My website is covered in my own hair!

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

07/22/2006 09:18:04 PM · #1

I'm frustrated!

Here's the problem. I take a decent amount of photos and never seem to get them uploaded to my website for friends and family to see. It gets really tedious the way things are now, and I haven't felt like updating it in forever.

//www.thuspoke.com/photos

For instance, the way I have it set up right now I have to resize, make a thumbnail image, edit the sidebar page, make an individual page, and then sometimes make a new splash page and sidebar depending on how many photos there are.

I'd like to be able to resize my image for the web (maybe make a thumbnail) and then upload it with categories within the website that people can browse in. Period!

There has to be something already written out there somewhere to make my life easier! I just don't know where to find it. I know enough about code to know it's possible and be able to read/edit it once someone has done all the laying out and programming.

Couple options are:

1) An actual upload page where the photo is uploaded and some dropdown/radio buttons defining which searches those photos will come up in.

2) FTP version with some kind of database that I update manually defining which searches the photos appear in then upload the files.

I just need a few search options such as new, macro, landscape, animas, photoshopped, etc. Right now I just have everything by the state they were taken in and then someone sorts through each page. I want people to have more control over what they see!

I know there's photo websites that host everything for you, but I want to do this on my own and have full creative control over what the website looks like under my own domain name.

Any thoughts and/or suggestions?

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

07/22/2006 09:22:45 PM · #2

It sounds like you need galleries. There are plenty of gallery programmes out there that enable you to add your own images and upload them to your site. The programmes do all the work for you. Even Adobe has one built in for you to use.

Also an FTP programme is a must with a website. Look into them too.

buzzrock

Fujifilm X-M1

Fujifilm XC 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS

07/22/2006 09:24:57 PM · #3

Dont know but the site doesnt load for me (firefox)

This is what I got after almost 2 minutes--

wavelength

Nikon D300

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

07/22/2006 09:25:29 PM · #4

Would something like Simpleviewer help?

If you know enough, you can customize the output file. If you have Picasa, you can add the plugin to it to directly output galleries.

littlegett

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

07/22/2006 09:26:07 PM · #5

How well do you know PHP??

Im not quite following what you are asking about.

You will have to FTP your images to the site no matter what, and unless you have a client that automaticly makes thumbs for you... You will have to create them yourself as well. There are a couple free batch editors out there, that will do that for you, than all you have to do is upload.

With PHP you create the sidebar(navagation), Header, Footer, Body, other, all in diffrent frames basicly.... I said Basicly, works on the same principle as frames.

Anyway, so you don't have to edit each individual page when adding new content, just create the new pages. The way I do mine, Is I have a basic template and just have to change one folder name for the new page and one file location. makes life simple.

So, basicly you should look for a batch proccessor, that will save you a lot of trouble...

for the differnt catigories, just make the differnt folders and add to them as life goes one.

Drop down menus are easy java script,

yet, if you want to set up a search function so users can search for spesific images, thats setting up a data base, and may be more trouble than its worth.

wavelength

Nikon D300

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

07/22/2006 09:40:22 PM · #6

Originally posted by wavelength:

Would something like Simpleviewer help?

If you know enough, you can customize the output file. If you have Picasa, you can add the plugin to it to directly output galleries.

Also, if this looks slick to you, the SimpleViewer Admin can make it a much more powerful tool.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

07/22/2006 09:42:45 PM · #7

You guys are so fast!

"Gallery program" was a term I hadn't thought of and brought up a bunch of different google results. I'll be looking at those, thanks.

I'm not sure why most of the images from my website wouldn't load on Firefox. None of the code is much beyond basic HTML other than a couple imbedded frames..

As far as PHP.. I've tried to teach myself on a few occassions. I know enough to understand the basics of what's going on in a script that is prewritten.

I have and know I'll have to have an external FTP program like SmartFTP or a web based one. I just want a way of organizing where the photos are going quickly without a lot of manual labor on my part. I can handle doing my own thumbnails if I even need them with a redesign of the site.

I'm not really wanting the user to have full control over the searches. I just want them to be able to pick from the few categories I've selected the photos to be in.

For instance I might have a picture of my cat that I want to show up under "Animals" and perhaps "My cat."

btw.. thanks for helping me out with this guys. This is years of repressed questions that I knew were pretty simple to answer, heh. This is really helping me a lot.

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

07/22/2006 09:43:09 PM · #8

If you have access to a server that is running php and mysql, this is your best bet for ease of setup and use:

//gallery.menalto.com/

Makes thumbails on the fly, includes your exif info, fully customizable look, etc. You can even download a little windoze client to create albums, upload images, delete images, etc. There is also a web interface to do all of that built in to the site.

All you need to know of mysql is how to create an empty database and assign a user to it with the required access permissions. The Gallery install will create all the tables and such.

If you are into hacking up source code, you can take this app as far as your imagination takes you. If not, the out-of-the-box install is great.

edit: should say, it's 100% free as in beer

Message edited by author 2006-07-22 21:44:18.

fotomann_forever

07/22/2006 11:43:46 PM · #9

go to sourceforge.net ... there are quite a few auto gallery sites there you can use if your site supports PHP.

when you get to sourceforge try searching for terms such as photo AND gallery ...

_eug

Nikon D50

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

07/22/2006 11:57:02 PM · #10

Breeze Browser can do this.
And Picasa can do this.
Hello using blogger.com allows you to do this.

I prefer the Breeze Browser one myself.

If you're up for it, simplerviewer is nice, but I'm too lazy to set it up.

TG73

Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200

07/23/2006 12:10:31 AM · #11

I use something called Gallery. You can see my family photo page here. It's open source so it's free to download at //gallery.menalto.com/

I just noticed I repeated what someone else said. :) It really is a neat and easy program.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

07/23/2006 12:15:18 AM · #12

I'm trying //gallery.menalto.com/ right now. It looked like it has a lot of flexibility, but I'm not entirely sure what it does yet. It's taking forever to upload to my server. It has a ton of modules and add on stuff I doubt I'll ever use, heh.

BeeCee

Nikon D40

07/23/2006 12:16:39 AM · #13

Originally posted by buzzrock:

Dont know but the site doesnt load for me (firefox)

This is what I got after almost 2 minutes--

Ummm... this may be a stupid question but....
when I click the above image I get;
"This image is owned by a user who is no longer a member and therefore is not viewable. "

????

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

07/23/2006 12:18:11 AM · #14

Originally posted by BeeCee:

Ummm... this may be a stupid question but....
when I click the above image I get;
"This image is owned by a user who is no longer a member and therefore is not viewable. "

????

I think this thread drove him over the edge. When he couldn't get my website to load he snapped? =)

BeeCee

Nikon D40

07/23/2006 12:22:09 AM · #15

mebbee.... And sorry to highjack your thread; please to be all returning to the topic :D

07/23/2006 12:34:30 AM · #16

Originally posted by aliqui:

Any tips you have to share? I notice you have their logo on your website. That's not required is it? I saw others on their site that don't have it.