File Relations
IMatch introduces a new concept labeled Relations which manages relations between files in your database.
This concept unifies previously separated concepts like buddy files, stacking and versioning.
To manage relations, go to Edit Menu > Preferences > File Relations
Related Files...
Your database will most likely contain files which are related in one or more ways:
- Images of one person taken during a studio session or a family celebration
- The derivative files or versions you have created from your original RAW file during editing
- The JPEG, MOV or WAV file your camera stores with the RAW file
- A text document in which you keep comments and shooting notes for an image
- Print-ready versions of an image or the down-sampled version for website usage
- The sidecar or buddy files you use for your RAW files
- Cuts made from an original audio or video file
- Backup copies of your images you keep on a separate disk or server
- ...
Relation Concepts
IMatch handles and uses these various relations using three main concepts:
| Stacking | Stacking allows you to group related files together and to "fold" them to show only the pick or stack top. It can be used to reduce the number of files you have to look at in the file window, e.g., by stacking all images of the same person or same object "under" the best photo of that set. |
| Buddy Files | Buddy files (sometimes called sidecar or sidekick files) are secondary files created by your camera, scanner or software. This includes files like the JPEG previews your camera produces or the settings files created by some applications. IMatch uses buddy relations to keep buddy files and their master files together when moving, renaming, copying or deleting files. XMP sidecar files are special and are automatically handled by IMatch. IMatch automatically keeps XMP files together with their associated master file, you don't need to set up XMP buddy files yourself. |
| Versioning | Versioning allows you to track and see files which have been created from other files. Versions also allow you to control if and which metadata IMatch automatically copies from masters to versions files (propagation). This makes it very easy to keep items like titles, descriptions, categories, ratings, labels or keywords synchronized between a master file and all versions created from it. Examples are DNG or TIFF files you create from a RAW image, the web-ready down-sampled JPEG version of a PSD file or different cuts made from audio or video files. Often you want a way to identify these derived files and to synchronize metadata between them. IMatch versions make this easy. |
Buddy Files and Versions
In many cases set up both buddy file relations and version relations for the same type of files.
- If you create JPEG versions from a RAW master file, you usually want IMatch to keep the files together when you move/rename/copy the master file. This is done via a buddy file relation.
- You also often want to propagate metadata like rating, label or description from the RAW master to the JPEG version. This is controlled via a version relation.
- A file can both be a version of a master and a buddy file of that master. You can combine buddy and version relations freely, as you need them.
Relation Definitions
To tell IMatch about how files are related you create one or more Relation Definitions. A relation definition defines how to recognize master files and how to find buddy files or versions for these masters.
A master file is usually a RAW image or a graphic, document or audio file you have created from scratch. Related files are found by using the master file name to search for files with file names matching the master file name. This method is used to find both versions and buddy files. IMatch also supports a number of automatic modes to detect related files using EXIF, XMP or GPS data.
Relation definitions for versions also describe how IMatch propagates (copies) metadata from the master file to versions. And via Uses you can assign different roles to versions, e.g., versions specific for preview or printing purposes.
The topics listed below explain all that in detail.
