Photo Gallery Forums

I'm getting quite a few complaints from my viewers who are confused by the fact that when they click on a "parent" category, they cannot see a viewable list of the sub-categories. You'd think this might be fairly obvious, since they show up in the menu.... but clearly it's not obvious because I've heard it from a lot of my friends and family now.

So I'm wondering is there a way for subcategories to display as a thumbnail and title within the parent category.

real life example:

I have a category called "Landscapes" with sub categories "N. America, Asia, Europe, S. America, etc".....

When someone clicks on "landscapes", the "preview image" and title of all sub-categories would display in the viewing area.

This is how most gallery systems work... and even though I'm personally not a fan of that style... it is well known by people and they seem to expect it. Because they are getting lost and leaving my gallery before finding the category they were looking for.

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I realize I can do this manually by creating thumbs and titles and linking them, etc.. but what a pain.. especially for a gallery which changes often.

gtewks wrote:I'm getting quite a few complaints from my viewers who are confused by the fact that when they click on a "parent" category, they cannot see a viewable list of the sub-categories. You'd think this might be fairly obvious, since they show up in the menu.... but clearly it's not obvious because I've heard it from a lot of my friends and family now.

Before I agree with you on the fact that it would be nice to have an option to display categories as thumbnails in the main layout, I have some comments in regards to the menu. When I open a menu with subfolders, I don't see why I want it to start loading items in the gallery? I just want to expand the subfolders and then click in the menu without distracting items loading in the content ... I want the content to load when I explicitly click a folder with content. To me, this seems inconsistent ...

gtewks wrote:So I'm wondering is there a way for subcategories to display as a thumbnail and title within the parent category.

real life example:

I have a category called "Landscapes" with sub categories "N. America, Asia, Europe, S. America, etc".....

When someone clicks on "landscapes", the "preview image" and title of all sub-categories would display in the viewing area.

This is how most gallery systems work... and even though I'm personally not a fan of that style... it is well known by people and they seem to expect it. Because they are getting lost and leaving my gallery before finding the category they were looking for.

--------
I realize I can do this manually by creating thumbs and titles and linking them, etc.. but what a pain.. especially for a gallery which changes often.

All in all, you are right and we have considered this earlier and will probably consider it again for Imagevue 2.8. The only thing I don't agree, is that the categories should display on click event in the menu ... Just because I expand an items with subfolders, doesn't mean I want to leave the page I am currently viewing ... I just want to discover what subfolders are available in the menu. Personally, If there was an option for inline gallery folder navigation, I would perhaps turn OFF the main menu entirely as this would not be required unless you want a mix ...

mjau-mjau wrote:When I open a menu with subfolders, I don't see why I want it to start loading items in the gallery? I just want to expand the subfolders and then click in the menu without distracting items loading in the content ... I want the content to load when I explicitly click a folder with content. To me, this seems inconsistent ...

Interesting topic
I can't resist to join in and mention the way I've adapted my site with subcategory-thumbnails.
In my menu I've got maincategories and subcategories. The maincategories do not have images themselves other than that the thumbnails of these images act as links to subcategories.
In this situation it is consistent that when a maincategory is clicked the thumbnails of the subcategories are shown in the content.

gtewks wrote:I realize I can do this manually by creating thumbs and titles and linking them, etc.. but what a pain.. especially for a gallery which changes often.

For me it's worth it....

mjau-mjau wrote: All in all, you are right and we have considered this earlier and will probably consider it again for Imagevue 2.8.

That's nice

mjau-mjau wrote: ... Just because I expand an items with subfolders, doesn't mean I want to leave the page I am currently viewing ... I just want to discover what subfolders are available in the menu.

Yes, that's right, but the subcategorie-thumbnails in the content do give information of those subcategory-folders.

mjau-mjau wrote: Personally, If there was an option for inline gallery folder navigation, I would perhaps turn OFF the main menu entirely as this would not be required unless you want a mix ...

That depends on if the inline gallery folder would allow me to jump quickly to another subcategorie of another maincategorie.

