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EXIF Editor Batch Processing Rotating Images
Preview Web Pages View Web Pages Sample Web Page Font Properties
RoboPhoto FAQ What's New in v3.0 Screen Shots Advanced Features HTML Template Files Sign Up With Tripod PAD File (htm) PAD File (xml) Legal Info End-User License
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 Settings (Misc Tab)
The Misc Options allow you to extend RoboPhoto's functionality and to tweak the various program settings. These are intended for the power-user or someone who is looking to implement RoboPhoto within a proprietary framework. The Misc Options settings are saved to misc.ini, located in the main RoboPhoto directory. You can manually edit this file using notepad.exe or use the user interface described here. Blank lines, those beginning with #, and lines beginning with unrecognized Misc Options are ignored by the program. Case does not matter. None of the Misc Options are required. Including a Misc Option without a value is the same as not including it at all. Order matters. When RoboPhoto creates a web page, it does so in the following order: 1) Download the GPS tracklog. 2) Create the web page locally in the appropriate /webpages folder 3) FTP the local web page to the FTP server 4) Post to each URL in the URL list using HTTP 5) Mail to each e-mail address in the e-mail list using SMTP Each step is performed only if the previous step completes successfully. For example, the HTTP (#4) and the SMTP (#5) would be skipped if the FTP (#3) failed. If the e-mail failed (#5), nothing would be skipped because that's the last major thing the program does. The Misc Options, in the order that they execute, are listed below: AllowMultipleInstances By default, you can only run one copy of RoboPhoto at a time. Set this value to true to allow multiple instances. Normally, you should not use this option. Doing so may produce unexpected results. Example: AllowMultipleInstances=true RunExeBeforeStart At program startup, RoboPhoto will launch this program and wait for it end before continuing. Example: RunExeBeforeStart=c:\database\export\images.exe EndIfFileExists At program startup, RoboPhoto will immediately end if this file exists. Example: EndIfFileExists=c:\database\fatal_err.txt EndIfFileNotExists At program startup, RoboPhoto will immediately end if this file does not exists. Example: EndIfFileNotExists=c:\database\images\export\images.xml EndIfDirExists At program startup, RoboPhoto will immediately end if this directory exists. Example: EndIfDirExists=c:\database\images\export\pending\ EndIfDirNotExists At program startup, RoboPhoto will immediately end if this directory does not exists. Example: EndIfDirNotExists=c:\database\images\export\ LaunchUrlAtStart At program startup, RoboPhoto will automatically launch this URL using the default browser. Example: LaunchUrlAtStart=http://www.domain.com/custom/instructions.html NoSwoop Prevent swooping across the screen. Example: NoSwoop=true WaitBeforeAutoStart If you're using full automation, you can cancel autorun at program startup by quickly clicking on the status label. By default, this appears for only 2 seconds. You've got to be quick. You can change the available time by specifying the number of seconds here. Example: WaitBeforeAutoStart=5 ViewMyWebPagesText You can customize the look and behavior of the 2nd radio button on the 1st wizard screen. This option allows you to specify the text that appears next to this radio button. Example: ViewMyWebPagesText=Visit the master web page ViewMyWebPagesUrl This URL will be loaded when someone clicks the 'Next' button after selected the 2nd radio button on the 1st wizard screen. Example: ViewMyWebPagesUrl=http://www.yourdomain.com/master.html ViewMyWebPagesDescription This allows you to specify the information text associated with the 2nd radio button on the 1st wizard screen. Example: ViewMyWebPagesDescription=Select the appropriate category. WebPageNameDescription This allows you to customize the information text associated with the web page name that appears on the 3rd wizard screen. Example: WebPageNameDescription=Ask Ernie what to name the web page!!! ImageEditorPath When you click the 'Edit' button on the EXIF editor screen, the default program associated with JPG files is launched. This option allows you to specify a program other than the default Windows program. Example: ImageEditorPath=c:\graphics\graphic_editor.exe SlideShowDelay By default, there's a 2 second delay between each image when running a slideshow from the EXIF editor screen. You can change this by specifying a different number here. Example: SlideShowDelay=5 UseShortDate Use dates of the form '1/30/02' instead of 'Friday 1/30/02 8:04:40 AM'. Example: UseShortDate=true PromptForTitle The web page title is specified on the HTML Customization screen. In lieu of this, the program can prompt you for a title immediately before creating the web page. This is a handy option if you need to change the web