As an avid photographer I was getting a bit sick up Wordpress single file upload for images. I am currently OS and upload 30 or so images every couple of week just for family and friends. So I embarked on an adventure (to say the least, perhaps saga is a better term) to embed a subalbum in a post using a Wordpress plugin. It’s not wuite that simple.

First, Lightbox didn’t seem to be functioning under Wordpress 2.2. What finally got it working was this: (follow the instructions for the respective plugins along the way).

1. Prototype is a plugin that enables your website with the Prototype JavaScript Framework. By Signified

2. script.aculo.us is a plugin that enables your website with the script.aculo.us JavaScript Library. This plugin requires the Prototype WordPress Plugin. By Signified.

3. Lightbox JS is a plugin that enables your website with Lightbox JS - a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. This plugin requires both the Prototype WordPress Plugin and script.aculo.us WordPress Plugin. By Signified.

4. Ok. Now when you add rel=lightbox, or something to that effect (described completly in Lightbox JS) to images you should see them come up in Lightbox when you click on them.

The GalleryÂ

Great now onto the Gallery of my choice. There is heaps of Galley Options. However I wanted something that would:

- Allow easy bulk upload of photos via ftp.
- Impliments albums and subalbums
- Easlly insert into album or subalbum in posts and pages.
- Read meta data from uploaded images and display captions and titles.
- Lightbox slideshow for subalbums of click of thumbnail.

The Galley solutions I am currently trailing are:

1. Inline Gallery - A flexible way to include photos in your posts. By m0n5t3r

2. Lazy-K Gallery - Photo gallery plugin for Wordpress 1.5+ By Korey Atterberry

Now what the difference between the two. Well I shortlisted Inline Gallery because it reads (a limited amount) meta data from the images. This is great for me as it will save double entry, as I add meta data to images before I upload in my master gallery (using Adobe Lightroom). Lazy-K Gallery was shortlisted because of the good support, and simple Lazy approach although it doesn’t do meta data (yet - hint hint).

Configeration

Ok, Lazy-K Gallery is a clear winner here. Good instructions, and you only have to upload one set of images, and it auto generates the thumbnails. While with Inline Gallery, you must create separate sized thumbnails with specific names and put them in a particular folder. (At this stage I still haven’t worked out how to create subalbums with Inline Gallery with thumbnails, however am confident that it will work given a little more time.)

Demo / Results

While I need to play with the formatting a little more, you can view the Lazy-K Gallery page here. I’m not happy enough with the Inline galley at the moment to make a page live, but I’ll post here when I figure it out.

Ideas:

Add meta data support to Lazy-K Gallery
Streamline configuration for Inline
Offer some css based templates for layout.

Thanks for reading, look forward to your comments and suggestions. As a student I could always do with a small donation if you have it to give.

Nathan

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Posted on June 22nd, 2007 :: Filed under Technology
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