EE Wishes & 1.5

[ArtM]

I don't know if any of this is in V 1.5, but if not -

In the 'Search' capability, it would be nice to be able to search for per photo coded 'Keywords'. Find just pictures keyword coded 'mountains' for example. Or 'mountains AND rivers' ( allow input 'mountains,rivers'). Or 'mountains AND (snow OR rivers)'. etc.

This starts to exploit the power database behind EE.

Maybe there is a way to do this in 1.3 ?

Re upgrading to 1.5:

I have some 50 (private family pics) 'Exhibits' with 20 to 200 photos each set up. I will need a rock solid upgrade/conversion script to move to 1.5 to keep my existing data intact !

Keep at it Pekka - EE is a winner in my books !

- Art

[Pekka]

artm wrote:
I don't know if any of this is in V 1.5, but if not -

In the 'Search' capability, it would be nice to be able to search for per photo coded 'Keywords'. Find just pictures keyword coded 'mountains' for example. Or 'mountains AND rivers' ( allow input 'mountains,rivers'). Or 'mountains AND (snow OR rivers)'. etc.

A few days ago I thought of this, after adding iptc keyword reading to EE upload.

I will most likely do a separate advanced search page with menus because most people don't know that you can do e.g...

mountains%rivers

...or any other search trick explained in http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=16709

This starts to exploit the power database behind EE.

Yep. I think I exploit lot more again in 1.5 :)


Re upgrading to 1.5:

I have some 50 (private family pics) 'Exhibits' with 20 to 200 photos each set up. I will need a rock solid upgrade/conversion script to move to 1.5 to keep my existing data intact !

I'm doing 1.3->1.5 updgrade script as we speak (very large script). I will test it thoroughly of course and it will never delete any old data, expect in this case misc settings may be reseted because doing a non-destructive updater for it would take too much time to code now (and I know some out there are eager to try out 1.5b2).

If you'd like me to test upgrader on your data feel free to send me EE Backup database dump of your EE database, and I'll use it as test case (and as side product you'll get an upgraded database dump back). No images needed.

Keep at it Pekka - EE is a winner in my books !

Thanks Art! :)

[ArtM]

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Pekka wrote:
A few days ago I thought of this, after adding iptc keyword reading to EE upload.
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That brings up another thought I had. As I understand it, photos can have attached various types of comments. IPTC is one. EXIF is another. And JPEG Comments is another. The standardization in this area is not mature ! So some people might choose to encode JPEG comments, others IPTC - in various fields, and yet others in JPEG comments. All would like EE to pick up the key comments and bring up with their photos. And in many cases search on them. This is messy, but suggest some sort of 'mapping' from a user selected 'Comment Type' and 'Comment Type Fields' into some basic - but rich - set of EE photo information fields. Thus users with big photo collections all encoded in a specific fashion have a growth path into EE.

While on the subject of thoughts ...
Suggest a 'User Help' link (Optionally) on each Exhibition Browser/Index page - per exhibition; on which specific Help/instructions could be created pertinent to that exhibition; for the expected audience. Perhaps a big Question Mark like the EE clickable logo linked to a standard named HTML page per Exhibit.

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If you'd like me to test upgrader on your data feel free to send me EE Backup database dump of your EE database, and I'll use it as test case (and as side product you'll get an upgraded database dump back). No images needed.
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Now That's a generous offer Pekka ! I have sent you the link to the dump files of the Exhibits.

- Art

[calvorn]

Pekka:

Now that 1.5 is working so well I would like to start using the built-in FTP and resize methods. Before I do that I would like to delete all unused images (photos that aren't in any exhibits--photos I uploaded to the server and then decided not to post.) Unfortunately I have at least 100 of them and searching through directories manually is very time consuming.

Is there a way to create an exhibit that contains all unused photos--photos that are not in any exhibit?

With that exhibit and the copy/delete function I could easily take care of the problem.

Thanks.

Cal

[Pekka]

calvorn wrote:
Pekka:

Now that 1.5 is working so well I would like to start using the built-in FTP and resize methods. Before I do that I would like to delete all unused images (photos that aren't in any exhibits--photos I uploaded to the server and then decided not to post.) Unfortunately I have at least 100 of them and searching through directories manually is very time consuming.

Is there a way to create an exhibit that contains all unused photos--photos that are not in any exhibit?

