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Author Topic: html photo albums.  (Read 4418 times)

marko

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html photo albums.
« on: December 01, 2006, 03:09:39 am »

Excellent! Count me in. Once we get these sorted, can we get some neato flash templates too? ;)

I manually added a folder to the end of the default save location, but forgot the trailing backslash, which broke things. Only the index and slideshow files were saved there, with everything else going one level back.

When building a larger album, I used 54 files for chester zoo, everything else has to wait, even the next file in the currently playing audio playlist.

portrait images are not being correctly rotated.

Love the way the caption is used as a tooltip, really looking forward to seeing this develop further. I think it might feel more intuitive if the counting started at one rather than zero?

Do you think we will be able to specify captions based on any chosen library data by way of a wizard or some-such? It might be nice to sometimes show the camera used, or the photographer given credit?

boing!
chester zoo


DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2006, 09:31:38 am »

Captions are done with the "[DB:THIS][CAPTION][DB:END]" entry in the slide or index template.  So whatever expression you want can be stuffed between the [DB:THIS] and the [DB:END] lines.  You can place those wherever you want to in the template.  (There is no way to choose templates right now.  It uses the "basic" one.)  And they do not have to be the same.  So you can put a bunch of them in there.

I'll list the set of commands available for the HTML.  It is a pretty simple set.  It is mostly simple find and replace.  So I hunt down the above, grok it, and then replace it.  The [EXISTS:xx] are a very simple if/else kind of thing.  And the [LOOP...]s let you place all your index page thumbnails.

I think I just fixed the rotation thing.

Could you screenshot the trailing slash thing?  I thought I got all of those...
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2006, 11:45:41 am »

default save dialogue, with default location + one further folder level and no backslash....


results....

the \test\ folder only contains an index.htm and a slide.htm file.

DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2006, 11:55:35 am »

The slash thing is fixed.  The portrait thing should be fixed.

I've added an uploader.

I spent about 8 minutes threading it so, um, that could be interesting.
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2006, 03:50:11 am »

seems to be entirely busted...

The create html gallery creator, (there's a typo in the window title, reads: html galler creator) is self destructing after 10 seconds.

It's not enough time to get some ftp details in there, so I can't test that, and if I try to create an album anyway by hitting OK immediately, it'll work so long as the job is done inside 10 seconds, otherwise, the "creating gallery" message remains permanently, and the gallery is never finished.

using three files worked....
  • portrait thumbs and full images still show as landscape (the [rotation] in MC for these images is 270)
  • Using three images, the message below the full image states "0 of 2 image(s)" "1 of 2 image(s)" etc.

Although I can't test it, I couldn't see a "remember password" tick on the uploader. Will it remember the password?
If I choose to manually upload, I think it's really neat that you pop an explorer window to show the files created, but, if I'm auto-uploading, I wouldn't want that to happen, I'd rather it just created and uploaded with the minimum of fuss.

-marko.

DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2006, 08:41:48 am »

That's what I get for trying to squeeze a feature in right before a weekend.  Sorry about that.

It pretty much remembers everything.  (Encrypts the password.)  I'll add a remember password checkbox.

Monday.
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lee269

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2006, 01:54:24 pm »

This is good news, buried in a raft of build changes. Im an amateur Jalbum user with my photos in some kind of limbo between MC and another image cataloguing package which is pretty bloated and unimpressive for organisation <cough>Photoshop Elements<cough>.

My test attempts to create an album locally on my PC have failed unfortunately. FYI and FWIW given markos analysis:

1. Choosing my desktop via the browse button for output directory cause the Galley Creator dialog to disappear.

2. Choosing default locations (local, no ftp upload) and hitting OK within 10 seconds gets me the endless 'creating gallery' dialog.

Either way I need to kill MC, and only index.htm and slide.htm are created. I had no success creating any kind of gallery.

Never mind. It will come. Using 12.0.123.
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DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2006, 11:44:09 am »

I think this should all be fixed.

