Album-less Gallery?

zkarj

Joined: 2006-09-06
Posts: 3

Posted: Wed, 2006-09-06 08:43

I am wondering whether Gallery can meet my needs. I am looking for a system I can host myself which does not have 'albums', but where each photo is tagged with a value for each of several predefined attributes.

I have an existing website which I have built using a little PHP and lots of XML and XSLT which allows me to present my aviation photographs in this way. Each photo is tagged with Location, Aircraft type, Aircraft operator, Aircraft registration, and Event. I can then view virtual 'albums' of any type or any event or any location and the right photos are shown.

Each photo, therefore, does not *belong* in a single place but is a virtual member of one gallery for each attribute. Also, I need self-generating index pages for all of the attribute-specific galleries. I.e. if I add a new photo with Location=Paris and this is the first time Paris has been used, then a new gallery should automatically appear for the Paris location.

My existing site is viewable at http://www.zkarj.co.nz/

I would be interested to know if Gallery can do this. I've searched extensively and found nothing that obviously meets these needs. It seems like some form of tagging is required.

--
Thankyou,

Allister Jenks.

valiant

Joined: 2003-01-04
Posts: 32509

Posted: Wed, 2006-09-06 11:47

> Fatal error: Call to undefined function: xslt_create() in /home/zkar/public_html/aviation/super.php on line 8

your own gallery script is down.

to answer your question:
as of gallery 2.1, no, that's not possible. G2.1 only offersa the hierarchical view / organization.

as of gallery 2.2 (or the current nightly snapshot): still not 100% possible, but it's just waiting for someone to write a real tagging module or a "relational view" module / theme.

"virtual albums" have been added 1-2 months ago. so Gallery can show virtual albums which are just a collection of items. this colleciton of items can be and usually is generated during runtime, e.g. as a result of a search. or in your case, as a result of looking at tags / criteria.

zkarj

Joined: 2006-09-06
Posts: 3

Posted: Thu, 2006-09-07 07:53

Thanks for your response.

My hosting provider tends to recompile PHP without the XSL modules every so often, so thanks for pointing that out - I don't often visit the site myself of late so hadn't noticed.

The virtual albums sound like the ticket in conjunction with tags. I'll certainly keep an eye on things. Outside of this problem, Gallery is my pick for general usability.

Might be time to install and play.

zkarj

Joined: 2006-09-06
Posts: 3

Posted: Sat, 2006-09-09 21:15

OK, have installed a recent nightly build of 2.2 - stunning install process BTW - and have uploaded a few photos and played around. Generally looks very good. But I have yet to figure out the where/how of keyword albums.

What I have noticed is the Custom Fields functionality and the ability of Advanced Search to search just on these. If I could create virtual albums based on such searches it would be perfect. Although I note it searches ALL custom fields for the search term.

Is the concept of virtual albums going to be easy to modify? I'm a programmer by trade but don't know much PHP yet. I've hacked around other scripts in the past with some success.

valiant

Joined: 2003-01-04
Posts: 32509

Posted: Sun, 2006-09-10 09:24

the current keywords architecture is very limited. it's much discussed, we have to change it. the keywords are stored as a comma delimited list in a single db row column.
instead we should store it as 1 keyword per row.

creating a real tags module shouldn't be that hard, but it needs some work.

robertsonstudios

Joined: 2005-07-26
Posts: 12

Posted: Thu, 2006-09-14 07:16

With the current snapshot, how are the virtual albums created/accessed/managed?

My ideal goal would be to have a base album configuration, where all images go, and are sorted into year, month, and day sub-albums. Then create virtual albums mapped to images I want.

EG - childs birthday - every year add the pictures to the base images, and link them to the birthday album
wedding shots to be used as examples - specific pictures from a variety of albums

OH! and I would prefer to have the base photo album hidden so that only the administrator would be able to view them.

