Image upload guide

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Just added this:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Help:Uploading_images

Feel free to refactor mercilessly.

[HaaTa]

For some of the template information, would it be possible for the upload tool to automagically add? Like date?
Most pictures now have proper dates (unless you treat your camera like a VCR), and it should be easy enough to use the "Date Taken" field.

The Author field, same thing, it should automatically default to the user uploading.

License as well, isn't there a license field right in the uploader? Can't this be automated?

The only thing I see that needs/should be added during the upload is the description for most images people are uploading.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I've said this before, but — in my view, all those fields should be actual image metadata, i.e. part of the database schema. As it stands, description is a free text field and it's the uploader's responsibility to put something useful in there, and the imagedesc template not only formats it nicely, but reminds people what information should be stored with the image (e.g. where did it come from, and what rights do we have to use it). (Obviously it gets a little complicated, and into the object–relational impedance mismatch la-la land, when you consider that the File: namespace is not exclusive to images, but to any file type permitted by the wiki configuration.)

In an ideal world, we would replace MediaWiki with an in-house program designed more closely around the knowledgebase environment, i.e. one where metadata would be integrated into the schema (including complex one–many relationships), so that search/filtering, categorisation, navigation, and infoboxes are all drawn from the same data source (i.e. it would be properly normalised to at least the first few normal forms). That in itself isn't too gruesome, but retaining the MediaWiki parser, generator and revision engine for actual article content would be a lot more complicated. MediaWiki's completely freeform nature is both a benefit and a curse, depending on what you're using the wiki for.

The alternative is to write a set of MediaWiki extensions for our needs, including one that maps HTML forms to imagedesc and back, and handles all the default selection.

Or simply to shove the imagedesc template in True Launch Bar's Clipboard Manager and just snag a copy any time I need it — it's only a few clicks away. That works for me. I already have my name, source, licence, and the year saved along with it. There's not a lot left to write, and the way I re-save all my photos to reduce the file size to a sane limit, I never preserve EXIF data either — never considered it a worthwhile use of space.

[HaaTa]

My environment is not really setup for fancy copy buffers (and I don't really want them), I usually deal with this sort of thing using some sort of automation on the server side (or client side if I really have to).

As an aside.
Once I finish my force curve measuring device, I'll have a file format ready for force curves. It would be really cool to be able to upload the force curve file itself, and have MediaWiki (or whatever) generate the desired svg/png rather than require the uploader to generate the image themselves.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Well, I shall leave you to reprogram MediaWiki then.

[HaaTa]

Guess that's another thing on my TODO list