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Photo Gallery Manager Help Pages

User Guide Photo Gallery Manager v1

Contents:

  1. Getting Started 
  2. Creating A Photo Gallery 
    1. Add A New Category
    2. Edit Category
    3. Insert New Photo
    4. Editing a Photo Entry
    5. Deleting a Photo Entry
  3. Need More Help?

Getting Started 

Whether your client is displaying a lot of product shots, or the pictures are the product, DMXReady Photo Gallery Manager will help organize, display, and manage every photo on their website. Include new photos, delete old ones, add and edit captions, even deactivate any single photo, all through a user-friendly browser interface.

Best of all, you only have to upload each photo to the server once – much better than changing one item in the gallery and then uploading the whole page again!

This must-have app from DMXReady will make sure that your client’s customers will ‘get the picture’ easily, and eliminate most of the time needed for gallery upkeep.

DMXReady Designer's Tip: Picture Your Gallery Ahead of Time

For those with a large number of photos, you may want to do a bit of planning ahead of time. Break down the Photo Gallery into separate categories, or at least identify what those categories will be. Although DMXReady's Photo Gallery Manager is easy to use, pre-planning will make using this tool even easier!

Creating A Photo Gallery with DMXReady Photo Gallery Manager

Add New Category 

When you first install DMXReady Photo Gallery Manager into a Dreamweaver MX website, you are essentially opening a blank slate. If the Photo Gallery you are designing is large, you may find it easier to break down your Photo Gallery into different categories.

  1. Open the admin.asp page through any standard browser: http://www.yourdomain.com/admin/admin.asp You will note an empty table with the following headers: Category, Name, Description, Image, and a link listed as Insert New Item.
  2. Click on Insert New Item.
  3. Click on Add/Edit New Category.
  4. A pop-up box will appear. In the text box next to Add New Category, type the name of your first category and click on Insert New.
  5. The pop-up window disappears and you are back to the Photo Gallery creation page. Repeat the above process until all your categories are included.

DMXReady Designer's Tip: SAVE YOUR CHANGES OFTEN!

Due to security reasons, Photo Gallery Manager does not autobackup any changes to your server. Therefore it is recommended that you save your changes often. If you fail to save your changes, not only will your edits not be “published” to your server, you will also lose any changes that you have made and you will have to start again.

Edit Category 

Once you have designated a category, it can be easily changed, replaced, or deleted. This can be done at anytime during creation or administration of the website; all changes made to category names will be automatically updated throughout the Photo Gallery.

  1. In the Photo Gallery creation page, click on Add/Edit New Category.
  2. When the pop-up window appears, select the category you wish to change. Once you've made the changes, click on Update.
  3. To delete the category altogether, click on Delete.

Insert New Photo 

Once you have created your categories, you are ready to add all current photos. (Don’t worry if you think of another category during this process, just click on Add/Edit Category again and you can immediately insert it.)

  1. On the Insert New Item page, use the pull-down menu to select the category you want to enter the document under (if applicable).
  2. In the corresponding text boxes, type the image name, description, and date added.
  3. Enter the location of the photo file(s) on your hard drive into the appropriate text box. You can also click on Browse to search for these photos
  4. Click Insert. All photos and information will be automatically uploaded to your server.
  5. Repeat this process until all current events are inserted into your Photo Gallery.

DMXReady Designer's Tip: Transfer Your Photos

If your client has provided you with photos on a CD or other transferrable data storage device, transfer the photos to your hard drive before you upload them to your server. DMXReady Photo Manager can upload directly from CD-ROM (or other device) but this will greatly increase your set-up time.

Editing a Photo 

  1. To change a photo or its corresponding name, descriptions, etc., go to the Show All page (the first page that appears when you enter the admin page).
  2. Click Edit next to the photo that you wish to change. All the photo's information will appear just as you have entered it. Make the required changes and click Insert.

Deleting a Photo 

  1. To delete a photo, go to the Show All page (the first page that appears when you enter the admin page).
  2. Click Delete next to the Photo Gallery that you wish to remove. All information will be immediately removed from the server.

DMXReady Designer's Tip: To Avoid Losing Photo Gallery Information Altogether...

If it is at all possible that you may want to reuse the photo again in the future, but you do not want that particular photo on the website at the moment, you may find it better to simply deactivate the photo by clicking off the 'Activate' checkbox in the editing page. The photo will no longer appear to visitors of your page, but the information will still be available for you to change or activate as you need in the future.


