Best CMS for server (RAID) based files?

[roskav]

I'm trying to rationalise things here.  Over the last year I have tried several systems including those that are integrated into RAW converters etc.  All the files are on an xserve raid system latest is attoscsi.  Using a well thought out file directory system has served me well for years but I threw myself into Aperture as fully as possible a year ago.  The metadata input is easy, it works well with servers and image editing is so quick.  You can have your raw files and worked on files side by side and the web gallery system using mobileme is great for clients.  My problems were that I like to have my finished files in folders with indesign booklets and then in client folders... and it can be confusing when accessing a project with lots of files if you are not totally rigorous with the sub-folder systems.  The raw conversion as well was in my view not as good as some other systems.  ... And I always use gain calibration files with MFDB files... needing a pass through another RAW converter... the best for this being Leaf Capture.
My next try has been Capture One and Media Pro.  It is almost the opposite in that the Raw conversion is great... has got good MFDB integration, but is useless at working with files on the server... and when you are using it with Media pro .. you start tying yourself into a certain way of working, that even though you can see your files in the finder... you have sidecar files that start to clutter.  Media pro has got potential for client selection workflow.. but the simple fact of asking them to install something on their machines is problematic if they are in a large organisation where they need an IT guy to install the latest quicktime upgrade for them etc.  The metatdata options also seem to be more restrictive than other programmes too.
Here is the thing .. I am currently re-building my website and need to re-organise my images so whatever uploading system I use can integrate the images to a web based sql database automatically without inputting the data for each image.  (All info is there currently in the IPTC fields)  Capture one and Media pro do not seem flexible enough for this .. aside from the crashes and graphic card freezes. 
I am looking at a very expensive Extensis Portfolio server edition with Net publish ... it promises a bit and also has the look of something that will be around for a while.  Obviously you would be doing your raw conversion in a much simpler workflow without attempting to organise the images through that programme.... leaving that to Portfolio.. but it does look odd when you see that some prime features in this software such as batch conversion have been a common feature in many software packages for years.  Portfolio is actually out of my reach at present unless I can justify it with a really good website integration ... and I'm not sure how easy that would be. 
Has anyone come across anything new/good over the last while?  I would appreciate some pointers. 

PS The image count of finished files that I need to get online is over 10,000 at present ... and it would be nice to have a system that has a version of the same file with a different name that corresponds to a clients' or image library numbering system.

R

[John.Murray]

PHP natively supports reading EXIF data from an image file

http://php.net/manual/en/function.exif-read-data.php

Assuming your using mySQL in your web environment, the examples would be easily extended to add to the database.  Here's a nice example using the Joomla Framework:

http://www.corephp.com/joomla-products/jphoto.html

[Steve Weldon]

John's listed one and I can link you to another, but you'll need to look at your web environment from a macro view before concentrating on a micro view.

Yes, you'll want a full CMS SQL system.   From there, you can either pay someone to write what you need, or buy one of the many modules already written for this purpose.  The quality of such programs range from very basic and/or poorly written, to some really excellent programming.

If you want something that reads your EXFIL and IPTC there are several out there, but of course they're built for different platforms.   I use one and I love it, I can have multiple instances of the gallery, as many as I want, throughout the site, and I can set them up to display whatever data from my EXFIL and IPTC fields I wish.  For some tasks I'll need to change the module skin to output the data I want, but it's all there in the SQL waiting to be applied.   You can take a look at one of my galleries and how it displays the EXFIL, and I could turn on IPTC for captions if I want.. I can even turn on the sales feature and paypal.. it's a complete very well designed module.  Many different gallery types including allowing my sites users to open and add to their own galleries.  As many as I want.  I can even off-load the data to Amazon S3 for significant savings.

There's a lot out there.  Before I chose my platform I spent a lot of time researching galleries and blog modules and how they supported each other.   Once I narrowed it down to the top three, I then contacted the authors of both modules to see what their customer service and willingness to help and perhaps write custom features would be like.

It's a big undertaking.. but if you take it slow and you're thorough.. you'll do well.

Good luck.

[roskav]

Thanks for the replies folkes.  Good to have those leads and I have passed them on.  Maybe looking for a complete solution that works from raw conversion to web database is a step too far for 2012!

R