Extending Aperture!

UPDATE: Download the files here

Imagine

Imagine a web gallery, generated from your Aperture albums, that allowed clients or visitors to your site to search your photos by keywords, IPTC and EXIF metadata. Imagine providing a function for your clients, friends or family to leave comments with your photos. Imagine doing this with one click.

Read on for the background behind this project and explore the sample galleries on the right of this page. Feel free to comment on the photos and remember you can find similar images by clicking on the keywords associated with any photo.

Introduction

When I was going to Tokyo in April I planned to put a lot of photos online. I wanted it to be interactive - to allow keyword searches and comments. This is what I decided to do.

Preparation

I wrote 3 php pages; an index page - a viewer page and a search results page.
I created 2 tables in a mysql database; one to hold the photo info, one to hold comments.
I wrote a photoshop action to process the images.
I set up a script using Phil Harvey's excellent exiftool to extract the JPEG's from my Canon RAW files and to export the EXIF data to a text file.

In Action

At the end of each day I downloaded my photos from my Canon Powershot and selected the images I wanted to put online.
A script extracted the jpegs from the RAW files and wrote the EXIF data to a text file.
I wrote an sql insert statement with the imagename, gallery name, a caption, keywords and the EXIF data (copy and paste -it didn't take long!).
I ran a photoshop batch to 'save for web' the selected images and to create thumbnails.
I ftp'd the images to the webserver
I ran the sql statement against my mysql database...
...and finally updated the index page to add a blog entry and a link to my new gallery.

To view this site (and over 200 photos of Tokyo) visit http://japan.traceramc.co.uk

Aperture, Automator and the One Click Gallery.

Back in Belfast I loaded all my photos into Aperture. I started keywording, organising and sorting them. Then I decided to try to generate these galleries using Aperture.

Thanks to a few Automator actions I have accomplished the task.

I have to say that without help from Sal Soghoian this would not have been possible. Sal has written many actions for automator and tweaked an action at my request to allow me to extract the required information from Aperture. Please visit his excellent site www.automator.us where you will be able to download his actions.

The Automator Way

Having keyworded, captioned, adjusted, cropped and created albums of my images in Aperture, I simply run a single automator action that does the following...

Prompts you to select the Aperture gallery.
Extracts the metadata from the images and writes it out to a text file.
Creates an sql insert statement.
Exports the images to disk.
Generates thumbnails for the images.
Uploads the images and thumbnails to the remote server.
Runs the sql insert statement against the mysql database.

The End Result

3 webpages, an automator plugin and unlimited photo albums... with comments!

If you want the 3 php pages, 2 mysql tables and the code to generate these galleries, request it in the comments below. If there is enough interest I'll tidy everything up and make it available as a zip file. Enjoy the photos (and remember to click on keywords to find similar photos)!

Posted by Alex on Friday, May 8th 2006 at 21:32:00

{Comments}

Posted by Sailesh on Saturday June 10th 2006 at 09:34:26

Alex, I've just got Aperture and would like to give your code a shot.

Posted by eric on Monday June 12th 2006 at 06:15:34

I would love to try your web page actions. Thanks!

Posted by martijn Dijk van on Monday June 12th 2006 at 07:59:39

would love to check out your stuff. Good work!

Posted by D. Michael Reyman on Monday June 12th 2006 at 13:08:35

Great work. Add me to the list who would love to try your web pages and code. Thanks!

Posted by Tiernan OToole on Monday June 12th 2006 at 22:15:28

Sounds interesting. i would like to have a look at the code too!

Thanks!

Posted by Crystal on Tuesday June 13th 2006 at 14:10:31

I've already written a set custom export templates of my own, but they're static. I'd like to try out your code as well, if you decide to provide it. ;)

Posted by Ignacio Ferrando on Wednesday June 14th 2006 at 17:27:41

Please!!! let me try your script!!!

thanks

Posted by Alexandra on Wednesday June 14th 2006 at 22:26:38

I would definitely be interested as well

Posted by Ben D. on Thursday June 15th 2006 at 05:14:36

Please count me in if/when you're ready to share!! This is fantastic!

Posted by Ben D. on Thursday June 15th 2006 at 05:17:37

I'm sure you know this, but just in case...although this site looks pristine in Safari, it seems that the CSS (or something else) is breaking in Firefox. Thanks for all your hard work, I hope to get to try it out soon!

Posted by Alex on Thursday June 15th 2006 at 07:26:40

Yeah, I know. It's the CSS. only happens when you have an ordered list on the page. I meant to fix it. Will do later. Alex

Posted by Tim on Thursday June 15th 2006 at 19:30:25

This is cool - count me in to!

