Extending Photini

It is possible to add new functionality to Photini by providing a new “tab”. Because the tabs are loaded dynamically at run-time the new tab does not need to be part of the Photini Python package. For example, if the package mypackage provides a Photini tab in the module mypackage.photini, then adding mypackage.photini to the tab modules list (see Tab order) will add the tab to Photini.

Every Photini tab has to have the following interface:

class TabWidget(QtWidgets.QWidget):
    @staticmethod
    def tab_name():
        return 'Tab name'

    def __init__(self, image_list, *arg, **kw):
        super(TabWidget, self).__init__(*arg, **kw)
        # Add child widgets here. Keep a reference to image_list if you need to
        # interact with the image selector.

    def refresh(self):
        # Called when the user selects the tab. If your tab does something
        # slow, such as contacting a server, then do it here rather than in
        # __init__. You might also want to update your tab to synchronise with
        # changes made in another tab, like the map tabs do. Otherwise, just
        # update the displayed metadata.
        self.new_selection(self.image_list.get_selected_images())

    def do_not_close(self):
        # Return True if your tab is busy (e.g. uploading photographs) and
        # wants to stop the user closing the Photini program.
        return False

    def new_selection(self, selection):
        # Called when the image thumbnail area has a new selection. Most tabs
        # will need to update their displayed metadata to suit the selection.

The tab_name method returns the label given to the tab. It should be as short as possible.

When the user defines any new metadata you should get the current selection from the image_list and set the metadata on every image in the selection.

It’s probably easiest to start with a copy of the Photini tab module most like what you want to do, strip out the bits you don’t need and then add your own stuff.

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