Camera Image Filenames

[prolongexistence]

I guess this would be the best place to post this.

Does anyone know how to / or can someone figure out a tweak to change the filename format the is used to save an image taken with the Pre camera?

Right now, the images are saved as CIMG0001, CIMG0002, CIMG0003, etc which is fine IF you never move the images to different albums. But, if you like the slightest bit of organization, you will most likely move your images to different albums on the device. After all, isn't that why Palm created this feature? So, once you remove all the images from the DCIM folder then the count starts over again (CIMG0001, CIMG0002....). Now, if you try to move these new pics to an existing folder, there is a real good chance that the filenames will already exist.

Before my Pre, I had the total POS HTC Touch with the trainwreck WM6.2. Someone in that little hacker world figured out how to change it so that the filenames were something like IMG_20091021_001, IMG_20091021_002, etc so that it would not only be impossible to duplicate a filename, but also be a reminder of when the pic was taken.

Is there a way to do this with WebOS or if not, can someone out there smarter than me find a way? Please

[Grabber5.0]

This has come up before, and I don't believe there is a solution at this time. For now, just don't move the last picture taken, and it will keep numbering.

[Jason Robitaille]

Try this attached .patch file. Should output images from the camera in the format:

IMG_YYYYMMDD_###.jpg

(Where YYYY is the year, MM is the month, DD is the day and ### is the unique 3-digit image number)

I can't test this in the emulator, but theoretically the patch should work.

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by Jason Robitaille

Try this attached .patch file. Should output images from the camera in the format:

IMG_YYYYMMDD_###.jpg

(Where YYYY is the year, MM is the month, DD is the day and ### is the unique 3-digit image number)

I can't test this in the emulator, but theoretically the patch should work.

Going to try this right now and will let you know if it works!!! thanks!

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by Jason Robitaille

Try this attached .patch file. Should output images from the camera in the format:

IMG_YYYYMMDD_###.jpg

(Where YYYY is the year, MM is the month, DD is the day and ### is the unique 3-digit image number)

I can't test this in the emulator, but theoretically the patch should work.

Jason -- I installed the .patch using webOS QI and i got a few errors during the install (i didn't write them down, sorry, but it had to do with not being able to access the backup or something like that)... but, it still installed and seems to work now.

Do you want me to uninstall it from webOS QI and reinstall to see what those errors were? thoughts?

EDIT -- I attached the 2 errors that I received. Does not affect the effectiveness of the patch

[OneDeep]

I'm going to try this out later today...but I'm glad there's a patch for that. I never know the date I taken a picture. Jason you just keep going and going

[Abyssul]

This is pretty nifty. Thanks Jason.

Don't photos have attached details to them anways so the date added to the filename isn't AS necessary? I know it helps though, but I'm just saying that the date and time are added to the images properties.

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by Abyssul

This is pretty nifty. Thanks Jason.

Don't photos have attached details to them anways so the date added to the filename isn't AS necessary? I know it helps though, but I'm just saying that the date and time are added to the images properties.

Actually, no, i do not believe Pre photos have the "Shooting Date" added to their image properties. When you look in Windows Explorer, the shooting date is blank for these, which is kinda annoying. Even my Treo 755p put in the shooting date to the image properties.

Jason -- any idea if you can add the Shooting Date to the meta-data for the photos as well in a patch, and not just the filename?

Thanks!

[DrewPre]

you can change the format of the file names by editing the json file of the camera app. Not sure of the file path off the top of my head but it's pretty straightforward once you find it.

edit:

Yea, it's in /usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.camera/camera-prefs-defaults.json

/**
 * @author rik sagar
 */

CameraPrefsDefaultPrefs = {
        'ALBUM': '100',
        'CAMERA-MAKE': 'Palm',
        'CAMERA-MODEL': 'Pre ',
        'COUNT': '1',
        'FILE-PREFIX': 'CIMG',
        'GEOTAGGING': 'enabled',
        'GPS-ACCURACY-METER': 'disabled',
        'GPS-FIX-MAX-AGE': '120',
        'GPS-FIX-TIME': '0',
        'GPS-LOCATION': '{latitude:53.691869, longitude:-1.633192}',
        'PATH-PREFIX': '/media/internal/DCIM/',
        'SOUNDS': 'enabled',
        'FLASH': '1',
        'LAST_CAPTURE_TIME': '0',
        'CAPTURE_IDLE_TIME_MAX': '120000',
        'WHITE_BALANCE_DELAY': '1',
        'CAPTURE_REVIEW_DELAY': '1000'
};

[JerryG]

Originally Posted by Audemars02

Actually, no, i do not believe Pre photos have the "Shooting Date" added to their image properties. When you look in Windows Explorer, the shooting date is blank for these, which is kinda annoying. Even my Treo 755p put in the shooting date to the image properties.

