Add an option to PhotoLab to turn the database functions on or off

DxO PhotoLab Feature requests
4

@mikemyers I drive a PHEV and your suggestion is like me going to the manufacturer and asking for the petrol engine to be removed! In fact my particular model from 2014 can’t even be forced to use electric when it is available , i.e. my model chooses what to use and the “electric only” button only arrived with the 2017 model.

Rather than asking DxO to rip out the database engine what is needed is a set of selection switches.

While @platypus’s scheme would work it seems somewhat over kill for what needs to be achieved but would certainly help while we are testing.

However, for users who have experienced problems moving data between systems and who don’t want the database “trashed” everytime they want to move data back to a system after processing on another machine a less destructive approach would be, well less OTT!

Surely what is required is a switch (preference) that indicates whether the database or DOP is to be considered the “lead” data, i.e.

  1. An option ‘Lead data’ = Database or = DOP or = ‘Ask’ (with the current “option” being ‘Database’, i.e. there is no option)

There are then a number of options that could be provided (particularly with 'Ask) or not

e.g when a DOP clash is detected present timestamp data and let the user choose (with a single or all option) which to accept as the [M]aster. This could be implemented with or without the above option but would fit well with ‘Ask’!

So when a DOP clash is detected retain the entry in the database or make the DOP the [M]aster as indicated by the preference or by the above (‘Ask’) dialogue and then either

  1. Discard the other entry

OR

  1. Make the other entry a VC

or any permutation that is deemed appropriate for a larger audience of users who might want to move data between systems but not discard all the other data in the database, which is effectively throwing everything away for the sake of importing some potentially duplicate data!?

In the meantime consider using the procedure at Avoiding "Unwanted Virtual Copies" when copying Images and DOPs between systems until something better arrives.