The only thing I'm missing is the possiblity to also move upwards when viewing thumbnails.... e.g. if the breadcrumbs could be clicked to move upwards... that would be nice already...

@gtewks: If you want, you can click on the signature below to enter my site...

When I open a menu with subfolders, I don't see why I want it to start loading items in the gallery? I just want to expand the subfolders and then click in the menu without distracting items loading in the content ... I want the content to load when I explicitly click a folder with content. To me, this seems inconsistent ...

I agree with you on this. But I'm just saying, that the feedback I'm getting has been requesting that the sub-categories show up as titled thumbs in the content area for each click.... I think it's just what people are used to (that's pretty much what you have going in your html version already).

Personally, If there was an option for inline gallery folder navigation, I would perhaps turn OFF the main menu entirely as this would not be required unless you want a mix ...

As long as we had a checkbox option to turn menus on/off still, then it would just be a matter of choice for each gallery owner. For instance if my total gallery were not too involved, I could see leaving the menu up (fully expanded) at all times. That way people could easily see all options and make large jumps from place to place.

It's hard for me to think of good ideas for this since I'm not a fan of this style of navigation in the first place.

How about a single "navigation" button,,,, when pressed it shows an entire "site map" of the gallery.... maybe done with small 32px thumbs/titles and a hierarchical pyramid,,, just like you'd see with a family tree. I've never seen that before. For me that would be cool. You see all folder options in one display and it allows you to jump instantly to any position in the gallery. (Galleries with actual photos could be shown full brightness, while empty "parent" categories would be dimmed) When viewing a particular folder you could click a "back to navigation" button and your are right back to a full view of the gallery options (site map). Maybe that's super difficult,, I don't know... Just an idea.

slightly off topic. But mjau-mjau wrote about using the menu only as a menu (with nothing displaying in the content area)...

I have tried to make that happen with my gallery, but cannot. If I choose "module" of course something shows there (even using "custom" with blank entry field,,, this gives me a static loading bar). If i choose folder (with nothing in it), I get a weird broken white space in my viewing area, If I use "link" (then of course it tries to go somewhere,, even empty it goes to a 404 screen).

So my question. How can i make a parent category,, do nothing at all,, except open the next level of folders in the menu?

gtewks wrote:If i choose folder (with nothing in it), I get a weird broken white space in my viewing area, ...

Folder is the right one to choose... in that folder you put only the sub-folders...

I tested it on my site with the demoversion Imagevue...
You will get the white space only if you address the mainfolder directly form URL, like this:
http://www.martinbroeze.nl/g3/#/content/maincategory/

But not if you select from within the menu or if you address a subfolder directly from URL, like this:
http://www.martinbroeze.nl/g3/#/content ... pictures1/

I don't understand what you are saying about the url.
The gallery writes what it writes.... how am I to control it?

gtewks wrote:I don't understand what you are saying about the url.

Well... I was trying to say that I do not have the problem when I first select 'maincategory' and after that 'Pictures 1'... and even back again to 'maincategory'... No problem then...
But if I try to start 'maincategory' directly from its URL... I, too, notice the problem with the white squares...
... although no one will do this, I reckon...

Just for the record, I have just answered another topic where I suggested that we will be looking into this for next main release of Imagevue. As you request, being able to display folder links with preview-image directly in the content area where thumbnails are.

gtewks wrote:If i choose folder (with nothing in it), I get a weird broken white space in my viewing area, If I use "link" (then of course it tries to go somewhere,, even empty it goes to a 404 screen).

Not quite sure what you are trying to achieve. Imagevue does NOT currently display folders with preview images in the content area. If you try to access a folder somehow like this, that has no files inside (only folders), it will simply not work because it can't display folders in the content area.

gtewks wrote:So my question. How can i make a parent category,, do nothing at all,, except open the next level of folders in the menu?

You will need images in the folder you access of course ... The whole point of using the LINK workaround is that you use an image that represents each "subfolder" ... and as long as you are loading a folder with images, it will work. If you are experiencing anything else, then please can you show me a link ...