The script to do that is planned, but it is not very short one - it must go though each ftp location (size path), list all files there and compare each file against database's filenames and then delete or move to some storage folder if not found in database. Creating an exhibit out of scattered orphan photos is not good in my opinion - just deleting or moving the files should be wisest.

I'l have a look of it - as always with programming it may be surprisingly easy to code, or then again it may not (Murphys law is everywhere).

[calvorn]

Pekka:

Thanks. I didn't know you had that planned as a feature. Just a list of orphaned files would be good enough for me. I could then delete them manually.

Thanks.

Cal

[TomKa]

Recently I had a look into 4images from 4homepages.de
It's also a nice gallery, the trend of this gallery is more versus a community. However, I prefer EE for the search features.

A very good feature of 4images is the lightbox. I can collect pictures into my lightbox, open the lightbox and click on a zip-button to get the all the pics via email in one zip file.

At the german website http://www.bildagentur-hamburg.com there is a hack for the lightbox to fill out a form for an offer for the pictures in the lightbox.

Could this be a point for the wishlist of the next version of EE ?

[Pekka]

TomKa wrote:
Recently I had a look into 4images from 4homepages.de
It's also a nice gallery, the trend of this gallery is more versus a community. However, I prefer EE for the search features.

A very good feature of 4images is the lightbox. I can collect pictures into my lightbox, open the lightbox and click on a zip-button to get the all the pics via email in one zip file.

At the german website http://www.bildagentur-hamburg.com there is a hack for the lightbox to fill out a form for an offer for the pictures in the lightbox.

Could this be a point for the wishlist of the next version of EE ?

Of course.

[Pekka]

calvorn wrote:
Pekka:

Thanks. I didn't know you had that planned as a feature. Just a list of orphaned files would be good enough for me. I could then delete them manually.

Thanks.

Cal

The code is now in fix pack 9.

[seanspeng]

I wish to have the ability to let user receive the email update of any photo's future comments. Like there will be a link they can click (watch this photo for comments), then an email will be sent to them if there is any comments.

Is this hard to do?

Thanks, Pekka for your fabulous job!

[Pekka]

seanspeng wrote:
I wish to have the ability to let user receive the email update of any photo's future comments. Like there will be a link they can click (watch this photo for comments), then an email will be sent to them if there is any comments.

Is this hard to do?

No, not very hard. I'll add a new tick box into photo editor, and next to that email address (if left empty then photo owner email is used). Then the comment page will use a variation of mail code from ee commerce system to send out a mail as soon as comment is submitted.

I'll try to add this to beta 3 fix pack 2.

Thanks, Pekka for your fabulous job!

Thanks for giving me support and good ideas!

[seanspeng]

I am so glad to hear this. This is great!!

But

Pekka wrote:
if left empty then photo owner email is used).



Won't this give the photo OWNER too many replies if he/she doesn't want to? What would be the best way to accomplish this ?

[Pekka]

seanspeng wrote:
I am so glad to hear this. This is great!!

But

Pekka wrote:
if left empty then photo owner email is used).



Won't this give the photo OWNER too many replies if he/she doesn't want to? What would be the best way to accomplish this ?

Well, as always it's all about choices.

1. Which address? There has to be one (or more) email address, so one must pick something.

2. If mail is sent realtime or do you send it from editor?

This kind of a system is also possible in comment editor: "Send new comments to photo owners now" - and already sent comments would be marked as "sent" in database. This could be a stress for system admin, though (to automate batch send EE could mail all comments out automatically when editor index page is entered... but e.g. I'd like to have full control on everything)

If mail is sent realtime, then it is just sent, one at a time.

3. Do you need any filters there (e.g. send only comments that have at least 10 words, or ratings that are more than 7 )?

4. Do you need override switch to owner editor? This would mean "EE mail on/off" switch or something like that so you would not have to go though every photo when someone asks you to halt mails.

[seanspeng]

Well, as always it's all about choices.

1. Which address? There has to be one (or more) email address, so one must pick something.


Is it possible that if the box is not checked, then no additional email is sent. If this is the first several comments and nobody checked that box, then no email is sent out?



2. If mail is sent realtime or do you send it from editor?

This kind of a system is also possible in comment editor: "Send new comments to photo owners now" - and already sent comments would be marked as "sent" in database. This could be a stress for system admin, though (to automate batch send EE could mail all comments out automatically when editor index page is entered... but e.g. I'd like to have full control on everything)


I like it real time. Wouldn't want to send it manually. Or the system can send it out once everyday?


