Archive for July, 2004
Textpattern plus Photostack
July 29
First things first. You need to head over to photostack.org and download the latest version of Photostack. The version I worked with is 2.0b13, if you get a later version, these steps might not work.
Install the software as instructed, then get out your favorite shell, ftp program, or ftp-enabled text editor, and open up the index.php file in the photostack directory. Add in the usual textile-enabling code to the beginning of the document so it looks like:
</code>
Obviously you need to replace <strong>/full/domainpath/to/</strong> with your domain path to Textpattern. The above bit was found on the "Textpattern forums (forums for textpattern)":http://forums.textpattern.com, "posted (the forum post)":http://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?id=1928 by "Jon Hicks (lovely designer from the UK)":http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/.
The rest is pretty straightforward, but there were a few pieces that I didn't get at first.
Open up *textismIndex.tmpl.php*. This is the template used to show an index of all your albums. What I recommend doing is merging this and your Textpattern template. There are key elements in the Photostack template that make the page a bit more useful, so you shouldn't delete them. And, of course, using Textpattern forms makes building your page a lot easier. "Here's (link to the template file)":http://www.eyeheartzombies.com/photostack/textismIndex.source what my *textismIndex.tmpl.php* source looks like.
Lines 1 – 11 are basic Textpattern stuff. Line 12, instead of using <code> (which wouldn’t generate anything, as this page has no relation to the Textpattern database), I’ve supplied “eyeheartzombies” as the title. You can use associated Photostack elements here, if you wish.
Lines 13 – 23 are from the default Photostack template. They supply useful meta data including copyright information and page relations. You can omit them with no problems, I’m sure. Notice how lines 16 – 18 are wrapped in </code> tags. These tags make the contained information only available when Photostack is parsing albums, as opposed to individual photos.
Skipping down to line 43, we start the real Photostack work. The <code> opening tag again sets that conditional. If it is dealing with albums (as it has to be, at this point), it starts an unordered list with a class of “listing”, gives it one item, and a paragraph.
The next tag is a sibling of the </code> tag. The <code> tag sets a conditional that the following is only applicable to photos, not to albums. The num=”1″ attribute only lets it pull one photo from the album.
It creates a link with the url (?album=), title (</code>) and a class. Then an image from the album is pulled up as a thumbnail (Photostack autogenerates the thumbnail when the album is uploaded) and lists the name of the album. By default, the date of the album is also included. I omitted this, but feel free to leave it.
Finally, we close the <code> loop, the paragraph, the list item (there will be one for album, of course. The </code> tags work like loops _and_ containers), the list and finally, the <code> loop.
The rest is just HTML and Textpattern code.
I’m not going to explain how to do the other files; I’m sure you can manage them if you’ve managed this one. Of course, feel free to ask for any more help.
A Line in Your Book
July 28
It’s a great time for music in our household. Well, at least, it is to me; Elaine may not agree, but I think she doesn’t mind. This week, so far, I’ve gotten albums from 100 Demons, Twelve Tribes, and Zao. I also got an album from Bane, but it was in M4A format, or whatever that Apple format is, so I’m not sure I can listen to it. Haven’t gotten to try yet. People really should label their torrents better.
Legally, I finally received my final birthday present from John. It was a copy of the self-titled LP from the 5.6.7.8’s. If you don’t know, they’re an awesome ’50s-style rock band from Japan. They were the band playing in Kill Bill vol. One. It’s a great album with some great song names; my favorite being “Tallahasse Lassie”. Yes, John, I’m going to share.
Henry asked me to compile a list of my favorite bands/songs/albums. Being the kind of guy that likes to appease his readers, I’m going to do it. It’s gonna take a me a little while, though. It’ll be in the about section, so keep checking. Also, I’m going to write up a how-to for integrating Textpattern and Photostack. This’ll probably be the first article in a new how-to or methods section. I’m not sure what I’ll call it yet, but look for it to crop up in the next few days.
Two more things, then you can get back to your life. One, I’d like to wish a happy birthday to Manny. I know you’ll all head over to his site and wish him the same.
Secondly, in case you hadn’t noticed, the site underwent a little bit of a reorganization. I’m trying to keep all the usefulness of the old organization and just move things around so they display better and make a better use of space. If things aren’t useful to you, please drop me a line and let me know. Also, some pages may shift a lot in the next little while as I work on making everything work right. The links page is giving me a lot of hell.
OK. Go do something else!
Zombiestack
July 24
I decided to get Photostack working here on EHZ this weekend. Well, I did it. It’s actually pretty easy. If someone wants, I’ll write up a how-to for it. So, go to the photography section and see what you think. This’ll give me the ability to easily add galleries and photos. The previous set up was pretty easy to use, but just not easy enough. I’m very happy with this one so far.
