This question is not answered. Helpful answers available: 2. Correct answers available: 1.


Permlink Replies: 12 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 6 Jun 24, 18:05 Last Post By: Laza
ismarker

Posts: 7
Registered: 1-Jun-2024
How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 2 Jun 24, 00:08
 
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Referring to my first post ever, here is my second.

I would like to modify Plain to display dates in the way I have put it in the mockup attached.

Laza

Posts: 1,520
Registered: 6-Sep-2005
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 3 Jun 24, 08:00   in response to: ismarker in response to: ismarker
 
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Writing out the folder dates is possible, although it needs a lot of coding, but rearranging the page based on the names and dates is easier creating a new skin from ground.
JeffTucker

Posts: 7,935
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 3 Jun 24, 14:19   in response to: Laza in response to: Laza
 
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Careful! The danger with Plain has always been that it will be infected with "feature creep," and turn into a clone of the more complicated skins that are already out there. We really don't need "Tiger with another name."
mrag

Posts: 323
Registered: 26-Jul-2003
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 3 Jun 24, 20:05   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
 
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I agree. Plain is the current "default" skin to introduce the new user to the jAlbum experience. In that case it should be foolproof*, simple, and intuitive to use while creating a wonderful, if somewhat limited feature rich album. The goal should be to sell the many other skins.

*As the flagship for jAlbum, the styles Foliage and Wood should have finished previews like all the other styles (that are IMHO, far too many for a supposedly minimalistic skin anyway)
Laza

Posts: 1,520
Registered: 6-Sep-2005
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 4 Jun 24, 11:53   in response to: mrag in response to: mrag
 
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I have added these 2 new styles to demonstrate the new features: custom background image and mosaic folder thumbnails. I promise I'll add no more :).
ismarker

Posts: 7
Registered: 1-Jun-2024
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 5 Jun 24, 01:01   in response to: Laza in response to: Laza
 
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Ok, so to achieve what I want with dates, is your recommendation that I create a whole new theme from scratch? It doesn't feel like a step I'm ready for as a brand new user of jAlbum.

Isn't there a more appropriate theme to start modifying, to achieve my goal?
Laza

Posts: 1,520
Registered: 6-Sep-2005
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 5 Jun 24, 09:22   in response to: ismarker in response to: ismarker
 
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The problem is the custom ordering, which requires the possibility of creating overlays. Plain skin was made to be plain on purpose. (Although it is not as plain as many wish. :)) If I were asked to add this feature to Plain, I'd rather start from scratch.

Displaying dates is not hard. I can help with that.
ismarker

Posts: 7
Registered: 1-Jun-2024
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 5 Jun 24, 17:10   in response to: Laza in response to: Laza
 
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Thanks, I would greatly appreciate it if I could get some advice and pointers on how to approach the problem.

But first I probably have to get clear on the nomenclature. What distinguishes Album from Gallery, according to jAlbum's nomenclature? I'm using Album below, at the risk of it being the wrong name.

My goal is to be able to have a web page with a list of many albums and sort them in different ways.

  • Photo date
  • Publication date
  • Alphabetical order

In addition, I would like to group different albums into themes, e.g. Concerts, Holidays etc. I want to be able to label albums, rather than specific photos. I also want to be able to group by year and month so that via the URL /myphotos/2023/ I get a list of all albums from 2023 and /myphotos/2023/04/ get a list of all albums from April 2023.

I obviously have a wish list of 1000 things, but I'll have to figure that out myself, I think. If I just get a little nudge in the right direction with dates etc.
Laza

Posts: 1,520
Registered: 6-Sep-2005
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 6 Jun 24, 13:12   in response to: ismarker in response to: ismarker
 
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We use Gallery and Album as synonyms.

jAlbum creates individual albums, not a big central database with all the albums you have ever created. So there's no way to find/sort albums. You can create a separate master album though which contains the links to all the albums, but currently, there's no such skin that'd allow the visitor to find or sort these links as you'd wish.

It's a good idea though to create a new skin specifically to be the "master" album with ordering and search. No lightbox no fancy features, just the basic functionality.
ismarker

Posts: 7
Registered: 1-Jun-2024
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 6 Jun 24, 13:46   in response to: Laza in response to: Laza
 
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Ok, so this master album stuff, is there a guide or tutorial on how to implement that?
JeffTucker

Posts: 7,935
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 6 Jun 24, 14:23   in response to: Laza in response to: Laza
 
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Laza wrote:
It's a good idea though to create a new skin specifically to be the "master" album with ordering and search.

Of course, to be efficient, it would need to be server-side. Otherwise, it's just an album that needs constant updating, including a JSON database that needs to be regenerated every time there's the smallest change in the albums, needs to be uploaded, and needs to be downloaded and horsed around in the visitor's browser. I think we're all coming to realize the limitations and pitfalls of that approach.

Yes, we should invent that. What should we call it? Maybe we could call it a Content Management System, or CMS, for short. Then we can turn our attention to reinventing this "wheel" thing. ;)

Kidding aside, when the jAlbum core made the creation of master albums simple, the thought occurred to me that the existing user profile page should be dumped, and rebuilt from scratch, as a server-side master album, with many of the same styling and customizing options of a skin. All the other user information then would just be like an "info page" from one of my skins, or an add-on page like About.htt from your skins.

Something to mull over....
JeffTucker

Posts: 7,935
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 6 Jun 24, 14:29   in response to: ismarker in response to: ismarker
 
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ismarker wrote:
Ok, so this master album stuff, is there a guide or tutorial on how to implement that?

Here's the current tutorial:

https://jalbum.net/help/en/Making_an_album_of_albums_with_web_locations

And while it may sound rather involved, once you've done it once, you'll realize how dead simple it really is.

The tutorial mentions using either relative or absolute URL's. Start off sticking to absolutes, until you get your head wrapped around the whole thing. Relative URL's can be very handy, and flexible, but they're a little tougher to manage. Long explanation....
Laza

Posts: 1,520
Registered: 6-Sep-2005
Re: How do I get Plain to show dates?
Posted: 6 Jun 24, 18:05   in response to: ismarker in response to: ismarker
 
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I was talking about adding all published albums' URLs to a "master album" - which is a normal album otherwise. But there's no such skin that can handle all your needs of sorting and searching. Tiger, Photoblogger, and Story skins have Search and Filtering/Ordering features, but I can't promise they will fit all your needs. It might be worth trying though. My idea was to create a new skin, specifically for Web Locations (URLs), with only these features. But this skin does not exist yet.
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