Can admin assign pid?

[treehstn]

I have a situation where I'm building a large multifaceted system using several programs which uses Coppermine for the images.  I need a field that is a unique image ID but I want to be able to say what the prefix is.  It might be something like FAM-PH-0000001. There will be multiple Coppermine databases so another might have the prefix of FAM-REC-0000001 or FAM-BIO-0000001. It's important that the ID's be unique across the database and the user's should not have access to add or change that field.  But it does need to be viewed on the image view by anyone looking at it. Ideally the number would be automatically assigned to each photo as they are being uploaded but if I have to go in manually and add them as images are loaded that would work also.

I tried to find the pid in the database and couldn't locate it.

Is this possible? Maybe by using one of the custom fields in the image description but I'd have to be able to limit who can change that field...

[ron4mac]

It's not totally clear to me what you are looking to accomplish. The 'pid' is an integer value that is entered in the database for each file that is added to the gallery. Am I correct in guessing that you want a value saved somewhere, for each uploaded image, that consists of some prefix followed by the 'pid', as recorded in the database? Example: FAM-BIO-<Db pid>
Having that happen automatically could only happen with some crafted plugin.

I think a plugin that automatically adds that value to the user4, for example, database field might work. There is a plugin that can show that field along with the thumbnail display.

[treehstn]

I need a unique ID number added to every uploaded file.  It needs to be in a certain format, i.e. something like FAM-PH-00001.  This number will never change. It would be ideal if the system added them itself as long as they were in a pre-determined format.  Users should be able to see the numbers on each photo but shouldn't be able to change them.  The admin should be able to change them but if working properly should not have to. 

I wasn't sure if the pid number might work but only if I could change the format of the number so that it had whatever prefix was needed for that database.  This project is going to have multiple databases. 

[406man]

Having written a few plugins my view is that the pid (Picture ID) is too widely used to risk changing it and in any case its data type is integer so you are restricted to a number. It's not possible to use this for something like "FAM-REC-0000001" as it's the wrong data type.

Instead, I think there might be a realistic solution in changing the file name. This could include your unique identifier in some way. The file name would be changed when uploading the image. There is a plugin hook "upload_file_name" which allows you to add your own code in the right place. There are numerous places where CPG displays the file name automatically so this might provide what you need.

Another possibility is to use the add_file_data plugin to manipulate the information stored when an image is uploaded. For example adding your unique identifier as a prefix to the Title field. This will clearly show the identifier in the Title when an image is displayed.

We can guide you if you need help with creating a plugin.

[treehstn]

Thank you for the info!  Do you think there's any chance the "upload_file_name" plugin hook could add the unique identifier to the beginning of the user's file name so there would be both in that field?