inc_features.php needs more options

WizyWyg · March 7th, 2006, 03:09 PM

Regarding this thread, since the mod community is non-existent for this product so I would like to see this as a feature or to improve the way one can interact with photos from the database/members/galleries/categories

Featured Photo is pretty much a misleading as its not "really "featured. You can only pull Random (so it should be called RANDOM photos), lates (latest photos), or most-viewed. There is no way for administrators to control what appears as featured.

Featured, as Im sure eveyrone is lead to believe are photos that Administrators of their gallery should assign; either to a particular image, or member, or a gallery. I wouldn't call random, latest or most viewed photos as "featured" in any sense of the word. There should be a way for Admins, from the control panel to be able to control what is "featured".

Any thoughts on this? I was hoping that Photopost would be a bit more "robust" on this particular feature, but it isn't.

WizyWyg · March 13th, 2006, 04:14 PM

Any mods/developers/programmers of this product want to chime in?

criscokid · March 13th, 2006, 06:23 PM

A site owner should be able to specify what categories appear or don't appear in this block. I've already made some suggestions in this thread.

WizyWyg · March 13th, 2006, 08:24 PM

What it needs to be done is renamed to not being inc_features.php as it isn;t anything "featured"> All it is a file that will help you display random, latest or whatevers the last one is on a website. That's not "featured".

What needs to be done is:
1) admins be able to choose a member to be "featured" (link to their gallery)
2) admins be able to choose a number of featured photos (based on their id in the database)

And any other suggestion. This is what is meant as "featured". Random/latest and what not are not "featured" items. They are Random Pictures, Latest, and whatevers.

Chuck S · March 13th, 2006, 10:36 PM

This is a suggestions forum which means when a beta is going to be done we look here for customer suggestions.

As the announcement of the thread states we do not necessarily respond to the suggestions but when we do open a beta the suggestions are looked at.

I will state though that the file does exactly what it is suppose to do. It is a simply photo block that displays featured photos much the same as our featured blocks within Photopost nothing more nothing less.

mjm · March 14th, 2006, 12:04 PM

Chuck hit the nail on the head - features is a general term for the features provided ...

Though I agree that `featured photos' can have it's own definition, as in best-of or highlighted pics from a category, time or place.

For example, a category or album can be created to display featured / best of pics from a segment of the site.
The 'Copy photo' function can also be used for this purpose.

PhotoPost essentially provides cats and albums where photos can be placed, and I'd like to see a way that one could select and 'tag' any pics to display in 'featured album's.

Could be integrated with the My Favorites function, if users had the capability of creating albums (as with My Albums) containing a Copy of any pics?

This might address the need for staff to feature/link to select pics, or members at the forum to easily post reference to any pics in the gallery with a single URL.

Thanks for considering

WizyWyg · March 15th, 2006, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

I will state though that the file does exactly what it is suppose to do. It is a simply photo block that displays featured photos much the same as our featured blocks within Photopost nothing more nothing less.

this i have to disagree with. it doesn't display "featured" photos, it simply displays Random, latest and most viewed. Those are not "featured" in any sense of the word. Featured, as I am lead to believe and know, are what the site admins choose to "feature" (display, by their choice) not by what is determined automatically. It pulls information from the DB to display elsewhere, but its something that the admins can't control

Im looking for away to have the admins control what is displayed , and not limited to only three choices.

Perhaps, its the choice of filename that you have resorted to using that is causing the confusion.

How does one go about doing a FEATURED PHOTO/GALLERY mod or please consider in adding this in the NEAR future.

mjm · March 15th, 2006, 04:13 PM

Recent / Random etc are `sorts' of features, though WizyWyg I agree with you that it would be interesting to have an admin manageable sort feature

WizyWyg · March 15th, 2006, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjm

Recent / Random etc are `sorts' of features, though WizyWyg I agree with you that it would be interesting to have an admin manageable sort feature

Sort and choose feature.

I actually dont consider them "features" (random, latest, most viewed) as that should be expected of such a program of this type to do anyway; and calling it "features" is why I was led to believe that it was something I could control via the Admin panel or something. But alas, it wasn't. The file name is misleading.

bllkros · July 14th, 2006, 07:55 PM

You can actually do this by:
1. Choosing the pics you want featured, and copy them to a category called "Featured" (eg.)
2. Changing the sql query for random in the code for inc_features.php from "AND !=500" to AND =<"Featured" category number>"
3. Choosing random as what you want viewed.

Sybaris · July 15th, 2006, 09:30 AM

Well you can alter the featured block to include certain cats only and exclude the others, I would not think it would be that hard to get certain photos to show up, all this involves changing code in the file though, So i suppose if it were made so you could pick the features and photos you wanted through the control panel it would be easier.

The thing is although its a stock file its not used per-say by photopost in a stock install so you would have to either modify code to get the admin options in when you decided to utilise the file or have the options there anyway even though they are not used.

sinjix · December 22nd, 2006, 03:34 PM

Code:

Content visible to verified customers only.

380 was just a random number i chose.
Is that what you meant?
How do i find out what the category numbers are?

Sybaris · December 22nd, 2006, 04:12 PM

Code:

Content visible to verified customers only.

that is telling it not to look in cat 380

sinjix · December 22nd, 2006, 04:16 PM

so is there any way i can tell it ONLY to look at a private or hidden category i have set up either in my own personal album or in a regular hidden pr private category?

where do i figure out category numbers BTW? In the URL?

Sybaris · December 22nd, 2006, 04:21 PM

yep there is

have a look in this thread http://www.photopost.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128980 this bloke needs to know the cat ids too

and I have put a picture up explaining.

If you want it to look in a cat that you choose you could do worse than take out the ! from

Code:

Content visible to verified customers only.

(which is the 'not in' part.)

sinjix · December 22nd, 2006, 04:31 PM

Great - So this category can even be a private personal album and it will show?

sinjix · December 22nd, 2006, 04:53 PM

[edit]
sorry

topmedic · December 22nd, 2006, 05:57 PM

Is there any reason why inc_features does not include multimedia, ie wmv, etc?

sinjix · December 22nd, 2006, 06:10 PM

inc_features lack many features that it should have.
these features should have been taken care of in the 5.6.2 version IMO.

there have already been requests for this.

IMO these features are obvious features that should have been stock from jump.

None the less, Photopost Pro is still the best galley IMO.

Sybaris · December 31st, 2006, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sinjix

inc_features lack many features that it should have.
these features should have been taken care of in the 5.6.2 version IMO.

there have already been requests for this.

IMO these features are obvious features that should have been stock from jump.

None the less, Photopost Pro is still the best galley IMO.

inc_features.php is a hack that one if the devs made if what i read is correct and just included in the photopost download as its quite popular. So i rather doubt they will do anything with that file rather make the feature stock with a different one altogether if/when it gets incorporated.

The thing is this file is not needed unless you use vbulletin/other forum software and integrate photopost into it, Photopost is developed primarily as a stand alone app so i dont see the team developing onto this hack to be honest.