The Turning Gate

Adobe Lightroom Web Engines, Tutorials and Resources

TTG Auto Index

TTG Auto Index automatically generates an album index, a table of contents, for your Lightroom web photo galleries. You add a gallery, the index adds an entry automatically. It’s magic PHP.

Note: This is the standalone version of TTG Auto Index. TTG Pages already incorporates its own auto index. If you are using TTG Pages, and only wish to have a single gallery index, it is unnecessary to purchase this standalone version. However, if you are using TTG Pages and would like to create multiple indices, or sub-indices to better organize your image galleries, then TTG Auto Index can help.

TTG Auto Index

Add to Cart ( $10 ) View Cart

Demonstration Installation

By installing any purchased or downloaded web engine, plugin or template from The Turning Gate (TTG), You, the user, agree to the End User License Agreement. Make a point to read this document, as it contains important information regarding your purchase and your rights as a user, for which you will be held accountable.

System Requirements

TTG Auto Index is written in Lua. It requires Lightroom 2.4 or higher, and a web server running PHP. Updates are automatic. Coding experience is not necessary.

Recommended server specs: A Linux web server running Apache, PHP 5 or higher with Glob function support.

Setting Up Your Album Index

Select a handful of images from the Lightroom Library module. Which images aren’t important; ultimately, they won’t be a part of your album index. You’ll just be using them as visual representations while styling your gallery. With images chosen, move to the Web module and select the TTG Auto Index from the Galleries list.

Configure the album index’s appearance to your liking and hit the Export button. Export the gallery to your desktop.

Upload the exported folder to your web server using an FTP client.

Adding Galleries

TTG Auto Index will automatically detect supported gallery types residing in the album index’s folder on your web server. To add a gallery to the index, simply upload a supported web gallery to the index’s folder on your server using an FTP client, or export the gallery directly from the Web module to your server using Lightroom’s inbuilt Upload feature.

Manually Adding Items

TTG Auto Index is not limited to indexing supported gallery types, however. Other galleries, or any other type of media, can be added to the album index manually.

The album index will create entries for any sub-folder containing an autoindex.xml file. The file can be empty, just so long as it exists. To make the most of the index, however, the XML file accepts the following information:


<album>
   <thumbnail>Path to thumbnail image</thumbnail>
   <title>Album Title</title>
   <description>Album Description</description>
   <url>Path to content</url>
</album>

The autoindex.xml file can be created manually using a text editor, or can be created using Lightroom with TTG XML Maker.

To better understand how to use the XML file, see Index Behavior, below.

Index Behavior

To make the most of TTG Auto Index, advanced users may want to know exactly how it works.

The album index runs from the index.php file. When loaded into the browser, the page includes the head.html and header.html files. Page headers may be customized by editing the header.html file. Do not edit the index.php file, or you may forfeit its functionality.

On load, the album index searches through all of its sub-folders to a depth of one level. For each folder in which it finds an autoindex.xml file, it will create an album entry. The autoindex.xml file can be completely empty, or can be filled out as shown above, just so long as it exists. If the file is found, the album entry will be created according to the following guidelines:

1) If a thumbnail image is specified, that thumbnail will be displayed. If no thumbnail is specified, the album index will select an image at random from the thumbnails folder contained within that sub-folder. If no thumbnails exist, the album item will display the default thumbnail image.

The thumbnail path should be written relative to the gallery root, usually “thumbnails/filename.jpg”.

2) If a title is specified, that title will be displayed. If no title is specified, the album item will display the text “No Title”.

3) If a description is specified, that description will be displayed. If no description is specified, the album item will display the text “No Description”.

4) If a relative or absolute URL is specified, the album entry will link to that URL. If no URL is specified, the album entry will default to the sub-directory. The browser will serve index.html or index.php by default. If no URL is specified, and no index file exists, the album entry will probably lead to a Page Not Found error.

