2 Cole's Web-Based Images, Articles and Pages (2k.html)

The author is David KC Cole, the WebMaster of various webpages. His first webpage was his personal webpage named ColeDavid.com. When he first started creating that webpage, he learned the following truths:

Truths

Different `Container Types` would be needed to house images.
Most images needed captions that could be editted.
The best place for image captions was in a database.
I would need many different web pages.
I would need to rent space on a web server.
I would need a good text editor.
Links to other web pages were transient (ie they would disappear.)
I would need to learn HTML, PHP and MySQL.
Genealogy would begin with family tree information and photographs.
Presentation of captioned photos would need much experimentation.
All this work would need to be documented.
DataBase design should be slow and deliberate.

Thirty years ago, who would have predicted the following developments:

Developments

The Internet would gather so much genealogy information together.
Human DNA would contain rich genealogical information.
The price of Disk Space and Web Storage space would become inconsequential.
My original database design would still be growing today.
The web itself unites many users who can help us solve our problems.
Computers would always cost around $750 but their power would grow rapidly.
Digital cameras would take such good photos over 10 megapixels in size.
Facebook would provide images of everyone on the planet, it seems.
Facial recognition algorithms would become useful.
A web-based encyclopedia (Wikipedia) would be written by the public.
Aerial and Street-View of the planet would be freely available.
GPS technology would facilitate nagivation for all.
An iPad is a camera & a voice-to-text recorder with phone/web communications.
Images and other web-based information cause Availability vs Privacy competition.
etc

Discussion More and more of our "Images, Articles and Pages" include images. The sources of images are:

Image Sources

The Web
life itself via cell phones and iPads
Paper photographs stored in boxes, drawers and albums
Digital Cameras
Institutions such as archives, libraries, museums, newspapers
Other sources such as films, home movies, companies

Alas, most of these do not have captions. Without captions, it is very difficult to correctly identify the subjects in the images. It is important that we work diligently to capture all existing caption information about all photos. It is imperative that we retain the source of the images that we gather from the web. Of course, some images are valued because of their esthetic qualities such as beauty. But images that have important subject matter need to be accompanied by descriptive information in their captions.

All images that are stored on the web are digital images. Most digital images contain information about the image within the data file that is the digital image. This information is automatically captured when the image is photographed or scanned. Digital images taken by a camera contain much more environmental information than those which are scanned. This is because cameras take pictures of events that are happening now. Few still life pictures are taken, such an image of a snapshot. However, all scanned images capture a picture of something from the past. The person operating a camera has an opportunity to gather much descriptive information about the subject of the picture. The person operating the scanner, has little or no opportunity to gather descriptive information about the subjects in the image. (When scanning photos from an album, it is important to retain all of the information available such as the Album name and date range and the words accompanying the snapshot. As with the collection of any information, written or image, it is very important to identify the source. Descriptive information about the Source and the Repository holding the Source are tantamount.

Valuable attribute (metadata) information is automatically stored in digital photos. These attributes can include:

Digital Photo Attribute Information

date of photo (and time)
camera model (might define which family member took the photo)
location (lat. & long. in cameras with GPS capability)
orientation of the camera
email address of owner of the iPad or cell phone
verbal description of the subject of the photo (if the photographer complies)
Exif Data such as focal length, aperture, shutter speed etc
(see Fig Typical Exif Data below)
IPTC Data such as Headline, Description, Keywords, IPTC Subject Code and Description Writer etc
(see Fig Typical IPTC Data below)

Typical Exif Data
Date: 2014 F Jun 14 Source: wikipedia Exif

Note that the above sample of Exif data was captured in 2003. That was 11 years ago.

IPTC Data

The IPTC method stores caption information within the photo itself, in JPEG photo formats. The IPTC method was created for foreign journalists who occassionally found that their caption information was paired up with the wrong photo as the photos were transferred to the publisher. The IPTC mechanism was not embraced by the whole publishing community. However,IrfanView and Picasa do use IPTC, to varying degrees. Hopefully, all programs which edit JPG photos will retain any accompanying IPTC data. As I find other photo editting programs that use IPTC, I will include them in this article.

Typical IPTC Data
Date: 2014 F Jun 14 Source: IPTC 2010 Standard

IPTC attributes
Note that the above format of IPTC data was captured in 2010. That was only 4 years ago. Many other attributes can also be embedded in JPG digital images, but not automatically by the camera, of course. The first IPTC standard was developed in the 1980s for use by journalists. The goal was to ensure that the captions were not assigned to the wrong images. More information is available at IPTC 2010 Standard. The free program named Irfanview can be used to insert and view IPTC attributes in JPEG images.

Today's IPTC attributes

IrfanView IPTC Fields
Date: 2014 G Jul 12 Source: IrfanView Editor

IrfanView's IPTC fields
This example of IrfanView's IPTC data was captured in 2014. The data in each field is an example of how the author would use the fields to upload IPTC info to iGalri.com. To date, the iGalri.com site ignores the IPTC data fields in the photos that are uploaded.