Jason -- any idea if you can add the Shooting Date to the meta-data for the photos as well in a patch, and not just the filename?

Thanks!

Took a test shot this morning, IrfanView does show the (correct) DateTime field values in the EXIF information.

There is no IPTC data however, but unless you're doing serious photojournalism (and this is your backup camera, right?), this doesn't matter to the average person...

Regards,
-JerryG

[Jason Robitaille]

@Audemars02, That's a new error, heh. Chances are the worst that would happen with that is EPR would ignore te patched file, though a normal uninstall would undo the changes anyway, nothin too serious. I'll look into the error.

@DrewPre, yea, I changed it from "CIMG" to "IMG_" then altered the actual image number to include the modified string in the camera-control.js file.


So is anyone gonna say if its working or not? I'm eager to know, heh

[Audemars02]

Sorry if I wasn't clear... yes, it works great!!!! I actually did some modifications of my own to change the patch slightly

Changed the following lines:
+ var fileSuffix = YYYY + "-" + MM + "-" + DD + "_" + imgNumStr;
and
+ 'FILE-PREFIX': 'PRE_',

so my pics show as PRE_2009-10-21_001

works great! thanks again! Now, just need to fix those pesky errors i get when installing!

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by JerryG

Took a test shot this morning, IrfanView does show the (correct) DateTime field values in the EXIF information.

There is no IPTC data however, but unless you're doing serious photojournalism (and this is your backup camera, right?), this doesn't matter to the average person...

Regards,
-JerryG

technically, I do see that the image Date & Time do show in the EXIF data, but the DateOriginal and DateDigitized don't appear to show up, so WIndows (and Smugmug.com, which is the site I use to sort by "date taken") can not find a shooting date for these pics.

[Kyusaku]

Originally Posted by Jason Robitaille

So is anyone gonna say if its working or not? I'm eager to know, heh

Patched with 2.82 got no error, took a photo came out as you said it would.


---------------------Edit------------------------
Hmmmm.... I might try Audemars02's format instead.

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by Kyusaku

Patched with 2.82 got no error, took a photo came out as you said it would.


---------------------Edit------------------------
Hmmmm.... I might try Audemars02's format instead.

Here is my patch file if you want it. just added a 2 to the end of the filename

NOTE: I take no credit for creating this file beyond the few tweaks I mentioned above. All the credit goes to Jason on this one (again!)

[JerryG]

Originally Posted by Audemars02

technically, I do see that the image Date & Time do show in the EXIF data, but the DateOriginal and DateDigitized don't appear to show up, so WIndows (and Smugmug.com, which is the site I use to sort by "date taken" can not find a shooting date for these pics.

Yes, this is definitely less than perfect... ouch. I'll have to look at the info in an image from my G5, tonight...

Regards,
-JerryG

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by JerryG

Yes, this is definitely less than perfect... ouch. I'll have to look at the info in an image from my G5, tonight...

Regards,
-JerryG

Even my wife's T-mobile Samsung Gravity shows the right shooting date for her pics, so why can't the Pre do that too! So frustrating!

Know of any good (and hopefully free) programs to edit the EXIF data for multiple images at once instead of going one-by-one?

[JerryG]

Originally Posted by Audemars02

Even my wife's T-mobile Samsung Gravity shows the right shooting date for her pics, so why can't the Pre do that too! So frustrating!

Know of any good (and hopefully free) programs to edit the EXIF data for multiple images at once instead of going one-by-one?

Time for a feature request to Palm -

Feedback & Feature Requests | Palm USA

I've never had to do a bulk change on EXIF data, only ID tags in music files...

What operating system?

-JerryG

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by JerryG

Time for a feature request to Palm -

Feedback & Feature Requests | Palm USA

I've never had to do a bulk change on EXIF data, only ID tags in music files...

What operating system?

-JerryG

Already submitted a request to Palm. and I am using Windows XP

[SirWill]

Originally Posted by JerryG

Time for a feature request to Palm -

Feedback & Feature Requests | Palm USA

I've never had to do a bulk change on EXIF data, only ID tags in music files...

What operating system?

-JerryG

Wonder if Jason can make a Patch for That...