Add-On Releases - Picture and Album Gallery

Picture and Album Gallery for vB4

This is a simple mod written out of frustration with the lack of such a basic feature in vb4 (and vb3, etc....)

Features:
Adds a Gallery drop-down menu to the nav bar OR to the navtab which allows browsing AND searching of all pictures and albums on your site.

The search function searches the album title, album description, picture caption AND username.

Note: If guest permission AdminCP->Usergroups->UserGroup Manager->Unregistered/Not Logged In->Can View Albums is "yes" then they will be able to browse album and picture thumbnails - they may NOT be able to view the full-size pictures. To hide the gallery menu from guest see Settings below.

The gallery and menu is phrased.

Tested with Vbulletin 4.0.2/3 (note: earlier versions have not been tested and are not supported) AND vBadvanced 4 beta1.

Settings:
None are needed - it does what it says on the tin .

AdminCP->Options->User Profile:Album Options "Pictures Per Page" and "Albums Per Page" control the number of thumbnails displayed per page in each gallery type.

If you get images overlapping the borders then you have inconsistent thumbnail sizes - you need to:
AdminCP->Maintenance->Update Counters->Rebuild Attachment Thumbnails

If you want to hide the Gallery menu from guests then edit the Gallery navbar (or navtab) popup menu plugin and change $allowguests = from true to false

Installation

1. Unzip the download package and copy the contents of the UPLOAD folder into your forum folder.
2. Go to the VB AdminCP->Plugins & Products click "Manage Products". The click "Add/ImportProduct" at the bottom of the page.
3. Click "Browse" button and point to the product-gallery-(etc).XML file included in this ZIP package.
4. Click "Import"
5. Once the gallery import is complete, click "Add/Import Product" again and select EITHER product_gallery_navtab-xxx.xml OR product_gallery_navbar-xxx.xml depending on where you want the gallery menu to appear (navbar or navtab).

... all done

Updates

To update from an older version you MUST uninstall the product (admincp->manage products: delete Picture and Album Gallery). Then re-install as above.

v1.08
tested on vb4.0.3
v1.07
Fixed navtab menu - picture and album URLS swapped
Converted navtab/bar into products to make installation easier.
v1.06
Due to popular demand added navtab drop down menu (with help from TimberFloorAu )
Cleaned up code and templates
v1.05
Phrased menu items - upgrade is not required unless you use other languages.
v1.04b
fixed database connection issue
deleted unused template from product xml
v1.03b
Changed permissions to allow guests to view thumbnail galleries
Added phrasing for main gallery code.
Removed navbar template - replaced by plug-in code
Changed album display template from albumbit to album_latestbit (it works better!)
Various template mods to clean up display
v1.02b
Wasn't remembering search query between pages.

This is my first "proper" product so comment/criticism/etc is welcome

John

[The Rocketeer]

why dont you guys go to the authors website(its listed up there somewhere) and ask him to help us?

[fmgrowit]

Here's the author's last post on the site. I think he's uninterested in this thread.

Originally Posted by HCGB

07 Mar 2011, 10:22
I have to agree with Videx - if you spent some time learning how vB works (or even reading the older posts on this thread) it would save me time providing vB support instead of Mod support

Check out the groups section in your user profile - you will find you can create groups with group pictures.

[coffeelover]

I would also love to see an option built into the mod that allows admins to set a fixed thumbnail size for just the gallery images. I have a photography forum so I have the global thumbnail image size set at around 400 pixels. This is a little too big (actually, it's awkward) for the pictures in the gallery albums. An option to change the thumbnail size just in the gallery would be very helpful!

[The Rocketeer]

Originally Posted by fmgrowit

Here's the author's last post on the site. I think he's uninterested in this thread.

Well there's a link to his forum - http://www.hoverclub.org.uk/
why dont you go over there and ask him to maybe update his mod and make it better :P ?

[NTMID8]

Is there an add-on for this that will create a new thread in a specific forum when a new album is created or an existing album has been updated?

If not, is this possible and would anyone like to take on the challenge?

[The Rocketeer]

Just get the author back to help us out!

[NTMID8]

Originally Posted by The Rocketeer

Just get the author back to help us out!

I've left a message at the website defined in the coder's profile. Maybe we'll get a response.

[Videx]

It's a bit unfair to expect the author of a mod to start coding all types of variations. The guy coded something that did what he wanted it to, then was gracious enough to release it for others to use. That doesn't mean he's any kind of expert on the topic or a slave to all types of odd requests.

If you want to hire someone to code your ideas, put up some serious money over in the appropriate forum.

[NTMID8]

Originally Posted by Videx

It's a bit unfair to expect the author of a mod to start coding all types of variations. The guy coded something that did what he wanted it to, then was gracious enough to release it for others to use. That doesn't mean he's any kind of expert on the topic or a slave to all types of odd requests.

If you want to hire someone to code your ideas, put up some serious money over in the appropriate forum.

Yeah, but it does not hurt to ask either, does it? Some coders only want to share what they wrote for their needs and let that be the end of it. Others enjoy the challenge of new requests.

I have actualy gotten in touch with the coder and he no longer has access to vB to be able to develop or support, but may do something if he can get access which I am discussing with him. Additionally, he may give permission for other coders to pick up his mod and continue development.

The only thing not asking does is hinder further development.

[HCGB]

OK guys - I no longer have access to a vB license therefore there will be no enhancements made to this mod (unless someone else wants to take it over). I'm happy to check out any bugs (although none have been reported in over a year) but I won't be adding any additional features. As I said at the start, this is a picture viewer - it was never intended to be more than that.

BTW: some of the "feature requests" are already available in the basic vB install - take time to understand how vB works and you'll figure it out - I don't have the time to hold peoples hands I'm afraid