Reversing Album Order

By default, albums will be listed in numeric-alpha order, normal behavior for files listed in a folder. This order can be reversed by opening the index.php folder and changing the boolean value on line 15.

Video

Changelog

v3.3.1 ( in development )
PHP compatibility fixes.
CSS tweaks for templating purposes.
v3.3 ( 2010-04-19 )
Added new “Iconic” grid option for gallery index appearance, plus related styling controls.
Added favicon.
Layout and browser compatibility fixes for IE.
Bug fixes.
Removed Album URL field from TTG Auto Index options.
v3.2.1 ( 2010-04-05 )
Fixed a bug that prevented the gallery index from previewing within LR.
Update to JQuery 1.4.1.
v3.2 ( 2010-03-27 )
Reorganized and updated Header and Footer controls and features to keep step with TTG Highslide Gallery Pro 2.0.
Added support for variable grid spacing between gallery index items.
Compatibility improvements to the gallery index PHP script.
Updated Shadowbox JS to 3.03.
Lua optimizations.
Watermark controller now compatible with both LR2 and LR3.
v3.1 (2009-09-26)
Implemented Shadowbox support.
Changed font-stack preferences.
v3.0 (2009-09-13)
Redeveloped to match and compliment TTG Pages.
No longer produces index.html on export; no need to edit the folder contents after export.
v2.11 (2009-06-13)
Fixed spacing issue for index items, introduced in 2.1.
v2.1 (2009-06-08)
Implemented the new TTG header, as seen in TTG Highslide Gallery.
Default configuration is set at three columns 960px wide — the standard for a single column layout.
Added capability to view grid measurement.
Switched to XHTML Strict DOCTYPE.
Removed hacks for IE6.
Slight changes to the PHP for improved compatibility.
Updated architecture to LR SDK 2.0 standards.
v2.01 (2009-04-15)
Bug fix for shadowbox.php.
v2.0 (2009-03-22)
Name change: TTG Auto Index.
Optional Shadowbox capability.
v1.51 (2008-06-27)
No longer displays “No Title” or “No Description”. When those fields are left blank, the gallery will display nothing. (untested)
The archive now contains an alternate version of the index.php file, located in the Alternates folder, that might work on servers on which the standard version does not.
v1.5 (2008-05-05)
Bug fixes in index.html for IE6 compatibility, for those using the template in static state on non-PHP servers.
v1.4 (2008-03-22)
Added footer w/ options.
ID Plate alignment now selectable.
v1.3 (2008-03-17)
Bug fix.
v1.2 (2008-03-13)
Bug fix regarding Collection Description sliders.
v1.1 (2008-03-08)
A menu! Five customizable menu items + slideshow + contact.
TTG Auto Index now supports itself, and can be installed into sub-directories where it will be auto-detected by a parent installation of TTG Auto Index, allowing easy use as an index for separate categories.
Added a Collection Description.
v1.03 (2008-02-27)
Index order now reversible using a toggle in the PHP script, line 15.
Added some PHP error suppression to accomodate unusual server settings that might otherwise produce errors.
v1.02 (2008-02-19)
Initial release.

Acknowledgements

TTG Auto Index would not be possible without the excellent PHP written by my good friend Zach Bardon. In addition to his scripting prowess, Zach is also an excellent musician. Give him a listen.

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Geocoded Lightroom Web Gallery Plugin – Part 1 | Joe Colson Photography
January 18, 2010 at 5:33 pm

{ 246 comments… read them below or add one }

Paul Tulp June 8, 2009 at 3:30 pm

Hey,

I uses TTG auto index and I have two questions:

1) Is it possible to make a gallery serured by password
2) Can you make highslide even for autoindex possible?

Thanks,

Paul

Reply

theturninggate June 8, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Hi Paul,

The best way to password protect a gallery is to setup a password protected folder on your web server. You can do this via your hosting control panel, and specific documentation should be available in your host’s knowledgebase, or via support.

TTG Highslide Gallery works with TTG Auto Index.

