My database at the top level has various functional pages and folder titled "Browse All" where all the pictures live. "Browse All" contains a bunch of sub folders for different topics. "Browse All" also contains several custom-built pages, one for each year, that contain a folder/gallery/page content block listing the galleries associated with that year. So there's a 2015 page, and a 2014 page, and so on. I have customized the display of "Browse All" to have one folder/gallery/page content block that shows the topical folders ... and a second page content block that shows all the year-specific pages. You can look at my site to see it in action.
The only real problem is that the folder/gallery/page content blocks inside the year pages are created using the "Items I choose" approach. The SmugMug interface is more than a little flaky when dealing with f/g/p blocks populated that way. I've managed to make it work by totally re-selecting the items when I have to add one. I have to do it all on one pass. If I stop and look at what I have, SmugMug alphabetizes the list of items I've entered rather than keeping the temporal order I want. But with caution, and written notes before I start, I've managed to make do.
Jim, I really like your "By Topic" and "By Year" page. While there i enjoyed remodeling project photos, among others.
I like your idea too, Jim. Just curious though (I haven't played around with content blocks enough yet, or maybe I'd know the answer to this question): I wondered why your "By Year" section of the "Browse All" folder uses the "page" content block to display the year-specific pages, instead of folders & sub-folders like the other section, "By Topic" has. In other words, your "topic" section displays folders, then sub-folders within that. But the "By Year" section uses f/g/p to show the galleries. There must be some practical reason, but I can't figure out what it is!
I too mix topical and time layouts.
My database at the top level has various functional pages and folder titled "Browse All" where all the pictures live. "Browse All" contains a bunch of sub folders for different topics. "Browse All" also contains several custom-built pages, one for each year, that contain a folder/gallery/page content block listing....... "Browse All" to have one folder/gallery/page content block that shows the topical folders ... and a second page content block that shows all the year-specific pages.......... SmugMug alphabetizes the list of items I've entered rather than keeping the temporal order I want. But with caution, and written notes before I start, I've managed to make do.
I like your idea too, Jim. Just curious though (I haven't played around with content blocks enough yet, or maybe I'd know the answer to this question): I wondered why your "By Year" section of the "Browse All" folder uses the "page" content block to display the year-specific pages, instead of folders & sub-folders like the other section, "By Topic" has. In other words, your "topic" section displays folders, then sub-folders within that. But the "By Year" section uses f/g/p to show the galleries. There must be some practical reason, but I can't figure out what it is!
The "By Year" arrangement points to exactly the same folders and galleries as the "By Topic" section does. They are not copies. There is no structure in the database that corresponds to the "By Year" organization. All has to be done with with folder/gallery/page content blocks using the "Items I Choose" option with the choices pulled out the topic-organized database.
I guess I could have created an almost empty folder for each year rather than a page, disconnect the web page associated with those folders from the folder template, and then put a new "Items I Choose" f/g/p content block in each. Since the feature image for a folder has to be a picture in the folder, I'd also have to plop a copy of the picture I wanted into a special gallery living in each folder. If I wanted to change pictures, something which can happen as the year wears on, I'd have to upload another. Pages don't have that limitation: I can just point the feature image link to any picture anywhere. With all that, I concluded it was just more straightforward just to use pages for each year.
...Since the feature image for a folder has to be a picture in the folder, I'd also have to plop a copy of the picture I wanted into a special gallery living in each folder...
You can browse to anywhere on your site and select a feature photo. I have a few special created
cropped images that I use for featured photos in a few galleries and folders and they are all in an
unlisted gallery named /Other/Gallery-Featured-Images.
You can browse to anywhere on your site and select a feature photo. I have a few special created
cropped images that I use for featured photos in a few galleries and folders and they are all in an
unlisted gallery named /Other/Gallery-Featured-Images.
The "By Year" arrangement points to exactly the same folders and galleries as the "By Topic" section does. They are not copies. There is no structure in the database that corresponds to the "By Year" organization. All has to be done with with folder/gallery/page content blocks using the "Items I Choose" option with the choices pulled out the topic-organized database.
