Web Album

Web Album (Java 1.1)

Overview

Web Album provides a convenient means of browsing pictures and other resources you store online. You can browse by year and month as well as do simple searches on picture names. And you can incorporate it into your website for free!

Click on one of the topics below to obtain further help.

I am browsing a website which uses this interface. How do I use it?

I am interested in using the Web Album interface for my website. How do I do this?

I haven't seen Web Album yet. Show me a demo!

Using Web Album

The web album interface has three listboxes: one for the year, one for the month and one for the pictures. Initially all pictures are displayed in the bottom listbox.

You can browse the pictures like this:

Resize and reposition the interface as you like.
Click on a picture. The picture will be displayed in a new browser window. This same window will be reused for all subsequent pictures, so reposition and resize it so that it doesn't overlap with the interface.
You can click on a year and then a given month within that year to narrow down the list of pictures.
You can also enter one or more keywords in the Search field at the bottom, then click on [Search] to narrow down the list to files containing the keywords. This filter will be used in addition to any narrowing you do by year and/or month. The filter will remain in effect until you explicitly blank out the Search field. To enter two or more keywords, separate them with a vertical bar (|).

Important: you need a JDK 1.1-compliant browser to use Web Album. If you don't have such a browser, you can get one; either:

download and install Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0™ or greater
download and install Netscape Navigator™ 4.08 or greater
download and install Opera 5.1 or greater (Java version)

Incorporating Web Album Into Your Website

Subject to the usage terms and conditions below, you may incorporate the Web Album Java applet into your website.

Web Album FIles

First, some theory. Web Album lets you display a number of resources (pictures, audio files). You name these files according to a certain convention. The end user can choose from all files or else narrow down the file list by year, month and keyword.

Web Album assumes that most of your files will have the same extension. For example, let's assume you have mostly picture files (.jpg) with a handful of audio files (.wav). In the Web Album list, the .jpg files will have the extensions omitted whereas the .wav files will not.

The File List Text File

Web Album uses a text file (say resources.txt) in which you list all of the filenames in your album. As mentioned before, these filenames should be named according to this convention:

YYYYMMDD_MixedCaseDescription.ext

Some examples:

20010722_MohanWalksOutside.jpg 20010723_MohanTalksOutside.wav

In the Web Album list, the above two files would be displayed as:

2001 Jul 22: Mohan Walks Outside 2001 Jul 23: Mohan Talks Outside [wav]

(assuming that .jpg is the default extension).

Files To Deploy

You deploy the following files in the same directory:

the HTML file (i.e. WebAlbum.htm) which loads the Web Album applet and presumably contains introductory text for the album
the WebAlbum.jar file which contains the Web Album applet
the resources.txt file described above (this can be named anything you want)
all the files listed in resources.txt

The HTML file is the entry point into your album.

Step-by-step instructions

First, download the development kit and play around with the sample:

Download WebAlbum.zip and unzip it to some empty, temporary directory.
In your browser, open WebAlbum.htm in the SampleWebAlbum directory. Play around with the interface and examine the files in the SampleWebAlbum directory. Do searches on things like C|D, D, Bigger, etc.

Now incorporate Web Album into your website:

Ensure that your picture and audio files are named according to the convention described above. Ensure that they are all in the same directory.
Create a file called resources.txt which contains all files in the album. These do not have to be in sorted order. How you do this depends on the operating system you're using. Here are some examples:

Windows

dir /b *.jpg >resources.txt dir /b *.wav >>resources.txt

Linux / UNIX

ls *.jpg >resources.txt ls *.wav >>resources.txt

Place WebAlbum.jar in this directory.
Either modify / rename WebAlbum.htm for your website, or else create an HTML file which has an APPLET tag similar to the one in WebAlbum.htm. The two applet parameters, ResourceFile and DefaultExtension indicate the name of the file list text file and the default extension, respectively. Note: in SampleWebAlbum, I used resources_<DATE>.txt instead of resources.txt because the Java Runtime seemed to be retrieving out-of-date, cached copies of resources.txt. Choosing a new filename every time you update your album should avoid this problem if you experience it.
Take your website for a spin!

Usage Terms and Conditions

Incorporating the Web Album applet into your website indicates your acceptance of the following license conditions. If you do not agree with these terms, you may not incorporate web album into your website.

This program comes with no warranties, either express or implied. In no event will the copyright holder be liable from any damages resulting from the use of this software.

This program is PropagandaWare. If you continue using this program seven days after the first use, you agree to visit the following websites:

You are exempt from this agreement if you do not have Internet access. Note that users who visit your website are not required to visit these websites.

Permission is granted to any individual or institution to copy or redistribute this software provided that:

it is not altered in any way
it is not sold for profit
this copyright notice is displayed
if made available for download on a non-FTP web page, that a link be made to www.thisiscool.com whenever possible

Developed in Java using the Borland^® JBuilder^® Foundation 4.0.