Site News
Lightroom 2 Released!
If you don’t already know, Lightroom 2 has been released by Adobe! Im looking forward to using LR2 and all its great new features. Nothing really new has happened to the Web Module, so nothing to report there. I myself have not tested any galleries with LR2, but many users have been using and testing with LR2 and have had no problems. I strongly suggest upgrading to LR2 as all current and future galleries I make will be made using LR2. They should still work fine on any previous verions of LR though, but im assuming at some point there will be a time when I need to use something specific to LR2.
Im really looking forward to using LR2 and creating new galleries as well as improving my current ones.
NOW GO BUY LIGHTROOM 2!
Thanks
joe
Digital Delivery is done!!
Thanks for all your comments on this topic! Digital Delivery is now going to be included in LRG Complete 2.5.8.. I was able to allow multiple resolutions to be offered for download, actually, you can add as many different resolutions or sizes as you need. If you only want to use one, then you can just use one.
There are many cool features with the Digital Delivery
- Uses LinkLok for complete download link protection
- Uses PHP which is already installed on most servers
- Does not require MySQL or other database system
- Does not require cookies to be enabled
- Displays download page and sends email to purchaser with secure download links
- Works with Auto Return and PDT or older style post return
- Will create download links only if called from Paypal
- Links can be set to expire after fixed time period
- Nobody ever knows the actual server location of the download file - not even the purchaser!
- Supports unlimited products
- Supports multiple products in one order
- Supports multiple files per product (product combos)
- Supports multiple currencies
- eCheck payments can be set for instant download or delayed until cleared
- Uses MD5 and Paypal’s IPN system for maximum security
- Built in or user defined template for email sent to purchaser
- Built in or user defined download page
- Supports download resume and download managers
- Supports physical products
- Allows secure links to be emailed manually as well if necessary
- Can send customised emails for order notification, order confirmation and download notification
LRG Complete 2.5.7 User Manual update released!
David @ http://outdoorimagesfineart.com has updated the LRG Complete 2.5.7 Manual. Thanks David! Everyone who is using 2.5.7 please download the new Manual from the link below.
Digital Delivery - Need your thoughts and ideas
Many of you have asked for this feature and I have managed to add it to LRG Complete, but I have some questions. I am trying to figure out the best way to set this up and would like to know how you all plan on using this feature.
The way it is setup now is that the buyer selects their images and ads them to the cart as they normally would. if Digital Delivery is selected then the user is presented with a download page after payment is complete, and they are also sent an email with the download information as well.
The downloads are pulled from a folder of images generated and uploaded by Lightroom, which means they are all jpg files. So here is where I need you guys. If you plan on selling your images using Digital Delivery, are jpg images what you want to send your buyer? Do you plan on just selling one resolution of images or would you like to offer multiple, say High, Medium, and Low res images? If that is the case, im sure you would want to send tiff or psd files as the High and maybe Medium res images. Also, would your cart be Digital Download only or would you require a mixture of Digital Delivery and physical shipments?
Since Lightroom can only export jpg images from the web module I will probably have to make the Digital Delivery process a little less seamless in terms on Lightroom integration. You would have to export your images out of LR to your desktop (or anywhere you want) using the Library module and then upload them to your web server. Not really all that bad, but im trying to reach as many people as i can with this template and want to make it as easy and non-technical as I can.
Also, adding the ability to offer different resolutions of images is going to be pretty tough for me to implement because of the way things need to be for Lightroom. I may not even be able to do it at all (hopefully I can!). If that is the case, would you be happy with just offering one size or resolution for download? If not, I guess the images can be shipped on DVD to the user.
Let me know your thoughts and ideas on this whole thing. I am creating a forum post called Digital Delivery for you to post your responses in.
Thanks!
Instant Digital Image Delivery coming to LRG Complete
We have been able to add Digital Delivery to the LRG Complete template! When using PayPal as the payment processor your users will be able to instantly download the images they purchased. Download links will be secured with LinkLok so that nobody can hijack your images without paying. You will also be able to limit the amount of time the download links are active for. There are many many many other features available! Im going to try to get this released for 2.5.8 or wait until LRG Complete 3 which will be the latest stable release. This template has sort of been in a working beta state for quite some time, and LRG Complete 3 will be the first non-beta release.
I will keep you all posted!
New gallery LRG Fullscreen Slideshow coming soon!
In addition to the development of the LRG complete template i have been slowly working on the LRG Fullscreen Slideshow template. This template allows you to have multiple galleries of images all viewable as a fullscreen slideshow. its also allows you to have multiple content pages where you can place text or other content. Keep an eye out for it sometime in the near future!
TTG Client Response Gallery released!
Matthew Campagna at theturninggate.net has updated his TTG Client Response Gallery for V2.
This is a great gallery for those of you who interact with clients online.
The gallery employs FormToEmail.com’s FormToEmail PHP script to collect data from clients, including image selections, image ratings, individual image comments and more. The gallery employs HighSlide to allow side-by-side large-size image previews without disrupting form input, and (optionally) also allows clients to download a copy of each image to their own machine.
The gallery’s features include:
- FormToEmail powered delivery for client feedback
- HighSlide-driven large image previews and response panes
- Viewing of multiple large-size images at once for side-by-side comparison
- Selection checkboxes
- Optional download of hi-res image renditions
- Every element can be toggled on/off
- Individual comment areas for each image
- Client assignable ratings
- Custom checkbox arrays
- Input areas for name, email address and general comments
- Valid XHTML, CSS, etc. as is the norm for TTG galleries
- Auto detected by TTG XML Auto Index
Check out the theturninggate.net for more detail
LRG Complete 2.5.7 Released!
