Hello,
currently gPhotoShow can't read files list from external files.
Internally it saves temporary lists to text files but there is no way to
prevent folder scanning and only use the cached lists.
It would require some more support inside gPhotoShow itself but in
principle it could be possible to write a plugin for gPhotoShow that
reads the files list from an external source and sends it to gPhotoShow.
However I didn't find any documentation about Picasa albums, I
understand they are xml files but if the format is undocumented it means
it could change from one release to another so I don't know whether it
is worth the effort to write such plugin when it could became useless
when a new Picasa version is released.
Best Regards,
Gianpaolo Bottin
--
http://www.gphotoshow.com
Slide Show Maker & Screen Saver

Larry Wright wrote:
> Hi Gianpaolo,
>
> That last message about the cached file location got me to wondering if
> there is a simple way to have gPhotoShow read its input from a file I've
> created, or other external file, rather than build its own list from
> scanning folders and physically finding files.
>
> I use Picasa to manage my 80K+ pictures and one of the nice features is to
> be able to create virtual albums. This really reduces the need for physical
> duplication of files, as some pictures fit, for example in both of my albums
> for 'flowers' and 'our gardens'. I can add my flower pictures to both albums
> for printing or uploading, etc. without actually duplicating the files on my
> drive. (You can point Google's screen saver to read from these virtual
> albums.) I have a couple dozen virtual albums.
>
> Picasa stores the list of the files I add to a virtual album in a text file
> like:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Larry\Local Settings\Application
>
Data\Google\Picasa2Albums\ad3ac4917c747c14be5bee02920a483b\faab7921dff429758cea7\
31c96941b4c.pal
>
> There is one of these files for each virtual album, and with a little minor
> editing I created a simple list (My flowers.txt):
>
> My Pictures\2008\Flower1.jpg
> My Pictures\2008\Flower2.jpg
> My Pictures\2008\Flower3.jpg
> ...
>
> How can I 'feed' gPhotoShow this file?
>
> The only thing better would be for gPhotoShow to parse the .pal file itself
> so I don't have to do the pre-editing. :-)
>
> Thank you for all your hard work. I have enjoyed gPhotoShow for many years.
>
> Larry
> Maggie Valley, NC
>
>
>
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