Posted by Ruslan Degtyarev on Saturday June 17th 2006 at 15:32:01

Posted by Peter Llewellyn on Wednesday June 21st 2006 at 06:06:29

I would love to give theses actions a go as I have to regularly upload to a searchable web site from Sports events I am covering

Posted by Jan Maas on Wednesday June 21st 2006 at 17:05:39

Also very interested in your scripts and automator action. Good work!

Posted by Tom Kornack on Thursday June 22nd 2006 at 09:40:20

Totally could use what you've built.

Posted by phd on Thursday June 22nd 2006 at 20:48:29

Please I could very much use this! Great Work!

Posted by Paul on Saturday June 24th 2006 at 12:28:57

Very nice idea! Great work! Can I try too?
Greetings from Poland, Europe :)

Posted by Brandon Bohling on Saturday June 24th 2006 at 18:56:00

sounds fantastic alex, please share if you don't mind!

Posted by Dominic on Sunday June 25th 2006 at 22:12:48

Very nice and simple. please send me the code. Thanks

Posted by Mark Lomas on Monday June 26th 2006 at 22:44:40

I'm going to Japan (and New Zealand, Nepal and Tibet!) in 3 weeks and would love to give this shot! Consider this another request, cheers.

Posted by Win on Tuesday June 27th 2006 at 20:27:18

Great idea. This is also another request for the code.

Posted by Win on Tuesday June 27th 2006 at 20:27:18

Great idea. This is also another request for the code.

Posted by Rory Sinclair on Wednesday June 28th 2006 at 17:54:15

this sounds like just what im looking for!

Posted by Damian Dovarganes on Friday June 30th 2006 at 16:27:18

Simple and elegant idea. I would also love to try your implementation. Great Design ! Thanks.

Posted by Stephen R. Lasky on Saturday July 1st 2006 at 01:23:15

So, are these automator actions available, and if so, where are they? They sound great.

thanks

srlasky

Posted by Alex Donald on Saturday July 1st 2006 at 21:33:56

You can get them at the address below.
http://www.traceramc.co.uk/aperture/instructions.php
Alex

Posted by William on Friday July 7th 2006 at 16:06:43

That code sounds great! For the summer I'm working on a project of collecting and organizing camp photos and will be making the webpages for the end of camp. That sounds fantastic. I'm very new to aperture and apple, but I think even if I don't use it, that would help me to do similar things. I'd appreciate a copy of it. Thanks!
-William

Posted by Jimmy on Thursday July 20th 2006 at 23:52:30

This is exactly what i have been looking for!

Posted by jmo on Friday July 21st 2006 at 14:38:35

Great stuff.
Thanks for focusing your brain on this.
Would love to test drive the code.

Posted by ann on Wednesday July 26th 2006 at 22:52:02

would really love to utilize this to create an online yearbook for our university - a service like that would be just like myspace...

Posted by Joe on Thursday July 27th 2006 at 16:25:43

This is fantastic. I would love to try out your script.

Posted by mark Beyer on Friday July 28th 2006 at 23:41:53

Fantastic ! I'd love to try it

Posted by Jay Stebbins on Tuesday August 1st 2006 at 04:55:33

Alex, great site. I would love to get a copy of everything so I might adapt it for my own use. Enjoy your travels

Posted by Bob on Wednesday August 2nd 2006 at 15:32:09

Looks very slick. I'm interested in trying it.
Thanks.

Posted by Damian Small on Thursday August 10th 2006 at 14:27:08

Great site I would love to have a look at the code and tables. Your a great thinker.

Thanks

Posted by Damian Small on Thursday August 10th 2006 at 14:27:08

Great site I would love to have a look at the code and tables. Your a great thinker.

Thanks

Posted by Jorge on Wednesday August 16th 2006 at 12:10:46

Sounds really interesting Alex, may i ask you to send me the zip file for me to try it out please

thanks

Posted by Tijmen Kielen on Monday August 21st 2006 at 07:45:11

I realy love this webpage template!
could you please send it to me?

thanks

www.tijmenkielen.com

Posted by Joseph Maino on Tuesday August 22nd 2006 at 19:50:01

Sounds like a great timesaver, another example of why the mac will always be #1 with creative types. I would love to play around with those actions, codes and files myself.

Thanks

Posted by Alan Smilie on Friday September 1st 2006 at 21:41:27

Please count me in. This is exactly the type of thing I've been wanting to do with Aperture.

Posted by John Porter on Saturday September 2nd 2006 at 02:03:56

I'll give it a try...thanks!

Posted by John Porter on Saturday September 2nd 2006 at 02:03:56

I'll give it a try...thanks!

Posted by John Porter on Saturday September 2nd 2006 at 02:03:56

I'll give it a try...thanks!

