subcategories within subcategories?

jasonstone · June 4, 2008

As the title says - is it possible to have subcategories within subcategories?

E.g. Travel -> 2008 -> US and Travel -> 2008 -> Switzerland and so on

Not a show stopper but would be useful for organising a lot of galleries

Cheers, Jase

denisegoldberg · June 4, 2008

jasonstone wrote:

As the title says - is it possible to have subcategories within subcategories?

No, it's not. You can only have 3 levels:

category >>> subcategory >>> gallery

One possibility to get the structure you've suggested is to embed the year in the subcategory. So within the category Travel, define the subcategories 2008 US, 2008 Switzerland, etc.

--- Denise

jasonstone · June 4, 2008

denisegoldberg wrote:

No, it's not. You can only have 3 levels:
category >>> subcategory >>> gallery
One possibility to get the structure you've suggested is to embed the year in the subcategory. So within the category Travel, define the subcategories 2008 US, 2008 Switzerland, etc.

--- Denise

Thanks Denise - once again you've helped me out!

chuckinsocal · June 4, 2008

Hi Gang,

I've gotta be missing something here:

Why not create an html only page equivalent to a category page, as in http://www.customrideportraits.com/gallery/4345166_vEzY5? Then you can include any descriptions you want, which real category pages don't allow for, plus from there you can build down to as many levels as you want.

Why does everybody want to stay within SmugMugs 3 level restriction with no descriptions on their category pages? I just don't get it.

jasonstone · June 4, 2008

chuckinsocal wrote:

Hi Gang,

I've gotta be missing something here:

Why not create an html only page equivalent to a category page, as in http://www.customrideportraits.com/gallery/4345166_vEzY5? Then you can include any descriptions you want, which real category pages don't allow for, plus from there you can build down to as many levels as you want.

Why does everybody want to stay within SmugMugs 3 level restriction with no descriptions on their category pages? I just don't get it.

I only have the basic smugmug subscription - so no html
or am I wrong on that?
I have another web host with 4 domain names - and my blog is hosted there so I don't want to change that. Up until now I had all my photos on my own hosting too - but just uploaded flash galleries.

But good idea! :-)

chuckinsocal · June 4, 2008

Sorry ... I missed the point that you had a basic account. But it seems like every week there's someone on here who wants more than 3 levels or wants to put descriptions in their category pages and they're told "sorry, you can't do that". People think they have to live in the box, but, unless I'm missing something, and that's entirely possible, that's just not true. There's an open door to freedom and people won't walk through it nor are they told about it. That's what I don't get.

Denise? Are you watching this thread? I'd love your feedback on this. What am I missing?

jasonstone · June 4, 2008

chuckinsocal wrote:

Sorry ... I missed the point that you had a basic account. But it seems like every week there's someone on here who wants more than 3 levels or wants to put descriptions in their category pages and they're told "sorry, you can't do that". That's what I don't get.

Denise? Are you watching this thread? I'd love your feedback on this.

I might put it in the "feature requests" thread...
It's not a show stopper but would sure be nice!

denisegoldberg · June 4, 2008

chuckinsocal wrote:

Sorry ... I missed the point that you had a basic account. But it seems like every week there's someone on here who wants more than 3 levels or wants to put descriptions in their category pages and they're told "sorry, you can't do that". That's what I don't get.

Denise? Are you watching this thread? I'd love your feedback on this.

Chuck -
You're right that you can do whatever you'd like with html-only galleries. But I think that you need to keep in mind that if you choose to go down that path you also need to maintain the structure. With the category > subcategory > gallery structure, smugmug maintains the structure.

If you look at my pages now you'll see that I am bypassing the smugmug structure. I've replaced all of my category and subcategory pages with html-only pages. I thought long and hard before I did that though. In fact, I kept trying to convince myself that it was a bad thing to do. (And by the way, I have no problem with smug's existing 3-level structure.) In the end, I decided that I wanted larger thumbs more than I wanted a self-maintaining structure. But now whenever I add a gallery I need to make sure to add a link to that gallery to the appropriate html-only structure.