Picasa's IPTC attributes

Picasa IPTC Fields
Date: 2014 G Jul 12 Source: Picasa Gallery for Windows

Picasa's IPTC fields
This example of Picasa's IPTC data was captured in 2014. The data in each field shows how Picasa displays the data that was entered using Irfanview (above). Picasa allows the user to only edit the Caption (Description) data but no other fields, even though they are displayed. Picasa displays the above fielded information to the right of the photo. Picasa displays the full IPTC caption (description) underneath the photo, where it can be editted. the image below shows how Picasa displays the photo, with the IPTC fields to the right, with the IPTC caption (description) below the photo.

Picasa Photo Display

Image Attributes used by David KC Cole
The author has found that the following main attributes were important for images used by his web pages such as www.iGalri.com. Users of this web site can use their iPad to take the snapshot, verbally add the caption, and upload the information to the iGalri.com database. Users who have iPads can verbally specify their search criteria to request and view all relevant captioned images.
Author's Image Attributes
object (name of image)

email address (of submitter)

datePosted (when image/caption was added/updated)

pathName (where image came from...if on a local drive)

urlName (where image was found...if on the web)

verbage (caption information...in html)

imgHeight (in pixels)

imgWidth (in pixels)

container (repository on server i.e. a gallery)

site (where image is displayed)

status (of image.. eg. deleted)

isPublic (viewable by all i.e. NOT private)

other minor attributes
Of course, all the Exif and IPTC information is still available in the actual digital images. Being available, it could be used to populate future image attribute fields (columns). Submitters of captioned images are requested to include major attributes such as names of subjects, location and source in the caption information.

Definitions of Images, Articles and Pages
Image Definition
An Image is a JPG type of image that is stored in the ePC (ePhotoCaption) group of web pages. Images are used (i.e. presented) here in four ways:
Presentation of Images
Captioned Image stored in an ePC gallery

Image used in a ePC Page (i.e. an HTML page within a web site)

Image used in an ePC Article

Image whose primary usage is by the public, not by ePC

Page DefinitionArticle Definition

Image Usage
Captioned Image stored in an ePC gallery
A Captioned Image that is stored in an ePC gallery is always for private (not public) viewing. Such images might be flagged for public viewing. Therefore this images must NOT be stored in web pages where they are available to the public.

Image used in a ePC Page (i.e. an HTML page within a web site)
Most of these images are used directly by an ePC web site. These are usually stored in a folder named `images` off the root of the web site. This makes them easy to locate but it also makes it impossible to store two different images that have the same name. This is not usually a problem for the WebMaster of the web site.

However, sometimes an html link to a non-ePC website is so important that the disappearance of the non-ePC linked page must be avoided. In this case, a copy of the non-ePC linked page is made. A copied page should not be included in an ePC web site, mainly because of the image references. These are references to images that must also be copied from the non-ePC web site. So the non-ePC images and non-ePC html pages must be stored somewhere else, but in a public area, so that the ePC web sites can access them. Therefore these non-ePC images and pages are stored in a unique folder under folder `a` that is off of the root of `ePhotoCaption.com`. These non-ePC copied images can be housed in folders that bear the same relationship to the copied html pages. This is necessary to minimize the editting of non-ePC html pages; editting that must be done because they are no longer in their previous environment.

Image used in an ePC Article
An ePC Article is simply an html page written by the ePC WebMaster. An ePC Article and its images are always public. So the ePC article is stored like an html page from a non-ePC html page. Therefore this non-ePC images and pages are stored in a unique folder under folder `a` that is off of the root of ePhotoCaption.com. The unique folders off the folder named `a` are uniquely numbered beginning with number 1. Occassionally, a higher number will be used, if it corresponds to a number in the non-ePC web site.

Image whose primary usage is by the public, not by ePC
Sometimes an image must be viewable by the public in non-ePC Web Sites. An example of this is in the Post-Em notes offered by World Connect. An example of a Post-Em Note can be seen for James Edwin COLE in WorldConnect. To see a Post-em Note at this URL, click on an html link named `View Post-em`. For example an image of the person might need to be referenced. Since such images are NOT necessarily referenced by any ePC html pages, they must be placed in another folder. Such images are stored in a folder named `img` off the root of `ePhotoCaption.com`.

Review
All images uploaded to the server by an ePC html page or by the ePC WebMaster are stored in one of the following places:
ePC Image Repositories
in an ePC web Site (other than ePhotoCaption)

in an ePC container (gallery) folder

in a folder under folder `a` off the root of ePhotoCaption.com

in a folder `img` off the root of ePhotocaption.com

It is important to know where all of the ePC images are stored. This is because it is sometimes necessary to search for a specific image. This is especially true when an image must be replaced by a more recent (or more correct) image. Sometimes when an image must be referenced a second time within the ePC system, its exact location must be found. Another reason is when ePC images are being moved to a new container (gallery).

2 Cole's Web-Based Images, Articles and Pages (2k.html)

Date: 2014 F Jun 14 Source: wikipedia Exif

Date: 2014 F Jun 14 Source: IPTC 2010 Standard

Date: 2014 G Jul 12 Source: IrfanView Editor

Date: 2014 G Jul 12 Source: Picasa Gallery for Windows

Image Attributes used by David KC Cole

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WebMaster: David@ColeCanada.com

Last Update: 2014 G Jul 05

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