page title each time you use the program. You should not use this if you're also using UseSameNameHcfFile. More info is here. Example: PromptForTitle=true MyWebPageWord When prompted for the web page name, the program will suggest a name beginning with 'mywebpage#', where # is a number that is automatically incremented. You can change the word to something other than 'mywebpage' by specifying it here. Do not include the # character. Example: MyWebPageWord=companyname UseSameNameHcfFile If the web page name is the same as an existing .HCF file, the .HCF file is set as the default HTML Customization File. For example, if you specify the name of an existing web page like 'employees' and if c:\rp30\employees.hcf exists, employees.hcf would become the default value just as if you entered it on the settings screen. The benefit of this option is that it allows you to have different web page styles for different photo galleries, without having to specify one each time, i.e. the program does it automatically when the web page name matches any existing .HCF file. The downside is that when you create new web pages, you'll also have to create the corresponding .HCF file. A little work now will save a lot of work later as you add new pictures to existing web pages. If all you want is for each page to have a unique heading (instead of 'Photo Gallery'), you may want to use the PromptForTitle option instead of this one. That will prevent you from having to create a new HCF file each time you create a new web page, as described here. Example: UseSameNameHcfFile=true PreviousWord The <!--Navigate--> tag, when found in the HTML template files, creates a navigation link of the form Previous | Next. Instead of 'Previous', you can specify a custom text. Example: PreviousWord=<img src="back.gif"> NextWord The <!--Navigate--> tag, when found in the HTML template files, creates a navigation link of the form Previous | Next. Instead of 'Next', you can specify a custom text. Example: NextWord=Forward DelimeterWord The <!--Navigate--> tag, when found in the HTML template files, creates a navigation link of the form Previous | Next. Instead of the pipe character, you can specify custom text. Example: DelimeterWord=<img src="bullet.gif"> SendEmailWord The <!--Email--> tag, when found in the HTML template files, creates a link of the form Send e-mail. Instead of 'Send e-mail', you can specify custom text. Example: SendEmailWord=click here ThumbnailTip The tooltip text associated with the thumbnail table is 'Click for a larger view'. You can change this by specifying it here. Example: ThumbnailTip=[click to enlarge] IncludeBackgroundInTable By default, the background color of the thumbnail table is as specified on the HTML customization screen. Instead of a solid color, you can use the background graphic, if specified, instead of the solid color. Note: Since there's no guarantee that the background graphic inside the thumbnail table will align with the web page's background graphic, it may look strange if you use this option. Example: IncludeBackgroundInTable=true TrackPointErrorDeviations In less than ideal GPS conditions, like when you're under trees or driving in an urban area with tall buildings, your GPS will be at risk of recording bogus data, i.e. latitude and longitude values that spike and don't fit in with the rest. RoboPhoto can reliably detect and remove most of this bogus data. Create graphs like this (that may show spikes) by loading either trackloglat.csv or trackloglon.csv into a spreadsheet program. These 2 files are automatically created in the same directory as the tracklog file. Specify the maximum number of standard deviations away from a computed moving average that a given trackpoint must fall in order to be considered valid. Never use a number less than 3 or greater than 7 unless you have a good reason. High numbers cause a high percentage of valid trackpoints, but it's not linear. You must also specify the TrackPointErrorPeriods option. Example: TrackPointErrorDeviations=3 TrackPointErrorPeriods If using the TrackPointErrorDeviations option, this must also be specified. This equals the moving average's period. Specify 1 if you want to use the raw tracklog data instead of a computed moving average. Even numbers are rounded up to odd numbers. High numbers cause a low percentage of valid trackpoints. Example: TrackPointErrorPeriods=15 ForceMultiMap When GPS coordinates are associated with an image, the mapping links that are created will depend on the location of the coordinates. When outside of the United States, these links point to multimap.com. You can force the use of multimap.com, even when the coordinates are within the United States, by specifying this option. Example: ForceMultiMap=true AreaMapOmit If specified, an area map will not be created. Example: AreaMapOmit=true AreaMapWord Instead of using the phrase 'Area Map' above the area map, use this phrase instead. Example: AreaMapWord=Fire Hydrant Locations AreaMapWidth The width, in pixels, of