3. Do you need any filters there (e.g. send only comments that have at least 10 words, or ratings that are more than 7 )?


Number of words filter sounds great. But low rating also deserves attention, so no rating filter is necessary IMHO.


4. Do you need override switch to owner editor? This would mean "EE mail on/off" switch or something like that so you would not have to go though every photo when someone asks you to halt mails.


Yes, that will be nice. I was wondering if there can be a "Stop Watching comments on this photo" type of link in the notification email that the user can click to unsubscribe? If there is no way to stop receiving email on new comments, then it is quite annoying. I don't want to do it manually as an admin.

But I don't know how difficult is the stop watching/unsubscribe feature if there is no membership database in place.

[daddy0]

Is it possible to change behaviour of galleries and groups? Currently if I enable groups every gallery has to belong to a group. Well it doesn't have to but otherwise it wont be showing on the index page. I have solved this making own groups for single galleries but now users must click two times to open those galleries.

I'd like to have groups and single galleries on the index page at the same time.

I'd also like to have group image created randomly from galleries in group. The best solution for me would be having similar functionality with galleries (any number random/newest/etc. microthumbs from groups galleries).

Pekka, what do you think?

Regards,
Mikko

[Peter Pan]

A small suggestion : could it be possible to use some Javascript and CSS to hide the Photo detail info and the Comments form ? You would just have to click on the usual "Show photo detail info" to display it without having to reload the page. Same things with the Comments form.

An example here : http://membres.lycos.fr/openspace/css.html

I think that would improve the overall speed of the gallery and help reduce the page cluttering.

[seanspeng]

Personally, I do not like the "show photo detail info" and "hide photo detail info" links to be available to users. I just thought it is too distracting, plus, that little photo info does not really take time to load.

[iamhives]

Maybe I have missed this capability somewhere but I'd like to be able to hide/unhide multiple images at a time from the photo browser page perhaps by selecting multiple at a time and then selecting hid/unhide.

Also I would like to be able to do a "mass change" for multiple photos at one time. e.g. update a comments field for a number of images in an exhibition at one time. would like this capability on any photo detail fields. I envision this to be a mixture between the photo browser page where the images to be changed are selected and the photodata defaults page where the data to be updated is entered.

[Peter Pan]

seanspeng wrote:
Personally, I do not like the "show photo detail info" and "hide photo detail info" links to be available to users. I just thought it is too distracting, plus, that little photo info does not really take time to load.

That link is already in place in EE (but maybe an option to totally disable it would be nice), and as you say "that little photo info does not really take time to load", so why not load it directly and not have to reload the page ?

Same thing with the Comments form, it takes a huge place and is surely more distracting than the small photo info link.

[Pekka]

daddy0 wrote:
Is it possible to change behaviour of galleries and groups? Currently if I enable groups every gallery has to belong to a group. Well it doesn't have to but otherwise it wont be showing on the index page. I have solved this making own groups for single galleries but now users must click two times to open those galleries.

I'd like to have groups and single galleries on the index page at the same time.

I'd also like to have group image created randomly from galleries in group. The best solution for me would be having similar functionality with galleries (any number random/newest/etc. microthumbs from groups galleries).

Pekka, what do you think?

Regards,
Mikko


See http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18293

There's something for you....

[Pekka]

seanspeng wrote:
Personally, I do not like the "show photo detail info" and "hide photo detail info" links to be available to users. I just thought it is too distracting, plus, that little photo info does not really take time to load.

Remember that there is now a template system going on in EE.

If you need to take hide detail link out then go to /pagetemplates/photo/default.php and comment out

print $hidedetail_html;

this way:

//print $hidedetail_html;

If you want easylink out just comment out

print $easylink_html;

this way:

//print $easylink_html;

and do the same for /pagetemplates/list/default.php

I know this lacks documentation but I think you've got now an idea how it's done. I could do a switch to _everything_ in misc settings but I think there is no point to have it that way when we have a template system.

PS. Take a backup of default.php in case you mess something up (PHP is not kind to syntax errors :) )

[Pekka]

iamhives wrote:
Maybe I have missed this capability somewhere but I'd like to be able to hide/unhide multiple images at a time from the photo browser page perhaps by selecting multiple at a time and then selecting hid/unhide.

