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[Locked] Slider, some suggestions [Bug #108]
Guest 16 Guest [Read]
02 February 2011 à 17:32

Guest, Saturday 09 October 2010 à 07:03

After booting to my desktop,
Slider shows the first random picture inside a frame in:
a. 1sec - if one folder is used containing 300 pictures
b. 1min:5sec - if I use my Pictures folder with 81 sub-folders containing 7,000 pictures, noting high hard disk activity

gphotoframe shows the first random picture inside a frame in:
a. 5sec - if I use Folder as source to one folder containing 300 pictures
b. 5sec - if I use Folder as source to my Pictures folder with 81 sub-folders containing 7,000 pictures
c. 1sec - if I use Shotwell plug-in as source with 7,000 pictures in its database

I noticed that the Shotwell plug-in accesses the photo.db file in the .Shotwell config location.

Could we see speed improvement in Slider if it use the Shotwell database as source especially for a huge picture library?
I only refer to Shotwell because its become the default photo manager for Ubuntu and I use it. Others can be applied too.

Is it possible to put 'Clone' in the Slider menu that launches another instance of Slider with exact duplicate settings so it is easier to put lets say six Sliders on the desktop that randomly displays images from a Pictures library, without having to configure each one?

How about an option for a simple white border that adapts to the image dimension? The square frames and sellotape decorations is just not suitable for widescreen pictures.

Guest, Wednesday 27 October 2010 à 06:20

As requested, I did a new informal test for the updated slider applet. This is just my observation of startup times based on looking at the clock, system monitor applet and hdd led activity indicator. I used my Pictures library with approximately 7,000 pictures in 81 sub-folders located in the same hard drive as the OS.

1. Cairo Slider
  1. of frames displayed: 6
images appear in: 3s
cpu utilization: 50% lasting 1m:50s
hdd activity: high for 1m:50s

  1. of frames displayed: 1
image appear in: 2s
cpu utilization: 50% lasting 1m:25s
hdd activity: high for 1m:25s

If I test the same picture library but is located in a different ntfs formatted hard drive
onto 1 slider applet
cpu utilization: 90% lasting 1m:35s
hdd activity: minimal

2. Slideshow screenlet
  1. of frames displayed: 6
images appear in: 5s
cpu utilization: 50% lasting 20s
hdd activity: minimal to none

  1. of frames displayed: 1
image appear in: 2s
cpu utilization: 40% lasting 5s
hdd activity: minimal to none

3. gphotoframe
  1. of frames displayed: 1 (show multiple frames is still in the works)

image appear in:
---Folder as source = 5s (same result whether using 7,000 pictures or 1 picture)
---Shotwell .db = 1s
cpu utilization: 40% lasting 5s
hdd activity: minimal to none

The 3s display time in Slider is a vast improvement from my previous test 1m:5s. But still, the long cpu & hdd load times are a major drag in performance.

In my tests, I confirmed that both Slider & gphotoframe are using Exif rotation while Slideshow has none. Based on gphotoframe's minimal cpu & hdd load times during startup, it is likely that the only time this program is reading Exif metadata is during loading of new picture. I'm using folder as source on this, not Shotwell .db

some suggestions:

A tiny pause indicator in one corner on the image if the slider's playback has been paused. This indicator will only appear if the mouse is hovered over the slider so it's easy to tell if the slider is in pause mode.

Slider appears on the desktop when it is added, not start from the dock then detached.

Clone in place of 'Launch another instance of this applet'.
Say I want to display 6 sliders showing my Pictures library randomly on my desktop. I'll setup one slider then just right-click Clone 5 times. Voila! Same settings copied to 5 other sliders that I'll simply drag to arrange on my desktop.

An option for white border with drop shadow.
samples: http://www.screencast.com/t/qh3MV1AThbA

Guest, Wednesday 27 October 2010 à 06:23

sorry it did not come out right

1. of frames displayed:

should read
number of frames displayed:

fabounet, Wednesday 27 October 2010 à 11:51


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
thanks for these very complete tests

I could read he exif data just before the image is loaded, but I thought it would be better to do it once, and then save the pcu+hdd. as you can guess I didn't think of a 7000 images folder

A tiny pause indicator in one corner on the image

ok, that could be done

Slider appears on the desktop when it is added, not start from the dock then detached.

agree

Clone in place of 'Launch another instance of this applet'.

maybe more generally some (or all) applets should be cloned. not sure about this one.

An option for white border with drop shadow.

why not
did you try the decorations available for desklets ? especially the "frame" one (but you can also specify your own decorations)

matttbe, Wednesday 27 October 2010 à 11:57


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Thank you for these informations

About Slider, there is also another topic there => bg_topic.php?t=4865&pos=0#mess_62822

fabounet, Wednesday 27 October 2010 à 12:23


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
actually it's rather the opposite: i've replied on the wrong topic there

Guest, Wednesday 27 October 2010 à 16:35

fabounet :
I didn't think of a 7000 images folder

My digicam collection is quite modest compared to this guy complaining about Shotwell
http://www.flamingspork.com/blog/2010/10/25/ubuntu-10-10-biggest-mistake-shotwell/

maybe more generally some (or all) applets should be cloned. not sure about this one.