Customizing the Photo Gallery Manager

One big advantage to using DMXReady applications is that although they are “ready to go, right out of the box,” they are also fully customizable. That means you can change the design, the code, even the database fields and connections to create your own website solution.

Of course, different people have different skill levels – not everyone is a web programmer. Due to the growing number of beginners and do-it-yourselfers out there, we’ve created new ways to customize DMXReady apps without learning code or design.

But that’s just the beginning. The beauty is, no matter what your skill level now, you can always learn how to do it yourself. In fact, 99% of web designers today are self-taught, and if they can do it, you can do it too.

Below are a few pointers for customizing your DMXReady application. This will give you a good head start, and will also give you resources to use to find solutions for your specific customization questions.

Tools of the Trade

Depending on your level of customization, you’ll need some or all of the following:

  • DMXReady Photo Gallery Manager - Files should be located on your local website folder and uploaded to your website domain.
  • HTML Editor to edit the files - You can use the CMS built-in Live Editor (available in CMS full version only), Notepad, Dreamweaver, Front Page, Silverlight, IE, Firefox etc.)
  • FTP Client to publish files to your server - You can use FileZilla, BulletFTP, CuteFTP, Dreamweaver, Net2FTP or other FTP client.
  • MSAccess for database modifications (Note: MSAccess is not required for application use.)

Basic Customization

DMXReady has created built-in customization features, which you can find within the Dashboard of Photo Gallery Manager. These settings are all fairly intuitive for even the most beginner user. However there are little hints listed with each feature as well as a complete User Guide to help you if you get stuck.

The level of basic customization options will be differ based on the application you are customizing. Below is a list of the things you can change from the control panel/admin area of Photo Gallery Manager.

  1. Settings/Preferences
  2. Categories
  3. Content
  4. Graphics
  5. Navigation, Header, Footer, Logo (available in v2 apps)

Instructions for basic customization can be found in the Photo Gallery Manager User Guide. You can also search the Online Knowledgebase for other customization Tips, Tricks and Tutorials

Advanced Customization

DMXReady applications are unique in that you can actually change the software to meet your needs. There are literally an unlimited number of ways you can customize your DMXReady application. You can change the design including background color, font, graphics; you can tweak the CSS; you can recode the AJAX and VBScript to do different things; you can create new database fields using MSAccess or even convert to another database system. Below is a list of the things you can change from the control panel/admin area of Photo Gallery Manager.

We've gathered a number of resources over the years to help you modify your applications. This is not a "course" in how to modify your DMXReady apps, but a set of pointers and tips to help you get started in the right direction.

Unlike the Basic Customization, you will be changing things at the code level, including CSS, AJAX code snippets, and more. But don’t worry, there are little hints listed with each feature as well as a complete User Guide to help you if you get stuck. 

If you have any ideas of your own that you'd like to share with other DMXReady app owners, feel free to contact us!

General Tips for Customization

  • Don't be afraid to explore and experiment - Create backups of your original Zip files so if you make a wrong turn simply restore the original files and start again. By simply keeping a back-up copy of your original files, you will never make an irreversible mistake.
  • Take advantage of DMXReady’s resources – We’ve spent years compiling tips and tricks, especially those specific to DMXReady applications. See a list of our resources below.
  • Familiarize yourself with the power of Dreamweaver - Refer to your Dreamweaver (or other HTML editor) "Help" documentation and "Getting Started" tutorials found inside your Dreamweaver application (click on the "help" menu). This is a great resource for learning how to build database applications like those built by DMXReady.
  • Use Existing Online Resources to learn about web design - There are many resources available on the Internet to help you including the Adobe Dreamweaver Support Center and literally thousands of web pages with free advice on ASP, MSAccess and HTML design.
  • Search Google - If you are stuck on a specific problem, search Google for a solution using terms that best describe your problem - you will find answers to issues already posted by other web designers.

Other Internal Resources

External Resources

Websites
There are a number of websites that offer great information about modifying your applications, including:

Hire a Freelance Programmer
There are 1000's of freelance programmers willing and able to modify your DMXReady app to your exact specifications. Here are a few websites offering a quick and easy way to hire a programmer.

