[ FEATURE REQUESTS ] 🚀 UX Enhancements & Essential Tools for Better Workflow

[gvastethecreator]

Discussed in #724

^{Originally posted by gvastethecreator August 24, 2024}
First of all, @zanllp thank you for your incredible work on this project. It has been a game-changer for many users like myself. I would like to suggest some features that I believe could significantly enhance the user experience and streamline workflows. I hope you find them valuable:

Non-destructive Album Creation: The ability to create albums where photos can be grouped without changing their original path. This feature would allow for easier organization and quick access to frequently used images, improving the overall workflow without the need for duplicate files or complex folder structures.

Area Box Selection: It would be extremely useful to have the option to select multiple images using an area box instead of having to click and hold Shift from one end to another. This would make the selection process more intuitive and efficient, particularly when dealing with large collections of images.

Mark for Deletion with a Key Press: Introducing a feature where users can mark files for deletion with a single key press (e.g., pressing "X"). These marked files could then be batch deleted with another function, similar to what Diffusion Toolkit offers. This would greatly simplify the process of cleaning up image libraries.

Drag and Drop Functionality: Implementing drag-and-drop functionality that works outside of the application, such as dragging an image directly into Photoshop or any other software that supports file drag and drop. This would mimic the seamless experience of handling files within a typical operating system environment, adding to the usability of the program.

ComfyUI Data Processing: I propose adding the ability to process ComfyUI data in a way that is easily understandable and actionable within the application. This would be a great help for users who integrate ComfyUI into their workflows and need a coherent way to handle the resulting data.

One-Key Favoriting: The ability to add images to a favorites list by pressing a single key (e.g., "F"). This would make the process of curating collections of preferred images much faster and more user-friendly.

Custom Folder Icons/Colors: Adding the ability to customize folders with colors, icons, or emojis for easy identification would greatly improve navigation, especially when dealing with numerous folders. This visual differentiation would save time and reduce errors in selecting the wrong folder.

Batch Renaming: Implementing a batch renaming feature that can be achieved using metadata. This would allow users to rename multiple files simultaneously based on certain criteria, significantly speeding up the organization process.

Image Rating System: Introducing a star rating system for images. This feature would allow users to quickly assess and categorize their images based on quality or relevance, enhancing the curation process.

Info Bar Improvement: While the current info bar is functional, it can feel cluttered. I suggest exploring a more streamlined approach, perhaps inspired by the clean design seen in this example. A more organized and visually appealing info bar could enhance the overall user experience.

These features, I believe, would not only make the tool more powerful but also significantly improve the quality of life for users, making the experience smoother, more efficient, and enjoyable.

Thank you for considering these suggestions, and for your continued efforts in developing this amazing tool.
There is some roadmap or something to see what are you working at ?
I have known that those are a lot of requests, but i think that there is a great space for improvement there.

Best regards,
Cristian from Argentina

[zanllp]

1. Non-destructive Album Creation: You can achieve this by creating custom tags for your images, which allows you to group them without modifying the original file paths.

2. Area Box Selection: For selecting a sequence of images, you can click on the first and last items while holding the Shift key, which will select the entire range.

20240825_211537.mp4

3. Mark for Deletion with a Key Press: In IIB's multi-select mode, there is a "Keep multi-select" button in the bottom right corner, which provides a similar functionality to what you're suggesting.
   

4. ComfyUI Data Processing: IIB does support reading image generation data from ComfyUI, but this is limited by the capabilities of ComfyUI itself. Some images may not be accessible, or you may need to use an additional node to export the data.

5. Drag and Drop Functionality: Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the underlying framework, implementing a true drag-and-drop functionality across applications may not be feasible.

6. One-Key Favoriting: In the thumbnail view, you can click the heart icon in the top right corner to favorite an image. In the full-screen view, you can also click the "Like" button or use a keyboard shortcut to achieve a similar result.

7. Custom Folder Icons/Colors: you can use path aliases to add emojis as a temporary solution for customizing folder icons and colors.

9. Batch Renaming: This feature does sound quite interesting and useful.

10. Image Rating System : this can be implemented using custom tags, such as "score:1", "score:2"

I will continue to consider the other feature requests you've suggested. If you have any more detailed ideas, please feel free to provide additional information.

[zanllp]

Warning: Be cautious of unknown links, especially those containing the term 'gcc'.

