Exporting project- folder structure to other Non-Aperture applications

fbellay wrote:

At some point, I will want to export the whole structure or some projects to family and friends who would like to view these images on their PC (not everyone is converted to MAC, yet).

1) Translate the project-album structure to a folder-subfolder structure in order to share images with other PC users.

Albums simply don't translate sensibly into Finder folders, in the same way that iTunes playlists don't. Any one Version can exist in any number of Albums, so you'd either end up having to choose one place for the exported file to be and remove it from all the other folders representing Albums, or end up with multiple duplicate copies of the same file.

Projects, on the other hand, can be mapped directly to Finder folders. So you might be better off using Blue Folders and Projects rather than Projects and Albums.

2) At the same time export images versions as opposed to masters.
3) At the same time export all added Metadata.

Exported Versions will automatically include IPTC & EXIF metadata, assuming you chose an export preset with metadata included.

I have the feeling Aperture is not ready to do all of the above with one command only.

There are some AppleScripts that will replicate the structure within Aperture when exporting (or Aperture Assistant* to do it without any scripting knowledge), but as I mentioned already, you will end up with multiple duplicate files.
Also, you would have to do this again every time that you alter a Version, import files or move Versions around.

Basically, the virtual nature of both images and organisation in Aperture mean that it won't really work in the way that you wish, and LightRoom wouldn't be much better even though it has closer ties to the folder structure. 😟

Why not simply export a Projects-worth of images in this way rather than your whole Library?

Ian

* http://aperture-assistant.com/docs/how-do-i-copy-apertures-organisational-struct ure-when-exporting
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You can go from the Finder to Albums because Finder folders are (mostly) 'simpler' than Albums. Via scripts etc. it's always possible go from Albums to Finder folders, but you need to be aware that you're almost guaranteed to end up with duplicate exported files due to Versions being able to exist in multiple Albums at once.

When it comes to exporting and sharing with others, it looks like I'm still faced with the same problem, i.e. it's impossible to just export a whole structure for a given year. I have to export one project at a time. That could be very very long. I will need a script or your plugin.

You can export multiple Projects at once:

1. Select the top-level Blue Folder, this will show all the images from all the Projects in it.
2. Select all the Versions.
3. Export, using the image export preset of your choice, and a folder-naming preset made up of 'Folder Name', '/' & 'Project Name'.

This will export the whole lot in one go, into a subfolder structure of 'name of Blue Folder'/'Name of Project'. Note that it will only take the name of the topmost Blue Folder, so it will only work for single-level Blue Folder structures.

Ian

This has been a helpful thread. I wonder if it's possible to take this one step further. My goal is to have a "mirror" of a given *Blue Folder* (with the projects and sub-folders represented as sub-directories as accomplished by the advice above) not just on my hard drive, but on a (private) FTP server. In essence, I want a significant percentage of my photo database mirrored on an FTP server. Note that this is not for backup purposes but for sharing the contents of my photo library (the portion of it that is appropriate to share--for example photos of family events, travels, etc.)

Currently my workflow is to click the *Blue Folder* that houses all of my family photos, select all versions, and export to a directory as advised above: Folder Name / Project Name. That takes a long time. Then I ftp the entire exported-directory tree to my FTP server. I try to do this cleverly by taking advantage of Yummy FTP's relatively new "sync" feature that compares my source directory tree with the destination directory tree, deletes files on the destination FTP server that aren't in the source file tree and uploads only the files in the source tree that aren't present in the destination tree (i.e. a unidirectional sync).

This works well enough, but it seems like a process that could be readily automated. Does anyone know of an Aperture plugin that can accomplish this workflow? Ubermind's plugin "UberUpload for Aperture" appears to come close, but it doesn't approximate the Project-Name/Folder-Name to directory tree conversion and it doesn't delete files on the destination FTP server, so it doesn't accomplish the unilateral sync I'm looking for.

Are there any other plug-ins I should look at; are there any other plug-ins you know of that might accomplish this task?

Thank you,
George