PhotoSmash
What’s Next?
Considering how to integrate video into galleries…particularly video from YouTube and FLVs uploaded through Media Library.
More on PhotoSmash
Welcome to PhotoSmash Galleries, a flexible, customizable photo gallery plugin for the awesomeness that is WordPress! It is one of the few photo gallery plugins for WordPress with a built-in rating system. I hope you like it here. PhotoSmash is built for website owners who want a Plug-and-Play means of allowing their communities to share images, as well as for developers who need to do some seriously fancy tricks for themselves or their clients. While there is a lot already here, there is a lot that still needs to be done. So check out what is available so far, and let me know what else you’d like for it to do.
Downloads and Demo:
-
Download at WordPress. - Try out the demo (It’s now here on Smashly
). - Demo site: see what PhotoSmash can do on StLouie.com!
Features:
- It’s Free! Licensed under the GPL
- Let your users upload photos to galleries in your WordPress blog
- PicLens integration
- Multiple Upload through WordPress Media Library (built into your blog), then import images to PhotoSmash!
- Add photos to the Media Library by uploading through PhotoSmash. This lets you easily use them in your blog posts when you don’t need a full blown gallery.
- 5 Star Rating system – allows anonymous ratings or require users be signed in – see the demo
- Automatically add galleries to your Posts and Pages
- Email contributors when you approve or reject uploaded images
- Widget for displaying random or recent images, or a specific gallery
- Plug-and-Play galleries and upload form with custom field capabilities
- Custom layouts – gives you complete control
- Custom forms – easy templating, extremely flexible
- Built-in support for displaying images with Thickbox (no need to add a new plugin..uses built-in WP version of Thickbox), Lightbox, Shadowbox, or similar javascript image viewers
- Security:
- Set who can upload by gallery
- Moderate images from untrusted sources
- Email notifications for moderations
- Use Role Manager plugin
- Supports Role Manager plugin with “Upload to PhotoSmash” capability (when assigned to a subscriber, they can upload to any gallery and “Photosmash ?” capability (where ? is the gallery ID…when assigned to a subscriber, they can upload to that specific gallery, regardless of the minimum upload user)
- Many gallery-level settings:
- Images per page
- Images per row
- Layout to use
- Form to use
- Image size and cropping settings
- Caption and linking options
- many more…
- YouTube galleries (experimental)
- WP Author pages can show a gallery of that author’s uploaded images
- Many more, and many more to come…
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Sunday, 2 August, 2009 at 20:16
Hi Everyone!
I’ve shut down comments on this page. Please post in:
Forums
Cheers,
Byron
Sunday, 2 August, 2009 at 19:52
I am a complete newb to this plugin. I went thru all the settings and just cannot seem to figure out how to add my gallery to a blog post or page. Can you shed some light?
Thanks.
Pam
Sunday, 2 August, 2009 at 20:13
Hi Pam,
I need to get the Usage posted here, as it is covered there. It is documented on the plugin’s WordPress page and at the original home, but I haven’t gotten it added here yet
The short answer is there are 2 easy ways:
1) Enter this shortcode in the place in your post or page where you want the gallery: [photosmash]
If you create a new gallery in gallery settings and you want to display that specific gallery in your post, the shortcode is: [photosmash id=##] where ## is the gallery ID (as shown in Gallery Settings)
2) You can turn on Auto-Add. The bad thing about auto add is that it adds galleries to every page and post unless you put this shortcode in your page or post: [ps-skip]
Hope that helps.
Byron
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 13:13
Hi folks,
I’ll be shutting off the comments here so that hopefully we can get them going to either the Feature Request page or the Help page.
I’ll leave open a few more days so the current threads can be finished up.
But please post to the new Pages for new threads.
Cheers,
Byron
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 7:50
Byron, do you plan to fix the problem with paging multiple galleries placed on single page?
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 10:58
Didymos,
Thanks for the reminder…and patience.
Yes. It’ll be in the next release.
Byron
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 12:47
Didymos,
It’s there in 0.3.02. On WP now.
BB
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 7:16
Hi Byron
I have never seen someone reply so quickly to so many comments. I’m almost loathe to take advantage of your nature. I’m afraid I think I must – I do seem to have hit a wall with this.
I am using 2.8 and the latest Photosmash. I am adding galleries to my posts using shortcode, and adding upload forms using shortcodes as well. The upload is working fine, and the images then appear with their captions in my photo management area, but there is something amiss with where the images are added.
