General Support: The Official Help Me Release Beta 3 Thread

Unfortunately Plogger is not compatible with PHP Safe-mode. Safe-mode restricts Plogger from creating folders on the disk, which is how Plogger organizes it's image library. You could ask your host to turn it off for your account... unfortunately there is no work-around for this.

Mike, thank you very much, this solved a problem! On my hosting by default PHP safe mode is turned on for every virtual host. I had similar problem a year ago but then some CMS told me about it and found that option in control panel and turned it off, but now i didn't understand this errors so I forgot about it. Only error I now see is when I import pictures from uploads folder and when everything is finished (successfully) I see at top of the page:

Warning: chmod(): Operation not permitted in /mounted-storage/home7/.../plogger/admin/plog-admin-functions.php on line 100
but bellow it is normal page view and everything work correctly.

I tested new Plogger and saw some things I wish could be changed, so I'll spend some time to write them here (I think that is better to write them here, so other can comment it, rather than on dev.plogger.org). Just to note that I didn't checked code and some things maybe are easy to change, but want to share my thoughts, because it's maybe useful for everyone. Also this apply to all themes (actually, Lucid and Air), if not said otherwise. I use cruft-free urls.

Titles ? It's good thing that now in titles are real titles, but again they are not so search engine (SE) friendly. Lets assume that most visits could come to album pages and maybe collection pages. If looking album pages, album name is in the end of title, which is very no-SE friendly. Similar problem there is in WordPress, and that is solved by using plugins like Optimal Title or All in One SEO Pack. My suggestion is to add option in admin area to user choose what his titles will look like for every type of page (collection, album, picture) or to add explanation what to change in code on some visible place.

Header ? Again there is one SE no-friendly feature. When looking collection or album, there is h1 header on top which always show gallery name (if it is entered in admin area; if not, it is empty). There should exist h2 tag with name of album because it adds great value for SE. This should be like h2 when looking single picture page ? above picture there is heading h2#picture caption.

Meta tags ? I know that listing keywords in meta tags is not worth for SE as long time ago, but some SEO experts say that it can help in reducing chances to page appear in supplemental results as being duplicated. Description has bigger value for SE and for visitors, since in can appear bellow page's title in search engine results page (SERP). To summarize: there is nothing to lose if there are keywords and description in meta tags. So, how it could look like? My suggestion is adding them to only collection and album pages and in it should appear collection/album name. For keywords there should be separated words from titles. Optional would be to add more keywords from admin area by hand. As I said before, it would be best if there are options in admin area so anyone can turn on/off this and not to be default or to add explanation what to change in code on some visible place.

Alt tags ? One more thing is that there are no alt tags for thumbnails and images in single-picture pages. This should be added, since it has much value to SE and it is valid.

Album descriptions ? I see that is there is album description added, it only appears on collection's list and not on single album page. It should be optional where to appear. For me, it's much worth to appear only on album pages. It would have much worth to visitor and for SE too. For SE because albums should be major landing pages from SE (this is also in my experience with old Plogger), and it adds content that is related to album. Also, someone can search for something and get on collection page, but find difficult to find this text if collection has a lot of albums.

Intermediate Pictures ? I turned off this option to see if it'll reduce bandwidth, because if this is turned on picture will load on page and again full version when visitor click on it. But it happened that it is not a case, since there is some problem with code. If you visit picture's page, image source will be like http://domain.com/plogger//images/collection/album/picture.jpg and when you click to see on whole page there is url http://domain.com/plogger/images/collection/album/picture.jpg. So, difference is one more slash in first url.

Since nobody didn't want to help me, I looked in code and solved some questions. One that I didn't, but it's important to me, is how to add album description on album page. I hope someone will help me on this. I'm giving you away this codes, but I can't explain them all, you can figure out what is that about.

