FC.ImageSearch 3.0 Released

First the good news: the product is finally out and I am really happy about the results we've come up with. The new version of the FC.ImageSearch product is a great tool because it simplifies setting up an Image Search in SharePoint so that even mere mortals (non-programmers) can manage and configure everything.

Now the not so good news: this was way too hard to develop. To start with, we had to recognize that we had to rewrite the whole application, as Microsoft's changes to the SharePoint security (in general btw a good move) locked up way too many things that aren't critical or even sensitive as I see it. E.g. no longer can we offer the information whether a column in a library is indexed and under which ManagedProperty to the Site Administrator, as access to many of the SharePoint Search objects is now only available from the Central Administration web application.

So much for the rant. On to the good stuff.

Several things also got better. In SharePoint 2010 we can now much better filter out the Image Search requests for specific libraries (which are selected by the Site Administrator). And the whole Search Service Application architecture is really nice too to work with also!

Enough talk. Let pictures speak!

Of course, all the links are there to get to the Preview, the item's properties and the exact folder of the library the image is in.

What I am personally really happy about is that this time around we were able to get rid of the separate Xsl document that held the definition of the layout of the search results. This was possible because we finally got to implement a bit of Reflection to be able to set the Xsl property of the CoreResults web part (I blogged about it in my previous post).

Oh well, I've done it again ...ended on another oddity of Microsoft implementation choices. But i think you'd agree with me ....why would you not allow to set a property (if not THE most important property) of a web part?

Anyway, being able to set the Xsl property means that it's now much easier for anyone to modify the Xsl code. So, if you really want to, you can simply bring up the web part editor and do it. Yet again, I think that most people will be absolutely happy using the configuration user interface of the FC.ImageSearch.

Anyway, more pictures are available on our website, and so is a trial version of our new product. Enjoy!

Published: Jan-16-12 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Setting the Xsl property of the CoreResultsWebPart

Modifying the Xsl property of the CoreResultsWebPart using the Web Part editor is straight-forward. But doing the same thing programmatically is a nuisance. In many situations you end up with an InvalidOperation exception.

The reason for this trouble is the getter of the XslHash property:

private string XslHash
{
    get
    {
        if (this._BeforeOnInit)
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException();
        }

Of course, the _BeforeOnInit field is "true" when you try to modify the CoreResultsWebPart using the LimitedWebPartManager.

The easiest way to solve this involves a bit of reflection:

typeof(SearchResultsBaseWebPart).GetField("_BeforeOnInit", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic).SetValue(wp, false);

After this you can set the Xsl property.

HTH!

Published: Nov-19-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Debugging SharePoint Custom Admin Pages

I think everyone knows about the <customErrors> tag in the web.config to enable error details to be displayed by the Runtime Error page, which you usually get when your aspx markup and related code-behind has a problem.

Normally this is set in the Virtual directory of the Web application along with another version of the web.config file in the Template/Layouts folder of the SharePoint HIVE.

But if you are developing Admin pages you need to set the RemoteOnly setting in the web.config that is found in the Template/Admin folder of the SharePoint HIVE.

Published: Oct-20-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

FC.ImageSearch 1.1 released for SharePoint 2007 / WSS3

We've just released version 1.1 of our FC.ImageSearch product.

While this is officially a maintenance release I personally still consider it a "major" release, as we've put a major effort into supporting all kinds of ways people end up configuring their search center. E.g. the Search Server Express by default makes the RootWeb of the site Collection the search center. If one adds a search site to an existing site collection it will often be a subsite. But then, the search center could be also just in another site collection altogether.

Then, if it is a MOSS installation the search result pages are stored in the Pages library. But when it is a SSX installation they are simply in the RootFolder of the search center site. And so it goes on...

Apart from the handy links in the Search result page of the FC.ImageSearch which give access to the properties page of the item and the containing folder of the item, I really like the ability to easily configure the properties for the Advanced Search page.

Assume you want to search on specific image metadata, like Picture Width, Keywords or Date Picture Taken. All you've got to do with the FC.ImageSearch is to pick and choose the Managed Properties you want, as can be seen in the following screenshot:

And then they'll be immediately available in the the Advanced search page:

What's more, the FC.ImageSearch even helps you to match or "promote" Library columns to Managed Properties.

Go give it a try. I am sure you'll like the ease of use of the FC.ImageSearch!