As I mentioned I use shortcodes to manually insert everything. When I do this and a photo is uploaded on the post, a new gallery is created to hold it. That is, the page in which I have manually embedded Gallery Seven and an upload form will upload successfully to a new gallery called Gallery Nine (created on the fly) where the images display perfectly. The Gallery Nine post, which also has an upload form, has just created a gallery called Gallery Ten for me
Do I need to specify in my shortcodes that a particular form applies to a particular Gallery? I am sure I can hack it to work the way I want, but I might forget what I did later and not know how to fix it
Thanks, your plugin is truly awesome.
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 7:22
Byron, the website I am working on is this one – http://youthprojectsurvival.org
It looks horrible at the moment – I am building the output structure I need before I skin it.
Also, when I installed your plugin using the WP plugin browser, it failed to create the folders it needed to operate in my file system, so I did it manually. I thought it might be worth mentioning in case others had a similar problem.
Zoe
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 9:00
Thanks for the heads up. Others have seen that as well, but I think it may have to do with Server settings and so is beyond the control of the plugin.
But I hope to fix this once and for all by switching over to using the built-in WordPress file handling routines. WP 2.9 is coming out with a whole lot of Media goodies and I want PhotoSmash to be able to take advantage of them. So, I’ve got some work to do!
Cheers,
Byron
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 9:00
Oh, and one more thing…I’m going to be adding a Showcase page, so be sure to add your site when you’re up and running!
BB
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 8:53
Hi Zoe,
Thanks for the props, and no problem on the comments. Hopefully when I put something out there that I ask people to pay for, they’ll at least know that I try
Here’s the shortcode for getting a form that points to a specific gallery:
photosmash id=### form=”std” no_gallery=true
Put that inside [ $$$ ], and you should be good.
Note that ### is your gallery ID and std is the From name. Use ’std’ for the standard form, or use the name of your custom form.
Hope that helps.
Byron
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 19:11
Hi Byron
Thanks for your help – it is very much appreciated. I will add the page when I have finally skinned the thing.
Zoe
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 4:46
Hi and thanks for your work – excellent. When a new gallery is automatically created using shortcode [photosmash=] and there are no images present in the gallery, the gallery box is a bit out of place without images. Is there anyway to not display the empty gallery box when there are no images yet uploaded/added?
Really – THANK YOU for this great plugin.
Saturday, 1 August, 2009 at 12:51
Hi Ken,
You’re welcome!
I agree that the empty box is not ideal (to understate it a little bit). I’ve had problems with getting things to line up properly (images hanging half way out of the box) when they’re added to a box that is not the full size of the expected images.
I’ll put this on the list of things that need work. Unfortunately, it’s a long list.
Byron
Thursday, 30 July, 2009 at 13:08
Thanks, Franciso!
Thursday, 30 July, 2009 at 12:53
Excellent Site. Thank you very much Byron.
Monday, 27 July, 2009 at 17:40
I had it working fine, but now something has happened and I can’t get the lightbox link to work. There is no rel parameter output in the gallery code.
Monday, 27 July, 2009 at 22:05
Kirk,
Take a look in the Gallery Settings page for the gallery you’re working with and see what is in the setting: “Rel” parameter for image links:
It should be something like: lightbox[album]
Also, check in PhotoSmash Settings for the same setting (first tab in both cases). You can update all galleries with that setting en masse using the disk icon beside it…be sure to save the PhotoSmash Settings page as well after you’re done, since the Mass Update doesn’t do that.
If that doesn’t get it for you, then there might be a problem in javascript somewhere.
Byron
Monday, 27 July, 2009 at 22:42
I have the rel parameter in the settings as you said, but nothing is output in the page code. The rel doesn’t show up at all. Any thoughts on what to check on the javascript side?
Monday, 27 July, 2009 at 23:02
Kirk,
Are you using a custom layout?
Do you have a link where I could look at the gallery? The fact that it’s not outputting to the page code is strange. That’s been a pretty solid feature. Do all of your Galleries have the same rel in their Gallery Settings?
You can send me an email as well and I’ll take a look: byron at whypad . com
BB
Monday, 27 July, 2009 at 2:01
Hi
The plugin is great and I set the settings, but I do I actually create the gallery page/post?
is there a short code to put in the post/page?
Monday, 27 July, 2009 at 2:08
I managed to open a gallery, but after submitting an image it doesn’t appear in the page or in the admin panel for moderation.
Monday, 27 July, 2009 at 22:08
Omer,
Take a look in Plugin Info page and see if there are any problems there.
