The wurster, the better

I thought I would put down the instructions that I used to get Simpleviewer (Simple Viewer) to work for me. It’s a cool tool for displaying images in flash.

Go to the Simpleviewer site first and read the instructions and then download Simpleviewer.

If you use Picasa2, the process is easy. That is what I use. There is even a template file to export the gallery into the appropriate format. The template will automatically create the layout. If you don’t use Picasa2, you’ll have to create the html page yourself and ftp it, along with the Simpleviewer files. If you can’t find the template file, you can get it here.

Un-zip the template zip file and put the folder simpleviewer_picasa_template in the Picasa2/web/templates. Then, when you go to select a template to export in, you will see it in the list of available templates.

1. Start Picasa2
2. Select the folder you want to export
3. Edit and sort your images before you export them to help you get them in order
4. Select Export to html page
5. Select the location on your hard disk
6. Select the 640×480 picture format
7. Select SimpleViewer v1.1 template
8. Click on Finish and the files will be generated
9. Upload to your ISP
10. Create a link on your web page to the index html file of your gallery

My test gallery has the following directory structure on my ISP:

• galleries/test/ (contains the simpleviewer files and Picasa generated html and xml files)

flash_detect.js
get_flash_player.gif
imageData.xml
index.html
readme.txt
upgrade.html
viewer.swf

• galleries/test/images/ (contains the image files)
• galleries/test/thumbnails/ (contains the image thumbnail files)

The Simpleviewer files that are in the gallery directory (in my case, it’s called test), are the Simpleviewer files you downloaded. They have to be placed in every gallery or album directory you create so that the images are displayed correctly in Simpleviewer. The export process from Picasa2 will create these directories for you, including the needed Simpleviewer files. All you have to do is upload the entire folder you create.

If, for some reason, the Simpleviewer files are not in the folder you are uploading, then just copy them from the un-zipped files you downloaded.

If you don’t have Picasa2, it’s the xml and html files that you will have to create.

Replacing One Gallery Image

For replacing one of your gallery images, you would use the same procedure. If the image file had the same name, you would just ftp the image and thumbnail and wouldn’t have to edit the xml file.

If you want to add a new image with a different name then you would have to either edit the xml file or you would have to re-generate the export folder in Picasa2. Then ftp to your site.

Multiple Gallery Menu

If you ever wanted to have a menu to allow you to switch between galleries, AirTightInteractive has such an example. Click here to see it. I basically adds a header and footer div to the index.html file that was generated by Picasa2. You can modify it to fit your needs. Then you would copy it into each gallery folder and replace the index.html file that is there.

Then, whatever gallery index file you bring up in your web browser, you will have the menu at the top to allow you to switch to another gallery. I would suggest that you put a link to your main site in the footer to allow the user to get back to the site from which he got to the gallery in the first place.

I’ve been experimenting with a new plugin script lately called pixgallery. It works better than lazyest-gallery at this point. So, I’ve removed lazyest-gallery. And I’ve also removed pixgallery because it has too many CSS validation errors. I’m trying to keep my site CSS compliant.

I have also removed Singapore Gallery by running its uninstall. And have removed EasyPHPAlbum.

DAlbum, Plogger and enhanced Simple PHP Gallery are what I’m am sticking with at this point.

Still have Gallery Manager activated although there has been no recent update and Simple PHP Gallery (although the “enhanced” version integrates with WP).

Trying to clean up my site. Will stick with lazyest-gallery, Plogger, and Gallery Manager (and a couple others) as my WP photo plugins. Will still use DAlbum as main means of storage and display.

GM – wp-content/gallery/photos/
Lazyest-Gallery (and WPicasa) – wp-content/albums/
DAlbum – /photo/pictures/
Plogger – /plogger/images/
EU, mGallery, photoframe, qDig – uses folders in it’s root directory
Singapore – galleries/
pixelpost – images/

Now that I have Plogger working, it would seem that it is a little more easier to use than Gallery Manager. GM appears to have possibly more features. However, Plogger has what I need: an easy way to build galleries; an easy way to add captions; the ability to add comments; a slideshow feature; download cability.