We are happy to annouce the release of the latest release of the LRG Complete template, LRG COMPLETE 2.5.7, it includes all (well as many as i could get to) the latest bug fixes, revisions, user suggested items, and new features as posted in the forums and via email.
Please delete any previous versions of this template and install this version. You need to update ALL template files, not just some of them.
PLEASE read the user manual packaged with the zip or downloaded from the link below as it will answer most all of your questions and lessen the setup time for you to get up and running.
Updates include:
- Links for images in slideshow work
- Fixed bug with pages acting strange after resizing browser, scrolling, then resizing browser again.
- You can justify gallery info left, center, right
- Added 2 more spaces for menu items, now 10 instead of 8
- Fixed spacing between prev/next image navigation buttons
- Fixed issue when image nav buttons would not disappear when clicking on a page link while a large image is being viewed
- And more!
DOWNLOAD 2.5.7 | TEMPLATE MANUAL | DEMO | FORUM THREAD
David at http://www.outdoorimages.blogspot.com has been kind enough to write up an amazing manual for this template. Please read it and give David a big thanks for all his hard work! Thanks David!
Quick update
Hey everyone,
I have been out of town for the past 4 days so we had a little downtime on template development. Im back now and ready to go. I need to catch up with emails and forum postings first, then i can get to work again and get a new version released very soon. I have already made a good amount of updates but have held off on the release of it. Im going to wrap this release up as soon as i can and get it out to you all soon.
Thanks!
Joe
LRG Complete 2.5.6 released!!
We are happy to annouce the release of the latest release of the LRG Complete template, LRG COMPLETE 2.5.6, it includes all the latest bug fixes, revisions, user suggested items, and new features as posted in the forums and via email.
Please delete any previous versions of this template and install this version. You need to update ALL template files, not just some of them.
NOTE: Full documentation for this release is coming soon! The majority of stuff is the same, but there are some things you need to know to get it working correctly. I will point out the changes below. We will make a posting when the updated documentation is released, but for now see the instructions below
New Features and updates include:
- You can now link images in a gallery to other galleries! this is great for creating a thumbnailed index of your galleries and/or pages. Links for the images are set in the “provider” IPTC field under the “instructions” field.
- Galleries are now (actually MUST be) uploaded to a “galleries” directory and pages to a “pages” directory for better portability.
- You can now specify international taxes for Google Checkout purchases
- You can now change the color of the divider color that appears under certain cases in the side menu between category buttons.
- Back to Site button can now be linked to a page, gallery, or external link
- You can now choose what IPTC field you want to use as the image’s Item Name in the shopping cart. (remember though, these must be unique)
- Recoded the entire slideshow feature of the pages
- You can now position images in pages either top, bottom, left, or right justified with the text.
- When closing large image the image closes first then the thumbnails appear. there is no overlap
- You can now turn off the dropshadow
- You can now hide or not use image frames for images
- You now have an option to choose between 4 different types of preloaders
- New Zealand dollars added
- Fixed issue with spaces in gallery/category names. Now you must place an underscrore “_” where you want a space to appear. The gallery will do the rest and convert that underscore into a space
- Side menu can be disabled
- And much more!
DOWNLOAD 2.5.6 | TEMPLATE MANUAL | DEMO | FORUM THREAD
=============UPDATED TEMPLATE INSTRUCTIONS================
New Upload Paths
The first major thing we need to go over is the upload paths for galleries and pages. Previously, galleries were uploaded into the same folder that your shell files lived, for example:
ROOT
Category1
-Gallery1
All shell template files located in the root
In this new version all galleries are uploaded in a folder named “galleries” (all lower case) in your root folder or any subfolder you are installing LRG Complete in. This is the same as how you upload pages, which all go in a “pages” folder.
So In a complete installation on your web server, with galleries and pages, your folder structure should look sort of like this:
ROOT
galleries
-Category1
-Gallery1
pages
-aboutus
All shell template files located in the root.
When uploading galleries your “put in subfolder” field within Lightroom should look like this:
galleries/category1/gallery1
For pages:
pages/aboutus
Creating A Gallery Index
To create a gallery index, an gallery of thumbnails that link to other galleries, you need to use the Gallery template and follow all the uploading rules for galleries. The only difference really is that the links for each image MUST be defined in the IPTC metadata field “Provider”. You can find that IPTC metadata field under the “Instructions” field when viewing the images metadata.
You can link each image to another gallery or a page. To do that we need to enter our links in the “Provider” field using the following linking conventions.
To link an image to another gallery you follow this convention:
(gallery) followed by a dash (-) followed by the Category the gallery is in (Category_Name) followed by a forward slash (/) followed by the name of the gallery you are linking to (Gallery_Name).
The result is something like this:
gallery-Category_Name/Gallery_Name
*The word “gallery” that goes before the dash tells the template that everything following the dash will be a path to the gallery you want to load. You must use the word “gallery” and the dash as is, do not modify it.
To link an image to a page you follow this convention:
(page) followed by a dash (-) followed by the page name (About_Us) of the page you are linking to.
The result is something like this:
page-About_Us
*The word “page” that goes before the dash tells the template that everything following the dash will be a path to the page you want to load. You must use the word “page” and the dash as is, do not modify it.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: If you enter something into the “Provider” field for the image, the template will attempt to link that thumbnail to something other then a larger version of the image. After you are done creating the Gallery Index i would highly recommend deleting and “Provider” metadata for your images.
This covers the major instructions that are needed to get this new version of the template working. More detailed instruction will be in the latested version of the manual, which will be released soon. You can allow post in the forum and i will help you out. David at http://www.outdoorimages.blogspot.com has been kind enough to write up an amazing manual for this template. As soon as he gets a bit of free time he will update the manual to cover the new features in 2.5.6. Please be patient and give David a big thanks for all his hard work! Thanks David!
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