It sounds like you may be having an issue with Safe Mode or a database issue.
Let me know what you find. We should be able to get you going.
Cheers,
Byron
Tuesday, 28 July, 2009 at 2:44
I am currently running the blog on a local server. Can that be the reason why I can’t see the images and the videos?
I think the problem is somewhere in the uploading because the images and videos don’t even show in the moderation page, so I guess the problem starts at the uploading stage.
Tuesday, 28 July, 2009 at 9:01
Hi Omer,
The problem may be a folder permissions issue. This can be caused by having SAFE MODE turned on, or could just be a permissions level issue.
The folders: wp-content/uploads/bwbps/ and wp-content/uploads/bwbps/thumbs/ need to have at least 0755 level of permissions. Some folks have found that their web hosts need to have 0777 level, but that would depend on your server settings.
Working on a local server shouldn’t be a problem. I’m no server whiz, but it should work the same as any other upload program.
If the folder permissions doesn’t work out, you might try putting it on a hosted server and see if that works for you. You could then try to see if you have server settings that might be causing the issue.
Byron
Saturday, 25 July, 2009 at 18:05
Just a quick question:
Is video support not yet completed? YouTube links work, but if I select Video for the ‘Gallery type’, anything I upload does not appear. I have tried small (~5MB or less) FLV files, WMV files, AVI files, and MPEG files, none of which worked.
Open to suggestions if you feel they should be working. =)
Saturday, 25 July, 2009 at 20:00
William,
Sorry…no, I’ve decided that adding video and other file support at this time is beyond my understanding from a security standpoint. I need to remove that option from the list – thanks for bringing to my attention.
With images and YouTube, I can be fairly certain what type of file is being uploaded by using the tools within WordPress and Verot’s Upload Class.
With other file types, someone could potentially upload something malicious, and I don’t know how to prevent that. So, the solution at this time is to have them upload to YouTube and let YouTube figure out all of that.
Hopefully one day, but I’m not there yet.
Byron
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 11:19
Hi Mack,
Could you try that using a different template. It sounds like the Javascript is not being set up properly. My guess is that the template is missing either wp_head() or wp_footer()
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 19:42
It is working fine in a sub domain http://www.neothinkmembers.com/photos/ this is with the WP default theme.
My client will not let me change themes and they want their members to be able to upload photos. I am customizing the StudioPress Church_40 theme for this site.
Need a better solution.
Can you be more specific on the wp_head() or wp_footer() being missing. Where should it be?
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 20:31
Mack,
Themes should contain those two template tags as they are standard WordPress hooks that trigger plugins and other things to occur in specific locations within the web page. Here’s what you should look for in the theme (you can see them in the default theme if you search):
In template file header.php, between the <head> and </head> tags, you need to put in:
<?php wp_head(); ?>
In the template file footer.php, right before the </body> tag, it should have:
<?php wp_footer(); ?>
Hope that helps.
Byron
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 21:03
Byron:
Thanks for the very fast response. The header did have and I added it to the footer. Still no joy.
Any other thoughts? I love this plugin!
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 21:14
Mack,
Ah…looking at the page, there is a javascript error with Shadowbox (if you’re running FireFox, I highly recommend getting their Firebug add-on…if you do any web stuff, it is a 150% must have).
There is a javascript call that’s trying to initialize Shadowbox. So, if you have the Shadowbox plugin enabled, try disabling it and then try your page again.
Shadowbox might be the problem, or it might just be another symptom, like PhotoSmash is.
Byron
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 22:58
Thanks! I do use Firebug. I have disabled Shadowbox and still no joy. I had just recently installed Shadowbox long after this issue.
I only use StudioPress products. I will see if there is another template that I can try.
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 23:28
Mack,
I notice that the script tag where the thickbox.js is being imported in the footer is enclosed within
<!– the script code –>
The HTML comment tag. So I think that the template is not even pulling in Thickbox (or Shadowbox when it’s active).
See if you can get the wp_footer(); outside of the HTML comment tags.
It is possible that the template has some crazy function that puts the result of wp_footer(); inside the comment tags, but I don’t know why they’d do that.
I think this is it! I noticed through FireBug that the Thickbox javascript file isn’t being loaded at all. Hopefully you’re there!!!
Byron
Friday, 24 July, 2009 at 9:06
Byron:
That was it! Thanks so very much for your great support! Once again… LOVE THIS PLUGIN!
Friday, 24 July, 2009 at 9:42
Mack,
You’re welcome! Glad you like PhotoSmash
There is even more to come.
