The New Click-IT FS Gallery System: v1.0 Preview
After many months of design and development, the first beta preview of our new gallery system (the File Server Gallery) is ready for a test drive.
I have now completed the first phase of construction, which includes the main admin control facilities and the first of many display styles that will be available soon. It is designed to provide the best image display solution available for photographers and artists, and ultimately for many other industries as well.
The Design Concept
 1: Image Upload
One of the biggest problems with any website gallery system is the uploading of large numbers of images. The most efficient method is to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) which requires the use of an FTP program. Fortunately, there are excellent and free versions available, and one of the best is FileZilla which you can download for free here. This allows you to browse and select multiple images/files from your computer and upload them in one batch. The new gallery system uses FTP for uploading your images into a single folder on your website. Thumbnails and resizing is processed automatically after you have uploaded your files.
2: Image File Management
Once you have uploaded your images, you can then move them into file storage directories on your website, in exactly the same way that you store files on your computer. You can create as many of these file storage folders as you like, and move your images around from folder to folder. You can also give each image a title, description and keywords using the file management facility.
3: Gallery Management
You can create as many galleries as you like, and so you will need an efficient way of storing them, rather than just creating a huge list. For this you can create categories (and sub-categories) to store all your galleries. For example, if you have multiple galleries for your travel photography (one gallery for each country) then you might create a category called Travel to store them. Or, if you had galleries for many US cities, then you could create a category for the USA and sub-categories for each state. It is up to you how you want to manage your galleries.
Once you have created a gallery, you can then select any of the images from your file store and add them to your galleries. You simply browse your file store and add images to a basket, and then deposit them into your gallery. This means that you can add any image to multiple galleries, and each gallery references the same image, so you never have to upload an image twice.
4: Portfolio Management
In order to display your galleries on a web page you first create a Portfolio and add one or more galleries to it. You then add the portfolio to the page and all of the associated galleries will appear. You can create as many portfolios as you like, and add any number of galleries to each portfolio.
5: Gallery Display
 Once you have created a portfolio (and added some galleries to it) you can then display them on any web page using multiple display styles. So, depending on wether you have many galleries or just two or three in a portfolio, you can choose the most suitable display option and even define the display attributes (border and text colours and sizes).
6: Image Display
Clicking on a gallery thumbnail will display the images in that gallery using one of many image display styles (two of them are demonstrated on this website). The image display attributes (border and text colours and sizes) can be modified to suit your preference.
7: Dynamic Lightbox Display
How would you like a gallery that allowed visitors to open and drag multiple images around the browser, just like viewing slides on a lightbox?
Click on any image thumbnail and the large version magically expands without refreshing the page, displaying the title and description below the image (or the image filename if no title is defined).
You can then click and drag the image anywhere in the browser window and even click on another image to view that alongside, and then another, and another...
You now have a virtual lightbox viewer. Try it for yourself on our demo gallery.
The Future
This demo preview is only the beginning. There is much more to come...
- Switchable e-commerce mode (standard)
- Add to basket and select price options - all without refreshing the page
- Choice of Paypal and Nochex payment processing options
- Price option management (standard)
- Define multiple price / size options and assign to galleries (so you can have a different set of prices for your commercial work and social photography etc).
- Private Galleries (standard)
- Assign user groups to any gallery for proofing and private access etc.
- New image display options (standard)
- Multiple display styles including slide-shows
- Gallery and Image searching (standard)
- Text search by gallery or image title, description and keywords.
- *Advanced Gallery Attribute management (optional)
- Where the gallery is defined as a product containing multiple images of the same product (eg: Car sales, Estate Agency, Model Agency etc).
- Creating user defined attributes (eg: Height, Age, Hair colour, Eye colour, Dress Size etc) and then assigning them to a gallery/product.
- These attributes are then used as search filters to find the best match (eg: AutoTrader).
- *Special Offer management (optional)
- Define sales and discounts applied to galleries
- BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) and other special deals (eg: Buy 2 10x8 prints and get a Free 6x4 print).
- *Visitor Comments (optional)
- Allowing visitors to leave comments and ratings for each image in a gallery
- *Greetings / Post Card / Model Composit Cards (optional)
- Where visitors can select a card template and an image (or images) to be inserted, plus their own text.
- The system then generates a PDF compiled version of the card which can either be emailed direct to the recipient email address or downloaded from the site and printed.
- Visitors pay for this service on-line using your PayPal/Nochex account.
- Photographers and Models can also use this to create and send promo/sample cards
- *E-Cards (optional)
- Allow visitors to select and send images as e-cards to friends
- The e-card includes a link to view the card on your website.
- *Picture Frame Borders (optional)
- Visitors can select a suitable picture frame and matt size/colour to view the photos on-line
- The frames are actual photographs of genuine picture frames (not graphics)
- Possible to photograph your own frames for adding to your unique collection.
- The system can then calculate the cost based on the size of the selected frame and matt.
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The Cost
The FS Gallery will replace all of the current galleries supplied with our website system, and the standard version will be FREE OF CHARGE to all new and existing clients.
All exisiting clients will get a FREE UPGRADE. Your current galleries will not be disabled, so you can continue to use them for as long as you like. For those who would like to transfer their current e-commerce gallery images to the new FS Gallery, we can provide a transfer service that will copy all their current gallery images to the new FS Gallery (file storage folders will be created and named after the gallery they were taken from). You will then be able to create new galleries and use the same images as before (this saves you from having to re-upload all of your current gallery inages). There will be an administration charge of £39 for this service.
The Standard FS Gallery to be supplied with our website system will include all of the features outlined above (where stated as standard).
The optional features will be available as an extension that can be purchased for a one-off instalation and licence cost of £49 each. There will be no change to your annual hosting fee. The charge is a single payment to cover installation and licence on a single domain/website.
Availability
The v1.0 version (as previewed here) is available now for existing clients only. This does not yet include e-commerce or the transfer service, so it must be run as an independant gallery alongside your current galleries. It does not have full manuals or on-line help at this stage, so I can't provide intensive support at this stage, so it is only recommended for those with a reasonable technical confidence.
If you would like to have the FS Gallery installed on your website please complete the feedback form on this website.
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