This Read Me file explains the installation and use of the Cumulus demo application on this floppy disk. In addition to the installation procedure, it explains some basic concepts underlying Cumulus, lists the system requirements for using the application and describes the most common tasks you might want to perform as well as the menu commands found in Cumulus.
Quick Start
What Is Cumulus?
System Requirements
Installing Cumulus
Installing Clients and Configuring the Server
Working With Cumulus
Reference
In case you are anxious to try out Cumulus right away, here is a quick summary on installing and starting it:
1. Make sure you are installing Cumulus on a color-capable Macintosh (see “System Requirements”, below) running System 7.
2. Copy the file “Cumulus Demo” into a new folder on your hard disk.
3. Copy all files in the folder “File Filters” into the same folder. (This is optional; if you want to work only with PIC pictures, no filters are needed.)
4. Copy the folder “Exercises” onto your hard disk.
5. Start Cumulus, dismiss the file open dialog that appears by clicking “Cancel” and create a new database by choosing “New…” from the File menu.
6. Catalog some pictures by choosing “Catalog Folder…” from the Record menu and selecting the Exercises folder you just copied to your hard disk.
Cumulus is a database program created especially for building and managing image archives. It can be used as a stand-alone program as well as a central image database server for several users.
In developing Cumulus, great emphasis has been placed on ensuring the best possible performance, so that you are not forced to buy the fastest Macintosh available just to make an image database usable. This is especially apparent when multiple users are accessing a Cumulus database.
To use the bandwidth available in a Macintosh network as efficiently as possible, Cumulus is a client-server application. A central program—the server—processes calls from other programs—the clients—and sends the results back to them.
If you are managing images with Cumulus, your client program extracts the relevant data from the image and transmits it to the server who then stores it in the database.
If you are searching for images or would like to see the data of a certain image in detail, the client program will send your request to the server program. The server program looks for the required data in the database and sends it back to the client program.
This way the capacity of the server Macintosh as well as that of the client Macintosh is used well and all users have equivalent access to the data.
To use Cumulus, you need the following:
• A color-capable Macintosh
The Macintosh you install Cumulus on must in principle be able to support color. It is not necessary that you actullay have a color monitor. Currently, all Macintoshes using a Motorola 68020, 68030, or 68040 processor meet this requirement. This currently includes the following models:
- Classic II and Color Classic
- LC, LC II, and LC III
- Performa 200, 400, and 600
- SE/30
- Macintosh II, IIci, IIcx, IIfx, IIsi, IIvi, and IIvx
- Centris 610, 650 and 660av
- Quadra 700, 800, 840av, 900, and 950
- PowerBook 140, 145, 160, 165c, 170, and 180
- PowerBook Duo 210 and 230
These Macintoshes do not support Cumulus:
- Macintosh XL, 128, 512, Plus, SE, and Classic
- Macintosh Portable and PowerBook 100
• 4 MB RAM
The Macintosh must have at least 4 MB of memory. If there is more memory installed, increasing Cumulus’ memory partition may speed up certain operations.
• A hard disk
To install the demo application and the samples provided, you need about 2 MB of free space. More space may be needed to catalog additional pictures.
• A screen of 640 by 400 pixels
Cumulus will work with a screen of any size from 512 by 342 pixels. However, to best display all of the windows, a minimum size of 640 by 400 pixels is recommended. A color screen is not required.
• System 7
Cumulus requires System 7 or a newer version, such as 7.0.1, 7.1, 7.0.1P, or 7.1P.
To install the Cumulus server (which includes the capabilities of a client) follow these steps:
1. Create a new folder on your hard disk and name it “Cumulus”.
2. Copy the file “Cumulus Demo” into the newly created folder.
3. Copy all files in the folder “File Filters” into the Cumulus folder on your hard disk. (This is optional; if you want to work only with PICT pictures, no filters are needed.)
4. If you are using Adobe Photoshop, RagTime, PageMaker 5 or Quark XPress, you may want to access Cumulus from within one of these applications. To do so, you must install the appropriate adapter. Installation and use of the adapters is described in the TeachText file “About Adapter…”, included on the demo floppy disk.
If you want to try out Cumulus as a stand-alone application, you are now set. You can explore Cumulus on your own or have a look at the section “Working With Cumulus”, below, for an explanation of how to perform the most common tasks. Short descriptions of the menu commands can be found in the section “Reference”.
