Put your photos (and video) on your website, not theirs, like this:
In A Little Nutshell
Photooey displays photographs and video on your website.
Photooey uses Flash technology that works good and looks nice.
With Photooey you can display big, high-quality, full-screen pictures, not just small/medium pictures with a bunch of space and controls and useless info around them ;-}
Photooey maintains the same folder structure on the web interface as you maintain on your hard disk.
Photooey can be configured using Adobe Lightroom (Highly Recommended), by hand (how I did it the first couple of years), or using an increasingly neglected java program (how I did it the next few years).
Did I mention you can now mix your videos in with your photos if you want?
Did I mention you can accompany your photos with audio?
Photooey is fast - Intelligent combination of RAM and disk caching so your people dont have to wait to see the next photo.
Photooey is easy to setup using any Windows or Mac machine, especially if it has Adobe Lightroom on it. You can do it with a Linux machine too but its not as easy.
Photooey is now free to try and use, or even modify to your hearts content, as long as you agree to the terms-and-conditions (for website owners, not website visitors).
Question: Why doesn't my website seem to be up-to-date?
Answer: Photooey's normal Remote Update method will only update files that are created during the current export session - it doesn't do a true folder-sync. So, a problem comes when the remote update did not complete during an export session. To remedy: use Remote Sync Recovery or a third party remote folder sync program, such as Scooter Software's Beyond-Compare, or a favorite FTP client to synchronize local machine to remote web host. Oh, Dreamweaver could do it too. Or, check the 'Ignore Dates' setting to force files to be updated on the local machine, in which case they will be updated on the remote web host as well, provided you are set to allow it.
Question: How do I get my videos up on my website?
Answer: 1. - Create a file named {whatever}.flv using a flash video encoder. 2. - Create a video thumbnail, or rename the video thumbnail that was created by your camera to {whatever}.THM.jpg. Select the thumbnail when exporting and it and its associated video file will be lasso'd... The thumbnail and video file should be in the same source folder.
Question: What are the best tools to use to create flash video.
Answer: Adobe's flash video encoder is top notch, I recommend using On2-VP6 codec. ffmpeg is a command line tool that I've heard will also do a fine job. Search the web for alternatives...
Question: How do I get audio to go with my photos?
Answer: 1. - Create a file named {whatever}.mp3 to go with a {whatever}.jpg photo (in the same source folder), using an mp3 audio encoder. 2. - Make sure you've specified an audio subdir in the site config file. When the photo file is exported, the audio file will be herded up along with it... vanilla flavored mp3 (constant bitrate) will offer the greatest probability for success. lame has a great command line encoder, and most players can create mp3 now - search the net... 18,24,32 kbps for bandwidth-conscious quality, 48-64kbps for medium quality, 96 or 128 kbps for high quality. 160 or 192 kbps for extra-high quality. Any higher bitrate is a waste.
Question: What do I do if I can't get the !@#$%^&* thing to work no matter how hard I try?!, and yes I've read the documentation for the plugins, as well as the documentation for WebPhotoBrowser.
Answer: If you're at the end of your rope and have tried everything you can think of and you're still having troubles, then contact me, and if you're nice, I may help you personally.
Question: That's got to be a bug!
Answer: Assuming you can re-create it, please report all bugs directly to me, via my website, using the problem report form.
Question: I can think of a way to make this even better, should I bring it up?
Answer: Yes, by all means, contact me with feedback and suggestions via my website contact form.
Question: I want to have some nice looking text to introduce a photo folder to my website visitors, how far can I go?
Answer: Photooey supports HTML folder text to the same extent that Flash does. Meaning that you can create styled text using CSS, but no javascript, and not all HTML tags are supported. See Adobe Flash documentation for details. One thing you can do is create image files and put them in a resource subdir. HTML text goes in _folder.html file in the source folder. Make sure you export the images in your resource subdir - they will not be rendered like a normal photo, but they will be copied to the target web-bound directories and uploaded to your website. The contents of _folder.html files is folded right into the web-photo-config.xml file.
Question: Can I have text accompany my photos?
Answer: Yes - photo info text comes from photo meta-data (title, caption, headline, ...) which may be plain text or markdown (see http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown), photo-details also comes from photo meta-data (camera model, capture time, ...) - both are configurable: see site configuration file.
Photooey Revision History
Covers WebPhotoBrowser (the web interface) and Lightroom configuration plugins, in reverse chronological order.
Version 3.1.0, released 2009-07-27.
Product name changed from WebPhotoPack to Photooey
Includes Lightroom configuration plugins with miscellaneous enhancements and bug fixes.
Includes WebPhotoBrowser flash web interface with miscellaneous enhancements and bug fixes.
Version 3.0.1, released 2009-04-09.
Product Changes:
WebPhotoBrowser version changed from 2.3 to 2.4
Added 'X' button to full-screen control bar to exit browser's full-screen mode.
Changed 'Main View' button label to 'Navigate' & changed main view's friendly page name to Navigation View.
Version 3.0.0, released 2009-03-01.
Product Changes:
WebPhotoBrowser/WebPhotoPack User-edition & Developer-edition merged into Photooey Community Edition.
Server side program setup no longer required.
WebPhotoSetup for configuration discontinued.
Adobe Lightroom Plugin used for configuration.
Support for SWF, although unofficially still supported, officially no longer supported.
Video supported (in FLV format).
'Send Email Links' added to WebPhotoBrowser 'Options' menu.
Version 2.0.0, released 2008-10-01.