I guess I could have created an almost empty folder for each year rather than a page, disconnect the web page associated with those folders from the folder template, and then put a new "Items I Choose" f/g/p content block in each. Since the feature image for a folder has to be a picture in the folder, I'd also have to plop a copy of the picture I wanted into a special gallery living in each folder. If I wanted to change pictures, something which can happen as the year wears on, I'd have to upload another. Pages don't have that limitation: I can just point the feature image link to any picture anywhere. With all that, I concluded it was just more straightforward just to use pages for each year.
You can browse to anywhere on your site and select a feature photo. I have a few special created
cropped images that I use for featured photos in a few galleries and folders and they are all in an
unlisted gallery named /Other/Gallery-Featured-Images.
Three more thoughts following on Allen's post and my initial reply to WinsomeWorks (both quoted above).
First, I now wonder if I just missed the tools for moving around to any gallery to select a featured image when I was learning the new SM back in August 2013. That capability was certainly there in December 2013, as noted in this DG thread.
Second, I now think it would be better to use an empty folder rather than a page as a home for the special f/g/p content block like I have on my individual year pages. In fact, I suspect empty folders would beat pages in most page-like applications for me, counter-intuitive as that may seem. For either an empty folder or a page, I have to go through three steps:
Create the page/folder (including basic layout items on the display web page);
Insert, format, and fill whatever custom content blocks are needed; and then
Select the featured image.
But folders have one big advantage: folders start with templates whereas pages have no templates. When I create a folder, it inherits all the layout settings, which in my case includes inheriting a sidebar specially built for folders. (Because my sidebars have some context-sensitive elements, I don't use a site-wide one.) When I create a page, I have to build all that, including the sidebar, from scratch. For things like my year pages/folders, it would clearly be easier to inherit the layout, disconnect it from the template, and do a little clean-up rather than never to have a template in the first place. When I build the 2016 year "page" next January, it likely will be an empty folder. I may redo the others for consistency.
So third, I need to extend a great big"Thank You, Allen". It's been a while since DG gave me information to make my site management considerably easier. Any you just did!
I'll may have to try creating another page or folder while looking back at these posts, because I don't think I found a way to tackle the exact issue you two (Al & Jim) have been talking about-- selecting a feature photo outside of the folder when using a content block to create another way of navigating to other existing photos/folders/ galleries. I know with regular folders, yes, I can navigate to any folder to find a feature image. But Mon. eve I was trying to make another way to navigate through my large Travel section while still having the possibility of seeing the whole section on one page as it is if you click "Travel". So instead of creating a "By Years" page for this extra navigation route, I tried to set up a "Stateside" page on which I added a "Folders" content block. (meant for collecting all my USA states travel folders & galleries in one place... then I wanted to also make a new "Global" page for a way to navigate to foreign travel), & have that as one more dropdown under "Travel" in my nav menu.
I created this new folder while in my original Travel section-- my reasoning was that I wanted to least have "Travel" in the breadcrumb, even if the visitor got there by using a drop link from my Nav bar. It's there now but still in progress, so you can see what I mean by hovering over "Travel" in my nav menu. Anyway, something in that process wasn't allowing me to pick a feature photo. Maybe it was just that you can't go to "Organize" & then choose one because you're told there's no content there to choose (since you're essentially in a virtual folder). Yes, i think it was that I wanted a different format (1:3 ratio images) for the grid tiles, but am stuck with the same feature photos on that page as I've chosen in the "real" folder that houses all my travel folders. (& some of those 1:3 crops don't work well with those original feature photos) And I can't get a feature photo at all onto the "Stateside" folder that now appears in my main Travel page, because again I'm told "no content to choose".
