View single post by Stuart W
 Posted: 08-22-2011 07:53 pm
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Stuart W



Joined: 02-19-2004
Location: Virginia USA
Posts: 3520
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 All,

I am pleased to announce the re-launch of the IP Home Port Gallery!  This all new version of the Gallery is fully integrated with our recently-installed UltraBB forum.  What that means for users of this website is only one interface to learn, one URL to store, and one username / password to remember ...


When you're logged into the forum you're also logged into the Gallery, not because the two systems talk to one another but because they are both part of the same system.   Tasks that otherwise might have been fairly complicated suddenly become easy - for example, you can include multiple photos from your Gallery in your forum posts (or Private Messages) with just a few clicks of your mouse.  In fact you can add a single photo with just two clicks!


Some of the highlights of the new Gallery include :
  • Users can upload and delete their own photos.

  • Users can create any number of folders to organize their photos.

  • Photos are automatically re-sized and thumb-nailed during the upload process.

  • Users can tailor their browsing experience to their connection speed by selecting how many photos they want to view per page (from 3 to 24).

  • Users can apply both a short title and a long description to every photo during the upload process (and easily edit them later if necessary).

  • Users can categorize their photos with IP Model, Boat Feature, and General Category 'tags'.




This is the easy-to-use search or filter tool that appears on each Gallery page.  Once You have selected the desired values for IP Model, Boat Feature, and General Category from the drop-downs you click on the Go! button to see the results.  This helps you to find photos of interest based on any combination like 'IP40' / 'Nav Station'/ 'Upgrades'.  Or leave one or more fields set to the All value if you don't want to filter based on that tag.


Here is a sample Gallery slide to show the main features :
  1. To view any photo in this viewer just click on the thumbnail.  This will pop an industry-standard image viewer complete with Previous and Next buttons that allow you to quickly scroll through all of the photos on the current Gallery page.  The Prev and Next buttons will appear automatically as your cursor moves to the left and right side of the image. 

  2. Next are the Title and Description fields that the poster uploaded along with the photo.  Note the small dots in the lower-right corner of the Description text field; if the description is too big for the display area and you don't like scroll bars you can grab here with your mouse and stretch the text area as needed.

  3. You have easy one-click access to the poster's entire photo collection (by clicking on their user name) and/or the rest of their folder containing the selected photo (by cllicking on the folder name). Note that you can provide other forum users with these same links by including them in posts, PMs, or even your forum signature.  This is a great way to link a forum post containing a detailed description of a mod or repair with the associated folder of photos.

  4. You also have one-click access to ALL other photos (from ALL users!) tagged with the same IP Model or Boat Feature or General Category value by clicking on the appropriate tag value.

  5. The Share Photo link (at the bottom of each slide) lets you share an individual photo in raw form with others (even if they aren't IP Home Port users) by including that URL on your blog, in e-mail messages, etc.


This new application started life as an add-on to our new UltraBB software.  It was serviceable but I saw a number of opportunities to modify the operating code and the underlying database so that the Gallery would better meet IP Home Port user needs.  For you techies out there, the changes included revisions and additions to the SQL, PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.


Technically this is a re-launch of the Gallery, because there's been a Gallery on IP Home Port as far back as the initial site launch in 1998.  It was the first (and only) web-based photo sharing application for IP owners at that point in time. That original Gallery was re-designed around 2004 as part of the first WowBB forum installation.  It worked OK, but was mothballed a few years back due to the maintenance required and the lack of any real integration with the WowBB 1.17 release that was installed in 2007.  The good news is that all ~250 photos from the original Gallery have been ported into the new application both for testing purposes and to get things rolling. 


So how do you access the Gallery?  There are multiple ways :

1)      From the new Photo Gallery link on the Main Menu on the left-hand side of your screen.  This launches the Gallery in 'View All Photos' mode.

2)      From the new Gallery Menu on the right-hand side of your screen.  There are several options here including View All Photos, View My Photos, Upload Photos, and Edit My Gallery.

3)      From the new 'camera' icon on the right end of the bottom toolbar in the text editor for Posts and Private Messages.  This icon allows you to quickly and easily insert any number of photos into your Post or PM - no URLs required!

4)     From the 'My Gallery' link in the Profile area of other user's forum posts.  Note that this link will only appear is the user has posted photos to the Gallery.

Each of the main Gallery pages has detailed instructions available in the new Help tool (accessible from the Main Menu).  Be sure to watch the 'Website Tips & Tricks' section of the forum for more details and FAQs.


If you have any questions or comments about this new feature please send a PM to 'Stuart W'.  Also, if you have a lot of photos (10's or even 100's) that you would like to upload please let me know '“ I've developed a bulk upload process complete with title, description, and tags that works quite well and I would be glad to coordinate this for you.

Thanks, as always, to Bobby Ward, username 'grainne' for his assistance in testing this new application.  We hope that you enjoy it!

Fair Winds,



____________________
Stuart Williams
Webmaster, IP Home Port
The Original Website For Island Packet Yacht Owners Since 1998
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