Adapted from WebPhotoBrowser/WebPhotoPack, with some things not included in the little nutshell (above):
Storage and bandwidth can be reduced by creating optimized versions for thumbnails, and main/full views.
Keyboard navigation may be used in addition to program control via mouse.
Supports folder and/or photo hiding.
Different collections can be defined that all use the same source photos.
Additional descriptive text for photo folders and files may be entered as plain text or HTML, and photo order is configurable. Supports external style sheets (CSS) for descriptive text styling.
Configurable high-resolution request button allows flexible handling of high-resolution photo versions. For example, it can be configured to request photos via email, load into a new browser window, or linko a purchase page or shopping cart.
Can be started with a specified subfolder or photo already open. For example: "Hey Josephine, check out my pictures of Burning Man 2004!" , where "pictures of Burning Man 2004" are in a subfolder of a larger collection, or "Hey Charlie, check out this "picture of you at Burning Man 2004", where "picture of you" isne photo in the collection.
Scales with the browser window to take full advantage of large/high-res monitors.
All options are configurable on a per photo-folder basis, or may be inherited from parent folder.
Component colors and text can be styled by editing a program properties text file.
Other things too numerous to mention...
Version 1.5A, released 12-15-2005.
WebPhotoSetup enhancements:
Now uploads WebPhotoBrowser to your server, backs up configuration / photo files, and uploads configuration and/or photo files to the server.
Version 1.4A, released 11-15-2005.
package changes:
Now comes with WebPhotoSetup, to run locally if desired, altough the latest version can also be run from the web.
enhancements:
Back a few revs ago, I made a change to consolidate whitespace in folder & file info, by default.
bug fix:
Fixed bug where folder with config file but no cdata would display blank info instead of folder name.
Version 1.3A, released 10-31-2005.
enhancements:
Options for transition effects.
other changes:
WebPhotoBrowser.fla file saved in Flash 8 format (under new name: WebPhotoBrowser8.fla), and thus will not open using previous versions, e.g. Flash MX 2004. Does not affect user-edition, but developer must upgrade to latest to be able to open.
Version 1.2F, never formally released.
enhancements:
Photo info automatically displayed (when present) in main view for all photo selection methods except thumbnail click.
bug fix:
Folder info scroll bars are automatically reset when new text is displayed.
Version 1.2E, released 9-8-2005..
enhancements:
Filename comparison (applies within config file) now matches any substring, instead of just the first part.
Sound: mp3 file can be specified for a photo folder or photo file - see setup doc for details.
bug fix:
Fixed bug affecting startup case where start-dir is not same as root-dir. Now, folder/file-info in config file in start-dir will be effective.
other changes:
Default service info is no longer defined, thus service info must now be specified explicitly.
Version 1.2D, released 5-19-2005.
enhancement:
PHP script enhanced to explicitly sort directory contents.
Version 1.2C, released 5-18-2005.
enhancement:
Slideshow mode now opens folders in the tree pane so you can see where you are at in main view.
Version 1.2B, released 5-5-2005.
bug fix:
Fixed broken link to cache clearing instructions.
Version 1.2A, released 4-29-2005.
enhancements:
Changed default web-service path to be relative to the wpb folder, instead of web server's default folder. In addition, now allows relative service path specification for all service types except Flash Remoting (we're talking swf params now).
Version 1.1A, released 2-28-2005.
enhancements:
Added Slide-show capability with options for single folder, multiple selected folders, or all folders.
bug fixes:
CGI / Perl script (wpbx.pl) would not work on some servers due to input buffering and form data decoding peculiarities.
Displays photo files from any directory tree of arbitrary nesting depth.
You just tell it where the root photo folder is and it will find all the photos and photo subfolders.
Photo files do not need to be renamed.
No photo preparation is required - just upload the photo directories to the web server, and voila!
Storage and bandwidth can be reduced by creating optimized versions for thumbnails, and main/full views.
If optimized versions have already been created, WebPhotoBrowser can be configured to look in the correct folders for them. Or, thumbnail and main/full view versions can be put into pre-defined folders such that no configuration is required.
Supports most of the features found in desktop photo browsers, including folder navigation, thumbnail pane, preview mode, and full-screen view.
Advanced preloading and caching for optimum performance - reduces or eliminates lag time between photos. For broadband users, this means photo display is usually instantaneous, and dialup users can open a folder, go get a cup of tea, and come back and view all the photos without delay.
Keyboard navigation may be used in addition to program control via mouse.
Configuration supports folder and/or photo hiding, with multiple configurations for the same photo tree. Wanna keep all your photos together, but show a different cross-section to grandma than you reveal to your buddies? - no problem!
Additional descriptive text for photo folders and files may be entered as plain text or HTML, and photo order is configurable. Supports external style sheets (CSS) for descriptive text styling.
Configurable high-resolution request button allows flexible handling of high-resolution photo versions. For example, it can be configured to request photos via email, load into a new browser window, or linko a purchase page or shopping cart.
Can be started in main or full-screen view, with a specified subfolder or photo already open. For example: "Hey Josephine, check out my pictures of Burning Man 2004!" , where "pictures of Burning Man 2004" are in a subfolder of a larger collection, or "Hey Charlie, check out this "picture of you at Burning Man 2004", where "picture of you" isne photo in the collection.
Scales with the browser window to take full advantage of large/high-res monitors.
All options are configurable on a per photo-folder basis, or may be inherited from parent folder. Configuration is via text file in xml format.
Component colors and text can be styled by editing a program properties text file.
