I need help!

can someone provide me with a tutorial on making an image gallery with the weblog module?
I used the image gallery module with success, but I’d like to achieve the exact same thing with the standard weblog module.

I need:
1. thumbnails out of the big image (automatically resized)
2. pagination for the big images « [1] [2] [3] [4] »
3. thumbs and big image on the same page
4. image description (wysiwyg editor)
5. a gallery description (wysiwyg editor)
6. multiple upload (one by one is fine!)
I could live with a limited amount of pictures per entry. say only 10 fields for images…
7. sortable (if possible, but not really necessary)
8. a decent way to display the images (preferrably javascript slideshow, NO FLASH!)
9. just one weblog preferrably!

I’been through the forum for almost one day and it really confused me!
I’ve heard terms like, multiple relationships, fck editor, file module, multitext module, selected items, SAEF, but I’m very unshure which direction to go!

are there any tutorials on “how to bulid an image gallery with the standard weblog module”?
I have a bit of a time issue, so I would need good answers fast

I’m very unshure on the following things:
a) to display the thumbs? would I have to use some kind of loop?
b) how to make a slideshow with pagination??
c) how to upload the images (is the file module maybe an opt?)

there seems to be a million ways. could anybody show me a working solution?
Or, is somebody interested in setting this up for me on a paid basis? I would provide you the password etc. and let you do the magic

well, help and patience really appreciated, cause I’m kinda loosing my mind!
greets
stefan

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

I need help!

can someone provide me with a tutorial on making an image gallery with the weblog module?
I used the image gallery module with success, but I’d like to achieve the exact same thing with the standard weblog module.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

I need:
1. thumbnails out of the big image (automatically resized)

The perfect answer for you would be the Image Sizer Plugin. This will allow you to upload your largest image size (Don’t make it too big though as the images are re-sized on the fly on the server) and then you can get the plugin to output all the smaller sizes for you dynamically. If you ever want a different size at some point then it will do this for you automatically. No need to upload more images. You could also use phpThumb if you so desired to as that was out first but in my honest opinion the plugin is just way faster at doing what it does.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

2. pagination for the big images « [1] [2] [3] [4] »

If you have these images stored in a standard weblog then you will be able to use the standard Next / Previous links or the Weblog Pagination links to achieve this sort of thing.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

3. thumbs and big image on the same page

You could do this a number of ways. When you say thumbs does this mean different views of the same image? If so then the way I do this which is really fast is I use the fantastic File extension which I then have two set up on custom fields in my weblog. The first one is set up to only allow a single image upload. This would be the main image. The second one is set up to allow multiple image uploads. I then use this field in conjunction with the Image Sizer plugin to create the thumbnails. That’s just one way of doing it though and there are many other ways.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

4. image description (wysiwyg editor)

I personally never ever use WYSIWYG editors as I personally believe they are more trouble than they are worth but there are a few editors available for ExpressionEngine to do this sort of thing. I would have to ask though, if you are providing a description, what exactly do you need the editor for as surely it will just be text? Myself I always just provide as much of the styling as I can in the template so that the WYSIWYG editors don’t have a chance to muck everything up fo me!!

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

5. a gallery description (wysiwyg editor)

As above. Both these would just be custom fields holding the descriptions. Not too sure what you mean by gallery description though? I guess you are envisaging having more than one gallery /category of images? If so then you could use categories for the different galleries and then either use the category description field when you set up the categories or a weblog that holds the descriptions for the categories. A bit more work in that last option but all doable.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

6. multiple upload (one by one is fine!)
I could live with a limited amount of pictures per entry. say only 10 fields for images…

If you are doing this in the admin panel then using the File extension then this is all do-able out of the box. I currently do this on a site where I have a custom field set up to use the File extension and have it set to allow for multiple uploads. All I do then is choose my first image and then after that choose my second and third and so on and so forth. All the images then get uploaded at once at the same time to the weblog. All very very easy. You do have to watch out though for if you are uploading large images as if you have multiple large images then your server may need to have PHP memory limits upped a bit to be able to handle this.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

7. sortable (if possible, but not really necessary)

If these images are in a weblog then they are indeed sort-able / orderable. Depends exactly how you want to sort them though? You might be looking for the orderby=”“ parameter for this one?

Part 2 coming up!!

Mark`

As promised - Part 2

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

8. a decent way to display the images (preferrably javascript slideshow, NO FLASH!)

There are literally tons of these types of things on the internet nowadays. The one I currently use a lot is the jQuery Lightbox version. I like this as it uses jQuery which is nowadays my preferred javascript library and also because it isn’t too flash looking so doesn’t look like something everyone is using just to show off the newest effect. There are plenty plenty more though depending on how flash you want to get though.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

9. just one weblog preferrably!