Something else I haven't gotten tweaked quite yet is using the perl script to upload the image into the base image directory...

zkarj Joined: 2006-09-06 Posts: 3	Posted: Wed, 2006-09-06 08:43
	I am wondering whether Gallery can meet my needs. I am looking for a system I can host myself which does not have 'albums', but where each photo is tagged with a value for each of several predefined attributes. I have an existing website which I have built using a little PHP and lots of XML and XSLT which allows me to present my aviation photographs in this way. Each photo is tagged with Location, Aircraft type, Aircraft operator, Aircraft registration, and Event. I can then view virtual 'albums' of any type or any event or any location and the right photos are shown. Each photo, therefore, does not belong in a single place but is a virtual member of one gallery for each attribute. Also, I need self-generating index pages for all of the attribute-specific galleries. I.e. if I add a new photo with Location=Paris and this is the first time Paris has been used, then a new gallery should automatically appear for the Paris location. My existing site is viewable at http://www.zkarj.co.nz/ I would be interested to know if Gallery can do this. I've searched extensively and found nothing that obviously meets these needs. It seems like some form of tagging is required. -- Thankyou, Allister Jenks.
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valiant Joined: 2003-01-04 Posts: 32509	Posted: Wed, 2006-09-06 11:47
	> Fatal error: Call to undefined function: xslt_create() in /home/zkar/public_html/aviation/super.php on line 8 your own gallery script is down. to answer your question: as of gallery 2.1, no, that's not possible. G2.1 only offersa the hierarchical view / organization. as of gallery 2.2 (or the current nightly snapshot): still not 100% possible, but it's just waiting for someone to write a real tagging module or a "relational view" module / theme. "virtual albums" have been added 1-2 months ago. so Gallery can show virtual albums which are just a collection of items. this colleciton of items can be and usually is generated during runtime, e.g. as a result of a search. or in your case, as a result of looking at tags / criteria.

zkarj Joined: 2006-09-06 Posts: 3	Posted: Thu, 2006-09-07 07:53
	Thanks for your response. My hosting provider tends to recompile PHP without the XSL modules every so often, so thanks for pointing that out - I don't often visit the site myself of late so hadn't noticed. The virtual albums sound like the ticket in conjunction with tags. I'll certainly keep an eye on things. Outside of this problem, Gallery is my pick for general usability. Might be time to install and play.

zkarj Joined: 2006-09-06 Posts: 3	Posted: Sat, 2006-09-09 21:15
	OK, have installed a recent nightly build of 2.2 - stunning install process BTW - and have uploaded a few photos and played around. Generally looks very good. But I have yet to figure out the where/how of keyword albums. What I have noticed is the Custom Fields functionality and the ability of Advanced Search to search just on these. If I could create virtual albums based on such searches it would be perfect. Although I note it searches ALL custom fields for the search term. Is the concept of virtual albums going to be easy to modify? I'm a programmer by trade but don't know much PHP yet. I've hacked around other scripts in the past with some success.

valiant Joined: 2003-01-04 Posts: 32509	Posted: Sun, 2006-09-10 09:24
	the current keywords architecture is very limited. it's much discussed, we have to change it. the keywords are stored as a comma delimited list in a single db row column. instead we should store it as 1 keyword per row. creating a real tags module shouldn't be that hard, but it needs some work.

robertsonstudios Joined: 2005-07-26 Posts: 12	Posted: Thu, 2006-09-14 07:16
	With the current snapshot, how are the virtual albums created/accessed/managed? My ideal goal would be to have a base album configuration, where all images go, and are sorted into year, month, and day sub-albums. Then create virtual albums mapped to images I want. EG - childs birthday - every year add the pictures to the base images, and link them to the birthday album wedding shots to be used as examples - specific pictures from a variety of albums OH! and I would prefer to have the base photo album hidden so that only the administrator would be able to view them. Something else I haven't gotten tweaked quite yet is using the perl script to upload the image into the base image directory...

Album-less Gallery?

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