Published: Jul-19-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

FC.MetadataExtractor 3.2 released for SharePoint 2010

On the heels of the 2.3 release (for SharePoint 2007), comes the announcement for the 3.2 release for SharePoint 2010.

All the goodies introduced in the 2.3 release have also found their way into the 3.2 release.

Of course we didn't stop there, and implemented several new features that will make it even easier for you to extract the right metadata.

The Highlights of this latest release are:

Better looking Thumbnails
Thumbnails everywhere
Thumbnails and Metadata Extraction for RAW, PSD, or DNG files
Metadata Extraction from images in folders and their subfolders
Full Control over all metadata extraction processes running in the background
Writing Metadata back to the image
More, and improved, Default Mappings
New "Standard Mappings"
Adding and Editing a Field Mapping - Simplified!

Better looking Thumbnails

This latest release has a new component called "Unified Thumbnail". One of its most prominent features is that it uses the color profile stored in the image to provide a better thumbnail quality. See for yourself:

SharePoint:	FC.MetadataExtractor:

Thumbnails everywhere

By default, SharePoint does not create thumbnails in any document library other than the Assets and the Pictures library. SharePoint also does not create thumbnails whenever a file does not have the windows filetype extension in the filename.

The Unified Thumbnail enables thumbnails in all kinds of document libraries. Even in the Assets and Pictures libraries it can add value by creating thumbnails for formats not supported by SharePoint.

Thumbnails and Metadata Extraction for RAW, PSD, or DNG files

SharePoint only creates thumbnails for a few formats, like jpg and png. Other formats, e.g. RAW formats like CR2 or NEF, or even PSD images are not supported by SharePoint.

The Unified Thumbnail provides thumbnails for all formats for which a WIC codec has been installed. Such codecs might be available from your camera vendor, but there are also low-cost codecs available from vendors like Ardfry (PSD, DNG) and FastPictureViewer (wide range of RAW codecs).

Keep in mind that 64-bit (x64) codecs are required for use with SharePoint 2010.

Metadata Extraction from images in folders and their subfolders

If you have a document library with images organized in folders, the images in this library can now be processed by the FC.MetadataExtractor in one simple step: Select the top-level folders and start the "Manual Extraction". The 3.2 release will automatically parse through all folders and sub-folders to extract the thumbnail and metadata from all images in that library.

Full Control over all metadata extraction processes running in the background

Extracting metadata and creating thumbnails for a large number of images can be a lengthy operation. This process is conducted in the background to allow the user to continue to work. Until now, whether any such process is active and what its progress is has been somewhat invisible. This is why we introduced the "Extraction Control", which provides transparency over any such process running in the site, and also enables the site collection administrator to cancel any of these processes.

Background Extraction Processes

Writing Metadata back to the image

SharePoint 2010 added the functionality to some SharePoint columns to write metadata back to the image. We've tested this functionality and have slightly modified our Default Mappings to include the following columns:

Copyright (previously: CopyrightNotice was used)
Keywords
Author (previously: Photographer was used)
Date Picture Taken
Comments
Subject

Note: The Comments and Subject metadata is written back to the image, but not to the typical location in the file, so it might not show in your image editing application.

The standard SharePoint columns "Title" and "Name" also write back to the image.

More and Improved Default Mappings

Several Field Mappings have been added and many of the previously existing mappings have been enhanced, e.g. by explicit access to png and gif fields. For a complete list of the current Default Mappings please see the product manual which is included with the demo download from our website.

New "Standard Mappings"

Metadata mappings configured for one library can now easily be copied to other libraries in the site collection using the new commands:

Standard Mappings

Adding and Editing a Field Mapping - Simplified!

Any existing Field Mapping can now be entirely modified later on. Gone are the days when this sometimes required creating a new field mapping. Plus, a link is now provided to create a missing column in the library and several checks are performed automatically to avoid creating an invalid mapping.

Go Get It!

The new release is already available as a download from our website. Go give it a spin and see if you like the new and improved features!

Published: Jul-06-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

FC.MetadataExtractor 2.3 released

I've been looking forward to announcing this major release, as it holds a good number of new features and usability improvements.

The highlights for me are:

- Extended file format support

- Much improved ease of use around configuring and applying metadata mappings

- Fixing the page redirect after manually starting the extraction of metadata for images already in the library

Extended file format support

In addition to the existing standard image formats like JPG, TIF or GIF etc., the FC.MetadataExtractor now leverages ALL WIC-compatible codecs that are installed on the SharePoint server. This potentially allows to extract metadata from various RAW file types (e.g. CR2 and NEF), as well as PSD or even DNG files.