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

Keith June 10, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Hi,

I am just starting to use TTG Auto Index, i have created a test site locally however it does not seem to be working. I am running php 5.2.9 do i need to enable the glod function in php? do i just place the album folter inside the site root foler? e.g. where index.php sits.

Many thanks in advance

Keith

Reply

theturninggate June 10, 2009 at 5:30 pm

Keith,

When you say you’ve set up a local test site, from where are you running it? PHP will only run from a web server, and will not function on a local hard disk. If you are already running on a PHP-enabled web server, then yes, you need to enable the Glob function.

You can place the gallery index folder anywhere on your server, and should place any galleries to be indexed inside of the index folder, in individual folders of their own.

Reply

Sander June 10, 2009 at 3:28 pm

Hi,
With the new version of TTG Auto Index it’s possible to enter metatags. But your installation guide says you have to delete the index.html. With this you also lose your metatags. Should you use the metatags in the index.php and if so, how do I do that?
Regards,
Sander

Reply

theturninggate June 10, 2009 at 5:32 pm

Hi Sander,

The meta tags are a part of head.html, which is called into the index.php when it creates your page. The index.html file is entirely unnecessary, and nothing is lost.

Reply

Sander June 11, 2009 at 10:53 am

@theturninggate
Ok, thanks!

Reply

Elad June 13, 2009 at 4:42 am

Hi,
I created some customized pages using v2.01. Now that I upgraded to 2.1 – do I have to repeat all the customizations or is there a way to just change the engine in LR without restoring to all default settings?
Thx,
Elad

Reply

theturninggate June 13, 2009 at 5:10 pm

Hi Elad,

Because the new version is such a heavy overhaul, you will need to redesign the page from scratch. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Matt

Reply

Paul Tulp June 18, 2009 at 2:55 am

Hi,

How can I become an update of TTG auto index or does I have to pay another time?

Paul

Reply

theturninggate June 18, 2009 at 10:05 am

Hi Paul,

To update, use the same URL you received at the time of purchase. It will always point to the most recent version of the web engine. The URL is valid for five uses. If you download each version only once, that allows you access to your initial download plus four updates before you need to renew your subscription.

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

Nathan June 18, 2009 at 11:05 am

I am using autoindexer (v2.1) but cannot get it to display a thumbnail of my choosing. I have edited the autoindex.xml file to point to a specific image, I have also done the same in the individual galleries. Before Iexport a gallery from lightroom (2.3) I have also specified the path to a thumbnail. Despite all of these approaches autoindexer still displays randomly selected thumbnails, what am I missing? Also is it possible to prevent a thumbnail being displayed in the album page to assist with client confidentiality?

Reply

theturninggate June 18, 2009 at 11:58 am

I’ll need to have a look at your gallery is see what you’re doing wrong with the thumbnails. As for confidentiality, you can create a generic thumbnail and specify for the index to use it for that album once we figure out the source of the thumbnail specification issue. Give me a URL and I’ll see what I can find.

Reply

Nathan June 18, 2009 at 5:49 pm

@theturninggate
The URL is http://www.nathanweekes.com/galleries/
This is an autoindex page containg several galleries including 2 mock client proof created in CRG,these are the ones that I would want to control the thumbnail for. Do I need to email an actual gallery to you?

Reply

theturninggate June 20, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Hi Nathan,

Looking at the first gallery displayed in the index, I opened the autoindex.xml file and found this as your thumbnail path:

/thumbnails/NWEEKES_1991_0027SM

I see two problems with this:

1) The preceding slash (/)
2) The lack of a file extension

Try replacing this with:

thumbnails/NWEEKES_1991_0027SM.jpg

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

Bryan June 24, 2009 at 12:32 pm

Hi, I love the Auto Index! I am building a basic site and using the Simpleviewer flash gallery (not shawdow boxed).

My question is, how do I get my navagation bar, title etc to show up in the Simpleviewer flash galleries? Thanks!