Customization is the Spirit of DMXReady

From the start, DMXReady has set out to provide web designers and owners with dynamic website applications that are easy to use right out of the box, and fully customizable. That is the goal we still set ourselves today. Customization is always a learning process, but we hope that with your ingenuity and these resources, you’ll get the most from your DMXReady applications.

DMXReady Customization Support Policy

We encourage everyone to modify the HTML code and all scripting to meet your own specific needs. That being said, we unfortunately cannot provide free technical support for your customization efforts. De-bugging is a big part of the customization process, and it's a skill that every scripting programmer needs to learn.

Just remember to keep a backup copy of your Zip file, and you will never make an unrecoverable mistake. Also keep in mind that most web designers are self-taught – if they can do it, you can do it too!

If you get really stuck, or if you just want to “get it done” you can visit our Professional Services page to find out more about our customization services.

DMXReady + You = Great Websites!

 

Install & Setup Photo Gallery Manager v1

click to view installation demo

What you need to complete installation:

Installation Instructions

  1. Unzip all files to your local site, the folder location on your computer that holds your website files.
  2. Upload all files and folders to your web server exactly as they were unzipped (DO NOT MODIFY file or folder names)
  3. Start using your application! - you can access the display page and admin page through the following url's (you need to substitute your domain name):

Location of Application:
http://www.domain.com/applications/PhotoGalleryManager/inc_photogallerymanager.asp

Location of Admin Control Panel:
http://www.domain.com/admin/PhotoGalleryManager/admin.asp

Your default login credentials for the Admin Area are:

    username: admin
    password: admin

Congratulations! You are now ready to setup your installation of Photo Gallery Manager

Setup Instructions

  1. Open the Admin Control Panel of your application through any standard browser:

    Location of Admin Control Panel    :
    http://www.domain.com/admin/PhotoGalleryManager/admin.asp

  2. Adding, editing, and deleting entries and Settings is fairly intuitive. However, instructions can be found in the user guide. Be sure to use the “Save” button/link to save any changes you make before you exit the page.
  3. Configure your server permissions (if necessary): Depending on how your web host has configured your web space, you may encounter a problem where your changes are not being saved to the database. To solve this problem, you simply need to change the read/write permissions on your "/databases/" folder, found in your web space control panel. If you do not know how to do this, please contact your web host company for instructions.
  4. Configure your email settings (if necessary): Follow the instructions from the readme.html file included in the Photo Gallery Manager zip file or admin control panel for step-by-step instructions on how to configure your email settings to match your web hosts requirements.

Important Notes

Skin Photo Gallery Manager with your own css template

www.freecsstemplate.org
It’s easy to skin Photo Gallery Manager, whether you are using CSS templates or the “old-fashioned” HTML templates. You get all the power of a database-driven CMS application built into your own beautiful designs. Here's how to do it:

  1. Download and Extract your Template & Photo Gallery Manager files to your local site folder.
  2. Create a copy of the main template file (index.html) and rename "index.asp".
  3. Open your new "index.asp" file and replace the placeholder html with the appropriate include files from Photo Gallery Manager.
  4. Wrap the Photo Gallery Manager html with the appropriate CSS Div and Id classes using the original index.html file as a guide.
  5. Upload all files and you are ready to go!

    This process may be challenging but the results are well worth it! It doesn't take much of a leap to figure out that you can do this with all your DMXReady applications – or your complete web site for that matter. Skin your old content for a new look and feel!

Checkout the Special Edition (zenlike) accessory to see how this was done with the Blog Manager v1.

We’ve also written a brief overview of how we skinned the Blog Manager in the DMXReady Classic ASP Garage Blog.

 

Submitting a Trouble Ticket

  1. Prior to submitting a trouble ticket, please review the help pages and make sure the answer is not already posted.
  2. Fill in the contact form with your name, email address and details of your issue.

 

Contact Info

* First Name:
* Last Name:
* Email:
* Website Link:
* DMXReady Member ID:

(your Member ID can be found in your profile page)

Issue Type

Description of Issue


* Required

Important Note:

Prior to submitting a trouble ticket, please review the help pages and make sure the answer is not already posted.

Plug-in Wizard

You are just two steps from plugging in your new DMXReady application directly into your new or existing website. First, enter your domain name (without the www.):

Step 1 - Wizard Setup

Provide the domain/website address where Photo Gallery Manager is installed:
domain/website: ( i.e. mydomain.com)
 


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