Author Topic: end user help  (Read 15574 times)

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Offline David

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end user help
« on: June 01, 2005, 09:37:38 PM »
Perhaps this has been discussed and my searching just didn't turn anything up.

4images is a very capable, feature-rich software package. I believe that a new user coming to it is not going to discover more than a small amount of what it can do except by accident. I wanted to put together a short (one or two screens in a smaller information window) notice of what the product will do and perhaps how to get at the features.

Has anyone written anything like that? If not, does anyone want to collaborate with me on doing it? I'm asking because I'm new to 4images and I'm sure there's a lot about the product that I haven't discovered yet.

Incidentally, if you want to see the template I've developed, which includes Daniel Janesch's slide show mod, I've just put it up on my web site (but haven't completely connected it to the navigation bar yet). The url is: http://essentialcoaching.com/gallery

Sometime in the next few days, I'll switch the nav bar link on the site to go there so you'd only have to go to essentialcoaching.com to get there.

Comments are most welcome--both on the pictures and the template.

Thanks,
David

Offline mawenzi

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Re: end user help
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2005, 10:49:55 PM »
hi David,

1. pictures ...
- very nice tanzania- and kilimanjaro-pictures ! ...  :D

2. template ...
- where remained your clickstream ... it is not simple to navigate ... :?
- top images- and new images-link do not work ...  :?

mawenzi



Your first three "must do" before you ask a question ! ( © by V@no )
- please read the Forum Rules ...
- please study the FAQ ...
- please try to Search for your answer ...

You are on search for top 4images MOD's ?
- then please search here ... Mawenzi's Top 100+ MOD List (unsorted sorted) ...

Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2005, 11:54:44 PM »
Thanks for both the compliment and the information about the broken links. There were 2 files that somehow got deleted from the 4images directory (top.php & search.php). That's fixed now.

I'm not sure what you mean by clickstream not being easy to navigate. The big thing I have noticed (and plan to fix) is that when going to the detail of a picture, there's not an easy to get back to the previous level. I don't know if that's something I broke in my modifications or if that's the way that 4images works. I need to check some other 4images sites.

Again, thanks for taking the time to visit.
David

Offline mawenzi

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Re: end user help
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2005, 12:13:15 AM »
Quote from: David
The big thing I have noticed (and plan to fix) is that when going to the detail of a picture, there's not an easy to get back to the previous level.

... therefore you need the clickstream ...
e.g.  Home / Travel / Tanzania / Safari /Scenery / Mount Kilimanjaro

test this in your template :
Code: [Select]
{clickstream}
mawenzi
Your first three "must do" before you ask a question ! ( © by V@no )
- please read the Forum Rules ...
- please study the FAQ ...
- please try to Search for your answer ...

You are on search for top 4images MOD's ?
- then please search here ... Mawenzi's Top 100+ MOD List (unsorted sorted) ...

Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2005, 11:04:53 PM »
Thanks mawenzi. After I responded to your email, I found it. It's working now and, of course, helps navigation a lot.

What I learned was that it is important where variables in "{ }" are placed. I noted that the introductory html and variables were the same for a number template files. So, I consolidated the common code and got it included through the use of a "{ }" variable. But the "{ }" variables in the included file was not interpreted--so the clickstream didn't get expanded. I guess that's why the common html was replicated in the various files.

I still want to develop a short user introductory file and am hoping to get some insights from people who were more familiar with 4images than I am. Since nobody jumped at my offer to collaborate, I think that I may put together a first version and ask for comments.

Again, thanks mawenzi for the comments.
David

Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2005, 11:21:17 PM »
Incidentally mawenzi, I visited your Kilimanjaro pages and saw some nice pictures. Seit 35 jahren, habe ich kein Deutsch gespracht, aber ich remember genug zu navigate your site. Although obviously not enough to write a complete and correct sentence.      :-)

We didn't climb the mountain (we didn't have enough time), and only saw it from a bus traveling from Arusha to Dar es Salaam.

