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Website Documentation
Website Generator Documentation - Timelines (Photos & Blog)
(Work In Progress: output at 22/09/2023 04:01:51)
This document covers1 the following functions performed by clicking buttons on the front screen:-
- Update / Output Timeline Pages (cmdTimelines_Click)
To see the Code, click on the procedure name above.
Introduction
- This page describes the creation and maintenance of photographic timelines on my Website. Starting from the above button, there are currently 9 options.
- The first 3 allow maintenance of static data:-
- Search the Photos_Raw table.
- Manually check photos excluded from the web-pages after being imported into Photos_Raw. In particular ensure that both of two different-sized photos are excluded when one is, or that the middle only (or all three) are if there are three different-sized photos of the same image.
- Check that photos have consistent types (ie. that different size versions of the same photo don’t appear in different pages).
- There are three types of timeline currently on my website. The first two are non-standard:-
- Blog:
- This is now uses Functor_14 to generate the table in the webpage, using the MS Access table Blog. It’s mainly on this menu as an attempt to remind me how the Blog is now maintained & output! The user is asked whether they want to update the Blog table, and – if not – the Blog (Note 2682) is output via Notes_To_Regen and CreateNotesWebPages.
- This is a major enhancement to my Blog processing, and seems to make the process much easier to administer.
- Coxes Farm Timeline:
- This is Note 12763, which uses Functor_15 to generate the table in the webpage, using the MS Access table Timeline.
- It is slightly half-baked at the moment, but the intention is to select contrasting photos from the other timelines and display them – with comments – in whatever order seems helpful.
- Generic Timelines:
- The residue of this Note focuses on Generic Timelines.
Generic Timelines: Detailed processing
- Overview:
- The names of photo JPEGs are copied from the selected directory into the table Photos_Raw, classified by (currently) one of three photo-types, reflecting the three options above.
- Optionally, the photos themselves are copied to the Photos/Notes directory on the local copy of my website (they must be copied over manually to the live site).
- Large and small copies of the same photo are matched up – using the string immediately before the “.jpg” to the preceding “_” (if any) – so that the small photo appears on the grid, for rapidity of loading, the large photo only being displayed on request.
- I found a useful free utility – Mass Image Compressor – that can compress images in bulk. It works fine, and quickly.
- The photos are segregated by month and displayed in descending date order. The date used is the “date taken” in the JPEG header, if there is one, otherwise a manually-entered date can be used. If both exist, the manually entered date takes precedence.
- Within the month bands, a further segregation is allowed by photo-subgroup.
- A narrative associated with each Month (or Subgroup within Month) can be entered to the Photo_Narratives table.
- A jump-table (by Month, not sub-group) appears at the top of the page to allow easy access to, and an overview of, the timeline. The Narrative for the month appears as a pop-up.
- An issue was display of portrait photos, which appeared as landscape in the grid, and when rotated distorted the grid unacceptably. I sorted this eventually, and flag such items – manually rotated using the standard Microsoft Photos utility – within Photos_Raw.
- A final issue was the date the photo was taken. This can often be deduced from the JPEG header, using a modified version of a utility I found on-line. Otherwise, the date can be encoded in the file-name, or physically typed in to the Photos_Raw table.
- The following subroutines and functions are called into play:-
- Create_Timeline: This is the controlling routine, and will be covered in detail later.
- Compressed_Photos_Copy: This is a routine that copies already compressed images from a selected directory and copies them to another selected directory, prefixing the file name with “Small_”. The images can then be imported using Create_Timeline.
- GetProperty: This is a modified version of a bit of freeware found on-line (originally in VB). It returns “Property n” from the JPEG header. I only use it with n=12, which is “date photo taken”. It is not always set.
- Photo_Copy:
- Photo_Copy2:
- Photo_Preparation:
- Images_Add:
- Functor_16:
- Create_Timeline:
This Note is awaiting further attention8.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 1:
- Or will do, once it has been completed!
Previous Version of this Note:
Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Summary of Notes Citing This Note
| Status: Priority Task List (2023 - September), 2, 3 |
Status: Summary (2023 - June), 2, 3 |
Status: Summary Task List (2023: July - September), 2 |
Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 22Q4 - 23Q3), 2, 3 |
Status: Web-Tools (2023 - June), 2, 3 |
| Website - Outstanding Developments (2023 - September), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Website Generator Documentation - Control Page |
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4 |
|
|
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023