The browse button actually updates things.  (It will delete whatever directory you point it at so I wouldn't recommend pointing it the desktop.  It will ask before it deletes.)

Threading should be fixed.  (Wired something up for expediency that I forgot to pull out.)

A remember password checkbox has been added.

It should run (and expose the next layer of bugs) now.
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2006, 04:09:24 am »

This is just shaping up sooo nicely!! Please, don't stop polishing :)

Todays findings:

First, the upload dialogue:

It's not skinned.

The fields could use some labels. through trial and error I managed to work out that the ftp root, with a trailing forward slash needs to go in the first field, and the path to the gallery in the second. The uploader could not create the path for me, but once I had created the base path for all galleries, it does create the final folder in the path for uploading the files. This all works fine once set, but will need either some help via the UI, or an entry in the help file itself.

I ticked the 'remember password' box, and MC has indeed, remembered the password, but, each time I run the generator, the box is not ticked, and the password is still remembered. Supposing I wanted it to, how do I get it to forget the password? Might I suggest that the 'remember' setting remain ticked between sessions, but if that tick is removed, then the password be forgotten?

The various dialogues tend to get a little confused regarding their Z-order, and quite often, the creating, then the uploading dialogues disappear behind the main UI, especially when a 'Remove directory?' dialogue has been sprung.
------------------

On to the created galleries themselves:
-------------------------------------
It's counting the pictures from zero. I think this would be better if it counted from one, because it just reads a bit wierd when there's 5 photos, and the caption proclaims "viewing photo 4 of 4" when viewing the 5th photo.

Photos that MC12 has given a [rotation] value of 270, and show correctly within MC, are being shown in landscape, turned 90° CCW, in the gallery.

I'm quite excited by the possibilites on offer here. I had a quick look at the basic templates, and decided that entering a database expression directly in there probably would not work, so, I created a library field from my chosen slideshow caption. It's a long expression, that coupled with my tagging workflow, ensures that I never get "Unknown" anything in my captions. I then placed that field in the DB:THIS tags of the template and it works wonderfully well.
Of course, this means that next time I install MC, my edited template will be over written by the defaults. I tried creating a Data\Custom HTML Gallery\ folder, but MC would not use it, so, could MC use the 'Custom' folder system for galleries, or are we maybe going to get some form of template picker/saver further down the line?

How about the thumbnail size?
I see that it's defaulting to 1024 x 768, which is probably what I'd have gone for out of the blocks too, but, at a screen res. of 1680 x 1050 I have to scroll down to see the caption, and the bottom edge of each photo. Perhaps this would be better @ 800 x 600? or can we choose? or can we have both and let the gallery viewer decide?

Thank you for your work on this. Great stuff so far. I added a background image to the template along with the new library field:

Example: Vada - a brief glimpse of my life so far







DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2006, 02:08:40 pm »

Sorry I've not responded.  Been out sick.  (And after spending an hour in the waiting room of the urgent care place I can pretty much guarantee I'll be getting something else horrible soon.  Probably involving a lot of coughing.)

I have NO idea where my labels went but they should be fixed.

The first box is the host address.

The second is the path relative to where you start when you login.  (In my case it dumps me in my home directory.  So the path is "public_html\gallery")  Right now I only make the last directory.  Perhaps I should ask if I should create the path.

If you look at the top of slide.htm in the template directory you can change these guys.
[CONSTANT:THUMB:HEIGHT:50]
[CONSTANT:IMAGE:WIDTH:1024]
[CONSTANT:IMAGE:HEIGHT:768]

Same problem for you with new installs.

I've been meaning to make a "template picker" but have been waiting for a second template.  (And a decent idea as to how to pick them.)

I've changed [TotalImageCount] and [CurrentImageIndex] to start at 1.  (Should fix the image 0 of 4 thing.)
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2006, 03:00:27 pm »

d'loaded, but no time to install and play as it's time to walk the dog and go to work...

thnx for the tips 'n' fixes, will post feedback tomorrow.

