ALLbum module

Content

1. Introduction
2. Connecting the module to a page
3. Managing the ALLbum module
    3.1 Create (sub-) albums
    3.2 Adding images, etc.
    3.3 Edit album/object
    3.4 (Re-) Order
    3.5 Move
    3.6 Delete
    3.7 Configuration
4. Visiting the ALLbum module on your site
    4.1 Introduction
    4.2 Main page
    4.3 Album page
    4.4 Slideshow
    4.5 Object page

1. Introduction

The ALLbum module in Site@School has the following features:

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2. Connecting the module to a page

To add the ALLbum module to your school site, the programs of the module must be bound to pages. See the Module manager chapter on how to do this.
The module has three programs:

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3. Managing the ALLbum module

In this section, the administrator's part of the ALLbum module is discussed.

3.1 Create (sub) albums

When you first visit the administrator's part of the ALLbum module, your ALLbum is empty:


mod_albm_no_albums.png

Press the 'Create album' link in the menu at the left side of the window. The following will appear:


mod_albm_create_albm.jpg

  1. Title: Enter a title for this album.

    NOTICE: When you want an album per page, the album name must be identical to the page name. The page name is set in the Page Manager.

  2. Description: Enter a description for the new album. A description is needed before an album can be created.
  3. Connected to page? Yes No: Several options are possible here.
    When you want one album per page:

    In that case, set this option to 'Yes'.

    When you want one or more album(s) on one page, you:

    When you set the option to 'No', the created album(s) will be visible on the created page.

  4. Is album for protected area? Yes No: Selects where the album is located; on the public site or on the protected area. Select accordingly.

    NOTICE: This option is only available when creating a main album. When creating sub-album(s) this option is not available. Sub-albums always reside under their main album and cannot be moved.

  5. Go back: To return to the previous page without creating an album.
  6. Create album: Press to create the album

Press the 'Create album' button. The album will be created and you will be redirected to its content overview:


mod_albm_empty_album.png

You have created an album, but it's empty. By clicking the 'Go back' button, you will be back at the main page and you can see the album:


mod_albm_empty_albm_mainpage.png

To create a new sub-album, click on the album thumbnail to enter the album, then click 'New album' from the menu.
Fill in the title and description. Choose 'No' for the 'Connect album to page' option, and click 'Save'.
When you are in a sub-album, clicking the 'Go back' button will redirect you to the main album, i.e. not to the main page.

When you click on the 'empty' thumbnail picture, you will see:


mod_albm_empty_albm_add_object.png

3.2 Adding images, etc.

Now you can add an object to an album or a sub-album. To add an object to an album, click on its thumbnail and click on 'Add object' in the menu.
When you want to add an object to a sub-album, navigate to the sub album and click on its thumbnail. Then click 'Add object' in the menu.
In both cases, you will see:


mod_albm_add_object.png

  1. Browse: With the 'Browse' button you can select a file on your local machine. When you have selected one, it appears in the input field. By clicking on 'Add object(s) [2]' the file(s) will be placed in the Album.
  2. Add object(s): You must use this option after you have selected file(s) from your own computer or when you have selected one or more file(s) and/or directorie(s) from the media/ directory.
  3. These are the subdirectorie(s) under the main directory media/. By clicking the checkbox all the files in this directory will be placed in the Album.
  4. These are the pictures in the main directory media/. By clicking the checkbox, the picture will be placed in the Album when 'Add object(s)' button is pressed.
  5. Multiple file upload: With this option you can upload multiple pictures to the Album. After clicking on 'Multiple file upload' you will see:


    fileman_mupload_warning.png

    This is a security warning because the (java applet) program will be running on your computer. When you want to use the program, click 'Yes'. You will see:


    mod_albm_mfu.png

    When the selected files are added to the current album and you will be redirected to the last page of this album:


    mod_albm_object_added.png

  6. Cancel: To cancel your work

3.3 Edit album/object

Every object in the ALLbum module has a title and a description (which of course might be empty).
By clicking the 'Select object' link below an object's thumbnail the object can be selected (to deselect it, press the appearing 'Deselect object' link). If the 'Select all' link in the menu at the left side of the window is clicked, all objects shown on the current page are selected.
After selecting one or more objects, click the 'Edit album/object' link in the menu. The following appears:


mod_albm_edit.png

In the 'Title' and 'Description' fields, the title and description can be modified. In the 'Main picture' dropdown menu another picture can be selected as main picture for an album or sub-album.

NOTICE: When an album is empty, or when it only contains sub-albums, it is impossible to change the picture; the dropdown menu is not visible.
Next, at the bottom of the page, press the 'cancel' (if you do not want to save the changes) or 'Save' (if you want to save the changes) button.
If no objects have been selected and the 'Edit title / description' link is clicked, all objects on the current page will be shown on the 'Edit title / description' page.

3.4 (Re-) Order

When a page with albums or when the contents of an album is shown and the 'Order' link in the menu at the left side of the screen is pressed, you will see:


mod_albm_order.jpg

Every object in the current album will be listed and a new order in which these objects will be shown can be entered. After re-ordering, click the 'Order' button at the bottom of the page.
When you mark the 'Last -> First' option and click the 'Order' button, the last album becomes the first album. The other albums move one place down. This is a useful feature when you have just created an album. Normally spoken, this newly created album becomes the last album in the row of albums. Now you can make it the first album with two mouse clicks.
When ordering objects within an album the 'Last -> First' option is not there, objects are sorted alphabetically when added.

