Any recommendations for open source cataloging applications

<p>I'm looking for software that will help me keep track of images. I know you can do it via Lightroom or Aperture etc. but I'd like system that doesn't tie me to a commercial application. Preferably one that uses a standard open source database like MySQL which I can then access myself with my own software if need be, or via an open source application already written.</p>

<p>There are a list of possibles here - http://www.opensourcedigitalassetmanagement.org/ - but investigating each one in detail is a daunting task!</p>

<p>Has anyone looked into this and come up with a favorite? Has anyone tried Phraseanet? http://www.phraseanet.com/en</p>

<p>Open source shouldn't mean free, just open. If you want work done for you, you should be willing to feed them.</p>

Bob, it would help if you tell us what the software should provide, having not used Lightroom|Aperture.

<p>Just looking for a searchable database for images with an image viewer. Software that will read images from a directory into a database and allow searching by name, date, EXIF info, tags etc. I don't need or want an integrated image editor, RAW converter etc. (which is something that Aperture and Lightroom provide).</p>

<p>Ideally it would use PHP/MySQL, making it (relatively) easy to modify, extend and access without resorting to proprietary software.</p>

<p>"Gallery" is an option, though it does a whole lot more than I need (and therefore the coding is much more complicated)</p>

 

<ol>

<li><strong>Open source</strong> software is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. <strong>Open source</strong> software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the <strong>Open Source</strong> Definition.</li>

</ol>

<p>This is a photography forum, not a forum for the discussion of the philosophy of software distribution. It would probably be best to stick to that.</p>

<p>I've used IDImager PhotoSupreme for a while; it's not free nor open source but it uses normal databases in the background. The single user version uses SQLite, the multi-user version you can choose between MS SQL and PostgreSQL. Using it strictly with its database, it is a really fine application, fast and a pretty simple and straightforward UI (since I prefered writing metadata back to files and ignored warnings about that, I got burnt, though - and later on moved to captureone catalogs instead).</p>

<p>I did read up on some of the Open Source options listed, but for a single-user environment I found them a bit heavy-handed, and web user interfaces just never really reach the fluency and speed of native applications. Which may or may not matter, depending on how much time you spent in the application. Of course, for multi-user environments where most people will mainly search, web-based solutions do make a lot of sense.</p>

<p>Anyway, I know it's not exactly what you asked, but it might be worth considering PhotoSupreme, or Daminion (which I tried briefly, also a nice application but PhotoSupreme was cheaper at the time).</p>

<p>Bob, I assume you are using a Linux version as am I. In any event, "mapivi" appears to be cross-platform. </p>

<p>http://mapivi.sourceforge.net/mapivi.shtml</p>

<p>You may want to take a look at the above. I've just now installed it and will experiment with it as time allows. I found it doing a search within Ubuntu's software manager.</p>

 

<p>Just wanted to mention that Lightroom uses SQLite, and, if you're a database programmer, you can access the catalog. (True of Aperture, too, but Aperture is dead.)</p>