If you want to test Cumulus’ multi-user capabilites, install clients and configure the server Macintosh as described in the following section.
To access a Cumulus database from multiple Macintoshes, you need to do just two things. First, install the clients—the applications you will use on the remote computers to access the database. Second, configure the server Macintosh so that access from other computers is possible.
To install the clients, go to each client Macintosh and follow the steps for installing Cumulus as outlined above. However, in step 2 copy “Cumulus•Client” instead of “Cumulus Demo”.
To configure the server, you have to make sure that Program Linking is enabled on the server Macintosh (where Cumulus Demo is installed) and that a user account is available for every client:
1. Open the control panel “Sharing Setup” and make sure that Program Linking is active. (This is the case if the button in the Program Linking section of the control panel reads “Stop”.) If you have no experience with System 7 network functions, you may want to read the appropriate sections of your Macintosh manual before proceeding.
2. Close the control panel. Select Cumulus Demo in the Finder and choose “Sharing…” from the File menu. Check the option “Allow remote program linking” and close the window again.
3. Open the “Users & Groups” control panel and make sure that a user icon exists for every client. To create a new icon, choose “New User…” from the File menu and rename it appropriately.
4. Double-click each client’s icon and make sure that the option “Allow user to link programs on this Macintosh” is checked. Enter a password for the user. Close the window and save the changes when you’re asked to do so.
This is all there is to do. Every Cumulus database you open on this Macintosh can now automatically be accessed from all Cumulus clients, provided they have an AppleTalk connection to the server Macintosh. (Except for speed, it doesn’t make a difference whether this connection is by LocalTalk, PhoneNet, Ethernet, Token Ring, a mixture of these, or some more exotic transmission medium.) However, you may prevent any database from being accessed by clients by unchecking the “Allow Sharing” menu option in Cumulus’ Database menu. This option is checked by default for all newly created databases.
Now that you have successfully installed Cumulus, you can start to work with it to get a feeling of the application. Space does not permit us to explain everything here that Cumulus can do. We will concentrate on the most common tasks: Creating a new database, cataloging files, viewing image information, entering keywords and other information, and finding images in a database.
With the exception of creating a new database, all these tasks can be performed equally well from Cumulus Demo (the server) or any Cumulus•Client. To work with a database from the client, the database must be open in the server application and the client must be connected to the server:
1. Open the database in question with Cumulus Demo.
2. Start Cumulus•Client on another Macintosh. If Cumulus•Client is already open, choose “Share Catalog…” from the File menu.
3. You will see a dialog that allows you to open a Cumulus database anywhere in the AppleTalk network you’re on. Choose the zone from the list at the lower left (unavailable if there is only one zone in your network), then the Macintosh from the list at the upper left and finally the database from the list at the right. Click OK.
4. Enter your user name and password in the dialog that appears and click OK. Cumulus now opens the database.
If you have any problems connecting to the Cumulus database, review the section “Installing Clients and Configuring the Server” to make sure you have taken all the steps necessary.
Creating a new database
Creating a new database is only possible with the demo application, not with Cumulus•Client.
1. Choose “New…” from the File menu.
2. Enter a name and click OK.
This is it! The database is ready to use and you or any client may start cataloging pictures now. However, you may want to configure the database using the “Preferences…” command from the Database menu. The options in the Preferences dialog are explained in the section “Reference”, below.
Cataloging Images
Pictures are cataloged by the server and by Cumulus•Client in the same way. You can choose to either catalog a single image or all images in a folder or on a hard disk (or other volume). File types supported by Cumulus include AIFF, Edition Files, EPSF, Freehand, JPEG, JFIF, MacPaint, PageMaker, Persuasion, Photoshop 2.0, Photoshop 2.5, PICS, PICT, QuarkXPress, QuickTime Movies, RIFF, Scitex CT and TIFF. The modular architecture makes it possible to support other file types simply by copying an appropriate filter into the Cumulus folder. Canto plans to make additional filters available to support even more file types in the future.
To catalog images:
1. Open the database you want to catalog the images into.
2. If you want to catalog a single image, choose “Catalog Image File…” from the Record menu and select the desired image in the File Open Dialog Cumulus displays.
To catalog all images in a folder or volume, choose “Catalog Folder…” from the Record menu, select the desired folder and click “Catalog”.