the area map is automatically set to the same width as the thumbnail table. You can use a different width by specifying it here. Example: AreaMapWidth=1024 AreaMapExtraParameters You can specify extra parameters for the area map, such as population densities or income levels, by specifying them here. What you specify must begin with an ampersand and if multiple parameters are specified, they must be delimited with an ampersand. For more information click here. Example: &tmeth=q&tlevel=counties&tvar=income AreaMapExtentsPerPictures By default, the coverage of the area map is calculated based on the outer extents of the GPS coordinates in the tracklog. Instead of this method, the extents can be calculated based on the picture locations. Example: AreaMapExtentsPerPictures=true AreaMapLayers The program automatically turns map layers on/off based on the coverage of the map. For example, streets are not displayed when the coverage is 500 miles. You can override this behavior by explicitly specifying the layers here. WARNING: Use this option with care. If you specify an inappropriate option (such as streets when the map coverage is hundreds of miles), you'll put undue strain on the Census Bureau's server and the resulting map will look very cluttered. For a list of the options that you can specify, click here. Example: AreaMapLayers=counties,states,majroads AreaMapLinkUrl When you click on the area map, an enlarged version of it will be loaded into a new browser window. Instead of this behavior, you can specify a custom url to load. Example: AreaMapLinkUrl=http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/yourmap.cgi AreaMapLinkUrlPassLatLon If the AreaMapLinkUrl option is specified, you can pass the average latitude and longitude of your pictures to the URL, i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/yourmap.cgi would become http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/yourmap.cgi?lat=32.12345&lon=-87.98765. Note that the parameter names are 'lat' and 'lon' - your script must be designed to accept these value names. If your script requires 'lng' instead of 'lon', use the SearchPath, SearchFor and ReplaceWith options to change it. Example: AreaMapLinkUrlPassLatLon=true AreaMapLinkTip The default yellow tooltip that displays over the area map is 'Click for detailed info'. If you're using the AreaMapLinkUrl option, you may want to specify something different. Example: AreaMapLinkTip=Access our custom GPS database for these coordinates AreaMapNoSpeedLegend By default, a speed legend is included above the area map. Specify this option to omit it. Example: AreaMapNoSpeedLegend=true AreaMapBelowTable The area map is included within the thumbnail table as a single row that spans all columns. To place the area map below the thumbnail table, specify this option. Example: AreaMapBelowTable=true AreaMapAlwaysDisplay When the thumbnail table is only one thumbnail image wide, a link to the area map is used instead of actually displaying the area map. You can force the display of the area map with narrow thumbnail table widths by specifying this option. Example: AreaMapAlwaysDisplay=true AreaMapTrackPointIncrement The program automatically calculates the minimum distance between tracklog points so that they never overlap (except when you're back tracking) on the area map. You can specify an explicit minimum distance, in feet, by specifying it here. Example: AreaMapTrackPointIncrement=5280 AreaMapMinSpeedBrown Instead of a constant color, the color of the tracklog points can be per the speed. For example, brown can be used for speeds from 0 to 20 mph, green for 20 to 30 mph, purple for 30 to 40 mph, etc. Common speed ranges, such as walking or suburban driving, can be selected from the settings area. Instead of using the predefined speeds, you can specify your own custom ranges. The number that you specify for a given color is the minimum speed associated with that color. In the example below, the brown speed is 0, green is 55, red is 95, etc. Assume you want colors that are appropriate for a Cessna 150 flying in a traffic pattern around an airport (about 50 mph to 95 mph). You could specify: Brown: 0 to 55 mph Green: 55 to 65 mph Purple: 65 to 75 mph Blue: 75 to 85 mph Black: 85 to 95 mph Red: 95+ mph Or, more appropriately, you could define the speeds to match the v-speeds of the aircraft (be sure to use true speeds instead of indicated). That would be beneficial to a student pilot, i.e. on the downwind leg black is good, purple is bad and brown is very very bad. The speeds must be in the same order as listed above, i.e. brown is the slowest, followed by green, followed by purple, etc, up to red which is always the highest speed. Example: AreaMapMinSpeedBrown=0 AreaMapMinSpeedGreen The minimum speed for green. This must be greater than brown's minimum speed. Example: AreaMapMinSpeedGreen=55 AreaMapMinSpeedPurple The minimum speed for purple. This must be greater than green's minimum speed. Example: AreaMapMinSpeedPurple=65 