I thought maybe Jim's idea about creating a Page instead of a Folder may help (tho I didn't try that yet), but it's looking to me like I simply went about the whole idea wrong... it's just goofy having the "Stateside" page showing as a tile on my "Travel" page I guess, when the linked dropdown called "Stateside" is only going to take you to a virtual subset of that very page. Idk.. I keep going in circles when trying to visualize & then accomplish with content blocks or nested folders what I'd like visitors to be able to do. As Jim mentioned, the trick of choosing folders & galleries in just the right order (since they can't be arranged later) is a bit of a challenge. And also, I keep bumping into restrictions on what I'm allowed to choose. Some of the methods only allow you to choose one folder to populate the content block, or stuff in that folder.
Is my problem that I should've just created another page or folder in my Browse All section instead? I don't want to make gazillions more Smart Galleries, but I'm trying to take viewers to areas they're interested in mostly by seeing/navigating thru a short trail of nice visual displays rather than a lot of dropdowns (want to limit the dropdown menu choices somewhat). But I really didn't want more top folders either. Maybe with the numbers of folders / galleries I've got, I'm visualizing something that's not possible without lots of scrolling and/or more menu items. I agree with the suggestions SmugMug gives in one of the Help sections about making it easy for your visitors to "get to the gold" so to speak, & also Denise's suggestions about the same, & I think your site does that, Jim. And btw, I forgot to say your photos are grand. I really get drawn into some of those galleries full of your walks through gorgeous landscapes--- goodness, your shoes have clocked some miles!!! I'm a sucker for fantastic trees, & you've done great tree portraits. Thanks to everyone who's "thinking out loud" in this thread. Great thread; great ideas.
... Anyway, something in that process wasn't allowing me to pick a feature photo. Maybe it was just that you can't go to "Organize" & then choose one because you're told there's no content there to choose (since you're essentially in a virtual folder). ...
I think you made exactly the same mistake I've been making for 2 years: believing that message with the blue information message up top, "Please select a single photo from your one of your galleries" and the yellow triangle message "There are no items available to pick in this Gallery" meant, in combination, that there was nothing you could select. It seemed a natural inference to me. But when you see these, click the breadcrumb at the top of the page. You can maneuver to some other gallery where are pictures and select one of those. That works for any of those empty folders. Somehow I saw that after Allen's post, but without his nudge I'd blown right past the breadcrumb method a couple of times in the last few years.
BTW, glad you enjoyed the pictures. I enjoyed the trips.
Back on Legacy for a gallery we could feature a photo in the gallery. After featuring we could move that
photo elsewhere so it would not show in the gallery but the featured photo would stick.
Much nicer now as we can browse to any photo on the site. I can now select a highlight feature photo for
any level. Example, pick the best photo of the whole year for each year folder. My top folder, Birds, has all
the years.
All my bird folders are set to square grids and Smug uses the center square of a photo for these. I rarely have the
subject of photo in the center of a landscape. That square center will also crop off heads on portraits.
I square crop every bird photo thumb down to just the subject, all Smugmug style galleries. Legacy used to use
these for featured photo so there was no problem.
So you're saying it's easier now because we can browse anywhere, but yet you've gotta crop every feature photo (thumb) to fix the problem of the subject not being in the center & the grid therefore cutting off heads? Sounds like a lot of work to me, unless I'm misunderstanding. Anyway, the thing is, with content blocks, the message you get when trying to choose a feature photo for a folder or whatever is that there's no content to choose from, so it appears you can't choose one (like for my "Stateside" page-- it's got a blue, blank 'feature photo" cuz I could find no way to choose one after getting the yellow "caution" sign & the message with it). However, I see Jim's message about how you can get around that. So, continuing on his message...
Back on Legacy for a gallery we could feature a photo in the gallery. After featuring we could move that
photo elsewhere so it would not show in the gallery but the featured photo would stick.
Much nicer now as we can browse to any photo on the site. I can now select a highlight feature photo for
any level. Example, pick the best photo of the whole year for each year folder. My top folder, Birds, has all
the years.
