LoopyCMS Administration - Editing PhotoAlbums

PhotoAlbums are a nice feature that allows you to create an series of images with commentary and navigation.  Perfect for, yes, PhotoAlbums, but also ideal for creating documentation, illustrated "how-to's" and the like.  The original use for this was in creating step-by-step help procedures created from screenshots. I would simply create a series of screenshots, put them on the server and load them into the "ImageNavigator" it's original, oft-mentioned name in this documentation.  Well, enough jibberjabber -- let's get on to editing a PhotoAlbum.

When you start the PhotoAlbum editor, you will be asked to locate the PhotoAlbum you want to edit, browse through folders until you find it. It's not in the root directory...

Not in the PhotoAlbums home directory... 

Ah, there's one.  Click the filename to preview it (in a new window) or click "Edit" to start editing.

So here's one I've built - from pictures of my visit to my alma mater, St. Olaf College. The images I've already added are listed on the left, in the top section.  The captions are listed to the right.  At the bottom is a file I haven't included in the PhotoAlbum, but is still in the directory.  If I wanted to add it back in, I'd simply click the check box and click add.  If you're starting from scratch and have no images in the collection, you could click the check box "Add All Images" and click add.  Files will be added in alphabetical order, though, so if that's not how you have them arranged, add them one at a time.  You can supply the caption right here, before you add it.

For images not yet included, clicking the name of the file opens a new window with the image.  For images already included, you'll go to the page where you can edit the caption and/or add a descriptive block of text above the image.

Here's that page where you can edit the caption and descripting block.  Note that it doesn't yet have the HTML editing feature enabled.  It's on my list...  When you're done, click apply changes.  If you want the image to come out of the PhotoAlbum, click the "Ok to remove..." check box and click "Remove Image" (that's to prevent accidental button clicks, kind of like a pre-confirmation). 

Now, I should probably also add buttons to move images up or down in the list, but haven't gotten around to that yet.  Also on my list...

If you're interested in how this works, a filelist.txt file contains the list of images included and the caption.  The file is in the directory of the PhotoAlbum in question. The vertical bar character ("|") separates the image name from the caption.  The descriptive block of text is saved in a file with the same name as the image (minus the extension) and ".htm". So the picture above has a companion "DSCN0008.htm" file.

Supported image types include .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png.

Hey, we're over halfway through.  Let's charge on into the next topic: Create a Content Type