Image file naming

Suggestion Box
1

Hi

I’m using coda for about a month and I absolutely love it.

I think it would be really nice if we could use a formula to give names to image files uploaded into tables (something like: ThisRow.DisplayColumn&"_"&Today()&"_"&SerialNumber )

My use case:
I’m conducting large field experiments for my PhD research (Plant genetics and breeding) and I need to capture data in the field, including pictures of the plants and fruits that I later process in other softwares.
It would be a real time saver if I could assign a meaningful name to the image (plot number / variety name /…), instead of putting a sign in the frame and later manually change the name.
I’ll also need the ability to easily download all the images to my computer in order to make it a complete solution.

Thanks :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
2

I second this. Does anyone know how to do this? @Asaf_Dafna - did you figure it out?

3

There is no native solution, as far as I know.
My current, manual, workflow (on Windows):

  • Adding three columns to tables with images I want to rename - 1. [Current Name] with the formula [ImageColumn].name. 2. [New Name] with the desired name. 3. [Rename Command] with the formula join(" ", "ren", [Current Name], [New Name]).
  • Downloading the images directly from the mobile device (smart phone/tablet in my case)
  • Saving the [Rename Command] column in a .bat (batch) file at the same folder as the images.
  • Running (double click) the .bat file will open the DOS/PowerShell environment and run the renaming commands (for each line in the file)
    ** This operation can’t be undone! I usually copy the images to another folder as a backup, before running the renaming file, in case something goes wrong

I guess there is more automatic way to do this (maybe uploading the images to gdrive/dropbox and using the API to rename them) but the above workflow is enough for me right now.

Hope this helps