I fail to understand what you meant
If there ever was an applet that benefits from Clone, it is Slider.
Creating 6 Sliders was tedious for me:
a. Add a Slider
b. Detach from dock
c. Configure its setting
d. Launch another instance
e. Repeat b 5 times
With Slideshow screenlet, I go to the Slideshow config folder and make 5 extra copies of Slideshow.ini from the first one then Launch.

did you try the decorations available for desklets ? especially the "frame" one (but you can also specify your own decorations)

Believe me I tried them all. Only 'none' and an awkwardly placed 'scotch sellotape' seems useful. The square frames where you forcibly fit pictures of varying dimensions either by cropping or stretching makes it look outdated. A simple white border & drop shadow that adapts to the photo's dimension so we see the whole photo, not the photo squeezing to the frame's fixed dimension. I don't know how it was done in Slideshow & gphotoframe but it looks great.

I forgot to suggest 'Next slide' action so we can forward the picture in case we don't like what's on display.

Thanks again for taking interest in my suggestions.

fabounet, Thursday 28 October 2010 à 10:45


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
noted, thanks for your feedback
My digicam collection is quite modest compared to this guy complaining about Shotwell

indeed but the Slider applet is not designed to be a photo manager after all


I forgot to suggest 'Next slide' action so we can forward the picture in case we don't like what's on display.

I think the scroll up/down is what you need

I'll try the white border, I agree it looks nice.

Guest, Thursday 28 October 2010 à 15:23

scroll up/down

How could I have missed that? Love the way it can rewind as well.

Eagerly waiting for new build

fabounet, Thursday 20 January 2011 à 13:40


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
(Message added on the task #108)

all tasks done !

Guest, Thursday 27 January 2011 à 21:36

fabounet :
(Message added on the task #108)

all tasks done ! :)


My Cairo-Dock version is still 2.2.1-beta1. I usually get the latest weekly-Unstable version by refreshing my Ubuntu-Tweak sources but I can't seem to get version 2.3. I also followed the Terminal commands on webupd8.org article about version 2.3 but to no avail.

The article states that 'Slider is much faster to load a huge number of images'. I don't know if I'm already using the latest Slider applet but I tested it again and found that pictures do load fast BUT the cpu usage is 50-60% for 2.5 minutes. I would assume the result of Slider reading all picture files from specified folder recursively and randomly.

May I suggest adding a recursion limit similar to Slideshow screenlet with a default value of 400? So that the cpu usage would settle down sooner.

Can you still add an option for frame width and shadow width so the user can customize the frame?

Thanks. Really appreciate your updates on Slider.

fabounet, Friday 28 January 2011 à 20:11


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
Can you still add an option for frame width and shadow width so the user can customize the frame?

what kind of options ?

if I set a limit of 400, then the 400 first pics will be used, and randomly sorted. so it will not be a true random slideshow on all the images (not that it matters a lot, but then maybe you should just set up the applet on a smaller folder ? because the result would be the same).

Guest, Saturday 29 January 2011 à 01:31

I agree it won't be a complete random slideshow, but why this option is available in Slideshow screenlet must be some sort of measure to not cause high cpu load for a long stretch of time causing sluggishness on a weak system if a user inadvertently specified a folder with a huge amount of pictures. So they set a default of 400 but is adjustable. If I change that number to say 9999, then the cpu load does take much longer time before it settles down. It is an illogical option to have but it also does serve a purpose. I'm not able to figure out if Slideshow screenlet is able to randomly get 400 pictures out of the total or always the first 400 it reads. I really like gphotoframe's choice of utilizing the Shotwell .db for its speed but unfortunately no multiple instance of frames has been implemented yet which I'm hoping will be included in a future version.

Guest, Saturday 29 January 2011 à 01:42

fabounet :

Can you still add an option for frame width and shadow width so the user can customize the frame?

what kind of options ?


By adjusting parameters, can make the frame wider or thinner to suit ones taste, also same with the shadow appearance just like in Slideshow screenlet.
sample: http://www.screencast.com/t/qh3MV1AThbA

The default frame on Slider is too thin especially in the corners.

fabounet, Wednesday 02 February 2011 à 13:33


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
ok I'll add an option for the thickness, and a max number of files
as for the .db, is it used only by shotwell or is it a kind of well-known format ?

Guest, Wednesday 02 February 2011 à 17:11

fabounet :
ok I'll add an option for the thickness, and a max number of files
as for the .db, is it used only by shotwell or is it a kind of well-known format ?


Shadow please if you're able to add it, so the frame doesn't look flat on screen. In my Slideshow screenlet sample, I used a value of 12 for both frame width and shadow width.

Shotwell stores its database as photo.db file found in .shotwell/data folder. gphotoframe uses this photo.db file if Shotwell is specified as a source. It's a very fast & efficient method. If I rename photo.db, gphotoframe could not display a slideshow so it's definitely using this file. As to how to open the photo.db database for use, I have no idea.

Guest, Wednesday 02 February 2011 à 17:32

Okay I did some digging into gphotoframe's use of Shotwell. You can see its Shotwell source code here:
http://code.google.com/p/gphotoframe/source/detail?r=a225a99010

Expand the /lib/plugins/shotwell and you'll see the source code

Applets | Applets

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Slider, some suggestions [Bug #108]
Guest 16 Guest [Read]
02 February 2011 à 17:32


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