Developers,
Thanks - Gallery is great. I had been using LinPHA but I like Gallery2.
I have some suggestions though about usability - I realise it is still in alpha but here is my opinion for what it is worth.
Check out the navigation in LinPHA with albums listed in top left at all times and bracnhes to indicate sub-folders. This is much better for novice users so they always know where they are.
Also in any album the sub-albums are not easily distinguishable from the photos in the album. Is there anyway a folder could be highlighted as a folder maybe with some sort of folder icon or similar? I would also prefer to see the album title slightly more distinguished than the names of photos, possibly in a different colour and above the sub-album thumbnail.
Which brings me to customisation - yes it is difficult to customise. All I want to do is add my own header with a navigation button back to my main site but this seems too difficult.
Navigation contents could be slightly more distinguished as buttons rather than small insignificant-ish links.
I hope this is taken as constructive as Gallery2 really is the business - I especially like the Remote tool for uploading!
Thanks,
jonny
Posted: Tue, 2004-08-03 15:41
Posts: 28
Hey Jonny, thanks for the feedback! All feedback is welcomed, as it helps us determine improvements in later releases.
Good point. The current Matrix theme/layout uses minimal icons, but we plan on using icons to strengthen the UI elements. I envision "folder" mini-icons similar to what you see in LinPHA. And, yes, I agree that the folder list higher up is easier for the novice user.
We are working on ways to make albums more distinguishable than image "items." The current paradigm states that within each album there are "items." These "items" are usually images, but sometimes sound files or movies. And yes, sometimes they are sub-folders. For now, we have decided to add the "Album:" tag, and change the background color of the item block. In the future you may see an icon or a change in the block size.
Actually, adding a new header and a navigation link back to your main site is quite simple—we just haven't explained how simple it its.
One of my tasks is to create documentation that explains the theme/layout system and explain how to begin customizing your Gallery page. Stay tuned. (If you are interested in my showing you how to do this, drop me a line. I won't go into it here as it goes beyond the scope of this topic.)
Again, thanks for your feedback!
Posts: 7994
This kind of customization is trivially easy. Go into the templates directory and copy global.tpl to global.tpl.local, then open it up in an editor. You'll see that it's the complete skeleton of an XHTML 1.0 Strict web page. Read the comments and edit the page to add whatever extra XHTML you'd like to see on the page. Anything you add there will be visible on every page.
If that isn't the kind of customization you're looking for, let us know what you'd prefer to see.
Posts: 6
Thanks for the replies - this place is obviously well manned!
I didn't realise that I could just drop my normal HTML code into the global.tpl file - I was a little scared off by the weird PHP code.
I am desperate to add Gallery2 to my Intranet in place of LinPHA as Gallery2 offers a few benefits over LinPHA however the user interface stuff is an obstacle as most of my users are a little slow! I will watch the progress and hopefully add gallery2 when it matures a little. I would like to add it now even if just to help with alpha bugs etc but the navigation is stopping me doing this.
I would suggest maybe using blocks like some other content management systems e.g. phpwebsite so that features can be switched on and off. I would like to be able to switch off the cart feature for example (at least until my users gain a little confidence). Blocks for navigation, search, login could also help especially if it is possible to position these up or down.
More styles for the navigation links would also help as there is no class for these so I cannot style them to help make them look more link buttons.
I think an action for photos or in the cart to email photos either to oneself or a friend would be a useful feature.
Also the Breadbcrumb in the Admin section would be good if it give the Gallery homepage as the first breadcrumb.
Showing the sub-albums from the first level on the homepage might be good.
I use Moodle sometimes as a content management system and this sort of gallery would be a good addition there - I don't know how to go about adding it though.
I'm sorry for bombarding you with feature requests but I like this app and I would like to see all the staff here using it! Thanks, jonny
Posts: 7994
You might want to play with G2 in a little more detail. Everything in it is modular. There are 19 modules currently and most of the extended functionality is in those modules so, for example, you can disable the cart module entirely.
The navigation, search and login blocks are controlled by the various layouts, which can move them around. We don't have a means via the UI to do this because expect that it will be a function of the layout. Eventually we may have layouts that allow you to specify which block goes where (but that won't happen for a while).
Which links are you referring to, exactly? I'd be highly surprised if there wasn't a CSS class for them. Look at the HTML source closely.
Yes, that'd be nice.
I'm not sure how I feel about that. Ross do you have any opinions?
That's a function of the layout, also. We can eventually write a layout that looks like G1's top level where you see the albums in a single column and on the right is a subtree of all the albums under them.
I think that most of what you ask for is something that we want to do. Our problem is that we don't have enough developer resources to do all of it. The best way to help is to play with the product extensively and give us detailed feedback, and also convince other developers to come help us add new features!
Posts: 28
I believe that the purpose of the breadcrumb is to show the path that the user is in. A "You Are Here" indicator. ) The root (furthest left) item should be the root of the Gallery page. I don't like the idea of including the Gallery webpage in the Admin breadcrumb. However, I think that a "help" link would be appropriate. a "help" link could take you to online documentation...
Posts: 10
Hi
I to have recently had G2 installed for me and am ahving problems customising it.....was using 1.4 feel like i have entered the space age! I noted you above comment wioth interest as I also want to do the same....however where is global.tpl it doesn't appear in my installation at all. I have also downloaded gallery2 and searched there and cannot find it. I know that I am probably being thick but I would appreciate help.
[b]
Ok have done more though search and now realise global.tpl is now theme.tpl sorry for being stupid and not looking properly!
Many thanks
Phil
Posts: 16504
This is a VERY old thread and the entire theme system has been redone, about 1 year after the last post before yours in this thread. Please start a new topic for any questions you may have on customizing G2.
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