Bryan

Reply

theturninggate June 24, 2009 at 1:45 pm

Hi Bryan,

Try TTG Stage. It’s made for that.

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

Lars June 24, 2009 at 2:03 pm

Hi,

I have tried several times to have subdirectories without success. For example, on the “first level” I have three menus, Nature, People and Wedding. On the “second level” or under Wedding I have two or more different choices, wedding one, wedding two and so on.
Is that possible to manage? As I said I have tries without any success.

Best regards // Lars

Reply

theturninggate June 24, 2009 at 2:10 pm

It should be fine so long as your sub-levels include an autoindex.xml file and a /thumbnails/ folder.

Reply

Erik July 5, 2009 at 9:08 pm

Hey Matt — loving your work…your photography AND your gallery work!

Just to confirm: I want to use Auto Index to create an index page to multiple Client Response galleries. For example, I will create a Client Response gallery for each ’stage’ of a wedding, end up with about 10-11 galleries from that wedding. Then use Auto Index to create a ‘master’ page, send that to the bride & groom, then they can choose each gallery to enter their responses. Am I missing anything or will Auto Index do that job?

Thanks again for your great work.

~ejr~

Reply

theturninggate July 6, 2009 at 2:01 am

Hi Erik,

You’ve got it. That’s exactly what it’s for.

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

Xavier July 7, 2009 at 10:25 am

Hello,

I have tryed TTG autoindex on my local server (an Imac) and I tryed to export it to the webserver I use for my website. I get the following error :
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /mnt/116/free.fr/e/e/coopimages/visionneuse/index.php on line 80

Could tell me if there is some thing I can do to fix it ? I do not know any thing in php…

Thank you and congratulation for your tool which is exactly what need a lots of lightroom users.

Thank you again

Regards

Xavier

Reply

theturninggate July 8, 2009 at 12:02 am

Ensure you are using the latest version of the web engine. Also, check with your host to confirm that they support the PHP Glob function. Finally, post a like to the gallery so that I can take a look.

Reply

Norbert July 9, 2009 at 7:59 am

Is there someone who has the experience that Google will categorize this websites as it is a .php-File? Do they trace them in order to come to all galleries?

Bye,
Norbert

Reply

theturninggate July 9, 2009 at 11:49 am

Google does not register the fact that it is a PHP file, because the script outputs standard HTML. Google sees that HTML content the same as your browser, and indexes it. This entire blog is PHP-based, as are most blogs, and Google picks up on it quite easily. Google should find it based up on the page content, as any other page.

Reply

Kevin Holy July 13, 2009 at 11:08 am

so i am receiving an error when im trying to load these files.

here is my error message

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ‘(‘ in /var/www/web4/web/dev/header.html on line 4

any ideas?

Reply

theturninggate July 15, 2009 at 4:05 pm

Please confirm with your host that your PHP version is up-to-date, and that they support the PHP Glob function.

Reply

Kevin Holy July 16, 2009 at 8:14 am

here is what my php config looks like 5.2

http://reginastrauss.com/dev/test.php

and here is the error

http://reginastrauss.com/dev/index.php

Reply

theturninggate July 16, 2009 at 11:46 am

Okay, that’s not the latest version of PHP. Here’s mine, for comparison. You might talk to your host about upgrading. I’m not sure whether that would be the fix, or not.

Also, contact them directly to ask about support for the PHP Glob function.

Finally, crack open the auto index .lrwebengine package, and inside you will find an Alternates folder. There’s a second version of the index.php file inside that you can try. Hopefully it will work better.

Reply

Kevin Holy July 16, 2009 at 12:35 pm

its on my server, ill try upgrading the php. also i thought php in if statements brackets “(” are required around them. in the header page that the index includes it does not have these..? is this right? can someone verify?

Reply

theturninggate July 16, 2009 at 12:57 pm

Hi Kevin,

The script works as is on most servers, as seen here. If you’re able to make any further compatibility improvements, though, I will gladly take them under consideration for updates.