Hopefully, you'll be back to full fitness soon. Being poorly is never much fun.

marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #11 on: December 08, 2006, 06:40:01 am »

Spent too much time playing with galleries this morning!!!
It's working nicely as far as I can tell with just the following two issues remaining:

1) Images that use an MC database [rotation] value of 270 are shown landscape instead of portrait.
2)The 'creating/uploading' dialogue more often than not drops to the very bottom of the z-order pile. It goes into hiding behind every open window. It would be neat if they could drop into the action window.

Thoughts:
That info box that lets us know the album has been created and uploaded... How about a tickbox or button that opens the album in the system default browser?
Templates? Knowing how badly I do html, and how easy it is to get caught out by different screen sizes and resolutions how does this look?

60 photos from chester zoo

I set the index page to 7 columns, and centered the thumbs absolutely because as they were, portrait thumbs were really messing up the layout.
For the slideshow pages, I've tried moving, and labelling, the previous/next etc. thumbs into a column on the left and added the album name to those pages too.
On my screen, it all looks ace!! how about yours?

The other thing on my mind, that I've not had time to play with today....

You know i mentioned above I made a calculated database field to use as slideshow captions?
Well, this morning, I got to wondering, if I were to include some html formatting in there, things like < br >, and perhaps some text formatting, would the html album use them? I thought it might be possible to do some neat captions that way? We could be able to put lots of detailed info to the right of the photo for example....

gotta go. great addition to MC 12 Mr. Penguin. Thanks again.
I can't be the only one playing surely? c'mon folks...
where are all the html wizards when you need them? :D

-marko.

marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #12 on: December 08, 2006, 01:45:47 pm »

I'm not liking the way the browser is placing a link coloured border around the images. looks 'orrible..

I've managed to get rid of 'em from the index page, but for the life of me, I cannot get rid of them from the slideshow pages. help!! :)

DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #13 on: December 08, 2006, 02:04:03 pm »

I can't even spell html.  I'd try a style sheet type of thing.  (Not helpful, I know.)
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #14 on: December 08, 2006, 02:13:37 pm »

:)

marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #15 on: December 08, 2006, 03:37:44 pm »

that "html in calculated field" thing actually works!!!
A custom field containing:
Code: [Select]
<span class="style1">Camera</span> - <span class="style2">[camera]</span><br /><span class="style1">Aperture</span> - <span class="style2">[aperture]</span><br /><span class="style1">Flash</span> - <span class="style2">[flash]</span><br /><span class="style1">Focal Length</span> - <span class="style2">[focal length]</span><br /><span class="style1">Shutter Speed</span> - <span class="style2">[shutter speed]</span><br />
and then referenced in the html template...  Check it out

those are just rough, knocked out to test things. expressions can take care of empty fields left by the scanner etc. etc.
great posibilities here for anyone who knows their html....

DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #16 on: December 08, 2006, 03:46:01 pm »

Rotation should work right this time.

Some new options for auto erasing the output directory and it now defaults to a temp directory.  (You can still change that.)

Some message dialogs are a little informative and/or to the point.

Is adding a single line for the user to put the web path for the gallery worthwhile?  The issue being that I can't grok what the final web server path will be from the ftp stuff.  I can guess but that would only be a guess.  But if I had that path I could pop up a web browser after upload.

Still need to check the ftp credentials BEFORE making the gallery.

Some more template options need to happen.  Still looking into those.   (I really do not like the first and previous links being the same when you are on image 2.  Same thing with next and last when you are on the second to last image.)  Template picker is still needed.

I'll probably add a "use original filename" option.  (I need that.)

More to do.

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not.  Switching the output html from .htm files to .html.

You can probably do some nifty things with html in expressions.
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gappie

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #17 on: December 10, 2006, 07:23:48 am »

im plying with for a while now. it is getting very nice. lust two things.

is there a way to get rid of the unknown caption, when there is none.

and when i create a web gallery, it makes two index files. the htm file is still made.

thanks for this feature
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #18 on: December 10, 2006, 08:25:45 am »

Rotation should work right this time.
Confirmed.