AreaMapMinSpeedBlue The minimum speed for blue. This must be greater than purple's minimum speed. Example: AreaMapMinSpeedBlue=75 AreaMapMinSpeedBlack The minimum speed for black. This must be greater than blue's minimum speed. Example: AreaMapMinSpeedBlack=85 AreaMapMinSpeedRed The minimum speed for red. This must be the highest speed. Example: AreaMapMinSpeedRed=95 GpsMustSucceed By default, errors associated with tracklog downloads are not fatal, i.e. if the program is unable to download the tracklog from the GPS, the corresponding web page will still be created with the GPS information omitted. If the GPS information is critical to your implementation, you'll probably want GPS errors to be fatal. Example: GpsMustSucceed=true GpsTimeOutValue When communicating with a GPS unit, the program will time out if there's ever a 5 second delay in the communication. You can increase or decrease this value by specifying it here. Example: GpsTimeOutValue=10 GpsMapDatum When writing EXIF headers from the EXIF editor screen, the program always writes the datum as WGS84. If your GPS unit is recording coordinates using a different datum, specify it here. The two should match. Example: GpsMapDatum=NAD27 GpsReadFromExif By default, the program finds the GPS coordinates of an image from the tracklog. Instead of this, you can read the information from the EXIF headers. You'll want to do this if your camera automatically stores this information (like is possible with some high end Nikon cameras), if you manually enter them from the EXIF editor screen, or if precise accuracy is not important. Note: Reading GPS coordinates from the EXIF headers is not as accurate as reading them from the tracklog. The EXIF specification only allows reading/writing GPS coordinates to 2 decimal places on the minutes. This results in an average error of about 30 feet of latitude. If read from the tracklog, the mathematical error is practically zero. Example: GpsReadFromExif=true GpsWriteToExif When reading GPS information from the tracklog, you can optionally write the info that's read to the image's EXIF headers. This will increase the time it takes to process images and will decrease the image's quality depending on the number of times the image is saved. Permanently saving GPS info to the EXIF headers allows you to add new images (with a new tracklog) to an existing web page. Example: GpsWriteToExif=true GpsWriteToExifMustSucceed By default, errors associated with writing EXIF information is not fatal, i.e. if the program is unable to write the GPS information, the corresponding web page will still be created and no GPS information will be written to the headers. If the GPS information is critical to your implementation, you'll probably want EXIF errors to be fatal. Example: GpsWriteToExifMustSucceed=true GpsWriteToExifJpgQuality When writing EXIF headers, the JPG files must be resaved. By default, the quality associated with the compression will be as specified in the program settings. If you want the quality to be different from what's used elsewhere in the program, specify it here (0 to 100). Example: GpsWriteToExifJpgQuality=98 UseDiskFileDate RoboPhoto determines the GPS coordinates of an image by equating the times in the EXIF headers to the times in the GPS tracklog. However, some older cameras (like Sony's floppy based line) do not write this EXIF information. If you specify this option, the program will determine the image's date from the disk date instead of trying to get it from the EXIF headers. Note that some EXIF compatible cameras (like the Canon A10) automatically redates the disk files to match the EXIF times, meaning that you can use this option with some EXIF cameras as well. The benefit of reading the times from the disk file instead of the EXIF header is that it's faster and it's your only option if you're using non-EXIF images. Example: UseDiskFileDate=true SearchPath Before uploading a newly created web page to the FTP server, you can specify a file or a directory to search and replace. The search path can be: 1) A specific file like 'c:\directory\file.txt' 2) A specific directory like 'c:\directory\subdir\' 3) Or '[current]' If '[current]' is specified, the search path is the current web page directory (like c:\rp30\webpage\mywebpage20). If you specify a directory or [current], all ASCII files in the directory will be processed. If you specify only a filename (without a path), the program will check for it's existence in the current web page directory and if found, use it. Example: SearchPath=c:\directory\file.txt Example: SearchPath=c:\directory\dir\ Example: SearchPath=index.html Example: SearchPath=[current] This option and the related ones below is usually the most appropriate solution for doing something that the program isn't explicitly designed to do. SearchFor This is the string to search for in the file(s) associated with SearchPath. Searches are not case sensitive. Example: SearchFor=>Previous</a> ReplaceWith This string will replace