Panorama X and Hindsight software

Jim (Cook), you have done some incredible things with Panorama and I appreciate the acknowledgement.

With the release of Panorama X, I have chosen to forgo the madness of L.A.traffic and on-call tech support mania to focus on programming and support of Panorama exclusively (along with being a professional musician). I have rewritten most of my DispatchIt! program in Panorama X. It is often used as the basis for many of my client’s custom solutions. I am beginning to update client files, though 90% of them are utilizing Enterprise server so, again, I am anxiously awaiting that announcement.

I also look forward to new training opportunities, although I must say that the Help files which come with Panorama are the best I’ve ever seen and may eliminate the need for organized training.

Finally, with the official announcement of Panorama X, I want to congratulate Jim Rea on such a huge accomplishment. He has been a friend for many years who I have always thought of as a genius and totally driven entrepreneur. He codes nonstop but still has the time to field our questions and concerns with rapid response time. I’m sure he will continue to amaze all of us as this program evolves.

1 Like

That’s very kind of you to say, but I’m sure there will still be people that prefer to be taught rather than self-learning, no matter how good the documentation is. Hopefully the good documentation will just whet their appetite to go even further.

Is anyone aware of any kind of current and / or ongoing support or forum for Hindsight software?
Many thanks. Ray

The HindSight website was shut down in June 2018 and the company is being dissolved. The entire product line is built on Panorama 6 and has now dead ended, as it will not run on Panorama X.

As I wrote here last year, I too need products such as those that were sold under the HindSight name and Panorama X is the best environment for building them. They will not be sold as commercial products. I have no desire to start and run a software business again. My intent is to share what I build for myself as open source software so that others can join me in building something for us all to use and share.

I’ve already posted a new image database in the Database Exchange and have a Contacts database just about ready.

2 Likes

Would anyone happen to know if upgrading to macOS Mojave will have a negative impact on this version of HS 6.0.2? Also, if anyone has a solution for a new software to migrate contacts, invoicing/estimating, equipment… I would greatly appreciate it! Lost without my HS… probably been working with it for over 20 years…
Thank you!

Hi George,

Your InView 6.0.2 will run on Mojave BUT the first launch of Panorama after a restart will always have a Gatekeeper dialog appear asking permission to access certain system files. I’ve found no way to defeat it.

I’ve already uploaded a free ImageLog using Panorama X and have nearly completed Contacts and an equipment database that I’ll be sharing as well.

Hi Jim (or anyone else),

I’ve been using InView & StockView since about 1994 or 1995. It’s a great program, and I hate to quit using it. I just bought as new computer that is running High Sierra 10.13.6. I noticed in this thread that you said that InView & StockView will work with High Sierra. The Panorama 6.0.0 transferred to the new computer, but not the InView & StockView. Any suggestions?

InView & StockView DO work on High Sierra.

I can’t tell you why they failed to transfer other than it would’ve been something in your configuration and/or transfer choices. You can certainly transfer a copy of the whole folder though and as long as Panorama 6 is there it should run just fine.

I transferred it manually, and it appears to be working well. Thank you

Hi James, Well, since I’ve been using Inview since 1990 I’m sad to have to hunt down an alternative. Two questions: #1: Do you have any suggestions on photo business software? I’ve looked but they all fall short. #2: Do you have documentation on how to export all of the data out of Inview or is it possible? 28 years of data wrapped up in there.

It sounds like I can’t rely on PanX to have something to replace it, at least not at this point. Thanks for all the years of Inview.
Patrick Bennett

There is no real alternative. Those built on FileMaker or other databases have always been at a disadvantage. As noted in another thread here, I’m busy building for my own needs - because there is no other choice.

Panorama X is very promising but nothing of the scale you’re seeking occurs overnight.

Thanks for clarifying what I was afraid of. Once it stops working in the future OS I might keep running it on a Powerbook G4 along with my rarely used Nikon Coolscan. Crazy that this one piece of software created all those years ago is the most robust, it not slightly dated.

I failed to answer about exporting. One of our ongoing objectives was that your data should never be captive. Every one of your databases has an export capability. In Contacts and Catalogue, for instance, it’s among the Reports. In each, the export format can be edited in the export form’s Graphics Mode.

1 Like

Hello, Jim Cook. Thank you for writing your version of Contacts for Panorama X. I, for one, would be happy to pay for this.

Frankly, I cannot understand why ProVue has not seen fit to hire YOU to write a contact database for them that would run on Panorama X. It would certainly help sales - everyone needs a good contacts file and your was excellent!

I love InView software and I’ll settle for your version of Contacts only.

John Whitman

Hi Jim (Cook),
Thank you for sharing ImageLog. Is there any way to import images with file path names in bulk into the ImageLog database?
Thanks,
Jim

For many reasons I’ve always preferred to keep the image name and the path in separate fields. When you import into ImageLog the path should go into the ImagePath field. If the path is to a folder nested in the same folder as the ImageLog you can use relative paths such as :Images:2018:October. That makes it very easy to move the entire enclosing folder without orphaning any logged images. Otherwise use full paths in the standard Mac format of : as the folder separator.

Hi Jim,
That makes perfect sense. I see I wasn’t clear with my initial question. I have a collection of photos that I’d like to manage with ImageLog, but I don’t know how to import the file paths into Panorama. If I created a text file containing all the files names and imported that, would that do the trick? I’m knee deep in the pdf of the old Handbook, reading up on Chapter 16: Images & Movies, and making some progress. But I’m still in the weeds and, short of dragging each file into the “DragReceiverObject,” not sure how to do this in bulk.

The ‘trick’ is to have your text file set up with the image names, paths and other info, in separate fields. Thanks to the brilliant import built into Panorama X, you can specify what goes where in the ImageLog.

If you’re not familiar with it, see Text Import in Panorama Help. That may answer all of your questions.

Hi Jim,

Sounds like I’m on the right track. I’m familiar with Text Import.

Thank you!

Jim

JamesCook

    November 8

JimA:
If I created a text file containing all the files names and imported that, would that do the trick?

The ‘trick’ is to have your text file set up with the image names, paths and other info, in separate fields. Thanks to the brilliant import built into Panorama X, you can specify what goes where in the ImageLog.

If you’re not familiar with it, see Text Import in Panorama Help. That may answer all of your questions.

This warms my heart :slight_smile: