60 replies to this topic

[CallieJo]

I hope that IP.Gallery 5.0 will take use of the notification system. We want to know when someone commented on an uploaded picture.

I hope so as well.

Am I the only person that likes the square thumbnails? :S I can understand why you don't want them forced on you, but I hope they don't disappear. They're useful for stuff like recent gallery images sliders.

No. I like them as well. Maybe there could be an admin option for those who need something else.

The new look doesn't feel any special to me..I prefer the current look + Gallery 5 features.

I like the current look, too. Just needs to function easier for end users. Would love to have the current look with the categories like Gallery 5 instead of in the sidebar. And an easier way to access, organize, and upload photos from profiles would be grand (similar to VB).

That may work for small sites... the 'Categories' or 'albums' in one nastily long list in the sidebar is not helpful when one has a large amount of albums at all(the page stretches to infinity).... and was never a good idea IMHO in the first place.
You do not see this here on IPB as they only have 4 Top-level 'albums'/'categories'... that list does not limit nor paginate... shoot me, but what is shown for 5 for these is about a million times more scalable.

Exactly. We have lots of categories and sub-categories. I'd rather the sidebar be used for something else.

[surferboy]

We use 4images and the thumbnail issue is addressed by setting size limits, either by width and/or by height. So the vertical pix are narrower thumbnails and the horizontal pix are shorter wider thumbnails.

The category issue is a big challenge. We have over 300 categories ... well 10 super categories or global categories and then sub and sub-sub categories. To me, the answer is accordion design via a sidebar. Click on a global categories, it slides open to show the sub categories, and click again to show the sub sub's ...click on the next global category and the others close up and the process starts over.

One very simple thing we have that makes the landing page of our gallery smokin' is tooltip, meaning glide your mouse over the thumbnail and poof, the fullsize appears as long as you hover over that thumbnail. It's a great way to scan a bunch of pix.

I hope to have a coder working on adding image comment notification to the ip board mods, and also one super ipcontent hook... once the Nanny takes over for diaper duty ...

[ZakRhyno]

They're right there on the side...global albums are called categories now.

Yes side but need to be more standout out-ish, it on the side never really work in Gallery 4, have you seen what it was like before Gallery 3. It had a better layout in terms of main albums.

[kotaco]

That may work for small sites... the 'Categories' or 'albums' in one nastily long list in the sidebar is not helpful when one has a large amount of albums at all(the page stretches to infinity).... and was never a good idea IMHO in the first place.
You do not see this here on IPB as they only have 4 Top-level 'albums'/'categories'... that list does not limit nor paginate... shoot me, but what is shown for 5 for these is about a million times more scalable.

Well again, this is only an index listing, I don't see why you can list as many top level albums as you want and then put sub-albums within to keep things organized? Then click on the category you want to bring up the the next screen showing recent images and sub-albums within, or whatever. I don't see why a site would have extreme amount of top level categories anyhow, that'd just spread everything out way too much imo. But again, thats just my opinion and what would work with the sites I run.

[kotaco]

Yes side but need to be more standout out-ish, it on the side never really work in Gallery 4, have you seen what it was like before Gallery 3. It had a better layout in terms of main albums.

I tihnk it's plenty, even gallery based sites like DeviantArt keep their categories for the site to a sidebar that moves down a tier each click. http://browse.deviantart.com/ But again this is just a case of your preference vs mine.

[Rimi]

Well, I would stick with kotaco's layout and for the categories part in his layout I would have it display the 5ish most recently updated albums and then have a "View All Albums" link which would take you to a page that displays all the albums.

I don't know...there really is no one way to do this that everyone can agree upon. For example my community is more image centric than album centric. Others are all focused on the member albums (whereas my site doesn't even allow member albums). But of course that's what templating is for...and of course people will argue that that's not a valid option because "not everyone can code". I think a great option would be to mimic IP.Blog in how you can change the arrangement of items in different blogs. Or something similar to rsyvarth's social groups mod and how blocks can be rearranged and formatter on their. Basically the more layout options that Gallery can support out of the box the more powerful of a software it will be and the more attractive it will look to customers when IPS 4 comes out and Gallery becomes a stand along product. However, I'm betting it's too late in the development stage of Gallery 5 for such options to be implemented. It is possible though. We see this kind of admin side rearrangement of items in the IP.Content navigation menu after all. I think it's a completely viable option for the Gallery homepage to be broken up into a system of blocks (which people can import and export!!) which can be customized and rearranged in the ACP, and then even extended into a album by album basis if the admin so chooses. Now don't twist that into IP.Content/IP.Gallery integration. I'm talking about Gallery having it's own "block" like system. Am I willing to wait an extra month or two to get such a feature implemented into Gallery? Yes. Absolutely. Anything to cease the opinion flaunting. Are others willing to wait that long as well? I'm willing to bet that they are.

At the end of the day though, I think all of us can agree with 100% certaintainty that there shouldn't be two sliders on one page.

[Palmpedia]

I hope that IP.Gallery 5.0 will take use of the notification system. We want to know when someone commented on an uploaded picture.

Wholeheartedly Agree

[Bob van Leeuwen]

I would really like it if there was an optional style, that broght back the style IP.Gallery had when it was around the IPB 2.3 time, but more modernized.

[ZakRhyno]

Well, I would stick with kotaco's layout and for the categories part in his layout I would have it display the 5ish most recently updated albums and then have a "View All Albums" link which would take you to a page that displays all the albums.

I don't know...there really is no one way to do this that everyone can agree upon. For example my community is more image centric than album centric. Others are all focused on the member albums (whereas my site doesn't even allow member albums). But of course that's what templating is for...and of course people will argue that that's not a valid option because "not everyone can code". I think a great option would be to mimic IP.Blog in how you can change the arrangement of items in different blogs. Or something similar to rsyvarth's social groups mod and how blocks can be rearranged and formatter on their. Basically the more layout options that Gallery can support out of the box the more powerful of a software it will be and the more attractive it will look to customers when IPS 4 comes out and Gallery becomes a stand along product. However, I'm betting it's too late in the development stage of Gallery 5 for such options to be implemented. It is possible though. We see this kind of admin side rearrangement of items in the IP.Content navigation menu after all. I think it's a completely viable option for the Gallery homepage to be broken up into a system of blocks (which people can import and export!!) which can be customized and rearranged in the ACP, and then even extended into a album by album basis if the admin so chooses. Now don't twist that into IP.Content/IP.Gallery integration. I'm talking about Gallery having it's own "block" like system. Am I willing to wait an extra month or two to get such a feature implemented into Gallery? Yes. Absolutely. Anything to cease the opinion flaunting. Are others willing to wait that long as well? I'm willing to bet that they are.

At the end of the day though, I think all of us can agree with 100% certaintainty that there shouldn't be two sliders on one page.

I like the block idea it would give people what they want a way to change it up to how they like it and not be bound to a static page.

I would really like it if there was an optional style, that broght back the style IP.Gallery had when it was around the IPB 2.3 time, but more modernized.

Your request need more information. What it was like is not what others know it to be, define your question more.

[ZakRhyno]

I tihnk it's plenty, even gallery based sites like DeviantArt keep their categories for the site to a sidebar that moves down a tier each click. http://browse.deviantart.com/ But again this is just a case of your preference vs mine.

BUT, it don't start off like that. Devinatart is also a 100% gallery website, while IP.Gallery is a gallery per say it is not the whole website, that has to be kept in mind. There are some limits they can't do do to the system they have, maybe later, yes.

[Rimi]

BUT, it don't start off like that. Devinatart is also a 100% gallery website, while IP.Gallery is a gallery per say it is not the whole website, that has to be kept in mind. There are some limits they can't do do to the system they have, maybe later, yes.

Well it should be developed as a whole website in mind since it will be a stand alone application one day.

[kotaco]

BUT, it don't start off like that. Devinatart is also a 100% gallery website, while IP.Gallery is a gallery per say it is not the whole website, that has to be kept in mind. There are some limits they can't do do to the system they have, maybe later, yes.

