Is there a way to force the initial viewing style?

marlinspike · July 24, 2005

I don't want to force the viewer to view in a particular style only, but is there a way with a pro account to make it so that the visiter starts off with elegant small?
Thanks,
Richard

jfriend · July 24, 2005

Here's how to set the initial style without locking it

marlinspike wrote:

I don't want to force the viewer to view in a particular style only, but is there a way with a pro account to make it so that the visiter starts off with elegant small?
Thanks,
Richard

I asked this same question awhile ago and this was the helpful answer I got then. I've used this technique and it works:

To set a different default gallery style via a hyperlink, using the following format...

http://www.smugmug.com/homepage/templatechange.mg?TemplateID=<template>&origin=<album url>

where <template> is as follows...

3 - Elegant
4 - Traditional
7 - All Thumbs
8 - Slideshow
9 - Journal
10 - Elegant Small

That original posting was here and thanks to devbobo:
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=117058&postcount=3

For the smugmug staff who might be listening, it would be much easier to just add a setting to the customize gallery page so you can set the initial style, but still let the viewer change the style if they want to.

--John

georges · July 24, 2005

initial style setting
I would also make use of this on almost every gallery. I've actually been observing some of my users lately, to see how they use the galleries.

I have my galleries locked to a style right now, but I'd like to give them the option.

See you later, gs

jfriend · July 24, 2005

Can lock the style in "customize gallery"

marlinspike wrote:

I don't want to force the viewer to view in a particular style only, but is there a way with a pro account to make it so that the visiter starts off with elegant small?
Thanks,
Richard

I should add the the "Customize Gallery" page has a control for the gallery style (near the bottom of the page). This lets you "lock" the gallery into one viewing style only and the viewer can't change it. If that's what you want, then the functionality is already there. What my previous message was about was the case where you want to specify an "initial" viewing style, but still let the user change the style. In that case, you can't use the customize gallery preference - you have to use some other technique like the previous technique of passing the desired style in a URL.

--John

marlinspike · July 24, 2005

But there is no way to set the default viewing style that they would see if they visited a page not via hyperlink?
Richard

jfriend · July 24, 2005

Correct

marlinspike wrote:

But there is no way to set the default viewing style that they would see if they visited a page not via hyperlink?
Richard

To say it a slightly different way. You can set the default viewing style in "customize gallery" if you want that to be the only viewing style and not changable by the viewer. You cannot set the default style if you want the user to be able to change it. The only workaround I've found is via the hyperlink. It does seem like a missing feature.

--John

James Broome · August 3, 2005

jfriend wrote:

I should add the the "Customize Gallery" page has a control for the gallery style (near the bottom of the page). This lets you "lock" the gallery into one viewing style only and the viewer can't change it. If that's what you want, then the functionality is already there.

Unless you want to force 'Elegant Small', right? I don't have that option.

jfriend · August 3, 2005

Setting style for the gallery

TPJ wrote:

Unless you want to force 'Elegant Small', right? I don't have that option.

I'm not sure what you are asking. Near the bottom of the customize gallery screen, I have this option:

It lets me set any of the styles as the locked style for the gallery. As this thread is about, it does not let you set the "initial" style where the user can still change to their own style, but it does let you pick from any of the existing styles and "lock" that style so it's the only one that is used. I do have a Pro account. I suppose it's possible that non-pro accounts don't have this option, but that's why I included the screen shot so you can go look to see if you have this option or not.

--John

James Broome · August 3, 2005

Yes, that's what I see too. So where is 'Elegant Small'?

jfriend · August 3, 2005

Can't lock to elegant small

TPJ wrote:

Yes, that's what I see too. So where is 'Elegant Small'?

Oh OK, now I understand what you were asking. I don't see any way to default it to Elegant small. I have no idea why they left off that option. Any smugmugger care to answer?

On a separate topic, I'm interested in why you want to use Elegant Small at all? I myself never use Elegant small because the thumbs are the same size as Elegant, but the image seems barely bigger than the thumbs and too small to really accomplish much. That whole style seems like it's hopelessly in between thumbs only and Elegant with no real advantage over either. I checked a few images and the image download size difference is ~17k for the main image on Elegant small and ~34k for the main image on Elegant. That savings doesn't seem worth it to me given how small the main image is on Elegant Small.

--John

James Broome · August 3, 2005

Elegant small uses less screen real-estate. That's all.

Once you change to Elegant instead of Elegant Small, the whole layout changes. What gets displayed takes up more space left to right on the screen.

What I'd really like is to be able to specify the number of thumbnails per row and the number of rows per page. More control = GoodThing™.

StevenV · September 29, 2005

I'd like to put in another vote for the ability to force to "Smugmug Small" (instead of just "Smugmug) style.

[edit] or at least to reduce the amount of space between the two columns of thumbnails and the one medium-size image

[edit] btw, can anyone help me understand why there are normally two columns, but on ... oh shoot - it's an IE vs Firefox thing? If you've got a minute, look at this in both browsers.
Firefox shows three columns, and a nice small amount of space between the columns & the image.
IE6 shows two columns and a huge space... and in one place three columns (where I've got some portrait-oriented images).
ARRRRRRRR!

thanks,

Angie · October 12, 2007

jfriend wrote:

For the smugmug staff who might be listening, it would be much easier to just add a setting to the customize gallery page so you can set the initial style, but still let the viewer change the style if they want to.

--John

I agree. That would be a really useful feature that I would like to see implemented.

ivar · October 12, 2007

StevenV wrote:

I'd like to put in another vote for the ability to force to "Smugmug Small" (instead of just "Smugmug) style.

pssst...

mtnbiker · October 13, 2007

ivar wrote:

pssst...

Ivar forcing the viewing style does not work on the recent, keyword, or popular galleries on my site. I place this
SM.SmugMug.config.size = 'large';
in the javascript area but I still randomly see any gallery which doesn't have it's own customize gallery page as a slideshow. This is not a cookie thing as I have checked that avenue extensively.

Is there a way to force the initial viewing style?

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