One of the things I still need to do is figure out how to get 4images to show a video. I have two on my site that are in .rm format, although they started out as .mov files.
David

Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2005, 11:14:06 PM »
Here is a first take of most of a single page help file for end users.
I'd really appreciate comments on what I've written. I'd also really appreciate some insight into what I've missed--including the lightbox.
I hope this can form the basis of something useful for everyone.
David

Offline fpatton

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Re: end user help
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2005, 06:40:40 AM »
David - Looks like a good start!  Some paragraph bodies which might be useful:
==================================
Send an eCard:

Found an image you want to share with your friends?  eCard is the ticket.   Instead of worrying about the complexities of downloading and attaching a file, eCard allows you to send a link to your friend.   Additionaly it allows you to select the background colors of the 'card' and of course, what card is complete without your own wit and wisdom?   A preview function is provided to give you the opportunity to verify the information and color scheme match your intent.

Lightbox:

The Lightbox is similar to paid sites shopping carts (like Amazon).   By 'checking' multiple images, perhaps in seperate categories, you can view them as a group in your 'Lightbox'.   As a registered user you have the option to download the selected images automatically packaged in a single zip file, and view the images as a group.

Downloading images:

As a registered user you may download any image using the 'download' link.  For faster downloading, use the Zip download button.  For even greater effeciency, when downloading more than one picture, consider using the 'Lightbox' button to allow you to group your selections and download them in a batch mode.
===
Other thoughts:
Indicate which functions are available via registration and not.
-------

SideNote:  The slideshow functionality on your site isn't working for me, I get the following error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: resize_image_none() in /home/essenti/public_html/gallery/includes/image_utils.php on line 181

I thought it *might* be my browser(firefox), so I switched to IE and retried.  Same error.



Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2005, 07:18:31 PM »
Hi fpatton,
Thanks for the comments. Adding some images sounds like a good idea.
Thanks for spotting the problem with the slide show. I just found the same problem yesterday when I ran from another computer--fortunately before I sent out an announcement about the site. The problem is that I don't have any resizing software installed. Since it seems that ImageMagick and GD require the hoster to install the software and I can't install it, anyone running at a resolution that causes the images to require resizing gets that message. I'm (or rather I have them) working on it. My hoster seems willing to install ImageMagick.
I'll modify the help file. Thanks very much for the comments. As for the lightbox, I've disabled downloads for the moment, so that doesn't seem to be a thing to mention. However, I did add the slide show capability to it (I modified Daniel Janesch's mod to do that--which is triggering the resize problem). One of the things I'm still trying to figure out is what all of the available functions are--to both registered and non-registered users (and to me).
David

Offline fpatton

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Re: end user help
« Reply #9 on: June 10, 2005, 05:32:59 AM »
Hi fpatton,
Thanks for the comments. Adding some images sounds like a good idea.
I'll modify the help file. Thanks very much for the comments. As for the lightbox, I've disabled downloads for the moment, so that doesn't seem to be a thing to mention. However, I did add the slide show capability to it (I modified Daniel Janesch's mod to do that--which is triggering the resize problem). One of the things I'm still trying to figure out is what all of the available functions are--to both registered and non-registered users (and to me).
David
I've taken the liberty of stealing your help, and modifying it a bit, I've listed functions by availability (which *is* very configurable) from the administrator console.  - It's flexible to the point that you can have different restrictions by category, and probably more.

I've attached a copy of the revised help file (Help03Generic.txt - was .html but can't upload .html)   If anyone sees any errors, I'd appreciate it.  In some places I'm making educated guesses about how 4Images works under the hood.   I'm attempting to anticipate questions and have answers at the ready.   Once it's deployed, I'll probably add an FAQ section to cover repeat questions.

Frank

Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2005, 02:11:59 AM »
Thanks Frank. Please steal it. I am hoping that there will be additions from various people.

For the slide show, I put in some JavaScript to maximize the image size after it dynamically determines the display size. I've added some code to the details.php file to adjust image sizes so they'll always show on a 1024x768 screen (I will make it as dynamic as the slide show code when I get a chance.)

Now if I could only figure out how to get the 2 .rm (real audio video clips) to play (and maybe even display a thumbnail), I'd declare my site operational...


Offline fpatton

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Re: end user help
« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2005, 03:03:38 AM »
Thanks Frank. Please steal it. I am hoping that there will be additions from various people.

I have.  In my previous message I attached an html Help File with my additions - expanded the feature list matrix,
added a column to indicate whether the feature is available, - obviously much of these settings will need to be
revised to meet the intent of the site administrator.   I added a link to the anchors for each feature.