Please let me know how it goes.

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

tgfaller July 26, 2009 at 12:24 pm

Will TTG Auto Index function on Mac.com?

Reply

theturninggate July 26, 2009 at 4:46 pm

I do not believe Mac.com supports PHP, so no.

Reply

beckyh July 27, 2009 at 12:02 pm

Hi, I am using Album Index 1.41, which I love, but am having trouble getting my google analytics code to register. I’ve posted the code above the body tag in the index.php file, do you know if this is the right place for it? Thanks for your help.

Becky

Reply

theturninggate July 27, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Hi Becky,

Please upgrade to 2.12. It supports the inclusion of Google Analytics code from within the LR Web module. The option is located in the Output Settings pane.

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

Kevin July 29, 2009 at 10:31 pm

Hi

This may seem like an idiotic question, but I am considering purchasing TTG Auto Index and I would like some questions cleared up if not answered already, my apologies if they have been.

1) The price this is US dollars, correct?
2) If I then purchase this, all that is required is I then create a folder on my web server and call it e.g. gallery. I then drop the TTG Auto Index files into that folder and then all the galleries I have exported from Lightroom then go into gallery/exportedLRgallery/*.* and Auto Index should pick this up along with other galleries I put in there, correct?

Reply

theturninggate July 29, 2009 at 11:57 pm

The price is in U.S. dollars.

When you export TTG Auto Index, it will be placed into a folder. You may name it as you wish. Upload this folder to your server.

Any gallery you wish to index must contain the file ‘autoindex.xml’ and a folder ‘thumbnails’. All HTML galleries from TTG produce these components. If you would like to index another type of gallery, not created by TTG, then you can use TTG XML Maker to generate these components for you.

Any gallery meeting the above criteria should then be copied as a folder into the auto index folder on your server. The index will identify it, and list it.

Clear?

Cheers,
Matt

Reply

Ray Dinterman August 2, 2009 at 6:58 am

I have just started using AutoIndex, it working great. Except I have a phantom index box and it is looking for a folder ending with _vti_cnf/. I have searched and found no folder of file with such an name. Is there any other way to eliminate this?
Thanks!
Ray

Reply

theturninggate August 2, 2009 at 7:14 pm

Sounds like the auto index is looking into a hidden folder on your server. I’d move the index to another location, and create a Home page for your website so that there’s some way to get to the index from your domain name.

Reply

Ray Dinterman August 3, 2009 at 9:51 pm

@theturninggate

Thank you, that was it…I found the hidden folder, removed it and now everything is goos, phantom index box is gone!
Ray

Reply

Eric August 17, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Great product that I’ve incorporated into my website http://www.korenman.com

question: Anyway to use an image for the thumbnail in the index, but NOT show it in the resultant webgallery?

IE — I want to create custom image for each folder with rendered text but not show that same image in the gallery it leads to.

Forgive me if this too obvious, I haven’t had a chance to experiment with autoindex in months.

thanks,
Eric

Reply

theturninggate August 17, 2009 at 3:48 pm

Hi Eric,

You can certainly do that. Just point the Album Thumbnail at a thumbnail image in another location. You can set the path to the thumbnail from within the Auto Index settings of each gallery, or by editing the autoindex.xml file in an exported gallery. The path to the thumbnail should be relative to the gallery’s index.html file. I can’t remember whether absolute URLs are also supported, but I believe they are.

Reply

Mike August 17, 2009 at 7:08 pm

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but it isn’t obvious to me whether or not TTG Auto Index support nested galleries. For example if I want to put all my sporting events under a sports directory and weddings, under a weddings directory, etc. If I installed the autoindex at the top level would it recurse?

Thanks,
Mike

Reply

theturninggate August 17, 2009 at 7:43 pm

The auto index can be nested. Export an index to serve as master; export additional indices to serve as sub-indices — fill out the Album Title and Description in the “Info for TTG Auto Index” controls — then move their folders into the master index.