All my bird folders are set to square grids and Smug uses the center square of a photo for these. I rarely have the
subject of photo in the center of a landscape. That square center will also crop off heads on portraits.
I square crop every bird photo thumb down to just the subject, all Smugmug style galleries. Legacy used to use
these for featured photo so there was no problem.
SmugMug needs to change message displayed when choosing folder block feature photos
Wow, Jim, you're right-- I did make exactly that mistake! I didn't realize last night that you'd found a way around that deterring message! I imagine many folks have gotten that message when trying to choose a feature photo for a content block folder... you get there & see that message & assume you've reached a dead end in your quest. SmugMug needs to change that message & send people to the correct place, to the breadcrumb or whatever. (or simply show content that's in the rest of our folders since they can indeed be chosen!) Gosh, thanks to Al for the nudge & to you for figuring this out. I haven't yet fixed everything, but will do so quickly & easily now.
Now.... if I could just figure out the Möbius strip or Strange Loop of where to create new pages so that navigation isn't taking me into illogical folders or to pages with a confusing breadcrumb, or kinda back to where I started... I know I'm not doing something right...
I think you made exactly the same mistake I've been making for 2 years: believing that message with the blue information message up top, "Please select a single photo from your one of your galleries" and the yellow triangle message "There are no items available to pick in this Gallery" meant, in combination, that there was nothing you could select. It seemed a natural inference to me. But when you see these, click the breadcrumb at the top of the page. You can maneuver to some other gallery where are pictures and select one of those. That works for any of those empty folders. Somehow I saw that after Allen's post, but without his nudge I'd blown right past the breadcrumb method a couple of times in the last few years.
BTW, glad you enjoyed the pictures. I enjoyed the trips.
I have only created about 20 special cropped images for "feature photo". I can usually find something in
a gallery to use. But method is available if needed.
All Pages are initially set to "Just This Page". Add an html block at top of content and insert whatever breadcrumb you want.
But folders have one big advantage: folders start with templates whereas pages have no templates. When I create a folder, it inherits all the layout settings, which in my case includes inheriting a sidebar specially built for folders. (Because my sidebars have some context-sensitive elements, I don't use a site-wide one.) When I create a page, I have to build all that, including the sidebar, from scratch. For things like my year pages/folders, it would clearly be easier to inherit the layout, disconnect it from the template, and do a little clean-up rather than never to have a template in the first place.
This is HUGE. I'm just starting on the private "shoebox" side of my website and this will be very useful for setting up context sensitive navigation there! Thanks to Allen, but also thanks to you for helping me realize the potential through your example.
Al, thank you for this info about editing the breadcrumb on a Page. And you mean that using other words that are present in your other breadcrumbs are usable and clickable? (I mean, if "Travel" is a top folder & therefore that word appears in other breadcrumbs in other parts of my site... then I co-opt that word 'Travel" on a Page's breadcrumb, it'll take me to my "Travel" folder? I'm assuming that method (adding an Html block) is only do-able on a Page... i.e. you can't remove a breadcrumb or edit wording on a breadcrumb on a folder or gallery... ?)
I have only created about 20 special cropped images for "feature photo". I can usually find something in
a gallery to use. But method is available if needed.
All Pages are initially set to "Just This Page". Add an html block at top of content and insert whatever breadcrumb you want.
Al, thank you for this info about editing the breadcrumb on a Page. And you mean that using other words that are present in your other breadcrumbs are usable and clickable? (I mean, if "Travel" is a top folder & therefore that word appears in other breadcrumbs in other parts of my site... then I co-opt that word 'Travel" on a Page's breadcrumb, it'll take me to my "Travel" folder? I'm assuming that method (adding an Html block) is only do-able on a Page... i.e. you can't remove a breadcrumb or edit wording on a breadcrumb on a folder or gallery... ?)
I meant create your own breadcrumb "like" links. Nothing to do with a breadcrumb but adding a string
that looks like a breadcrumb with the links you want.
