Groups by Photodelivery

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Solo Mode & Team Mode ​

The flow discussed above is the same for both team mode and solo mode. By default all machines are in solo mode.

In solo mode, all the photos are processed and searching uses the database stored on the same device.

If you are managing a photo stall or have multiple machines, you can install the Groups app on multiple machines to use team mode.

Team mode has the following benefits:

  1. You can share the processing load across your machines, all machines can work together to process photos faster and in parallel.
  2. Team mode uses one database across all team members. This allows you to process your photo collection once and search on the same processed photo collection on multiple machines, without needing to process all the photos on all machines.

In team mode, each machine acts as one of two roles:

  1. Team Leader:

    1. This is the machine that starts the team and manages it.
    2. There can only be one leader in a network.

  2. Team member:

    1. These are all the other machines that join a team.

    All machines can contribute to processing photos and can search from the same database.

How to Use Team Mode ​

Let’s take an example of creating a team and using team mode on 3 machines:

  1. Machine A is the one hosting the shared network drive/ common folder.
  2. Machine B is going to join as a team member.
  3. Machine C is going to join as a team member.

Let’s assume that the photo collection folder (where all your photos to be processed are kept) is stored on Machine A at C:\Users\Pradeep\Desktop\PhotoCollectionFolder , and that it is accessible by Machines B & C at \\servermp\\Stall\PhotoCollectionFolder .

  1. On Machine A, we’ll create a team by starting a new team as a team leader:
    1. Go to the settings page.
    2. Select the photo collection folder in the first box “Config folder location”.
    3. Click on Create Team.
    4. A team join code will be displayed. The code is 4 numbers separated by dots.
    5. Note that the indicator on the top right says “Team Mode” and that you are the leader.
  2. On Machines B and C, we will join the team as team members:
    1. Go to the settings page.
    2. Click on “Join a Team”.
    3. The app will automatically find a team present on the local network and ask if you’d like to join it.
    4. If the app doesn’t find a team on the network, you can click on “enter the join code manually” and type in the team join code to connect to the team.
  3. Once all three machines are in the same team, they will be visible in the members list along with their role in the settings page.
  4. You can now click on start processing on all the machines to start processing your photos in the photo collection folder in parallel. The photos will automatically be split and processed among your machines on the team until the photos in the photo collection folder is completely processed.
  5. You can now perform a search on any machine without re-processing the photo collection folder again: Go to the search tab and search for a group by their photo just like in solo mode.

Points to Remember ​

  • If the team leader is unreachable for a minute, all team members will safely disconnect from the team and switch back to solo mode. This means that processing and searching will not be shared.
  • If a team member is unreachable for 8 minutes, it will be removed from the team.
  • To make it easier to differentiate, the folder statistics and mode information box on the top right are in a green color theme when you’re in team mode and gold color theme when you’re in solo mode.
  • Photos processed in solo mode will not be available for search in team mode and vice versa. (Please read below)

An Important Note ​

It is important to understand that each machine that has the Groups app installed has two databases stored on device. One is used when the app is operating in solo mode (this is not shared), and the other is used when the app is operating as a team leader (this database is shared). This means that:

  1. Different databases are used when the application is in solo mode and team mode.
  2. Photos processed in solo mode will not be available for search in team mode and vice versa.

In team mode, there is only one database being used - this is the database hosted by the team leader. Team members do not use their own databases, they instead directly access the team leader’s database.

This is important because once the photos are processed in team mode, the processed data is stored on only one device - the team leader. If the leader goes offline or deletes the data, it is not stored on any other device on the team and is forever lost.

Implication: You would ideally designate a single machine as your team leader, and always start up the team on that machine by clicking on “Start Team as Leader”