I have some files in a folder. I want to add two columns: location and rating.
The first column Location records a state of United States. I want to click a file, and mark it, say, from California. Another file could be from New York. The location information is not obvious from the file itself. Hence, I prefer to mark it myself.
The second column is Rating. I will rate the file. The value is 0 to 10, decimal point allowed. This column is a continuous value. One file could be 1.1, another could be 2.2, etc.
I personally think this kind of listery view is like Excel. Is it possible for me to add these columns to DO?
Yes.
IMHO, it is possible, but it’s at a power-user level, requiring some pretty basic but solid coding knowledge. Essentially, you would need to:
Develop a way to store this data. This could be in a separate file, acting as a database, or even within the same file if feasible. This could be Opus-wide (a script command) or even as an external program.
The way you design this should allow it to be used directly from Opus, for example, with a custom command.
Then in Opus, create custom script columns that read and show the previously stored data.
You can do that with the Status column if you have a set of icons of US state flags.
GP Software isn't in the USA, hence the people who post here are more often than not UK, Australia , Europe, and all over the world.
Thanks to @skinz we have a set of international flag icons.
This got me thinking...would something like this actually be useful/apppreciated by DO users if it were built-in? I mean the ability of define and read/set custom fields.
I feel like it could be helpful in certain cases, at least for me.
Not remotely as good as it can be, but since I had some free time this week, I put together a script add-in to test the idea. Here's a quick video demo:
You can see that :
It lets you define custom fields.
You can set these fields directly from DO ( kind of like using SetAttr META) using a custom command, which makes them flexible for various scenarios. The values are saved as an ADS in the same file.
You can also delete fields, same as using SetAttr META without other values.
It dinamically creates new columns so you can read and use those values within DO wherever you need them.
It’s still in the super early stages, and I’m wondering if it’s worth digging deeper into. It’s probably not safe to share it just yet, since I’ve only tested it for a couple of hours.
That said, it’s amazing how much you can extend DO’s functionality in unexpected ways!
Would you share your addin with me gqqnb2005@gmail.com? Or you can give me a private link on GitHub if your code is hosted there. I will give feedback.
While I understand the appeal of custom fields, the biggest limitation is that they would only work in Opus and would not be accessible if you shared the files with anyone or needed to access them with another application. So my reason for writing this is to inform anyone who might not realize that.
Commercial DAM applications and services do allow for creation of custom fields to suit a company's product line and internal needs.
Because I mainly work with people's personal photo and video collections, I must rely on fields that are standard in photo and video applications so that my clients can access added metadata as it was designed to be accessed - like searching by Keyword(s).
But while organizing collections, I sometimes use unused fields in the client's collection for my own temporary purposes. For example, if a client's photos do not have any useful/relevant Titles, I might use the Title field to indicate which photos are Black and White or Sepia versions of colour photos in their collection to ensure I don't remove any thinking they are duplicates.