Titles ? I replaced function generate_title in plog-functions.php with this one:


function generate_title(){
switch ($GLOBALS['plogger_level']) {
case 'collection':
$row = get_collection_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);

$breadcrumbs = SmartStripSlashes($row["name"]);
if ($GLOBALS['plogger_mode'] == "slideshow") $breadcrumbs .= ' » Slideshow';

break;
case 'slideshow':
case 'album':
$row = get_album_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);
$album_name = SmartStripSlashes($row["name"]);

$row = get_collection_by_id($row["parent_id"]);

if ($GLOBALS['plogger_mode'] == "slideshow") {
$breadcrumbs = SmartStripSlashes($row["name"]) . ' » ' . $album_name.' » ' . ' Slideshow';
} else {
$breadcrumbs = $album_name;
}

break;
case 'picture':
$row = get_picture_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);
$picture_name = basename($row["path"]);

$row = get_album_by_id($row["parent_album"]);
$album_name = SmartStripSlashes($row["name"]);

$row = get_collection_by_id($row["parent_id"]);

$collection_name = SmartStripSlashes($row["name"]);

$breadcrumbs = $album_name . ' » ' . $picture_name . ' | ' . SmartStripSlashes($config["gallery_name"]);

if ($GLOBALS['plogger_mode'] == "slideshow") $breadcrumbs .= ' » Slideshow';

break;
default:
$breadcrumbs = ' Collections';
}

return $breadcrumbs;
}


I also replaced line
print "<title>" . SmartStripSlashes($config["gallery_name"]) . ": $title </title>\n";
in generate_head with
print "<title>$title</title>\n";

Header ? I replaced function generate_header in plog-functions.php with this one:

function generate_header() {
global $config;

if ($GLOBALS['plogger_level'] == "collection") {
$desc = get_collection_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);
$collection_name = SmartStripSlashes($desc["name"]);
$output = '<h2 id="gallery-name">'.$collection_name.'</h2>';
} elseif ($GLOBALS['plogger_level'] == "album") {
$desc = get_album_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);
$album_name = SmartStripSlashes($desc["name"]);
$output = '<h2 id="gallery-name">'.$album_name.'</h2>';
} elseif ($GLOBALS['plogger_level'] == "picture") {
$desc = get_album_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);
$album_name = SmartStripSlashes($desc["name"]);
$output = '<h2 id="gallery-name">'.$album_name.'</h2>';
}
return $output;
}

Meta tags ? I found way to add description, but not keywords, because it is more complicated. To add description, in function generate_head at the bottom after last 'print' add this code:
if ($GLOBALS['plogger_level'] == "album") {
$desc = get_album_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);
$album_name = SmartStripSlashes($desc["name"]);
print '<meta name="Description" content="' . $album_name . '">';
}

Alt tags ? There is mistake in picture.php file in themes. On line
$imgtag = '<img class="photos-large" src="'.plogger_get_picture_thumb(THUMB_LARGE).'" title="'.$capt.'" alt="'.$capt.'" />';
$capt should be replaced with $picture_caption, so correct line looks:
$imgtag = '<img class="photos-large" src="'.plogger_get_picture_thumb(THUMB_LARGE).'" title="'. $picture_caption .'" alt="'. $picture_caption .'" />';


Intermediate Pictures ? again there is mistake in code. In function generate_thumb find
if (1 == $thumb_config['disabled']) {
return $config['baseurl'] . '/images/' . $path;
}
and instead of '/images/' there should be 'images/' (without slash at the beginning)

Authors could answer me what s reason for adding feed for single picture because I don't understand what is that for.
Also, I'll appreciate if someone help me about how to add album description on album page, and if someone has time, how to add keywords meta tag.

All good points, dime. Thanks for pointing them out. I'd like to figure out a way to add the album's description to the album's thumbnail page, too.

I don't see the rss feed button on my single picture pages.

-ardamis

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: dime</cite>if ($GLOBALS['plogger_level'] == "album") {
$desc = get_album_by_id($GLOBALS['plogger_id']);
$album_name = SmartStripSlashes($desc["name"]);
print '<meta name="Description" content="' . $album_name . '">';
}</blockquote>

Hello, this is useful, anyway how is possible set not the name, but the description?

Is there a list of variable of plogger? i try to find in the site but i dont find out...

thank you.

Thank you.