The Database

When PMIO scans a location for images, it analyses each image file and extracts or generates the following information:

• The name of the file.
• The size of the file.
• The location of the file.
• The date the file was last modified.
• The file contents id of the file.
• The dimensions of the image.
• The base thumb of the image.
• The aspect ratio of the image.
• The average colour of the image.
• The image signature of the image (used by the Find Similar function).

This information is saved in the database. By default, the database is stored in:

<PMIO-installation-folder>\Data\Database

but you can use the Database Manager to assign different databases to different locations if you wish.

Once the image information has been stored in the database, PMIO can find that information again by looking the file name up in the catalogue to get its file contents id and using that id to look up the database.

During an update (for example, when you press F5 in the browser) PMIO will check the modified date of each image file and if it has changed, it will analyse the file again and update the database entry.

Note: The PMIO database is not a 'database' in the usual sense of the word. It is really nothing more than a collection of special files (called buckets) that store information about images and thumbs.

See also:

Base thumbs

About Aspect Ratio

Pixels and Colour

Image Finder - Similar tab

The Database Manager

The Catalogue

The File Contents Id