I never said replicate deviantart though, I just was showing how the category system could work with many categories while staying organized. This is all just brainstorming on how to improve isnt it, it's not like the gallery is a brand new just release product either.

[ZakRhyno]

Well it should be developed as a whole website in mind since it will be a stand alone application one day.

They just went to a module system one a year or so ago before you join Shigure, so I don't think they do that base on that.

I never said replicate deviantart though, I just was showing how the category system could work with many categories while staying organized. This is all just brainstorming on how to improve isnt it, it's not like the gallery is a brand new just release product either.

Maybe.

[Mikey]

Same here, the look wasn't broken, just the functionality and usability, the biggest problem/headache for my users was the upload process, much more complicated than it should be.

I propose something more like this:



Incorporating a sidebar block feature for the gallery index to add and remove blocks to customize your gallery to your site and your preference, (also to allow for a skyscraper ad via nexus, I think some of us would enjoy that).

I think comments and the featured images should take the users first inital look then as you move down recent images and categories, then random images and other blocks.

I think along with the upload button there should be a link to manage the users albums and photos, people don't just use the gallery to look at pictures, many go there to try and manage theirs, why not help shortcut the process.

I think there should be a tad more ajax along with the single slider. For example:
Comments that scroll or what I'd rather: load the most recent of course, but allow you to scroll up or down to see earlier and back up to the current. With limits in place and the option to disable of course.
As well as random or recent images (from albums you choose, from one to all) you can scroll through because people like to click stuff and make things happen.

And of course allow the admin to decide how many photos to load per row and total and perhaps even thumbnail style on the gallery index.

Obviously thats a rough concept and just to help visualize but that's my .02

Great job, I love it!

[bfarber]

We should be clear here.

1) Gallery 5 is NOT completed yet. It is NOT too late to submit feedback, contrary to a post in this topic, however there is also no guarantee your feedback will be immediately acted on. We do take it all in, nevertheless.

2) The image you see in the blog entry is an EXTREMELY early version, subject to change based on...feedback. We have a private focus group and they've not even gotten to test the software yet, let alone start giving in-depth feedback about the changes.

3) Our designer hasn't even had a chance to test the software, let alone make any design changes.

The image in the blog entry is a "teaser", and perhaps we should have clarified it is subject to change, not a completed product, and so forth.

[ZakRhyno]

We should be clear here.

1) Gallery 5 is NOT completed yet. It is NOT too late to submit feedback, contrary to a post in this topic, however there is also no guarantee your feedback will be immediately acted on. We do take it all in, nevertheless.

2) The image you see in the blog entry is an EXTREMELY early version, subject to change based on...feedback. We have a private focus group and they've not even gotten to test the software yet, let alone start giving in-depth feedback about the changes.

3) Our designer hasn't even had a chance to test the software, let alone make any design changes.

The image in the blog entry is a "teaser", and perhaps we should have clarified it is subject to change, not a completed product, and so forth.

Has the feedback and mock up of what others are thinking helping?

[Rimi]

I never said replicate deviantart though

Admittedly, it'd be pretty neat if this was the case...when you go to DA the pages are just full of images.

Which is another thing. Since Global Albums will be reclassified as categories then it'd be nice to be able to put an image in multiple categories like DA.

[bfarber]

Has the feedback and mock up of what others are thinking helping?

All feedback helps. How else would we know what direction to take any of our products?

[Darksbane0]

Am I the only person that likes the square thumbnails? :S I can understand why you don't want them forced on you, but I hope they don't disappear. They're useful for stuff like recent gallery images sliders.

I don't have a problem with them, I have a problem that we are forced into them. When I upgraded to the version of gallery that started forcing us into them it ruined hundreds of my thumbnails even though I specifically told it not to update my images. Still whenever you would browse to some image page it would crop and square the thumbnail for that image. I shutoff the gallery shortly thereafter and custom coded something in IPC that I could be sure wouldn't try to tell me that it knew better how my images should look.

[Rimi]

What if the square thumbnail system worked more like the photo editor in ipb?