I would be very surprised if there are many folks out there who are willing to step up to the maintenance of building a site out of html-only pages.

--- Denise

jasonstone · June 4, 2008

denisegoldberg wrote:

Chuck -
You're right that you can do whatever you'd like with html-only galleries. But I think that you need to keep in mind that if you choose to go down that path you also need to maintain the structure. With the category > subcategory > gallery structure, smugmug maintains the structure.

If you look at my pages now you'll see that I am bypassing the smugmug structure. I've replaced all of my category and subcategory pages with html-only pages. I thought long and hard before I did that though. In fact, I kept trying to convince myself that it was a bad thing to do. (And by the way, I have no problem with smug's existing 3-level structure.) In the end, I decided that I wanted larger thumbs more than I wanted a self-maintaining structure. But now whenever I add a gallery I need to make sure to add a link to that gallery to the appropriate html-only structure.

I would be very surprised if there are many folks out there who are willing to step up to the maintenance of building a site out of html-only pages.

--- Denise

I specifically am moving away from manual creation of all my stuff as I simple don't have the time.
That's why I have wordpress with _very_ few plugins on my website and want to use smugmug to host the photos and avoid creating web galleries from iPhoto to upload to my home page - just use the slideshow link from smugmug.

Streamlining is the key here

With a full time job, working after hours some time (EU to US), 2 small kids, a wife who is also working full time and cross time zones and travelling etc. well there just isn't any time!!!

So I want to utilise what I can of the features provided.

By the way - just so it's all clear - it's not a show stopper it was just a nice to have.

chuckinsocal · June 4, 2008

Hi Denise,

Your right ... it is a lot of work maintaining the structure and all. In fact it's often a pain in the butt.

But, to me anyway, the freedom makes it all worthwhile. I have a "thing" about being confined to a structure, which is why I've always been a lousy corporate employee. I like the ability to move about freely and I guess I'm willing to pay for it.

But, at least now I understand the rational.

Thanks for the feedback.

Allen · June 4, 2008

jasonstone wrote:

As the title says - is it possible to have subcategories within subcategories?

E.g. Travel -> 2008 -> US and Travel -> 2008 -> Switzerland and so on

Not a show stopper but would be useful for organising a lot of galleries

Cheers, Jase

Take a look here, it's an html gallery that creates another level. This sample is
for splitting the years and still have the normal three SmugMug levels. PW was added
to show how the tree can be completely hidden like for family galleries.

Baldy · June 4, 2008

We're working on N-deep subject categories. The back end guys have done their jobs but we're trying to figure out a great UI for them. I don't have a date, could be awhile, sorry about that.

jasonstone · June 5, 2008

Baldy wrote:

We're working on N-deep subject categories. The back end guys have done their jobs but we're trying to figure out a great UI for them. I don't have a date, could be awhile, sorry about that.

Wow - thanks for letting me know it's on the way Great stuff!

Man I do love smugmug

and a few more friends are entertaining the idea of moving away from flickr and i'm up on that soap box

KDunlap · June 5, 2008

Many of us are html illiterate

chuckinsocal wrote:

Hi Denise,

Your right ... it is a lot of work maintaining the structure and all. In fact it's often a pain in the butt.

But, to me anyway, the freedom makes it all worthwhile. I have a "thing" about being confined to a structure, which is why I've always been a lousy corporate employee. I like the ability to move about freely and I guess I'm willing to pay for it.

But, at least now I understand the rational.

Thanks for the feedback.

This might sound a little simple, but some of us (the fact is probably most of us) who would love to do html pages like that for the subcategories simply can't code html.

I am one of those people- someone has suggested that I try using html pages for my subcategories, but the fact is that unless someone else does that completely for me it's out of my reach. Finding a person to do that has been challenging, so if I could work within the Smugmug system that would be preferable.