BB
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 10:54
When I click “Add Photo” from this site (this is the only Plugin activated, I get a 404 error.
Go to http://www.neothinkmembers.com/test-full-page/
The folders in my wp-content are setup properly:
wp-conatent–> uploads–> bwbps–>thumbs, docs.
Properties are set to 0755. I also tested with 0777 with same results.
I have this working on another site just fine.
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 10:24
Hi Jenn,
I’m glad you’re liking PhotoSmash!
Does turning off PhotoSmash allow your Edit Pages to work again? I haven’t seen any issues like that before, and PhotoSmash doesn’t have any hooks into the edit-pages.php process. Could it be another plugin (I hope
)?
If you’ve got it narrowed down to PhotoSmash, what version of WordPress / PHP / MySQL are you running?
Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this!
Byron
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 10:36
Wordpress 2.7 and I’m not entirely sure about PHP and MySQL versions except to say that it was all setup very recently so it has to be the latest or close to it as possible.
And yes, edit-pages.php comes back when I deactivate Photosmash.
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 11:21
Jenn,
Please send me an email at byron at whypad.com and we can work offline to see what the problem might be.
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 12:30
Jenn,
I found the problem. There is apparently a conflict with the Blasi Templates plugin. If you disable that, then Edit Pages works as expected.
I tried visiting their site, but cannot connect to it.
I’ve posted here so that anyone else using that plugin will know there is a conflict. I’ll get in touch with you through email.
Cheers,
Byron
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 9:23
LOVE this plugin. but when I activate it, the WP page editor goes blank… edit-pages.php no longer works. Any thoughts on how to fix this? thanks!
Thursday, 23 July, 2009 at 10:13
Also wondering if I can add to the minimum roles to include our own custom roles for access to uploading.
Wednesday, 22 July, 2009 at 21:21
Just added the gallery to my wordpress and it’s has doubles of each photo when viewing in the lightbox. But it only views one image in the gallery.
Any ideas?
Wednesday, 22 July, 2009 at 22:51
Hi Vtucker,
I had trouble with this a while back. The problem was that there were 2 links to the image, one from the the thumbnail and one from the caption. I changed it so that the caption and the thumbnail shared the same link. I thought I had fixed it, but maybe it’s crept back in.
I might have a bug with that logic. 1) Are you using the standard gallery or a custom layout? 2) What Caption option are you using?
Byron
Wednesday, 15 July, 2009 at 11:10
It’s very excellent plugin. But it should have non-registered visitor adding support.
thanks
Wednesday, 15 July, 2009 at 11:17
Hi Alen,
Thanks!
I think you can accomplish that if you set the “Minimum role to upload photos:” setting on the Upload tab of Gallery Settings (and in PhotoSmash Settings to default it for new galleries) to “Anyone”.
Byron
Tuesday, 14 July, 2009 at 21:52
Hi, I am testing this out. Really sweet! Setup is not too big an issue. I do have problems uploading pictures though
At first it told me The maximum file size is 400kb when the file size was only 2.9kb then that mysteriously disappeared – maybe coz I changed permissions and now I get a image processing failed error.
Are there any other server requirements? I have the gallery set to resize and maintain aspect on both thumbnails and image. What am I missing?
Tuesday, 14 July, 2009 at 22:34
Hi Lynette,
Uggg…sorry to hear that. If you’d like, send me an email at byron at whypad.com and I will take a look at this with you. I don’t think we’ve not been able to get anybody up and running yet. Sometimes it takes a little bit of tweaking.
If you do send an email, go to the Plugin Info screen and copy and paste the info in there to the email. The problem could have to do with Safe Mode or with the folder permissions.
Thanks,
Byron
Tuesday, 14 July, 2009 at 13:27
Hooray! Congratulations Byron.
Tuesday, 14 July, 2009 at 21:59
Thanks, Zac! It was a long time in coming…now for all of that documentation
BB
Monday, 13 July, 2009 at 8:32
Ah yes…the demo: Demo here. Thanks for the reminder.
Monday, 13 July, 2009 at 6:34
Where is a demo? Thank you very much!
Monday, 13 July, 2009 at 0:24
Welcome to the new home of PhotoSmash. Obviously, there is a ton of documentation and other work that needs to be done, but here it is all the same.
I will also be putting in a Forum for support questions, though I like the comments in the blogs better. In the long run, a Forum is probably the right way to go. So until it’s up and running, you can post questions here.
Hope you enjoy the new PhotoSmash!
Cheers!
Byron