Other than that, not much is going on. I think I’ve finished shopping for Elaine’s birthday. That’s good, since I was running out of money/ideas. Well, not out of ideas. She gave a nice long list of things she’d like. Anyway, I think I’m through and I hope she doesn’t go snooping around too much.
Also, I’m getting better/over this flu that I had all last week. I’m on a few medications that seem to be making everything better. My thanks again to all the people who sent nice words/thoughts my way. I never knew I had so many people concerned (even if just enough to leave a comment) about me.
Got some nifty new music this week, as always. Got an album from Bearvsshark and one from Killswitch Engage. They’re both pretty damn good, but Killswitch Engage isn’t really my style of hardcore. I don’t know what it is about them, but they’re just not going to be a fast favorite of mine.
Also got Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time for my XBox off of Ebay. Haven’t gotten to play it yet, but I know it’s a fun game.
Well, guess I’d better get on with some other stuff I need to do around here. Check out the photo gallery and let me know what you think.
Cough, Cough, Heave, Sick
July 19
Yeah, I’ve been sick again. For the last several days, I’ve woken up very sick to my stomach. I won’t go into the details, but it’s usually quite some time before I can leave the bathroom far behind. I’m also having muscle cramps and hot/cold flashes. If I sleep for about half the day, I come out alright at night, but that destroys any chance of work or productivity. Well, not exactly, but it makes going to work hard. I’m doing my best to get in there tomorrow, since this Thursday is supposed to be deadline.
Speaking of work, I think I’ve just about finished the Textpattern version of the site for work. All that’s left are a few CSS bugs, a few plugins/tweaks, and figuring out why individual articles won’t show. Oh well, no biggies…’scept that last one. I’ll get it sorted out, though.
On the personal side of work, Manny and I have finished our first work ticket with Henry and I think he’s pleased with the results. It’s nice getting to do work for someone else for a change, instead of for me or for work-work. I hope we get to work for Henry some more and that other people will hire us soon.
Actuallly, I’m going to a seminar next week over getting money from the government for starting a new business, so maybe Gigantuan will have some funding behind it soon. I can only hope.
In home news, Elaine and I have been watching quite a few movies lately. We watched Cold Mountain the other day. I liked it a bit more than she did, I think, but we were both pretty pleased with it. If you haven’t seen it, give it a shot. We also watched Them! which is a great old horror/sci-fi movie about giant ants under Los Angeles. I finished reading By the Light of the Moon and, apparently on a Dean Koontz kick, started reading The Bad Place. I’m not very far into it, but it’s starting to get good. I’ll tell more about it when I’m farther. I’m still reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to Elaine. We’re on the second book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Such a great read.
Before I leave you, I just want to give a congratulations to Manny for making it into the Art Institute of Atlanta and making it through his first week. The internet needs more intelligent, conscientious designers!
Jenny Turpish Slapped Me said the following about me:
Wackiness: 34/100
Rationality: 62/100
Constructiveness: 66/100
Leadership: 40/100
You are an SRCF—Sober Rational Constructive Follower. This makes you a White House staffer. You are a tremendous asset to any employer, cool under pressure, productive, and a great communicator. You feel the need to right wrongs, take up slack, mediate disputes and keep the peace. This comes from a secret fear that business can’t go on without you—or worse, that it can.
If you have a weakness, it is your inability to say “no.” While your peers respect you, they find it difficult to resist taking advantage of your positive attitude and eagerness to take on work. You depend on a good manager to keep you from sinking under the weight and burning out.
I guess that’s all pretty accurate. I do feel the need to fix wrongs and pick up after other people. I should do more about that. Oh well.
Except Design
July 11
First off, this site has a very odd copyright notice at the bottom.
All content, with the exception of the html and design, copyright 1997-2004 Robert Occhialini
What exactly does “with the exception of the html and design” mean? I know the site looks quite a bit like Simple Bits, but would someone admit that they ripped someone else off in this fashion? I’m not saying Robert ripped Dan off; there’s no proof of that. But it seems an odd thing to say.
Anyway. This has been a good week, I guess. After the meeting on Tuesday, which was full of shouting, the office was in a bit of a tizzy. I smoothed out my end of it by setting up a Textpattern install for the web site in less than a day. It all works, looks pretty good, and is more than easy enough for the people in the office to use. I think everyone’ll be even happier when I get all the bugs sorted out and we can go live with it. I know the price tag makes them happy, too.
Elaine and I got our pictures developed from the 4th of July. You can see some of mine in my photography section. I also finished another roll the other day, but it hasn’t been developed yet. Should have some good shots in it.
Finished up a project for Gigantuan today. Well, mostly. Still a few things left to do, but they’re filed on a seperate ticket, so I’ll get to them in a day or so. It’s nice actually getting to do web work and be paid for it. It’s doubly nice getting to do it at work and at home.