Absolutely do-able using what I outlined above.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

I’been through the forum for almost one day and it really confused me!
I’ve heard terms like, multiple relationships, fck editor, file module, multitext module, selected items, SAEF, but I’m very unshure which direction to go!

are there any tutorials on “how to bulid an image gallery with the standard weblog module”?
I have a bit of a time issue, so I would need good answers fast

I don’t know of a tutorial for this kind of thing, I am going to write one up myself when I get the chance as long as no-one else beats me to it, they probably will

Time unfortunately is one of those things that none of us have enough of though

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

I’m very unshure on the following things:
a) to display the thumbs? would I have to use some kind of loop?
b) how to make a slideshow with pagination??
c) how to upload the images (is the file module maybe an opt?)

Read the above and hopefully most of it should be shown to you with the standard weblog tags or plugin tags.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

there seems to be a million ways. could anybody show me a working solution?
Or, is somebody interested in setting this up for me on a paid basis? I would provide you the password etc. and let you do the magic

You definitely could get someone to do this for you if you paid - depends on how much you are willing to fork out but it can all be done by yourself pretty easily and would give you a lot more understanding of how it all works should you need to change something in the future. The best place if you do want someone to do this for you would be to post a message in the ExpressionEngine Job Board and then you should get some answers to this.

outline4 - 08 August 2008 03:17 PM

well, help and patience really appreciated, cause I’m kinda loosing my mind!

Aren’t we all?!!

I’m sure that I have lost about 20 years somewhere myself although my wife says I still look as though I am only in my early 20’s which is nice

Hope some of that has helped a bit.

Best wishes,

Mark

wow!
thank you so much mark.
you’re a real life saver!

I’ll try to go with the file extension and the imgsizer plugin.
and on some other thread I read something about the weegee extension... it has to have the file extension installed, so I’ll be trying that after your methods.

I’ll be posting my experiences here. it’s a sunny saturday afternoon. but your post makes me stay in the office. who needs sun anyways, I’m not a plant
cheers
stefan

Sun!!?

You lucky devil!! Try being here in the UK. It is absolutely pants at the moment

Hope some of what I have written does help though, should do hopefully.

Anything else you need on this then just post back and I will see what else I can do to help out.

Best of luck with everything. I’m still jealous of your weather though

Best wishes,

Mark

Mark Bowen - 09 August 2008 07:19 AM

Sun!!?
You lucky devil!! Try being here in the UK. It is absolutely pants at the moment

Hi mark, thanks to you I could manage to get the following 2 things to work!
it was actually quite easy. but it was a real brainer for me until I found a decent solution (both for me and the client)

so here’s the two previews:
http://www.outline4.ch/EE/index.php/examples/Mini_Gallery_jQuery/
http://www.outline4.ch/EE/index.php/examples/weblognavi-with-jquery-entries/

without your help it woudn’t have been possible for me!
if you would live in CH I would buy you a very biiiiig beer!

now I’m off to incorporate categories for the navigation…
btw. do you know of any method to order entries in the “edit” page? is the only order method the “order by” tag in weblogs?
btwbtw: the weegee extension is very nice if you upload only one foto per entry!

thanks thanks thanks
stefan

p.s. wheater is bad now! hope this cheers you up!
p.s. if anybody is interested in the templates: I would be happy to share! just drop a note here…

Hi Stefan

Excellent work! Glad it’s all working for you.

Where is CH? Is that Switzerland by any chance?

Regarding beer, I don’t drink alcohol so a soft drink would do

When you say ordering entries in the edit page how do you mean as that isn’t directly related to the weblog tag. There are a couple of modules that allow you to order entries in your own set order and then have them come out in that order if that’s what you mean?

Best wishes,

Mark

Mark Bowen - 11 August 2008 09:20 AM

Hi Stefan

Excellent work! Glad it’s all working for you.

Where is CH? Is that Switzerland by any chance?

Regarding beer, I don’t drink alcohol so a soft drink would do

When you say ordering entries in the edit page how do you mean as that isn’t directly related to the weblog tag. There are a couple of modules that allow you to order entries in your own set order and then have them come out in that order if that’s what you mean?

Best wishes,

Mark

I hope I understood you right?! but I think it’s what I’m looking for…
by order, I mean the order the entries are displayed if you view them in the edit tab…
(take a look at the picture)
I would love to be able to display the entries in a custom way. let’s say #5 before #1… and then use this order to display items in templates…

I took a look at the download section but could not find any ordering modules?!

p.s. ch means switzerland… I personally grew up in zermatt… a lot of english speaking people live there…
p.s. and of course I would invite you for any drink of your choice..! hell yeah!

cheers
stefan

Hi Stefan,

I see what you mean now, it is like I thought. You can’t (as far as I know) re-order what you see in the edit page without some sort of extension but there are a couple of Modules to do what you need :

Selected Items

REEOrder

Both have merits and very very slight downsides but as long as you aren’t going to be ordering hundreds of entries then hopefully one of those two may help out. I think there are a couple of others floating around on the forums too.

Well if ever I’m in Switzerland I will come across for a Pepsi or something else maybe?

Best wishes,

Mark