Be aware that some of these codecs are freely available (e.g. many camera manufacturers provide the codec for their RAW format for free), while others cost a little bit of money.

Microsoft has an overview page of WIC codecs.

Improvements of Metadata Mappings Configuration

First off, it is now possible to change the Field definition at any time, just like the choice of the list column the metadata should be written to. (I know, we should have done it this way a looong time ago)

Also, it is now possible to save the Metadata Mappings configured for one library as the "Standard Mappings" for the Site Collection, after which these mappings can then be easily added to other libraries as well.

Then, we've updated the default mappings and columns to include Fields which have become more popular over the last months. E.g. Latitude and Longitude are now default columns.

Several of the default columns of type Text are now Note fields in the library rather than Single Line Text fields, as we've seen more information being stored in them. Several of our customers found out that SharePoint is not "forgiving" if you try to store excessive amounts of text into a Text column. In such case SharePoint will actually update NONE of the fields of the item.

We've continued improving and completing the metadata access as much as possible. E.g. this time we've added better formatting of RATIONAL values and arrays of RATIONAL. I think by now we have a very solid metadata access implementation, even on older Operating Systems like Windows 2003R2, where the WIC functionality is still very limited.

Also please note that Microsoft has improved their documentation on the WIC (here and here), which might be helpful for you to determine the right access string for the metadata Field.

Fixing the page redirect

We've had that request for quite some time, but the redirect to the right page view or paged view of a folder in the library was a bit complex to implement. I am very happy that we finally got this covered as I think it is a big nuisance for a user to manually return to a specific page view of the library.

The demo is already up on our website, so go get it and give it a test drive.

The Upgrade to version 2.3 is FREE for existing customers.

Enjoy!

Published: May-02-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

FC.MetadataExtractor 2.2 and 3.1 released

We've just put out a couple of maintenance releases for our FC.MetadataExtractor products. The 2.2 release is for the SharePoint 2007 platform and the3.1 release is for the SharePoint 2010 platform.

There are subtle but valuable improvements around the handling of GPS metadata. First, we now support the Degrees Decimal-Minutes format both for display and also when reading the resource (e.g. the iPhone stores GPS data that way, instead of using the standard Degrees Minutes Decimal-Seconds).

If the GPS data is to be displayed as a Number, this is now also supported, showing negative values for S (outh) and W (est).

The 3.1 release now also supports the new MUI (Multilingual User Interface) capability. Languages available at this point are English and German

Of course, as always with our software, minor upgrades are free for existing customers.

Enjoy!

Published: Feb-03-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Accessing Location metadata using WIC - Windows Imaging Components

A customer just asked me how to retrieve the "City" metadata using the WIC. It's actually straight forward to pull that out of the IPTC information in most cases, as that is where Photoshop puts it when using the IPTC tab's "Sub-Location section, or the Origin tab.

app13/irb/8bimiptc/iptc/City

The "Country" is a little bit more tricky because the name of the resource contains a forward slash: ""Country/Primary Location Name"

/app13/irb/8bimiptc/iptc/Country\/Primary Location Name

Of course, one shouldn't confuse that "City" with the creator's "City" metadata,, which can be found here:

/xmp/CreatorContactInfo/CiAdrCity

HTH!

Published: Jan-22-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Change the Home page in SharePoint

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Wow, it's been a while that I had the time to write a blog post. I was simply swamped over the last two months. Soo much has happened!

Now I look forward to a good new year and I wish everyone exactly the same!

Back to business!

Unbelievable, but after years of working with SharePoint, for the first time, I needed to change the home page. 2 seconds thinking, 20 seconds googling - only to come up with ideas like doing this programmatically ...nuh, this had to be simpler.

Hey, what about SharePoint Designer? And there it was, the "Set as Home page" command! It couldn't be more simple :-)

Published: Jan-04-11 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

SharePoint 2010 Translation "Gem"

We'll be releasing the FC.ImageSearch for SharePoint 2010 product also in German. While testing we recognized this very innovative translation of a list column name:

English: "CheckedOutUserId"

German: "ID des Benutzers, der das Element ausgecheckt hat"

Perfect down to the punctuation with the comma after "Benutzers". ROTFLMAO :-D

Hey, whoever translated that column name, you have a career opportunity: you should switch jobs and start writing books rather than technical documentation.

Published: Oct-27-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

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