Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

marios · 2007-10-13 10:35:42

Wow_gallery has an entirely different and unique approach ( albeit an interesting one )

This has several advantages and disadvantages.

The main point is, that it stores the image files themselves inside the database and not in a folder.
The advantage is, that you don’t have to worry about hotlinking ( img file URL directly accessible from the browser ), which would otherwise only be achievable with a Server Side script, or a PHP based solution.

The disadvantage is, that it’s hard to handle and backup such a fat database.

I haven’t looked at the Developer’s updates, so I couldn’t say if it works on 4.0.5.

AFAIK, a Year ago , when looked at the different gallery scripts, I didn’t see any yet, which has hot-link prevention build in, which I’d like to have.

regards, marios

Last edited by marios (2007-10-13 10:37:30)

lohan · 2007-10-13 10:56:32

Marios, thank you very much for explaining :~~) wow I’m beginning to realize that there’s a long way for me to go before even imagining my website on Textpattern ;~~) Anyway, I’ll keep following the forum and try to learn. I was highly impressed with the flexible nature of sections and categories. But when it comes to images(the main feature of my site) I’m in the blue.

jakob · 2007-10-13 17:18:13

lohan, ftp and batch upload is really only a serious issue if you update your site in batches – if you only add individual pictures from time to time, as I imagine is more likely with artwork than say with photography, then it may not make a big difference once you have set up your site.

Sure, it would make life easier when setting up your site the first time around too, but in the time it takes to find a special ftp/batch solution you may find it is quicker, if a little tedious, to upload them one by one.

btw, the photostack templates look more code-laden than they really are. In actual fact they use a principle not unlike txp’s page templates and tags, just instead of preceding the tags with <txp:tag-name and ending with >, they start with <?php echo $ps->tag-name and end with ; ?>. The rest is all normal HTML just like with txp’s page templates and forms. The example templates that come with it cover a variety of typical situations too. The ps->tag-names are listed here and the page template is described there too.

lohan · 2007-10-13 18:55:49

Thanks for the info Jakob. But my current website (made with MS Frontpage) allows all these functions with one click: Batch image uploading, gallery management, offline editing. At this point I see more negative points than positive points as far as moving to Textpattern is concerned. If I move, I will lose the control over images, offline editing, easy backups : almost all the positive aspects of the site.

Everythng will be replaced by a complicated system that reminds me of Wordpress. :-(

I apologize for taking your valuable time. Thanks very much. You guys were so quick to respond and make suggestions. But I am not comfortable with making the move at this point. Maybe later when I’m more familier with coding, CSS and databases.

Last edited by lohan (2007-10-13 19:02:37)

Timid&friendly · 2007-10-15 08:41:26

I’ve started using fpx_image_import. Works quite well. Automates the upload process a little which does save some time. And it’s free and avaliable now. I didn’t like the idea that WOW doen’t support clean url’s, I find that shame. Otherwise … I haven’t yet found a intergrated image system that is easy to use … “I still haven’t found what i’m looking for…”

lee · 2007-10-15 12:48:11

I use http://www.slideshowpro.net/

lozmatic · 2007-10-16 01:21:57

jstubbs wrote:

Very nice lozmatic. Care to share your method for building this nice gallery?

Thanks… there still the homepage to do and the inevitable tweaks.

I’m not doing anything particularly fancy. The general idea is to have one photo per article for the benefit of search engine spiders.

I’m using sections for the different types of photography (eg. Weddings) and category1 to define a set of pictures (eg. Michelle & James).

gbp_permanent_links allows me to have /section/catrgory/title in the URL — which reflects the site structure.

For each set I create an article so that I can list them in each section, each linking to the first pic of the set (which have to URL-titles of 1,2,3,4, etc…).

The slightly tricky bit was to make sure that the thumbnails and next/previous function (jk_neighbour) on each photo page did not include the ‘section article’ I’ve just describe. Had to use conditions for that – took me a while to get it working.