Reply

Christophe August 20, 2009 at 2:44 am

Hi Matt,
I built my website using your very nice TTG Gallery index and I’m a little bit confused because I have not the same behavior when browsing with IE 6.0 or Firefox.
When I use Firefox, everything is ok but when I use IE 6.0, the thumbnails of the gallery are not appearing in the right size. My gallery header is also not visible. Is there something wrong in the configuration of IE6.0? or is there something wrong in my TTG Gallery index configuration.

Thanks for your advise

Best Regards.

Reply

theturninggate August 20, 2009 at 11:09 am

The Turning Gate no longer supports IE6.

IE6 is the bane of all standards-based web-designers’ existences. There is an organization called the W3C that publishes a set of standards for the web. Adhering to standards ensures that a website will be equally usable whether being viewed in Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome or another browser, on a PC, a Mac or an iPhone, in the United States or in Japan, in English or in Arabic, etc. It’s because of standards that the Internet is able to exist and function as a global entity, despite the vast variations in users and mechanisms that access it.

Microsoft, however, thinks they are above all of that, has long scoffed at standards and implemented their own rules. The result of this culminates in Internet Explorer 6, one of the worst web-browsers of all time.

From IE7 forward, Microsoft somewhat realized their error and took efforts to create more standards-compliant browsers, albeit with mixed results. IE continues to be on of the quirkiest and frustrating browsers in use, but they have made good strides in the right direction. But, we live on with the ghost of IE6.

For starters, IE6 does not support PNG transparency. Because IE6 cannot display PNG transparency, it fills the transparent or partially transparent areas with solid grey. Lightroom’s default gallery uses Javascript to force IE6 to display PNG transparency, though it remains an imperfect fix and comes with several other constraints and issues.

In addition, IE6 lacks support for several standard CSS instructions and other various types of layout code. Generally speaking, for a website to be IE6 compatible, a designer must go into the site after creating it for every other browser on the market, and then break it by adding hacks and workarounds for IE6. Microsoft and IE6 have been responsible for millions, perhaps billions of dollars of unnecessary spending in man-hours and expertise to get websites working in the browser. If Microsoft had only adhered to W3C standards, the loss would never have been necessary.

I used to include support for IE6 in my products, but no longer do so. My reasoning is this:

1) We are now up to Internet Explorer 8. We have to expect the world to upgrade their software at some point, and if people are not at least up to IE7 by now, well … sort of a lost cause.

2) By continuing to support IE6, I feel I continue to encourage, or at the very least condone, its use. IE6 not only causes me headaches as a designer, but is also one of the most insecure, dangerous web-browsers still in use. During its lifespan (2002-2008), IE6 received a total of three security updates. By comparison, modern browsers such as Firefox undergo security updates at least three times in a month. The web changes daily; new attack methods are put forth regularly, and it’s important that browsers be constantly developed and updated to defeat new online threats.

3) As mentioned above, IE6 is NOT standards-compliant and has caused the lose of untold sums of time and money. In 2002 and for a few years after, it was necessary to accommodate IE6; in 2009, it is not. There is little or no reason, at this time, to continue to support this software.

4) As of today, only 18% of my site visitors use Internet Explorer. Of that number, 11% use IE8, 5% use IE7 and only 2% use IE6. Thankfully, that 2% continues to decline. This represents an overall trend for users of the Internet.

There are other reasons, but I think I’ve already given you enough to go on here.

All of this is to say that these problems with the gallery are not something I consider to be problems at all, and will not be addressed in updates. All software moves on — Adobe has publicly announced that Lightroom 3 and Creative Suite 5 will no longer support PowerPC Macs (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/08/goodnight_suite_risc.html) — and I no longer support Internet Explorer 6. This is all in the interest of building for the future, not for the past.

