Dynamic Gallery from Folder
polycounter lvl 15
Hey guys! Just looking for an easy solution to drop pictures onto my host and it just create thumbnail images on my page that can either click to view in my current (or better) image viewing solution, or hotlink to another page.
Looking for something that will allow me to make it look however I want it to look . I have found a few things that are exactly this but have one layout or you have to pay a monthly fee. Not opposed to paying for something just want to own what I am buying.
I have done a lot of looking and the only things that look remotely decent are plugins for wordpress. And I would rather not have to go down the road of redoing my website in wordpress or creating my wife's page in wordpress.
And on that note... thoughts on wordpress?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Looking for something that will allow me to make it look however I want it to look . I have found a few things that are exactly this but have one layout or you have to pay a monthly fee. Not opposed to paying for something just want to own what I am buying.
I have done a lot of looking and the only things that look remotely decent are plugins for wordpress. And I would rather not have to go down the road of redoing my website in wordpress or creating my wife's page in wordpress.
And on that note... thoughts on wordpress?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
I tried doing this once with a site for a photographer. I ended up with a lot of shots of women's chins, down to their cleavage...
In the end, I wrote a two-part script for Photoshop that would grab every image in a folder, frame it up, allow it to be tweaked, and then save it out with web compression. Then I'd just upload and link everything manually. Personally I suggest this method because you'll get better results and you can do something similar in Photoshop with actions if you're not comfortable with scripting.
As Passerby said, PHP could automate this pretty easily.
Wordpress is pretty good, especially if you're authoring a theme that only you (or your wife) will be using. If you don't know PHP, it's a great way to start learning because it's how you insert all of WP's dynamic elements. (You literally write the page in HTML, and then insert the proper PHP tags where applicable.) Another nice thing is that if you don't want a typical Wordpress element, like comments, you can just leave the tag out. It's also well documented and there are tons of tutorials on creating themes from scratch.
The downside to Wordpress, imo, is how hard it can be to modify some of the default widgets. Basically they re-purposed css classes a lot so when you fix one thing it causes something else to break. Again though, if this is just for you and your wife, who cares how the 12 column thumbnail gallery looks when you know you're using the eight column one.
passerby - Yeah my server supports php... though I know nothing about it. lol I am a visual dreamweaver user. You said it would be easy with a little php... how easy? Like I need to know how to basic code in php easy?
Equanim - Doesn't have to be fully automated in the sense that it creates thumbnails for me. I wouldn't be uploading new ones very often so manually creating a thumbnail wouldn't be too bad. My issue is ease of updating. Pretty much wanting the same look as what is already going on here. http://jeremiahbigley.com/ It was all made in photoshop, saved out in pieces, and dropped in tables within dreamweaver. Each new model page has a duplicate table. So everytime I add a thumbnail I am going into each model subpage and making the same changes over and over. Wanted something that I could just create my thumbnails (with rollovers), drop them into a folder, and it would populate and stack thumbnails that I could hotlink to other subpages.
Could even be a different solution for my wife as she does need more of an automated thing. She could potentially have dozens of photos to upload at one time, multiple times a week. What you said honestly doesn't sound too bad but hard to get a feel for how much work it would really be for her without trying it myself first.
I might look into wordpress I guess. After more digging last night I found this plugin that could benefit both of us in multiple ways.
http://justifiedgrid.com/
Particularly this preset: http://justifiedgrid.com/preset-17-vertical-center/
and these RSS features: http://justifiedgrid.com/rss-feeds/
Who wouldn't want a feed of kitten gifs on their site?!
Also read something about installing wordpress onto my website? Would that enable me to use this plugin more or less directly or would I have to still rebuild the website in wordpress on my server?
I see why a lot of guys just move to a blog portfolio. Ain't nobody got time for this. :P
You probably wont find a Wordpress theme that does exactly what you're looking for. Most content management systems require you to make some kind of entry and fill the right information in, like filling out a form. Your navigation bar etc would then update automatically however. So when you filled out the form for a new piece, your nav bar would automatically create a link to it.
I still think Wordpress is the way to go. There's some pretty decent free themes here...
http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/free-wordpress-themes-712429
Make sure you pick one tagged "portfolio" and not just "photographer". The photographer ones just show a thumbnail of an image and let you view a larger version of that image. You want something that lets you divide your work into categories and takes you to an actual entry for each piece, not just zoom into a single image. That way you can still show additional renders, wires etc. (Exactly what your current site does now.)
With regards to installing Wordpress on your site, they mean on your server, not your site. Your current site and the Wordpress blog would be two entirely separate things even though they're on the same server. Look up a youtube tutorial on how to install Wordpress. It's surprisingly easy, but you wouldn't want to wing it.
(NOTE: You actually wouldn't even have to take your current site down. You could simply install Wordpress into a subdirectory, like "blog", and set up a 403 redirect from your old home page to the wordpress directory. Your hosting provider should have directions for that. That way whenever someone visits your site, it goes straight to the Wordpress blog instead of your home page. If you decide you don't like Wordpress, just lift the 403 and you're back to normal.)
I know it seems really complicated if this isn't your cup of tea, but it's very easy to use once it's set up. If it feels like too much of a hassle, you've still got your current site. (Beautiful work btw!)
edit: It looks like your site, or at least your domain is hosted with GoDaddy. Here's some directions on how to get it installed. Again, I suggest installing it in a sub directory...
http://fromtimes.com/install-wordpress-on-godaddy/
and how to redirect your home page to the new blog directory...
http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/5120/redirect-urls-with-your-hosting-account
Once again man thank you for taking the time and sharing the advice/knowledge.