Both commands allow you to customize the cataloging process by clicking on the Options button in the File Open Dialog. This opens another dialog where you can enter notes, keywords and a status (see next section) for all images to be cataloged and decide whether to copy them to the collection folder and whether to skip files already cataloged.
3. When you click on “Open” or “Catalog”, respectively, Cumulus reads the relevant data from each file and creates a thumbnail picture. Data and thumbnail are then stored in the database, after which there is no need for Cumulus to access the image files any more, unless you want to edit them or view them in the creating application. This makes Cumulus well suited to manage large image collections that cannot be online all the time, e.g. CD-ROMs.
You can select the quality of the thumbnails by choosing “Preferences…” from the Record menu before you catalog the files. High quality thumbnails look better but take up more space in the database.
As a shortcut, you can catalog files or folders by dragging their icons on top of the Cumulus icon in the Finder (drag-and-drop). Cumulus will catalog them into the topmost open database. If no database is open, you will be asked to open one first.
Viewing Image Information
How you view the basic information Cumulus has stored for an image depends on whether the text display or the thumbnail display is active. To switch between display modes, click the appropriate button in the upper left corner of the catalog window. If no such buttons are available, you may be in administration mode. Switch to catalog mode by choosing “Catalog” from the pop-up menu in the upper left corner of the catalog window. (This menu is available for the server only.) Clicking on the image’s entry in the table also displays the thumbnail of the image.
In the text display, the image name, file type, color mode (whether the picture is just black-and-white, grayscale or color), resolution, and the date of the last modification to the record are listed in the table. You need only to scroll to the appropriate position. (The table can be sorted by any of its five columns by clicking on the respective column header.)
In the thumbnail display, viewing the same information requires clicking on the thumbnail of the image to display the data in the five fields at the left side of the window.
To view more information, double-click on the primary entry of an image—the thumbnail in thumbnail mode and the table row in text mode. Cumulus then opens a window containing more information, e.g. the file creation date or the image height. The information in this window is available for every cataloged image. By clicking on the “i” button next to the thumbnail, additional information can be displayed which differs according to the file type of the image.
Entering Keywords and Notes
There are two fundamentally different kinds of information Cumulus records for each image: Most of the information is entered and maintained automatically and cannot directly be changed by you. Examples for this kind of information are the file type of the image, its size, or the date the catalog entry was last changed. Other information, however, can be directly manipulated by you. This includes the image name, notes, the name of the person who cataloged the image, the status, and the list of keywords associated with the image.
To edit any of this information, you have to open the record window for the image as explained in the previous section. Entering or changing the image name, the name of the cataloging person or the notes is pretty straightforward: Click in the desired field and type or replace existing text.
To enter a new keyword, click the “+” button above the keyword list. You are presented with a dialog that displays all keywords defined in the active database. Double-click on the keyword you want or click “New…” to create a new keyword. Any keywords you create are added to the keyword list and are available to all users. More substantial maintenance of the keyword list can be performed by means of the “Keyword List…” command in the Record menu. This opens a dialog with additional options, such as importing and exporting keywords, editing existing keywords and deleting keywords.
To remove a keyword from an image record, choose the keyword in the scrolling list and click the “-” button.
The status setting works much the same, except that every image must have exactly one status—it can have as many keywords as you want—and that the status list can only be changed by means of the “Status List…” command.
Changes you have made to the record window are not automatically saved. When you close the window, Cumulus asks you whether you want to save changes. This allows you still to change your mind. You can save changes, if you want to, without closing the window by using the “Save” command from the File menu.
Finding Images
Cumulus allows you to find images very quickly, regardless of whether you are working with the server or the client. You can search for images according to a wide range of criteria, including, of course, keywords and notes.
To search for an image, choose “Find…” from the Record menu. You enter search criteria as you would in the Finder: Choose from the menus from left to right, type in information where appropriate and click “Find”. Cumulus then shows all images meeting the specified condition.
Note that Cumulus is able to search on the images currently displayed in the record window. This allows you to do boolean searches for images meeting several conditions.
For example, to find all EPSF images of cars, you would first search for all images containing the keyword “car”. You then do another search, this time for images with the file type “EPSF” and clicking on “Find Again” instead of “Find”. Since Cumulus only looks among the images displayed (that all show cars), the end result is what you wanted: all EPSF images of cars in the database. When you are satisfied with the result of your query, click “Done”.
To display all images in the database again, just choose “Find All” from the Record menu or option-click the Find Again button in the Find dialog.
