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ImageFolio Pro Edition 3.0 User's Guide
Working with Digital Content
This document covers the aspects of adding digital content and new media types to an ImageFolio gallery.
Overview
ImageFolio is much more than just a Web-based digital imaging solution - it supports
any and all binary file types, be it MP3s, Flash movies, or MIDI sounds. Knowing
how to add content to your gallery is the most essential part of using ImageFolio.
Adding Media to your
Gallery
- Create a thumbnail image for your file (if applicable)
- Using an FTP utility, log in to your server and navigate to the
ImageFolio3_files/gallery/DIRECTORY
directory, wherein DIRECTORY is the name of the category for
which you would like to add this file
- Upload the file and the thumbnail image
How ImageFolio Deals with Media
ImageFolio works by scanning one directory at a time, making an internal list of all binary files that it finds. ImageFolio then takes this list and divides it up into two parts, files it thinks are thumbnails, and files that do not have thumbnails associated with them. ImageFolio further divides this list into several parts or pages, and provides the viewer with navigational links to access next, previous, and individual thumbnail pages.
Page Spanning
ImageFolio's page spanning allows you to designate how many thumbnail images you want to show per page. You can change these settings by editing your config.pl document using a text editor.
Filenaming
To determine if a file is a thumbnail image, ImageFolio reads the filename. If the filename is prefixed with the unique pattern $mypattern, which you defined your configuration file config.pl, ImageFolio treats it as a thumbnail image. For files that do not have thumbnails associated with them, ImageFolio will display the default icon for that particular media type.
Links from thumbnail images to their associated files are automatically generated by ImageFolio. However, links are only generated if the media type for the associated file is listed in the hash %extensions of your config.pl file. By naming your thumbnail images with a unique prefix, such as tn_001.gif, (the prefix here is tn_), ImageFolio will look for an associated file that has the same base name, minus the extension. Here is an example:
tn_RedCar.jpg
would be a thumbnail image that links to:
RedCar.avi
or, RedCar.jpg
or, RedCar.mpg
or, RedCar.mov
or, RedCar.gif
etc...
The secret to this is simple, if you can create a thumbnail image of your file, then create one, otherwise don't create one and ImageFolio will display it's default icon.
About Underscores Due to a bug in Netscape browsers, you need to use underscores ("_"), instead of spaces, when naming a file.
Date Sorting
Thumbnail images and icons are displayed sorted by date. By reading the last modification date of all files, ImageFolio is able to display the latest file additions to a category on the first page of thumbnails. The oldest files will always appear on the last page of thumbnails.
Adding New Media Types
ImageFolio is an extensible product. This means you can add new features to the product yourself, without writing any custom programs. One of the many extensible features of ImageFolio is the ability to add new forms of media as they become available. In config.pl you can define the specific types of media that ImageFolio can embed or link to by editing the hash called %extensions. For each media type, you can assign an external template file which contains the code needed to embed this type of media into your image.html template. Templates for the media types listed here are already included with ImageFolio, but you may want to add new types of media in the future. A list with current file types can be found here
Let's say, for example, that a hot new video format is released called Zinc, and
you want to use ImageFolio to embed Zinc movies. Because you know that the file
extension for all Zinc movies is .znc you can quickly add this media
type to ImageFolio by doing the following:
- Using a text editor, open the
config.pl configuration file
- Navigate down to the question that asks, "WHAT TYPES OF FILE EXTENSIONS
CAN YOUR THUMBNAILS LINK TO?"
- Look at the hash
%extensions to make sure that this media format
is not listed. If it is not listed, you will need to add a new line within
the hash.
- Add a new line like so, near the top of hash:
znc => ['Zinc Movie', 1, 'znc.html', '_top', 'ZNC.gif' ],
Explanation:
- The first element here is the extension. We know that this is
.znc
so we put the extension znc.
- The next element here is the name of this media type. This can be
anything of your choosing.
- The third element tells ImageFolio whether it should link directory
to the file,
0, or embed the file within the image.html
template, 1.
- The forth element is the name of the new media template that contains
embedding code for this media type, which we named
znc.html.
You will need to design this template, and we'll get to that in a minute.
- The fifth element is the frame target,
_top, which tells
ImageFolio what frame we should load this page into.
- The sixth element is the default icon file,
ZNC.gif,
which you will need to create and upload to the ImageFolio3_files/skins/*your_choice*/images/icons
directory.
- Using a text editor, create a new document to contain the HTML code for
your Zinc movies.
- Using a Web browser, go to the "Zinc" Website and browse the documentation
for embedding Zinc movies in HTML pages. When you find the HTML code needed
to make this work, copy and paste the HTML code into into your new document.
- Where the URL to a Zinc movie is required, type
%%%FILE%%%
- this will be replaced by the URL when ImageFolio loads the page.
- Where an ALT name for a Zinc movie is required, type
%%%NAME%%%
- this will be replaced by the name of the file, minus the extension when
ImageFolio loads the page.
- Save this document as
znc.html and close your text editor.
- Using an image editor, create a default thumbnail icon for this media type
and save it as
ZNC.gif. Note: the default icon is displayed by
ImageFolio as a thumbnail image if ImageFolio is unable to locate a thumbnail
image for this media type.
- Using an FTP utility, log in to your server and navigate to the
ImageFolio3_files/skins/*your_choice*/templates/media
directory. Upload your newly created znc.html page.
- Navigate to the
cgi-bin/ImageFolio3 directory and overwrite
the existing config.pl file, with the version you created which
contains the new hash element.
- Navigate to the
ImageFolio3_files/skins/*your_choice*/images/icons
directory and upload the default thumbnail icon you created for this media
type.
- Navigate to the
ImageFolio3_files/gallery directory and upload
a Zinc movie to any desired location
- Using a Web browser, type in the URL to
imageFolio.cgi and
click on the link for the category in which you uploaded your Zinc movie.
- Verify that the movie embeds correctly by clicking on the default icon you
created for this Zinc movie.
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