[gvastethecreator]

Thank you for the feedback! I appreciate the solutions offered, and I wanted to share a few additional thoughts on some key areas:

Non-destructive Album Creation:
I understand that custom tags can be used to group images, but I wanted to highlight a couple of challenges with the current implementation. For one, the process of adding tags requires navigating to the search section, which can make the workflow cumbersome, especially when dealing with large libraries. It would be much more efficient if users could simply right-click on an image and have the option to add it to an existing tag or create a new one directly from the context menu. This would streamline the tagging process and make it far more intuitive.

Area Box Selection:
The Shift-click method works but can be inefficient with large image sets. Implementing an area box selection, similar to how it works in Windows, would make it much easier to select multiple images at once, especially for more complex selections.

File Deletion Process:
Another important aspect to consider is the deletion process. Currently, when files are deleted within the application, they are permanently removed from the system. I believe it would be highly beneficial if deleted files were instead moved to the system's Recycle Bin (or equivalent for the OS in use). This would provide an extra layer of safety, allowing users to recover files deleted by mistake. As a workaround, I've been tagging files as "for deletion," but a more integrated solution would greatly enhance the user experience.

Recursive Image Viewing:
Adding an option to view images recursively in a selected folder would be great. A checkbox when adding folders to the index could make it easier to browse through nested directories without missing any images.

Reconsider Albums Feature:
The tagging system is excellent, especially with hotkeys, but having a sidebar with albums could make navigation and organization even better. It would offer a quick, visual way to switch between different image collections.

Batch Renaming:
I’m glad to hear that you find the idea of batch renaming interesting!

Thanks again for considering these suggestions! Looking forward on this 💕

[zanllp]

I've been really busy lately, and there’s a lot of content here. I’ll review it when I have more time

Your suggestions are very good, and I generally agree with them. However, IIB is actually in a relatively mature or even declining phase, so what we need most right now is to maintain stability. As a result, I will be more proactive in addressing bugs, but introducing new features and making disruptive changes must be done cautiously. Even if new features are to be added, they should aim to reuse existing code as much as possible, keeping the overall development and user learning costs low.

[zanllp]

Non-destructive Album Creation:
I understand that custom tags can be used to group images, but I wanted to highlight a couple of challenges with the current implementation. For one, the process of adding tags requires navigating to the search section, which can make the workflow cumbersome, especially when dealing with large libraries. It would be much more efficient if users could simply right-click on an image and have the option to add it to an existing tag or create a new one directly from the context menu. This would streamline the tagging process and make it far more intuitive.

I agree with this point, and I will improve the process in a few days.

[zanllp]

Area Box Selection:
The Shift-click method works but can be inefficient with large image sets. Implementing an area box selection, similar to how it works in Windows, would make it much easier to select multiple images at once, especially for more complex selections.

You're right, but the development cost is relatively high, so it's pending.

[zanllp]

File Deletion Process:
Another important aspect to consider is the deletion process. Currently, when files are deleted within the application, they are permanently removed from the system. I believe it would be highly beneficial if deleted files were instead moved to the system's Recycle Bin (or equivalent for the OS in use). This would provide an extra layer of safety, allowing users to recover files deleted by mistake. As a workaround, I've been tagging files as "for deletion," but a more integrated solution would greatly enhance the user experience.

This is also true, but further research is still needed.

[zanllp]

Recursive Image Viewing:
Adding an option to view images recursively in a selected folder would be great. A checkbox when adding folders to the index could make it easier to browse through nested directories without missing any images.

Reconsider Albums Feature:
The tagging system is excellent, especially with hotkeys, but having a sidebar with albums could make navigation and organization even better. It would offer a quick, visual way to switch between different image collections.

I don't quite understand these two. Are there any similar specific examples that could serve as a reference?

[zanllp]

Non-destructive Album Creation:
I understand that custom tags can be used to group images, but I wanted to highlight a couple of challenges with the current implementation. For one, the process of adding tags requires navigating to the search section, which can make the workflow cumbersome, especially when dealing with large libraries. It would be much more efficient if users could simply right-click on an image and have the option to add it to an existing tag or create a new one directly from the context menu. This would streamline the tagging process and make it far more intuitive.

I agree with this point, and I will improve the process in a few days.

Already Added

https://github.com/zanllp/sd-webui-infinite-image-browsing/wiki/Change-log#add-quick-entry-for-custom-tags-in-more-places

[gvastethecreator]

Thanks for taking time upon every request.
I'll try to prepare some examples for the other ones.

Regards!