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[DarkPenguin]

That was far more of a pain to fix that you would have thought.  Should be in the next build.

[JustinChase]

Well, I just used it for the first time.  I read no instructions about using it anywhere before starting.

First thing I did was create a gallery (careful you don't select too many photos and hit preview - LONG wait).  This gallery ended up as a playlist in MC.  This was nice, but I was expecting it to ask me if I wanted to publish it (which I did).

Then I saw the icon in the action window, and clicked it.  It let me upload the gallery to Pix01, but I couldn't select the template this way.

I did like the options I saw on the first attempt, as one day I may load this all to my server, but today was just trying to get a test set up on the server.

Now that I've got them up there, I like it.  It was really painless, even it it did take a couple of attempts to get what I wanted.

Suggestions:

• I would also like to have the option of a slideshow.
• I would like to see the name of the photo someplace, maybe on mouseover or as Marko set up in his template testing.  (Excellent work btw Marko)  I'd like to maybe steal that template one of these days.
• I think the option to add stuff from our MC database to the galleries (as Marko has done) is great.  Pictures are nice, but names, keywords and stories are REALLY nice to those who may not know what they are looking at.
• I would also like it if you do add a feature to show the name of the photo, that we can select which field provides that name, as i have all of my photos named in all lower case, single word filenames to comply with Linux rules for my own website, and don't want that listed as the name

Also, does anyone (JIm?) have any comments on the first posters suggestions?  The one about using a DB structure to store the photos, and all the benefits that structure provides?

It sounds like some really powerful stuff to do it that way, and totally leverages (could) the power of the MC database. 

[JustinChase]

In case anyone's interested, here's what I got up to template-wise this afternoon: More Template Testing
Part of me thinks it's quite neat, while another part of me wonders if it isn't a little on the 'busy' side... waddaya reckon?

I've made the thumbnail page the landing page because for some reason, I think it flows better that way. I've used 4 custom calculated fields combining expressions and html to adjust the displayed information according to the the available tag info, the theory being that no matter what, I shouldn't have to worry about "Unknown this" or "Unknown that" showing up and spoiling the party.
Whichever size of image you're viewing, clicking the image will advance you to the next, and when you reach the last one, clicking on it will return you to the thumbnail page.

-marko.

I don't think it's too busy, and I agree about landing at the thumbs page first.

Is there any way to carry your descriptions (or any field in MC for that matter) to being shown either below the photos in the filmstrip view, or maybe having them show as a hover window in that view?

Also, how exactly did you do that?  Did you take a local gallery and modify it to show these fields, then upload that; or did you somehow code that onto the page directly?

I'm not much of a html person, but have used Front Page a few times.

More importantly, how can I do that?

Thanks, and great work.

[DarkPenguin]

The way you change the look is to change the template.  The templates are found in C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\Data\Web Gallery.  Pix01 uses Noire or (if you tick the option) Slideshow.  Some of the code in those templates is pretty rough.

[DB:THIS][NAME][DB:END] is a database call.  It will pull [NAME] from the database for the current item.  If you change that ([CAPTION] is used elsewhere in the code) you can pull whatever information you want.

(Course we overwrite those templates on new installs.  So save your work.)

[JustinChase]

Thanks for the info.  I'm not sure I'm quite ready (or able) to manipulate that just yet; especially as I imagine this is still a bit of "work in progress."

Am I correct?  Is this something that will be getting some attention in the near(ish) future, or is this about all you have planned for the photo sharing for a while?

[DarkPenguin]

For right now it is designed to be a simple way to upload photos.  Additional features are always considered but this is designed to be extremely simple.

[marko]

still messing around with template tweaking...

Captions make a mess of the thumbnail page if they are too big, so I thought, why not get MC to truncate them using the mid() function, and place the caption in a tooltip instead. It works, kind of.

If I put title="" info into the <a href> tag, iexplorer doesn't show a tooltip, and firefox truncates the info to something like 50 characters. If I put the caption into the alt="" info, iexplorer shows the whole thing (it does have a limit, but it's generous enough for most captions) but firefox does not. Very frustrating.

new pc

-marko.

[park]

Marko,
How did you get other tag info to appear in your slideshow template? I'd like to map a couple of my fields to show up in my galleries.
Thanks,
Bri

[marko]

Marko,
How did you get other tag info to appear in your slideshow template? I'd like to map a couple of my fields to show up in my galleries.
Thanks,
Bri

real brief here to begin with....

I presume you're asking about this info here...

==============

This is two table columns to the right of the photo, the first is right justified, and the second is left justified.

I created two new expression based database fields to produce the content.

1. Named "html-info-labels" looks like this:

Code: [Select]

<span class="style1">Photographer -&nbsp<br>if(isempty([Camera]),Camera -&nbsp<br>Date -&nbsp<br>Status -&nbsp,Camera -&nbsp<br>Date -&nbsp<br>Aperture -&nbsp<br>Flash -&nbsp<br>Focal Length -&nbsp<br>Shutter Speed -&nbsp<br>Status -&nbsp)</span>
2. Named "html-info" looks like this:

Code: [Select]

<span class="style2">if(isempty([Artist]),Not Specified,[artist])<br>if(isempty([Camera]),Not Specified<br>[date]<br>if(isequal([filename (name)],edited,8),Edited /([needs editing]/),Original)</span>,[camera]<br>[date]<br>[aperture]<br>[flash]<br>[Focal Length]<br>[Shutter Speed]<br>if(isequal([filename (name)],edited,8),Edited /([needs editing]/),Original)</span>
The expressions take care of outputting relevant info depending upon whether or not the [camera] tag is populated, and the styles are specified in the .css file.
Once that's all set, all that's needed in the gallery template file is to call the single database fields that will produce the information, like so: [DB:THIS][html-info-labels][DB:END]

I know I'm biased, but I think it works great, and looks great. If you look at the PC Building example, you can see the expressions in action by comparing the data shown for the photos against the data shown for the two screenshots at the end.

What I know about writing html code could be written on the back of a postage stamp, with space to spare, which leaves me with the firm belief that someone skilled in the art of writing web pages could probably use this method to get MC to turn out some pretty neat things indeed.

Of course, if you just want a couple of existing fields to show up in your gallery, then all you need to do is find the place in the template that you'd like them to show up, and enter the code as shown by DP a few posts back, like so: [DB:THIS][Your Field][DB:END] and the contents of [your field] will be shown in the gallery. Bear in mind that if the field is empty, you'll get "unassigned" or "unknown" which is something I personally don't like too much, so I used expressions to take care of that eventuality.

-marko.

[park]

That's great. Thanks Marko. I'll try to have a play myself sometime this week.

[JimH]

That's great. Thanks Marko. I'll try to have a play myself sometime this week.

I think you just put up several new albums.  Great pictures!  Thanks.

[park]

Thanks.
I've noticed that with the "Slideshow" template, that when you click on "Slideshow options", the menu goes off screen if the browser is maximized. Any way to get the menu to jump to the left instead of the right?

Also, I'm having trouble getting my "Wakayama" gallery to work. I've tried uploading it twice, but it just shows the first few thumbnails and no full size pics.

Thanks,
Bri