Also useful were…

rvm_if_this_article – conditional tag for detecting the current article
chh_article_custom – an enhanced replacement for txp:article and txp:article_custom

That’s about it :)

lozmatic · 2007-10-16 01:26:21

lee wrote:

I use http://www.slideshowpro.net/

Very nice indeed!

I added Slimbox as an alternative way to view sets to mine but might change it as it doesn’t offer a ‘Play’ option.

mattmikulla · 2007-10-25 22:09:51

I would recommend using textpattern as a cms and not frontpage. It’s tough in the beginning but the benefits later on are enormous.

Even if you have to upload each image one by one, create an article for each image and assign the article image number in the correct field, etc. You then can use the article images thumbnail to output a thumbnail gallery of certain sections and categories.

It takes me about less than a minute to add an image to my gallery now and I have full control. I even created some handy dandy paypal code to sell work online.

You can see my site at www.artrogue.com

lohan · 2007-10-26 04:43:31

Well, can you specify ANY reason for recommending Textpattern ahead of MS Frontpage? I don;t see any on your post. You just make a statement that you recommend it. Now I have tested it and realized it is not capable of replacing FP for MY website :~~D Different people expect different things from websites don;t they? :~~)

Can you use your website offline? Can you carry the entire site in a CD and also run it from the CD? I need that too. Because in this part of the world most people (including galleries) don’t have Internet access. Therefor I sometimes have to show the site in a CD. I realized Textpattern is similar to Wordpress and it runs on a database. But I find your tips and input very useful. I will try using textpattern in my future projects. Textpattern is cool for many sites. I agree. But not for my art website.

Thank you very much for being concerned.

jakob · 2007-10-26 07:43:40

lohan, upwards of a certain level of complexity it can make sense to switch to a cms.

A typical example: adding a picture to a static site

make image, thumbnail
create an HTML page for that picture, assign alt-text and caption
redo the overview page with the thumbnail. If you have several pages of images (say 12 per page) and you want to add new pictures to the start of the gallery, you may end with too many images for page 1 and have to also manually rejig page 2 and page 3 and so on. I have this problem with a site I’ve not yet switched to txp and the result is I update it less often.
If you want your image to appear on another gallery too, or the frontpage, redo those pages too (and possibly their paging too)
upload all changed pages

With a cms or gallery or photoblog software:

make image, thumbnail etc.
upload to cms/gallery/photoblog and assign alt-text and caption. Either assign to a gallery category, or create an article (for instance a blog post) if you want people to be able to comment on that individual picture.
No step 3 necessary – the cms/gallery/photoblog takes care of the overview page and paging across multiple pages automatically
You’d like it to appear on another gallery too? no problem, just assign the image to that category too. You want the newest picture on the front page? Likewise you can make the cms take care of that automatically too.

Finally, if you want people to be able to comment on your pictures like you can on Matt’s site, then you will need a cms or script of some sorts – adding feedback by hand via frontpage is boring.

The site-on-CD argument is more relevant. It is possible but it is more involved. You can set up a local webserver on your computer (recommended for development anyway) using XAMPP or similar (see textpattern.net for more infos). XAMPP can also be made to run from a USB-Stick (i.e. does not need installing on the system) and you could use this to carry your site around with you without having to have internet access.

iblastoff · 2007-10-26 08:51:19

Gocom wrote:

mem_multifile_upload is only for files, not for images ;)

as an update, mem_multifile_upload works for images as well now :)

Last edited by iblastoff (2007-10-26 08:51:29)

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#13 2007-10-13 10:35:42

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#14 2007-10-13 10:56:32

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#15 2007-10-13 17:18:13

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#16 2007-10-13 18:55:49

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#17 2007-10-15 08:41:26

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#18 2007-10-15 12:48:11

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#19 2007-10-16 01:21:57

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#20 2007-10-16 01:26:21

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#21 2007-10-25 22:09:51

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#22 2007-10-26 04:43:31

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#23 2007-10-26 07:43:40

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

#24 2007-10-26 08:51:19

Re: Using a seperate gallery tool vs a plugin?

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