Reply

Andrea August 23, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Is that possible link the thumbnails index to external link to open in a new window?

thank you

Reply

theturninggate August 23, 2009 at 6:53 pm

No, it’s not really used for that.

Reply

Frank August 26, 2009 at 6:16 pm

I have been using Autoindex 2.0 for some time and it has been working perfectly well. Today I purchased 2.11 to setup on another site but it does not generate the index for galleries exported into the index folder. I notice the autoindex.xml file is not automatically generated within the sub folder of galleries exported from LR (2.4). I then created this XML manually and copied it into the gallery sub menu. Now the index does display a link box with title and description but no thumbnail.

Reply

theturninggate August 26, 2009 at 8:57 pm

Frank, what gallery type are you using for the image galleries?

Reply

Frank August 27, 2009 at 2:23 am

LR html and also TTG html.

FC

Reply

theturninggate August 27, 2009 at 2:43 am

The Lightroom HTML gallery does not generate the files necessary for TTG Auto Index to detect it. Use TTG XML Maker w/ Thumbs to create the necessary files, and copy them into the gallery folder.

TTG HTML Gallery generates everything needed, and no additional steps are necessary.

Reply

Frank August 27, 2009 at 1:34 pm

Doh! Thanks.

FC

Reply

jeff August 28, 2009 at 10:13 am

Thinking about purchasing TTG Auto Index but was curious about something… Can I use TTG auto index to index a gallery made by LRB Portfolio? If so, would this be a standard implementation or would it require some extra tweaking?

Reply

theturninggate August 28, 2009 at 11:10 am

LRB Portfolio does not produce the files necessary for the auto index to detect it, however, you can use TTG XML Maker w/ Thumbs to create all of the necessary components. Copy them inside the LRB Portfolio gallery folder and the auto index will then be able to find it. TTG XML Maker is a free download from the “Special Purpose Templates” menu.

Reply

jeff August 28, 2009 at 11:26 am

@theturninggate
The use of TTG XML Maker is actually what I meant by “standard implementation”… I should’ve clarified that. Anyhow, thanks for the feedback. Just wanted to make sure this would work with LRB-P.

Reply

Liora August 28, 2009 at 8:53 pm

hi!

I purchased your tools and I love the way my website looks. I was wondering if you offer an “about me” template? Or, how can I create the “about me” page (me being completely 100% html illiterate)? I depend on your tools and lightroom!

Thanks very very much,
Liora

Reply

theturninggate August 28, 2009 at 9:33 pm

Yes! Please see TTG LR Pages, which can be used to create Home, About and Contact pages for your site.

Reply

Xav August 29, 2009 at 7:17 am

Hi Matt,
I am trying to secure user access to a few files with .htaccess file.
The files are listed in a TTG autoindex page.
I noticed that if I have X galeries directories in the TTG autoindex page, the webbrowser ask me to type Log and password of everies galeries at the loading of the TTG Auto Index page and before loading thumbnails (if I have 30 galeries it could be quiet long…). Is there a way to display by default every thumbs on the TTG Auto index page and to ask Log and Pass only when the user clic on the galery he wants to go to ?

Thank you

XAvier

Reply

Xav August 29, 2009 at 7:19 am

Sorry by “files” I mean “directories”.
I am trying to secure user access to a few files with .htaccess file.
The files are listed in a TTG autoindex page.

Thanks

Reply

theturninggate August 29, 2009 at 10:55 am

I would suggest installing two instances of auto index, one protected, one not. The problem you’re having is server related, and not an issue with the gallery, and I don’t think there’s a way around it.

The only other option would be to password protect the galleries using a PHP script, rather than server protecting. There’s a very old article on this on my site: http://lightroom.theturninggate.net/2007/10/password-protect-lightroom-galleries/. I generally steer people away form this method in favorite of server based protection, though.

Reply

Xav August 29, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Thank you for the password protect file it works fine but why do you “steer away” people from this method ?

Reply

theturninggate August 29, 2009 at 2:53 pm

@Xav
I generally think it’s easier for everyone to use the service as provided by the hosting company. That’s all.