Posted by Enrique on Friday September 22nd 2006 at 13:03:49

interested in files please

Thank you

Posted by Phillip Murphy on Thursday October 12th 2006 at 16:07:11

Hi, I'm learning Aperture ant the moment and would love to know more about your workflow and scripts.

Posted by David Byrnell on Wednesday October 18th 2006 at 22:56:42

Hi

I would love to give it a go!

Thanks

Posted by JPease on Friday November 10th 2006 at 02:48:45

I would love these as well, thanks! Great work!

Posted by on Tuesday November 28th 2006 at 05:20:05

Posted by Philos on Monday December 11th 2006 at 03:28:23

Hi there. I would like to try out your code, and see how you make it work. Send it in to the email, thanks alot.

Posted by Philos on Monday December 11th 2006 at 03:28:23

Hi there. I would like to try out your code, and see how you make it work. Send it in to the email, thanks alot.

Posted by Brandon Bohling on Saturday December 23rd 2006 at 22:07:04

I was just checking to see if you had made any modifications to your code since you originally posted this.

cheers,
brandon

Posted by Mark Andreani on Sunday December 24th 2006 at 16:07:24

Would be very interested to try this out - please send the code and as many instructions as you can!! With thanks M

Posted by Alex Donald on Monday January 1st 2007 at 19:14:47

Philos, Mark Andreani - The code and instructions can be downloaded at the top of the page.

Brandon - I have half let this slip to be honest now that there is a flickr export for Aperture...

Posted by jkp on Thursday January 4th 2007 at 07:23:53

Certainly this is very interesting ! Really like to give it a try :-)

Posted by Nick S. on Sunday January 14th 2007 at 05:18:34

This is great...I have been lamenting about the lack of customability with Aperture stuff so far...I would love to try it out.

Nick

Posted by Alan on Wednesday January 24th 2007 at 20:21:21

Sounds great. I have been frustrated by the inflexibility of aperture web templates and would much appreciate an opportunity to try out what you have created.

Thanks
Alan

Posted by Marquis Palmer on Saturday February 3rd 2007 at 12:41:24

Have loads of photos that i would like to put online with a search field for viewers. This seems like the perfect solution. I Want to give it a try. Thanks

Posted by Sage Humphries on Thursday February 22nd 2007 at 20:11:31

I am currently using trial versions of LR and Aperture. The current LR web publishing seems to be supperior although I prefer the DB functionality of LR. Something like this may tilt the scale for me. I would really like to give your scripts a trial

Posted by todd sackmann on Wednesday March 21st 2007 at 22:26:13

I'd love to try this. I've never worked with SQL, do I need to know much about it? Thanks!

Posted by Chad Carrington on Friday April 13th 2007 at 20:06:14

Awesome! Please provide this to me. Thanks so much!

Posted by Johnathan McCabe on Saturday April 14th 2007 at 00:15:17

Alex

Have just discovered your site and that's pretty cool how you've managed to get the automatic gallery working. I've just got Aperture myself and have been playing around with geotagging all my photos from an external GPS I have.

I'd really appreciate it if you could send me your code so I could have a play around with it. Thanks.

Posted by Johnathan McCabe on Saturday April 14th 2007 at 00:15:17

Posted by Alex on Sunday April 15th 2007 at 12:53:14

Johnathon/Chad - you can download the files at the top of the page.

Posted by Monica on Monday September 10th 2007 at 17:56:32

I would love to be able to add a searchable photo database to my site. Could you please send me the scripts?
Thanks!

Posted by Thomas on Tuesday October 9th 2007 at 15:21:11

I too would love to see your scripts

Posted by Richard on Tuesday October 23rd 2007 at 20:30:13

Nice job mate! I would really like to see them.

Posted by Lee on Monday October 29th 2007 at 16:32:35

I have been trying to figure something out like this on my own for the longest. I would love to see what you came up with. When will a zip be available? I would love to see your code as well.

Posted by Jack Foster Mancilla on Wednesday November 28th 2007 at 00:01:40

Alex,

I would be very interested in the Aperture version of your tools.

Jack

Posted by Jack Foster Mancilla on Wednesday November 28th 2007 at 00:25:02

Alex,

I would be very interested in the Aperture version of your tools.

Jack

Posted by phil on Saturday December 15th 2007 at 07:21:58

Love this idea, could you send me all the code please.
looks like the piece that aperture is missing!!

Posted by on Tuesday July 15th 2008 at 05:45:14

Posted by Josh on Wednesday August 20th 2008 at 20:19:39

I'd love to see your php and scripts, if you can send them my way, thanks!

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Galleries

Keyword Filter

Calendar

Search Form

Extending Aperture!

UPDATE: Download the files here

Imagine

Introduction

Preparation

In Action

Aperture, Automator and the One Click Gallery.

The Automator Way

The End Result

{Comments}