This section explains very briefly the menu commands found in Cumulus. In the interest of brevity, we have omitted commands, such as “New…” or “Copy”, that work just like in other applications.
Apple Menu
“Print Registration” is active only in the full version of Cumulus.
File Menu
“Share Catalog…” allows you to access a database as a client (even if you are working with Cumulus Demo, i.e. the server application). The database must already be open in a Cumulus server application. See also section “Working With Cumulus”.
“Save” is usually inactive. It is needed only to save changes in the record window of an image. Other changes to the database are saved automatically.
Database Menu
This menu is available only in the server application. It contains commands needed to manage the database as a whole (as opposed to its contents).
“Allow Sharing” shows the status of the database: Clients can access it only when Allow Sharing is checked. Change the status by choosing the command from the menu.
“Backup Copy…” creates a compressed backup copy of the database in which some secondary information that speeds up access to images is missing. All the image information itself is still there, it just takes longer to open the backup copy the first time, because the secondary information has to be recreated in the database.
“Compress…” eliminates unused space in the database. Unused space can be created through repeated addition and deletion of image records.
“Repair…” re-creates the index information in a database. Normally, Cumulus alerts you to the need to use this command whenever it arises.
“Recover Deleted Records” can sometimes recover image records deleted from the database. It is active only if the appropriate option has been checked in the Preferences dialog in the Database menu. Records deleted before the last compression of the database (see Compression…, above) can never be recovered.
“Check File Reference” makes Cumulus check whether all currently selected image files are still at the locations where they were cataloged. If they cannot be found there, the reference may be updated.
“Adminstration” switches the database into administration mode. The database window displays information about the use and status of the database in this mode, instead of the image catalog. Information displayed includes the users currently connected, the log of changes to the database, the amount of database activity by clients, the number of recoverable records (if any, see Recover Deleted Records, above) and data about RAM and disk memory use.
“Catalog” displays the image catalog.
“Preferences…” opens a dialog where you can set the preferences for the active database. You can designate a collection folder into which image files may be automatically copied when they are cataloged, choose settings for the protocol file that records changes to the database, choose whether Cumulus should work as safe as possible or risk loosing index data (which is easily recoverable) to speed things up a bit, whether deleted records should be recoverable, and protect a database by requiring a password for write access. Anybody without that password can only browse the database without making any changes.
Record Menu
The Record menu contains all commands necessary to work with image records and image files.
“Keyword List…” opens a dialog that allows you to manage the keyword list. You can add, edit, or delete keywords. You can also import or export them. Keywords are assigned to images to allow easier searching. An image can have any number of keywords.
“Status List…” works much the same as Keyword List… except that it allows editing the status list. A status indicates the membership of an image in one of several mutually exclusive groups of images. For example, a database may contain the statuses “scanned”, “color-corrected”, and “final version” that may be assigned to images according to what stage the work on them has progressed to. Each image has exactly one status. If you do not define a status list, all images have the default status “Status”.
“Catalog Image File…” allows you to catalog a single file. The command is described in the Cataloging Images section above.
“Catalog Folder…” catalogs all images in a folder or on a volume. For further information, see the section “Cataloging Images” above.
“Information” displays detailed information about the selected images. It is the same as double-clicking on the image. When the frontmost window is a record window, the menu command changes to “More Information”. Choosing it displays the additional information for the image that vary according to the file type. This is the same as clicking on the “i” button in the record window.
“Preview” opens a window that shows a full-size preview of the selected image.
“Edit Image File” opens the selected images with the applications that created them.
“Update” checks all selected images for changes and, if necessary, updates the information stored in the database and/or creates a new thumbnail.
“Find Image File” switches to the Finder, opens the folder the selected image’s file is located in and selects the file.
“Copy Image File…” allows you to copy the selected image files to a new location. The record still references the original file.
“Find…” finds images that match the criteria you enter. The command is described in more detail above.
“Find All” displays all records in the database. This is useful if previous searches have restricted the display to a subset of all records.
“Export…” writes all selected records into a special export file. They can later be imported into another Cumulus database.
“Import…” imports records that have previously been exported from another Cumulus database.
“Preferences…” allows you to choose some settings for cataloging images as well as the unit of measurement used to indicate the height and width of an image.
You can select to have record windows open automatically for each newly cataloged image and you can choose the quality of the thumbnails. (Both settings have no effect for images already cataloged.)