3.5 Move

Objects can be moved from one album to another. Select one or more files (albums can not be moved), click 'Move selected items' in the menu to move the selected items to a different album. The following will appear:


mod_albm_move_objects.jpg

First, the files that will be moved are listed. Next, the available main albums are shown. It is not possible to move files on a main page, so a main album must be clicked.
Click an album to which you want to move the objects and you will see:


mod_albm_move_objects2.jpg

Press the 'Move' button at the bottom of the page. The file(s) will be moved and you will be redirected to the contents of the current album (which, of course, does not contain the moved objects anymore).

3.6 Delete

After selecting one or more files and or albums, click the 'Delete selected items' button in the menu at the left side of the window. A warning message will appear, in which the selected objects are listed:


mod_albm_delete.png

Press the 'Cancel' button to cancel the deletion of the selected objects, or press the 'OK' button to delete them.

3.7 Configuration

The ALLbum module has some configuration options. Click the 'Configuration' link in the menu at the left side of the window. The configuration options will appear:


mod_albm_config.png
Explanation:
  1. Maximal number of albums shown per page: Sets the maximum number of albums that are shown on a page before (next/previous) page links will be shown.
  2. Maximal number of objects shown per page: if many objects are shown, for each page much data has to be transported between the server and the visitor's machine. If there are a lot of visitors with slow connections, keep this option below 10. If visitors all have fast connections, you could set this option to 20.
  3. Maximal number of objects that can be added at once: see the 'Adding files' section above; this option sets the number of browse-lines that are shown when adding files.
  4. Number of objects shown per row: this option sets the number of columns when the contents of an album are shown. Depending on the width of the visitor's screen (e.g. 800 or 1024 pixels), the maximum number of objects shown per page and the horizontal thumbnail size, you might want to adapt this setting. Normal values are between 2 and 4 columns.
  5. Horizontal size of pictures (px): this option sets the horizontal size in pixels of pictures shown in an album. For visitors using a resolution of 800 x 600, a value of 500 is recommended, for visitors using a resolution of 1024 x 768, a value of 650 is recommended.
  6. Show last added album first?: When set to yes, the last album added will be the first album on your site.
  7. Horizontal size of thumbnails (px): this option sets the horizontal size in pixels of thumbnails shown in an album. Depending on the number of objects shown per row and the screen resolution of the visitors, this value might vary between 150 and 300.
  8. Allbum welcome text: The text above the album main page. You can use HTML tags to markup the text.
  9. Go back: To return to the previous page.
  10. Save configuration: to save your configuration settings.

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4. Visiting the ALLbum module on your site

In this section, the visitor's part of the ALLbum module is discussed.

4.1 Introduction

The ALLbum visitors' interface is very straightforward, intuitive and should not need any explanation. Nevertheless, for the completeness of this document we will briefly describe it.
ALLbum shows files to the visitor in an ordered way. A main page consists of main albums, which can contain files and/or sub-albums. Each sub-album can contain files and/or sub-albums again.
Every file and (sub-)album has a title and a description.
A visitor can navigate through the (sub-)albums to view, play or download the files.

4.2 Main page

An example of a main page is shown below:


mod_albm_main_page.png

Here you will see several albums on the first main page. At the bottom of the page, more page numbers can be visible. If you want to visit page number X, click its link. If you want to visit the next (or previous) page, click the double arrow at the right (left) side of the page numbers.
If a thumbnail of an album is clicked, the corresponding album page is loaded. See the next section.

4.3 Album page

An example of an album is shown below:


mod_albm_one_album.png

  1. The title of your album.
  2. The description of your album.
  3. Link to the slideshow, see for description 4.4 Slideshow.
  4. Objects area, on which 6 pictures are shown in this example. If the thumbnail of a file is clicked, an object page will be shown, see the next section: 4.5 Object page
  5. The title of the object, in this case a picture.
  6. Link to the previous album page.
  7. Links to the other pages of the album, number of objects can be configured in the album module configuration.
  8. Link to the next album page.

4.4 Slideshow

An example of a slideshow page is shown below:


mod_albm_slideshow.png

  1. When the slideshow is running a [Stop] link is shown, when not running [Play] link is shown.
  2. Link to choose [Backward] or [Forward] showing of the objects.
  3. Here you can choose how many seconds your picture is shown.
  4. Here you can choose a transition type, this is only shown on Internet Explorer.
  5. Check this when you want to run the slideshow continuously.
  6. Shows the current picture number and the total of pictures in the slideshow.

4.5 Object page

An example of an object page containing a picture is shown below:


mod_albm_site_object_page.png

At the top of the page, the navigation-line is shown. Below that, the picture name and the double arrows which are clickable links, lead you to the next or the previous object in the album.
Below the picture, the same double arrows can be used to go to the previous or next object.

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Author: Dirk Schouten <schoutdi (at) knoware (dot) nl>
Last updated: 2006-04-12