Is adding a single line for the user to put the web path for the gallery worthwhile?  The issue being that I can't grok what the final web server path will be from the ftp stuff.  I can guess but that would only be a guess.  But if I had that path I could pop up a web browser after upload.
I would say it's fair to assume that the majority of uploads will be to a base path, with the only thing changing being the final child directory that the album will be uploaded to. Perhaps you could ask for the base path, then tag the final ftp folder on the end and send that off to the browser? Sounds simple, I know, but I've no idea how to convey that to new users, nor do I know if it's easy to deal with the inevitable differences between how and where users will place their forward slashes.
Another idea might be to offer the option to pause before the upload process starts and load the local files into the browser instead. If the user is happy, they can continue with the upload, and if not, they can cancel it and start over?

Some more template options need to happen.  Still looking into those.   (I really do not like the first and previous links being the same when you are on image 2.  Same thing with next and last when you are on the second to last image.)  Template picker is still needed.
More template options would be neat. I'm so slow and inept with html it takes me forever to do the simplest things.
I agree re. the first and last navigational image thumbs. Would using green and chequered flags instead be intuitive enough?

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not.  Switching the output html from .htm files to .html.

You can probably do some nifty things with html in expressions.
re. the htm to html switch. You did mention it, and the rogue htm file placed in the output directory is actually a copy of the raw template file.

I do not know the difference between .htm and .html files; and what kind of "nifty expression things" might be possible?
Do you mean MC expressions, or html expressions (if such a thing exists!!)

thanks for pushing on with this feature.
regards,
-marko.

JimH

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #19 on: December 10, 2006, 08:27:59 am »

I do not know the difference between .htm and .html files; and what kind of "nifty expression things" might be possible?
Do you mean MC expressions, or html expressions (if such a thing exists!!)
The html extension is the standard.  The htm is Microsoft's improvement on the standard.
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DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #20 on: December 10, 2006, 09:36:56 pm »

I've been looking at the way jalbum does it.  I may reorganize some things.

The "nifty expression things" was referring to the nifty expression thing you did with the comment field.
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #21 on: December 11, 2006, 01:31:36 am »

I think the [DB:THIS][ ][DB:END] idea is truly brilliant. Virtually any database info can be included, formatted in virtually any way you could imagine. Once things settle down, I have a feeling we could get some really clever album templates up and running.

My plan is to place all albums in a base directory, and maintain an 'albums index page' of some kind or another. If things are going to be reorganised, I'll hold off playing around 'till I see how the dust settles. It's quite fun, yesterday, I learned a bit about 'nested tables' :)

is there a way to get rid of the unknown caption, when there is none.
try creating a new library field using calculated data: if(isequal([caption],unknown,8),,[caption])
Then open the index and slide template files in a text editor and replace each instance of [caption] with [your custom field]
Save the files and create a gallery to test.

-marko.

gappie

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #22 on: December 11, 2006, 06:12:26 pm »

yes, that works.

this new feature is fun. it is easy to change the background and the size of the thumbs and the colours around the border of the pics and thumbs, more info underneath it, etc. nice!. for those who care. i just made something like this:



bit better picture: http://www.gappie.nl/fotos/htmlgalmc12.JPG

thanks for this.
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JimH

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #23 on: December 11, 2006, 06:18:50 pm »

Nice.  How about a caption for the picture?
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gappie

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #24 on: December 11, 2006, 06:49:24 pm »

like: visiting the shop of township guitars, cape town, south africa.  :)
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marko

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #25 on: December 12, 2006, 07:23:24 am »

well now, I know I said I wouldn't mess around 'till I saw how things were going to be shaken up, but I couldn't resist....

template test

gappie

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #26 on: December 12, 2006, 04:46:34 pm »

very beautiful marko.  8)
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DarkPenguin

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Re: html photo albums.
« Reply #27 on: December 12, 2006, 10:59:58 pm »

Some of the template internals have changed.  The [Exists] tags are gone so older templates will break.  FYI.
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