Comments
Jim, I really like your "By Topic" and "By Year" page. While there i enjoyed remodeling project photos, among others.
DayBreak, my Folk Music Group (some free mp3s!) http://daybreakfolk.com
The "By Year" arrangement points to exactly the same folders and galleries as the "By Topic" section does. They are not copies. There is no structure in the database that corresponds to the "By Year" organization. All has to be done with with folder/gallery/page content blocks using the "Items I Choose" option with the choices pulled out the topic-organized database.
I guess I could have created an almost empty folder for each year rather than a page, disconnect the web page associated with those folders from the folder template, and then put a new "Items I Choose" f/g/p content block in each. Since the feature image for a folder has to be a picture in the folder, I'd also have to plop a copy of the picture I wanted into a special gallery living in each folder. If I wanted to change pictures, something which can happen as the year wears on, I'd have to upload another. Pages don't have that limitation: I can just point the feature image link to any picture anywhere. With all that, I concluded it was just more straightforward just to use pages for each year.
Glad you enjoyed them ... both the SmugMug site organization and the remodel!
cropped images that I use for featured photos in a few galleries and folders and they are all in an
unlisted gallery named /Other/Gallery-Featured-Images.
My Website index | My Blog
You are quite correct. It looks like the behavior I noted when the new SM came out (the link is to an August 2013 dgrin post) got fixed after I stopped checking.
Three more thoughts following on Allen's post and my initial reply to WinsomeWorks (both quoted above).
First, I now wonder if I just missed the tools for moving around to any gallery to select a featured image when I was learning the new SM back in August 2013. That capability was certainly there in December 2013, as noted in this DG thread.
Second, I now think it would be better to use an empty folder rather than a page as a home for the special f/g/p content block like I have on my individual year pages. In fact, I suspect empty folders would beat pages in most page-like applications for me, counter-intuitive as that may seem. For either an empty folder or a page, I have to go through three steps:
- Create the page/folder (including basic layout items on the display web page);
- Insert, format, and fill whatever custom content blocks are needed; and then
- Select the featured image.
But folders have one big advantage: folders start with templates whereas pages have no templates. When I create a folder, it inherits all the layout settings, which in my case includes inheriting a sidebar specially built for folders. (Because my sidebars have some context-sensitive elements, I don't use a site-wide one.) When I create a page, I have to build all that, including the sidebar, from scratch. For things like my year pages/folders, it would clearly be easier to inherit the layout, disconnect it from the template, and do a little clean-up rather than never to have a template in the first place. When I build the 2016 year "page" next January, it likely will be an empty folder. I may redo the others for consistency.So third, I need to extend a great big "Thank You, Allen". It's been a while since DG gave me information to make my site management considerably easier. Any you just did!
I created this new folder while in my original Travel section-- my reasoning was that I wanted to least have "Travel" in the breadcrumb, even if the visitor got there by using a drop link from my Nav bar. It's there now but still in progress, so you can see what I mean by hovering over "Travel" in my nav menu. Anyway, something in that process wasn't allowing me to pick a feature photo. Maybe it was just that you can't go to "Organize" & then choose one because you're told there's no content there to choose (since you're essentially in a virtual folder). Yes, i think it was that I wanted a different format (1:3 ratio images) for the grid tiles, but am stuck with the same feature photos on that page as I've chosen in the "real" folder that houses all my travel folders. (& some of those 1:3 crops don't work well with those original feature photos) And I can't get a feature photo at all onto the "Stateside" folder that now appears in my main Travel page, because again I'm told "no content to choose".
I thought maybe Jim's idea about creating a Page instead of a Folder may help (tho I didn't try that yet), but it's looking to me like I simply went about the whole idea wrong... it's just goofy having the "Stateside" page showing as a tile on my "Travel" page I guess, when the linked dropdown called "Stateside" is only going to take you to a virtual subset of that very page. Idk.. I keep going in circles when trying to visualize & then accomplish with content blocks or nested folders what I'd like visitors to be able to do. As Jim mentioned, the trick of choosing folders & galleries in just the right order (since they can't be arranged later) is a bit of a challenge. And also, I keep bumping into restrictions on what I'm allowed to choose. Some of the methods only allow you to choose one folder to populate the content block, or stuff in that folder.
