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View Full Version : Help with best way to display images



ianp
09 Nov 2009, 02:10 PM
Hi all,

I am new here, if possible I would like some help with so site issues I am having.

A little background, I am not a proffesional coder, and have infact only looked at web creation so I can build my other half a website for her business. I thougt it would probably look more professional if I wrote it (html,CSS,php) than using an off the shelf product as when looking at site created with said products you can sorta tell they are DIY sites. I am not saying this will not look like one of those anyways, but from what I have got so far it seems ok.

So, so far, we have the domain (which may well change), got no host yet though, got the home page sorted to a degree and the main naviagtion menu works, but each tab has no real content just page under construction.

I am using WampServer v2.0 which has
Apache 2.2.11
php 5.3.0
MySQL 5.1.36

To edit the above I use CodeLobster PHP Edition

The site itself has a
header section (company name),
a main navigation bar with horizontal tabs
a left container which will have the secondary vertial tab navigation,
a main content window
and a footer section contain bits and bobs

Each tab loads the heads, nav, left container, main content and footer, the selected tab stays highlighted.

The site uses CSS, html and php at present

Right the problem I have is with a secondary nav menu, this will have x amount of tabs, each tab refers to a jewellery collection, which in the main content window will display thumbnails of the said pieces, I intend to show 9 thumbs per page, and if there are more in each collection then paginate accordingly. The idea was that when a thumbnail is clicked a new window would open with the big version of the picture.
Ok, slight change of spec as of 10 mins ago... When the thumbnail is clicked, it is to be enlarged, and it could now also incude more pictures of the piece but different shots, that when clicked are enlarged.....

What I am really after is what is the best way to do this (not the code per say), but in regard to the pictures, where to store them, ie would I have an image folder, then have a folder per collection that contains the pieces and each peice also has a folder name the same as the piece that I would look in when the piece is clicked.

Or would it be an idea to have a MySQL base setup that had file locations in it and maybe even the pictures and just use that? From the tutorials I have done I should at least be able to work out the pagination realitiley ok

Would it be a better idea instead of having a pop up window to have the enlarge picture and smaller (clickable) images populate the main content?

The thing is ideally I would like this to be easily updatable, prefferable by someone else and not myself. Fair enough if I have to I can, but if could be just dumping certian files into certain folders and the code wraps up the rest then all the better.

Or at a real push I suppose I could write a front end to manage the system......

Ok, coding wise I am not a complete novice, I have written numerous scripts in python (on a UNIX platform) also many SQL programs for an ADABAS database (again UNIX) various shell scripts, I have also written a couplle of apps in VB/VC, dabbled in pascal qbasic. On the tutorials I have done I have also used php and connected to a mySQL base, thought I best let people know what I can do as it may help the replys.

So I think that is it, any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

If you need any more info please let me know and I shall do what I can.

Ian