SearchFor. Example: ReplaceWith=><img src="back.gif"></a> RunExeBeforeFtp Before FTP, RoboPhoto will launch this program and wait for it end before continuing. A handy implementation is to load your HTML editor to make additional changes to the HTML. Typically, you should also specify the PromptBeforeFtp option if you're doing this. Example: RunExeBeforeFtp=c:\htmleditor\editor.exe PromptBeforeFtp After the program associated with RunExeBeforeFtp completes, you'll be prompted whether to continue with the FTP. Example: PromptBeforeFtp=true SkipFtp The program only sends e-mail or posts to server side scripts if the FTP completes successfully. If you're testing the program, you can save time by bypassing the FTP so that you don't have to wait for it to complete each time. Example: SkipFtp=true FtpNoOverWriteHtml When uploading to an FTP server, RoboPhoto prompts whether to overwrite existing files. Specifying this option is the same as responding 'No' to the 'Overwrite it?' question when an existing HTML file is encountered. A file qualifies as HTML if it's extension is html, htm, shtml, sht, dhtml, asp, inc, cfm, css, or dtd. Unless you have a good reason, you should never use this option. Example: FtpNoOverWriteHtml=true FtpNoOverWriteAscii When uploading to an FTP server, RoboPhoto prompts whether to overwrite existing files. Specifying this option is the same as responding 'No' to the 'Overwrite it?' question when an existing text file is encountered. Text files include HTML files. Unless you have a good reason, you should never use this option. Example: FtpNoOverWriteAscii=true FtpNoOverWriteJpg When uploading to an FTP server, RoboPhoto prompts whether to overwrite existing files. Specifying this option is the same as responding 'No' to the 'Overwrite it?' question when an existing JPG file is encountered. If you incrementally add images to existing web pages you may want to prevent, without prompting, existing JPG files from being uploaded to the FTP server. This will save time. Example: FtpNoOverWriteJpg=true FtpNoOverWriteBinary When uploading to an FTP server, RoboPhoto prompts whether to overwrite existing files. Specifying this option is the same as responding 'No' to the 'Overwrite it?' question when an existing binary file is encountered. Binary files include JPG files. If you have other binary data (like MP3 or MPG files) that never changes, you can prevent them from being re-uploaded by selecting this option. Example: FtpNoOverWriteBinary=true HttpPostUserAgent An HTTP client can identify itself to a server by specifying the HTTP User-Agent field. The default value is 'RoboPhoto/3.0'. By specifying something different, you give the HTTP server the ability to identify you without the need for other forms of authentication. Example: HttpPostUserAgent=FredJones/1.0 EmailSubject The subject of outgoing e-mail is the web page title. Unless you change it from the HTML Customization screen or specify PromptForTitle=true, the value will be 'Photo Gallery'. You can override this behavior by specifying a non-changing value here. Example: EmailSubject=A new web page was created! EmailFrom The FROM field of outgoing e-mail is what you specify in the main program settings. You can override this behavior by specifying a non-changing value here. You may want to do this if you filter incoming e-mail. Example: EmailFrom=replies@yourdomain.com EmailOtherHeader You can add a custom e-mail header by specifying it here. WARNING: if this is not of the proper format, it could cause the delivery of the message to fail. A custom header gives the recipient (or the SMTP server) the ability to recognize your message and treat it accordingly. Example: EmailOtherHeader=X-CustomWord: Custom text goes here Note: that is X, followed by a dash, followed by a custom word (without spaces), followed by a colon, followed by a space, followed by a single line of custom text. EmailNoStop If fatal errors occur when sending e-mail, the program will stop processing the e-mail list and immediately report the error to you. You can force the program to keep trying by specifying a value here. Note: Normally, you should not use this value. Fatal conditions, like Winsock and TCP/IP errors, are usually just that and to try and recover from them is useless. Example: EmailNoStop=true Back to the top RunExeBeforeEnd Before ending, RoboPhoto will launch this program asynchronously. Example: RunExeBeforeEnd=c:\custom\cleanup.exe Back to the top Option Value The value of the currently selected Misc Option. Type the option's new value into the box. Note, in order for an option to be valid, it must be non-empty and enabled by having a checked box. Back to the top Save Click this button to save the current information to rp.ini, which is located in the main RoboPhoto directory. Back to the top Help Click this button to load the help file. You can also press the F1 key anywhere in the program for context sensitive help. Back to the top Close Click this button to close the form. Back to the top |