Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

Hi,

I was wondering if there was software out there that will turn the hundreds of eyemodule-pictures into an easy to browse picture gallery for the web?

Currently, I just store my pics in folders and people have to manually browse to view the pictures.

Is there a better way? How do you display your eyemodule-pictures?

TIA

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 165

I keep my photos online - here's the URL for the umpteenth time:

http://sundown-media.com/images.php4

I put together a PHP script for my gallery which reads all of the .JPG filenames in a specified directory into an array. I break the gallery into pages by passing an offset number in the URL query string in the PREV | NEXT links, and use the PHP GD image library function to generate the thumbnails automatically from the filename array as needed.

The gallery automatically sorts itself by file modified date descending, but it would be easy enough to change the sort. I added a couple of parameters to the script that make it easy to change the number of images per page, number of images per row, and thumbnail size.

So, basically all I need to do is put the images into the right directory and the rest takes care of itself If you're interested I can clean the code up a little bit and put it online... the trickiest part of the whole setup is getting the GD libraries working with PHP. The script is pretty simple.

A similar but much more evolved PHP gallery is blorp. (http://www.blorp.com/) I haven't tried it, but it looks like it's intended to be a little bit more professional than my home-grown quickie solution .

If you have access to Photoshop 5.5 or later, look under "File > Automation > Web Gallery"... it's a little clunky and produces pretty messy HTML, but it's better than nothing.

-Andy

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<br>"Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union" -Frank Lloyd Wright

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

Andy-

Your webimages and the way it is displayed look great! How would I be able to copy your script (w/ your permission of course) and use it on my website?

Is it fairly easy? I am not familiar with php, thanks.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Posts: 33

Various options...

I liked your automated solution, Usonian. Definitely more advanced than what I can manage. I'm barely familiar with CGI, let alone PHP and live database stuff.

Photoshop indeed produces basic HTML galleries (as do other graphic programs -- try download.com for thumbnailer utilities), which you can then upload (free web hosts include Yahoo! Geocities, Tripod, and Xoom/NBCI). For those you have to be somewhat familiar with FTP, or at least patient enough to work with their built-in upload utilities.

Another slightly easier option might be to set up a web photo album at Yahoo! Photos, Clubphoto.com, Ofoto.Com and the like. The thing is these places really push for purchasing photo prints, something that eyemodule photos most certainly aren't fit for. Still, they also have upload utilities, and you can upload, caption, and share your photos fairly easily.

Finally, of course (plug alert), I'd be happy to post your favorite photos online in the gallery I'm building. I actually got a couple of pictures today from someone who works at ideo! Check it out below, and e-mail pics to me if you like.

__________________
<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><a href="http://lightfantastic.org/eye/"><img src="http://lightfantastic.org/eye/ryanozawa/w-beach3-sm2.jpg" width="80" height="60" border="1"></a></td>
<td valign="top"><font size="2">Ryan Kawailani Ozawa<hr size="1" color="#ff0000"><b>eye</b>browse > eyemodule gallery & users' group<br><a href="http://lightfantastic.org/eye" target="_blank">http://lightfantastic.org/eye</a></font></td></tr></table>

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 165

To use the script you'll need to make sure that PHP 4.x and the GD library are installed on whatever server you're hosting your images on.. most free hosting services don't offer PHP. (www.isamillionaire.com does, but the the service is iffy in my experience).

Do you have any experience with another scripting language like JavaScript, ASP or Cold Fusion? If you do then you shouldn't have too much trouble getting into PHP, at least to configure the gallery script. You might want to buzz over to http://www.php.net to read more.

I'll get to work cleaning up my gallery code and making it into a little more of a 'package', tack on the GNU license and post it on my site, maybe tonight or tomorrow.

-Andy

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

Yah, i'm certain that my university's webserver supports PHP, so that's nothing to worry about.

However, I am not familiar with cf or asp, and limited js. I do have some sql though..

Thanks, this should be a fun project!

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 100

There is an awesome (undocumented) command in Macromedia Dreamweaver called "Create Web Photo Album" in the Commands menu. According to the C|Net advanced Dreamweaver tips article I read, it's not documented because it slipped in as a feature right near release time.

The only requirement is that you must also have Macromedia Fireworks installed on the same machine. If you do, the entire Web photo gallery is one command, and one pop-up window where you tell it how many photos per row you want.

Then you sit back and watch the magic. Poof! It's the most awesome thing I've ever seen, and it was enough for me to go out and buy Fireworks (since I already had Dreamweaver). When it's all done, you have a page of thumbnail photos, and when you click on them, you get to walk through the gallery one photo at a time. It's totally kick-butt!!

The photos aren't eyemodule pictures, but you can see a sample of it at http://www.lava.net/~alexman/superbowl2001.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

Bump

Bump for Usonian, hopefully he has that script ?

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 165

Thanks for the bump! I will try to get that up later tonight. Sorry about that - I started on it, but then I went to New York for a week and it sort of got lost in the shuffle. The story of my life

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<br>"Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union" -Frank Lloyd Wright

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Oakland, CA USA
Posts: 61

eyemodule2 comes with some Clubphoto.com software called Living Album that is specifically for creating web galleries and posting them to the net. It's on the cd in the ClubPhoto/LivingAlbum folder.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 72

Somebody posted here before that PhotoShop [the later versions] have a Gallery feature. I tried it and it does a decent job. In version 6.0 go to File -> Automate -> Web Photo Gallery.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 165

update

Well, the script was a little messier than I thought (as are most things that get thrown together as a quick solution), but it's getting very close now - it will be worth the wait, because I'm adding some configuration options and simplifying some other stuff, and making the end result cleaner and sharper overall. There's definitely a list of features that I want to add as a result of actually packaging this script for release, but those can wait. I'll be cranking on it over lunch today and (cross your fingers) making it available for download tonight.

-Andy

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<br>"Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union" -Frank Lloyd Wright

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

AWESOME! Thanks Andy!