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Vanna August 30, 2009 at 5:07 pm

I’m trying to embed the TTG Auto Index with several photo galleries within an iweb website via a html snippet. What code would I use to do so or what file should I point to within your gallery folders? I tried pointing to the index.html file and the index didn’t find any of my sub galleries. I tried pointing to the index.php file and the gallery wouldn’t open at all.

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theturninggate August 30, 2009 at 6:04 pm

I’ll point you in the right direction, but I will not offer support on the process, as it is not the intended use of the product. The fact that you’re using iWeb to make a website indicates that you lack the necessary experience to do this properly, and I am not a web-design instructor. Google PHP and include statements.

The file you are working on will need to be a PHP file, and you can call in the auto index’s index.php file using a PHP include statement.

Note that PHP requires being run from a web server, and will not render in a browser from your local hard disk.

Instead, you might try using an iframe. I don’t like them, but that might be easier for you.

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Sigurd September 2, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Hi! I’ve just purchased the TTG auto index (nice, thanks!) and I’m now adding old albums to the index with the XML-maker. This works fine. However, I am not very happy with the way it sorts everything in alphabetical order. Is there any way I can put the latest album on top (ex album “Summer2009″) instead of an album which starts with an “a” (say, “Autumn2006″)?
I’ve used the old TTG Gallery index 1.2 until now where i can always prioritise which album goes first and last. Is there any way the Auto index can be used in the same way.
Thank you for great work.

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theturninggate September 2, 2009 at 2:26 pm

The best way to order your folders is to name them to that purpose. For example, name them by date. For example, 20090902, 20091001, etc. If you like to have a keyword in the folder name, then name them as 20090901_Summer.

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Helen September 2, 2009 at 9:40 pm

I’ve installed autoindex but when i display the website it does not generate the thumbnails properly…

http://www.halinasplace.com.au/autoindex

thanks

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theturninggate September 2, 2009 at 11:00 pm

The first thing I’d like you to do is delete the URL from the autoindex.xml file in the /portfolio/ gallery and see whether that helps. Also, please confirm with your hosting provider that they support PHP Glob() functions.

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Helen September 2, 2009 at 11:20 pm

Well that might be the problem – you see i host my own website and have just configured php to run this app… if you can point me in the right direction as to how i might configure my server to support glob functions i’d appreciate it

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Helen September 3, 2009 at 12:45 am

fixed it – i didn’t need to set it up as an application

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Helen September 13, 2009 at 7:33 am

Well the problem is back again – I’ve added mysql support and in the process broke the autoindex – any pointers you could give me would be appreciated…http://www.halinasplace.com.au/gallery/slideshows/ or http://www.halinasplace.com.au/gallery/autoindex/

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Helen September 13, 2009 at 7:58 am

in your php.ini file look for:
short_open_tag

and set it to On

was the solution

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Helen September 14, 2009 at 5:52 am

I have a css question – i’ve used the css file that came generated with autoindex as the main css file for my website but for the life of me i can’t globally change the font of the site title eg Helen Biernacki I can make it italics but thats about it why won’t changing .siteTitle work when wanting to set it to say a freestyle script?

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theturninggate September 14, 2009 at 11:08 am

Hi Helen,

Without seeing your code, it’s difficult for me to guess. Also, the code has changed with TTG Auto Index 3.0. Are you using this latest version, or the older version?

Are you using the ‘!important’ clause? Lightroom appends this to all of it’s CSS, and so to overrule any rule set by Lightroom, you might need to use it too.

Also, in 3.0, there are classes assigned to headers, which might have something to do with it. Or, instead of attempting to change it based on class, you might target ‘h2′ instead …

Did you try just changing the font from within Lightroom’s web module, using the provided controls? That didn’t give you the result you wanted?

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Helen September 14, 2009 at 9:16 pm

Thanks I changed h2 and that seemed to work

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