Your feedback about how much time it takes to do the html subcategories made me rethink html pages as well- I don't have the time to fiddle with pages, and I shoot a high volume.

Kristi

jasonstone · June 5, 2008

KDunlap wrote:

This might sound a little simple, but some of us (the fact is probably most of us) who would love to do html pages like that for the subcategories simply can't code html. I am one of those people- someone has suggested that I try using html pages for my subcategories, but the fact is that unless someone else does that completely for me it's out of my reach. Finding a person to do that has been challenging, so if I could work within the Smugmug system that would be preferable.

Your feedback about how much time it takes to do the html subcategories made me rethink html pages as well- I don't have the time to fiddle with pages, and I shoot a high volume.

Kristi

Lots to shoot around Cambridge too !! We have an office there - lovely city

- I'm Aussie in Switzerland but used to live in London and Scotland too

chuckinsocal · June 5, 2008

I understand that one solution isn't gonna fit everyone. For me, html pages are a viable alternative ... not so for others.

As for coding html, I use a WYSIWYG html editor, there are free ones out there, so I can see beforehand what the page is gonna look like and design accordingly. No html coding. But, the GOTCHA is that sometimes I have to make some html adjustments if SmugMug doesn't like what the editor created. For that I guess you would need some knowledge of html.

It is time consuming as well and I guess I have the luxury of too much time on my hands. People with real lives may not have that much time to deal with it so it may not be a viable option for them.

So, while it is an option, I do understand that it's not gonna work for everybody.

This is all good though. I'm getting a better understanding of the issue.

KDunlap · June 9, 2008

Too much to photo, no time for website updating

jasonstone wrote:

Lots to shoot around Cambridge too !! We have an office there - lovely city - I'm Aussie in Switzerland but used to live in London and Scotland too

You know that's just it- I'm taking weekend trips like mad, besides shooting the colleges and everything else within my reach. I'm liking the Cambridge area for that reason. But it makes maintaining a website a pain in the rear if it takes more than 5 minutes to upload photos.

What company are you with? My husband works for Citrix here- Cambridge is like a silicon valley of the UK.

We just went to Oz in January (Citrix has an office in Sydney) and we loved it.

jasonstone · June 9, 2008

KDunlap wrote:

You know that's just it- I'm taking weekend trips like mad, besides shooting the colleges and everything else within my reach. I'm liking the Cambridge area for that reason. But it makes maintaining a website a pain in the rear if it takes more than 5 minutes to upload photos. What company are you with? My husband works for Citrix here- Cambridge is like a silicon valley of the UK. We just went to Oz in January (Citrix has an office in Sydney) and we loved it.

Actually it's been my wife that's visited our Cambridge office - we work for the same company.

We were there for a day after New Year too though... crap weather for photos unfortunately...

We work for Kofax.. mainly sell stuff through partner network so probably haven't heard about it....

So many photo opportunities in England - we were members of the English Heritage - and visited heaps of ruins - cool thing is the local keepers usually know a lot about the history of the place too - spent hours chatting with them

Anyway gotta run - watching the updates of the apple event online at the moment - and YES 3G iPhone - want one ;-)

johnnabrynn · June 9, 2008

categories bagazagategories
help! u guys sound knowledgeable. and i've worked a week on just trying to understand this category bizness... i've set up my navbar, but the "galleries" button doesnt go to the right place. i want it to go to my categories (i have 3).. but i dont know how to find the categories link that i can put in that code/link. So i'm thinking maybe i'm doing the category-thing wrong? Yikes. help. ((((my categories: faces, places, spaces. and with the smugmug macUploader i created titles: adults, children, etc etc.... so what are those? subcat's? they arent in my subcat's to even delete? AHHH ... help, so i can really do what matters -like upload my pics to where they belong...and so the nav bar will work properly.
Thanks! (5-day old smugger),
johnnabrynn.smugmug.com

subcategories within subcategories?

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