I haven't yet added a slide show to my site.  I've got a couple of cosmetic issues I'd like to add before I take that on.
(mainly getting the 'next' and 'previous' image options to display *correctly* and *work* above the image.   My first edit of details.html didn't work properly.   - The links appeared correctly, the display took too much vertical screen space, and the links didn't work.    I've undone it and intend to retry.   I suspect my using a gui html editor was the problem.   I'll try editing the raw html (and yes, thankfully I'd made a backup of the file before I started, so recovering was a non-issue)

For the slide show, I put in some JavaScript to maximize the image size after it dynamically determines the display size. I've added some code to the details.php file to adjust image sizes so they'll always show on a 1024x768 screen (I will make it as dynamic as the slide show code when I get a chance.)

The slide show on your site is working, (mostly)  - Though I get the following cosmetic error message:
=====
Warning: Division by zero in /home/essenti/public_html/gallery/includes/image_utils.php on line 135

Warning: Division by zero in /home/essenti/public_html/gallery/includes/image_utils.php on line 141
=====
FWIW, the resizing is working. - I switched to 800x600, and tried 1600x1280.  (from my default 1152)

Images appeared nicely sized regardless.   You wouldn't by chance be willing to post information on how you achieved that?  - (Probably in another thread as this one is titled 'end user help'.)

Now if I could only figure out how to get the 2 .rm (real audio video clips) to play (and maybe even display a thumbnail), I'd declare my site operational...


Good luck, sorry I don't have any sage advice to offer in that area, but I've no experience with that.

Frank

Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2005, 04:47:44 PM »
Hi Frank,
After this post, we should probably go offline to for banter. I *did* get that you had taken my first cut at a help file. I was trying to say, "good, I'm pleased that you did."

I was surprised by the error message you reported. It's from "get_width_height" that does image resizing. I couldn't get auto-resizing to do anything (as far as I could tell anyway). When I started, I thought that 4images was able to generate thumbnails automatically and on the fly. So I looked at how I could accomplish the same thing. Basically, the approach I took to resizing was just to let the browser handle it. I calculated the width/height parameters and got them included with the HTML that 4images was generating. For the slide show, the image references are included in a JavaScript data structure. So I added the width/height parameters of the image to the data structure and sized it at the time the images were being changed.

PLEASE FORGIVE THE INCLUSION OF CODE HERE. I'M REALLY A NOVICE AT CONTRIBUTING TO FORUMS AND DON'T KNOW THE PROTOCOL FOR ADDING THIS KIND OF THING. (I'VE SEEN CODE IN SCROLLING TEXT AREAS ON THIS FORUM, BUT DON'T KNOW HOW TO CREATE ONE.) (Please forgive the caps there too.   :-)   )

When that didn't seem to be the case, I started uploading thumbnails. Since I wanted some resizing and was having problems seeing any resizing actually happening, I took another approach. I went to includes/functions.php: get_media_code right after:
    if ($image_info = @getimagesize($src, $info)) {
      $width_height = " ".$image_info[3];
      $width = $image_info[0];
      $height = $image_info[1];

and included the following code. (I had compromised my web site and just wanted to get it back up quickly. Since I have seen web stats that only about 10-15% of users use a resolution less than 1024x768, I coded for that size--and will do better at some future date.):

//!!! Don't let the image get too large to display on a 1024x768 screen. I'd eventually like resize the image optimized
// for the actual screen size dynamically in JavaScript. (The code to maximize an image's size is in
// gallery/scripts/images.js.)
      $shrink = false;
      $max_ht = 500;
      $max_width = 900;
      if ($height > $max_ht)
        {
        $height = $max_ht;
        $pct = $image_info[1] / $height;
        $width = round($image_info[0] / $pct);
        $shrink = true;
        }
      if ($width > $max_width)
        {
        $width = $max_width;
        $pct = $image_info[0] / $width;
        $height = round($image_info[1] / $pct);
        $shrink = true;
        }
      if ($shrink)
        {
        $image_info[3] = "width=\"" . $width . "\" height=\"" . $height . "\"";
        $width_height = " ".$image_info[3];
        $image_info[0] = $width;
        $image_info[1] = $height;
        }



There is some similar code in JavaScript that I used for the dynamic image resizing for the slide show.

You're probably right that this kind of thing should probably go in a different section. When I had everything working, I was thinking about offering my mods back to the group--although they probably fit in a number of different categories.

Sorry for the length of this post. I hope it was informative and helpful though.
David

Offline David

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Re: end user help
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2005, 04:51:28 PM »
Frank, I just read your version of the help file. NICE! I'll be re-sealing it for my site soon.     :D
David