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Posted: 12th of April 06, 11:01 PM
I had a few days of inspiration so decided to fix some of the things that have been broken for some time, adjust what I didn't really like, and add a couple of new features.
Image uploads
The site now accepts image uploads so you no longer have to email your pictures to me. Instead, just head over to the upload page and send what you have. There is a limit on the image size, plus you can't upload anything other than a jpeg (*.jpg, *.jpeg), png (*.png) or animated gif (*.gif). You can also view outstanding uploaded images to check you're not duplicating efforts.
Message Board
The old J©.net site had a message board that, in our youth, was misused and totally unnecessary. Having said that, it was a good laugh and proved handy at times. Therefore, I thought I'd integrate something similar into this site, until there is a reason to remove it! I give you the Message Board; home to all slander and impersonation. For the geeks amongst you, it uses a little AJAX magic and has smileys. For the would-be spammers out there, it also incorporates flood protection and lets me ban IP addresses and IP ranges. You have been warned!
Gallery Sorting
Another thing that had always bugged me was the inability to sort the galleries displayed in the Gallery. I had included the buttons, but never actually wrote the code behind them (typically lazy I know). You can now sort the Gallery by:
- When they were created (the default) - where the most recently added galleries are listed first.
- When they were last updated - where the most recently modified galleries are listed first (see Mark & Emma's wedding as an example).
- How popular they are - the galleries with the most hits appear first in the list.
I've got more plans for the future (sorting by size as an example) but this satisfied my need for features for now. Granted, with the limited number of galleries at present, this feature isn't entirely useful, but as the collection grows it will be of endless importance!
Other updates
Whilst making the above changes I also adjusted a few other things for the site. Entries are now sorted by year, which is more a personal preference than anything else. I changed the home page to list the most recent galleries, while the Gallery itself lists the most popular ones (the "Top 5 Galleries") in its side bar.
Plans for the future
There is so much more I want to do now I've been bitten with the bug again. Things I'm planning on doing within the next few months include:
- A more robust administration.
- Displaying image descriptions in the gallery, again using some AJAX magic.
- Tagging all images held on the site to permit the creation of "intelligent" galleries.
- Writing a search page that will hunt out entries, images and other details.
The above is only a subset of what I want to do. If you have any suggestions, please email them to me.