Integrating ZP into site - Several questions

os07

I've figured out (mostly...) how to integrate ZP into a site I'm working on. I took the code from the album.php page, and moved it into a regular page (with the site's ordinary navigation and styling, etc.) on the site. So, the ZP album thumbnails appear correctly, no problems. When I click on a thumbnail, however, I get the full size image, but on a NEW (generated) page, that lacks all of the site stuff from the calling page that contained the album code.

What I want to do is to have the image load on the SAME page that had the album code - just replacing the album thumbnails with the full size image. I have seen some examples of this, but I can't figure out how to do it.

Also, every time a change is made to the individual albums, the album.php code changes to reflect the new group of images it contains. Is there a way for my integrated album.php code to be automatically updated as well, or so I have to cut and paste the new image info each time the album content is altered?

TIA for your collective wisdom!

os07

I think I have figured out the problem, for me: In inserting the album.php code into a page, how do I specify a specific single album in the PHP code?

acrylian

Why don't you use this here? http://www.zenphoto.org/2008/01/hacks/#zenphoto-as-plugin

os07

This looks promising. I am going to try this in a typical page containing one ZP album:

<?php define('ZENFOLDER', 'zp-core');
define('WEBPATH', 'zenphoto');
require_once(WEBPATH . "/" . ZENFOLDER . "/template-functions.php") ?>

<?php define ('$folder', 'weddings');
zp_load_album($folder) ?>

/* then all of the code from the albums.php template to show the content */

Am I on the right track? Sorry, I am not really very experienced in PHP coding. Weddings is subfolder of the ZP albums folder.

Thanks again for your patience.

acrylian

Why so complicated? Why don't you just use the normal setup with album and image pages?

os07

I'm a bit lost at this point, I must admit. I just can't see how to implement the album and image functions into my pages. The code I listed above works, but it shows me a gallery with all of the albums/thumbs. I just want one album per page, such as in this site: http://www.christophclasen.de/galerien/kinderbuch.

Sorry to be so clueless here. I've used ZP in other sites, but as a regular gallery installation. The integration thing is just a bit beyond my grasp...

acrylian

That site uses a CMS and Zenphoto in two separate installations (zenphoto in a subfolder) with a theme for each that look the same. To achieve this album view, it is just linked directly (and hard coded) into the album in question. The site basically skips the index.php page, the first page you see is in fact the start page of the CMS not of Zenphoto. It does therefore not use the "zenphoto as plugin solution".

Next you will ask how do I get the latest images shown there then. That is done by a php include(or require, I have to look) of a Zenphoto custom page that shows the latest images (see our theming tutorial for details).

os07

Thanks. I think that the basic problems for me now are these:

1.)I can restyle the index.php, album.php and image.php pages to fit the site in question. I do not need the index.php file to display, as each site page contains only a single specific album - there is no overall gallery page to show all albums/thumbs.

2.)I need to figure out how I can have the individual site pages each display only ONE specific album/thumbs, instead of all of the albums. If I could figure out how to do this, all the rest would work just fine, i think.

3.)This site will not be updated all that often, and the ZP admin interface is perfect for the end user. I think as long as the specific album is called on each page, it will always reflect the proper contents as they are changed.

acrylian

1) / 2) If you don't want to use index.php you don't have to. Just make a conventional html "index.hmtl". As I said above change album.php to fit your site's design and build a hard coded menu that directly links into albums.

3) ?

os07

Thanks. I think I just got a little confused there for a while. I've got it all working, now. Just left with the styling and options.

Very grateful for your patience and support!