What is the "Find similar file names" plug-in

Do you want to find all the different file type versions of an image, like the RAW, DNG, TIFF, JPEG, ... version?

Or are you searching for derivative image files, like your master, black-and-white, web and other versions of an image?

Then this is the plug-in for you!

Select the photos you want to searched for and this plug-in will find images with a similar name.

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• when you reworked some images with Lightroom what to do with your old master and other derivative image files?
  Do you still need them? Worse, it might turn into a chaos having old and new versions of the same original.
• Finding all the different file types of an image, like the RAW, DNG, TIFF and JPEG version.

For the record, it searches for images with a similar file names and it is not based on the content or meta data.

Example, say my image has the file name DAH_20130112_9349.CR2.
The plug-in will extract the first part of the file name: DAH_20130112_9349
Then it will search the Lightroom catalog for all images that have a file name like DAH_20130112_9349*.*

• DAH_20130112_9349.CR2
• DAH_20130112_9349.JPG,
• DAH_20130112_9349.TIFF,
• DAH_20130112_9349.TIFF,
  
• DAH_20130112_9349.DNG
• DAH_20130112_9349_master.TIFF
• DAH_20130112_9349_web.JPG
• DAH_20130112_9349_master_BW.TIFF
• ....

Result

The result of the search for images is stored in 3 Collections in Lightroom, see screenshot below

• Source files
  This collections holds all images you selected as input for the search operation.
• All_files_found
  This collections stores all the images found, inclusive the selected images.
• Different_from_Source
  The difference between the 2 collections = all images found exclusive the selected ones themselves.

Limitation

The plug-in is limited to 5000 photos for each run.

Plug-in options

Full width

When "on" the full width of your screen / browser will be used, when "off" the width is set to 1024 pixels.
Default: full width.

Scrollable tables

When selecting this option each table will have the height of the next setting.
Advantage is that if there are many tables, the report will not be so long and it is easier to navigate. Of course all the information is there.
If the table is bigger than the specified height, a scroll bar appears and you can scroll through it.
When off the scroll bar disappears and all rows are shown.

Table height in pixels

If you selected the option "Scrollable tables", this option determines the height of a table.
Play around and see what height best fits your screen.

Use online HTML Javascript and CSS

This options determines whether the plugin uses the embedded JavaScript and CSS files or downloads them from the internet.
Advantage of the embedded files is stability and loading speed. Further you do not need a internet connection to show the page properly.
Disadvantage of local files is that when you copy the report to a different computer, the required Javascript and CSS file will not be found and the layout will be poor.

Javascript enbled in report (Better looking, but slower with large reports)

The plugin used JQuery and the Datatables Javascript libraries. With these the reports looks much better, however, on very large reports these libraries take some time and you might run into a warning that the script is running to long.
Disabling the these Javascript libraries increases the time for the browser to render the report much.

Show results upon finish

This setting controls whether the plug-in automatically opens the report upon finishing in your browser, or not.

Quick guide

• Select the images in Lightroom you want the plug-in to work on
• Choose Menu -> Library -> Plug-in Extra -> Find Similar File names
  Choose "Find similar file names"

Misc

Translations

English.
Contact us for translating this report into another language and get a license free.

Inspiration

I was inspired writing this plug-in by a question I got during a training workshop and by the SQLiteRoom plug-in from Rob Cole.