pibooth-date-folder 1.5.9

PiBooth plugin to split/save sessions into date-based folders with an optional daily time threshold.

pibooth-date-folder is a plugin for the pibooth application.

It organizes Photos and Raw folders into per-date folders with a configurable split time, supporting multiple quoted base directories.

• Requirements

• IMPORTANT — Date/Time must be set correct before using this plugin

• Installation

• Configuration

• Setup in Pibooth Menu

• Usage

• Testing the Threshold

• Examples

• Uninstall

• Changelog

• License

• Links

Requirements

• Python 3.6+

• PiBooth 2.0.8 or later

IMPORTANT — Date/Time must be set correct before using this plugin

This plugin relies on the system date and time to determine when new folders should be created. You must ensure that the device has a correct system clock before running PiBooth. This can be achieved by one of the following:

• Internet access for NTP time synchronization

• A hardware RTC module (e.g., DS3231)

• Manually setting the system time prior to launching PiBooth

⚠️ Important: If the system time is incorrect, the plugin will create folders under the wrong date or switch at unexpected times.

Installation

Run:

pip3 install pibooth-date-folder

PiBooth will auto-discover the plugin—no edits to your pibooth.cfg are needed.

Configuration

On first launch, this plugin adds a [DATE_FOLDER] section to your ~/.config/pibooth/pibooth.cfg:

[DATE_FOLDER]
# Hour when a new date-folder starts (0–23, default: 10)
start_hour = 10
# Minute when a new date-folder starts (00–59, default: 00)
start_minute = 00
# Mode for how folder switching is handled: strict (default) or force_today
on_change_mode = strict

Adjust these values in PiBooth’s Settings menu (ESC → Settings) at any time. Changes take effect at the start of the next photo session.

Setup in Pibooth Menu

Explanation of options:

• start_hour / start_minute Define the daily time when a new folder should start. Useful if your events run past midnight but should count as the same “day” (e.g. starting a new folder at 10:00 the next day).

• on_change_mode

  • strict (default) — The folder switches exactly at the configured time every day, even if no sessions have occurred yet.

  • force_today — The folder automatically switches at midnight (00:00) to match the new calendar date, regardless of the configured threshold time. The configured time is still included in the folder name for consistency, but it does not affect when switching occurs like strict does.

Usage

1. Snapshot original bases On configure, the plugin reads your existing quoted directory setting under [GENERAL] (one or more paths) and caches them.

2. Per-session logic (state_wait_enter) - Builds a “threshold” datetime from start_hour:start_minute. - If you changed the threshold since the last session, it treats the next folder as today. - Otherwise, if the current time is before the threshold, it treats it as yesterday, else today. - Creates a subfolder named:

   YYYY-MM-DD_start-hour_HH-MM

   • under each of your original base directories.

   • Overrides PiBooth’s in-memory directory to the quoted list of these new folders (no pibooth.cfg write).

   Note: When the plugin is disabled in the Pibooth menu (General, Manage Plugins), it temporarily reverts to the default ~/Pictures/pibooth directories in memory only (no pibooth.cfg write).

Testing the Threshold

To simulate a day-boundary without waiting 24 hours:

1. In PiBooth’s Settings menu, set start_hour/start_minute to a time a few minutes ahead of now (e.g., it’s 13:58; set to 14:00).

2. Close the menu and take a photo session. Because it’s the first session after changing the threshold, the plugin treats it as today, creating a folder for today’s date.

3. Take another session before the threshold time; since you didn’t change the threshold again, the plugin applies “before threshold → yesterday,” creating a folder for the prior date.

4. Take one more session after the threshold; it creates a folder for today again.

This lets you verify both “yesterday” and “today” folder behavior within minutes.

Examples

Given in your config:

[GENERAL]
directory = "~/Pictures/pibooth", "~/Pictures/backup_booth"

• Before threshold (10:00, time 09:30): Photos saved in:

  "~/Pictures/pibooth/2025-07-11_start-hour_10-00", "~/Pictures/backup_booth/2025-07-11_start-hour_10-00"

• After threshold (time >10:00): Photos saved in:

  "~/Pictures/pibooth/2025-07-12_start-hour_10-00", "~/Pictures/backup_booth/2025-07-12_start-hour_10-00"

This version dont write in config file pibooth.cfg

BUT If you installed a previous version, your pibooth.cfg may contain a dated folder path.

Remove it/them, before using this version, to avoid nested directories. “See Uninstall below”:

Uninstall

On current versions (v1.5.7+), the plugin does not write date folders to pibooth.cfg

So uninstalling typically requires no changes.

BUT if you previously used an older version ´´v1.5.5 an v1.5.6´´ that wrote a extra dated path to the base dir in config,

you should reset it in ~/.config/pibooth/pibooth.cfg :

Do this

pibooth --config

Then edit the [GENERAL]/directory line and remove the dated part, for example:

[GENERAL]
directory = "~/Pictures/pibooth/2025-07-11_start-hour_10-00"

Change it to:

[GENERAL]
directory = "~/Pictures/pibooth"

You may also remove the entire [DATE_FOLDER] section if you wish.

Changelog

• v1.5.9 (2025-10-08)

  • Fixed unintended setuptools auto-upgrade caused by pyproject.toml.

  • Older Raspberry Pi OS environments will no longer be forced to upgrade setuptools during installation.

• v1.5.8 (2025-10-07)

  • Fixed plugin registration so the plugin is correctly detected again.

  • Pip installation now works as expected.

• v1.5.7 (2025-10-07) — ⚠️⚠️ Important update

  🎉 Re-release of the pibooth-date-folder plugin.

  Highlights

  • Automatically organizes photos into date-based folders

  • Configurable daily switch time

  • Works with multiple base directories

  Changes

  • Changed behavior to no longer write dated directories into the config file

  • When disabled via the PiBooth menu, the plugin now temporarily reverts to the default directories in memory only (no pibooth.cfg write)

  • Improved folder creation to be idempotent and avoid duplicate entries

  • Normalize base/target paths to ensure existing folders are reused

  • Safe directory creation with exist_ok=True

  • In-memory override of GENERAL/directory

  • Added on_change_mode (strict default / force_today override)

  • Keeps multiple quoted base paths and ~ prefix

  • Switched hour range to 0–23 (UI/docs) for clarity

  • Legacy value 24 is treated as 00 (midnight) internally

  • Clamps minutes to 0–59 for robustness

  Other

  • Update README image links to raw URLs for PyPI rendering

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

Links

pibooth