Is my problem that I should've just created another page or folder in my Browse All section instead? I don't want to make gazillions more Smart Galleries, but I'm trying to take viewers to areas they're interested in mostly by seeing/navigating thru a short trail of nice visual displays rather than a lot of dropdowns (want to limit the dropdown menu choices somewhat). But I really didn't want more top folders either. Maybe with the numbers of folders / galleries I've got, I'm visualizing something that's not possible without lots of scrolling and/or more menu items. I agree with the suggestions SmugMug gives in one of the Help sections about making it easy for your visitors to "get to the gold" so to speak, & also Denise's suggestions about the same, & I think your site does that, Jim. And btw, I forgot to say your photos are grand. I really get drawn into some of those galleries full of your walks through gorgeous landscapes--- goodness, your shoes have clocked some miles!!! I'm a sucker for fantastic trees, & you've done great tree portraits. Thanks to everyone who's "thinking out loud" in this thread. Great thread; great ideas.
DayBreak, my Folk Music Group (some free mp3s!) http://daybreakfolk.com
I think you made exactly the same mistake I've been making for 2 years: believing that message with the blue information message up top, "Please select a single photo from your one of your galleries" and the yellow triangle message "There are no items available to pick in this Gallery" meant, in combination, that there was nothing you could select. It seemed a natural inference to me. But when you see these, click the breadcrumb at the top of the page. You can maneuver to some other gallery where are pictures and select one of those. That works for any of those empty folders. Somehow I saw that after Allen's post, but without his nudge I'd blown right past the breadcrumb method a couple of times in the last few years.
BTW, glad you enjoyed the pictures. I enjoyed the trips.
photo elsewhere so it would not show in the gallery but the featured photo would stick.
Much nicer now as we can browse to any photo on the site. I can now select a highlight feature photo for
any level. Example, pick the best photo of the whole year for each year folder. My top folder, Birds, has all
the years.
All my bird folders are set to square grids and Smug uses the center square of a photo for these. I rarely have the
subject of photo in the center of a landscape. That square center will also crop off heads on portraits.
I square crop every bird photo thumb down to just the subject, all Smugmug style galleries. Legacy used to use
these for featured photo so there was no problem.
My Website index | My Blog
DayBreak, my Folk Music Group (some free mp3s!) http://daybreakfolk.com
Wow, Jim, you're right-- I did make exactly that mistake! I didn't realize last night that you'd found a way around that deterring message! I imagine many folks have gotten that message when trying to choose a feature photo for a content block folder... you get there & see that message & assume you've reached a dead end in your quest. SmugMug needs to change that message & send people to the correct place, to the breadcrumb or whatever. (or simply show content that's in the rest of our folders since they can indeed be chosen!) Gosh, thanks to Al for the nudge & to you for figuring this out. I haven't yet fixed everything, but will do so quickly & easily now.
Now.... if I could just figure out the Möbius strip or Strange Loop of where to create new pages so that navigation isn't taking me into illogical folders or to pages with a confusing breadcrumb, or kinda back to where I started... I know I'm not doing something right...
DayBreak, my Folk Music Group (some free mp3s!) http://daybreakfolk.com
a gallery to use. But method is available if needed.
All Pages are initially set to "Just This Page". Add an html block at top of content and insert whatever breadcrumb you want.
My Website index | My Blog
This is HUGE. I'm just starting on the private "shoebox" side of my website and this will be very useful for setting up context sensitive navigation there! Thanks to Allen, but also thanks to you for helping me realize the potential through your example.
DayBreak, my Folk Music Group (some free mp3s!) http://daybreakfolk.com
that looks like a breadcrumb with the links you want.
My Website index | My Blog