Also I would like to be able to do a "mass change" for multiple photos at one time. e.g. update a comments field for a number of images in an exhibition at one time. would like this capability on any photo detail fields. I envision this to be a mixture between the photo browser page where the images to be changed are selected and the photodata defaults page where the data to be updated is entered.

This is planned, as a "toolbox" for heavy maintenance stuff (not for daily interface). Features you mentioned can be very useful (and also very destructive).

[gillyworld]

Pekka,

I don't know how easy this would be to do, but in the exhibition thumbnail view instead of choosing the number of thumbs to display (10, 20 etc) it would be nice to specify the number of complete rows of thumbs, for example 3 rows which if there were enough space to display 8 thumbs in each row then 24 thumbs in total would be displayed.

Also in the exhibition thumbnail display, there is an option to show ALL thumbs from "all exhibitions combined" is it possible to include options for all pictures in a group?

Alan

[Pekka]

gillyworld wrote:
Pekka,

I don't know how easy this would be to do, but in the exhibition thumbnail view instead of choosing the number of thumbs to display (10, 20 etc) it would be nice to specify the number of complete rows of thumbs, for example 3 rows which if there were enough space to display 8 thumbs in each row then 24 thumbs in total would be displayed.

Different listing ouputs can be easily added to EE. But your suggestion would mean changing (and fixing) also "per page" value, from output selection, and I'd like to separate these settings (although it is possible to do).

Non-uniform per page amounts are also possible, but for clarity I'd like to keep them as they are. You can give visitor more and more choices, but in the end the question is: is it really important to be able to choose 27 photos per page when 20 and 30 are available?

Also in the exhibition thumbnail display, there is an option to show ALL thumbs from "all exhibitions combined" is it possible to include options for all pictures in a group?

That's a good idea. I'll see what I can do.

[DirtyLittlePuppy]

Is is possible to make separate news for each group and to limit the exhibition selection list box on the exhibition browser page to the currect group? I'm thinking my case where my wife wants to have a corner of the website for her needlework stuff that we might not want mixed into the photography site but would still work well with EE/Database. Or would we have to set up a separate EE session/database under a sub-domain?

[daddy0]

First I have to thank you Pekka. You have done awesome script.

Does current version of EE allow me to show all my gear to visitors at a same time? If it doesn't could you add this to wish list? Current functionality would work fine but without exhibition restriction.

Regards,
Mikko

[Pekka]

DirtyLittlePuppy wrote:
Is is possible to make separate news for each group and to limit the exhibition selection list box on the exhibition browser page to the currect group? I'm thinking my case where my wife wants to have a corner of the website for her needlework stuff that we might not want mixed into the photography site but would still work well with EE/Database. Or would we have to set up a separate EE session/database under a sub-domain?

Groups will be definitely be improved in future - and big part of new features in 1.6 will be multiuser capability (guest uploaders, admin, exhibition accounts...).

But now it is perhaps wisest to have a separate db for separate people.

[Pekka]

daddy0 wrote:
First I have to thank you Pekka. You have done awesome script.

Does current version of EE allow me to show all my gear to visitors at a same time? If it doesn't could you add this to wish list? Current functionality would work fine but without exhibition restriction.

Regards,
Mikko

Thanks Mikko!

Your suggestion is definitely on todo list - it's not even hard to code but there is so much on the list before it....

[iamhives]

Pekka - a cosmetic thing. How about an option that would give the user the option (if you know what I mean) to change the style they use themselves based on their personal preference rather than that of the exhibition owner ? The syyle used would still default to that defined by the exhibition owner.

This was prompted by a friend who noticed that I had changed the exhibition style and said they liked the previous one better. When I explained how easy EE made it to change the styles he asked why he couldn't choose the style he prefers himself...

[seanspeng]

Can we have a "REGENERATE ALL THUMBNAILS" function?

[iamhives]

Pekka

Another relatively 'cosmetic' request - I just tried the html export option and it works very nicely. One thing I would find useful - the ability to select a subset of the images. What I would suggest would be to add the filtering capability much like in the EE powertools function to the html export function

[DirtyLittlePuppy]

I noticed if you are viewing an exibition within a group and come to the end of the images there seems to be no way to get back to that group's index page. It would be nice for viewers to have such a link instead of having to go right back to the main index and again enter the group they were looking at.

Thanks for great script, Pekka

[iamhives]

What about the capability for 'auto next' ie a slideshow capability ?

This would be appreciated by some of my family...