Using this gadget, you can add a photo album to a page on your Wild Apricot, so that visitors to your site can view a gallery of photos.
Photo album pages are different from member photo albums which appear on members' individual profiles.
You can control who can upload photos to the photo album, allowing all members to do so, or restricting uploading to selected membership levels or just site administrators. Pictures can also be uploaded by administrators via WebDAV or the Files screen.
You cannot add a photo album gadget – or any other singular gadget – to a page template or system page, or to a page containing another singular gadget.
You can add as many photo albums as you want, with each album appearing on a separate page. You can restrict access to each page as you would any other page.
Each album appears as a separate folder under SiteAlbums within your site's Resources folder. Deleting a photo album gadget does not remove the corresponding album folder from the SiteAlbums folder.
You can also display the images from a photo album in a slideshow gadget.
Adding a photo album to a page
To add a photo album to a page on your site, follow these steps:
- Click the Website menu, then click the Sites pages option within the Website module.
- Create or begin editing the site page where you want the album to appear.
- Click the Gadgets icon to display the list of available gadgets.
- Drag the photo album gadget from the list, and drop it where you want it to appear on the page. You can insert it into a section within a layout, or above or below a layout.
If the photo album gadget is grayed out within the Gadgets list, that means you're editing a page that already has a singular gadget on it. - After you have dropped the gadget in the desired location, hover your pointer over it and click the Settings icon.
- From the gadget settings panel on the left, choose the desired settings for your photo album. For more information, see Photo album settings (below).
- Click Save to save the changes to the page.
For instructions on restricting access to the page, see Page access and visibility.
Photo album settings
After you've added a photo album gadget to a page on your site, you can adjust the photo album gadget settings. Within the gadget settings, you can set the number of photos per page and control who can add photos to the photo album.
Gadget settings appear in a panel on the left side (which can be hidden to maximize the page design area). To display the settings panel, you position your pointer over the gadget – while editing a site page – then click the gadget's Settings icon.
The following photo album gadget settings are available.
Album name
The name of the photo album. This is the name that would appear when you are selecting a photo album to use as the basis for a slideshow gadget.
Photos per page
The maximum number of photos that appear on each photo album page. If there are more than the specified number of photos in the album, links will appear at the top-right and bottom-right of the page that you can use to scroll through the album pages.
Photos can be uploaded by
Choose the kind of members who can upload photos to the photo album. You can allow all members, administrators only, or selected membership levels. If you choose the Selected membership levels option, you then check the membership level(s) that you want to be able to upload photos.
Sort by
Controls the order in which photos are displayed in the album. You can choose to display them by name or date added – the date the photo was uploaded to the album – in ascending or descending order.
Album information
This section displays identifying information for the album that administrators need to upload photos via the Files screen or via WebDAV. Before you can view the album information, you have to save the page on which the photo album gadget appears then refresh your browser (on most browsers: press the F5 key). For more information, see Uploading photos (below).
Gadget title
If you specify a gadget title, the title will appear specially formatted within the gadget. Depending on the gadget style you choose, the title may appear in a heading box. You can choose from theme-specific styles and styles that are common to all themes.
For Casefile and Kaleidoscope themes, use a Headline gadget instead of specifying a gadget title.
Gadget style
The gadget style determines the physical appearance of the gadget. The style you choose will determine the color and format of the gadget title, the gadget content, and the gadget border. You can choose from theme-specific styles and styles that are common to all themes.
Margins
The amount of space – in pixels – that appears outside the gadget. You can set top, bottom, left, and right margins separately.
Advanced
Within the Advanced section, you can enter CSS code or classes to further control the appearance and behavior of the gadget. For more information, see Gadget settings.
Adding a description
You can add a description for your photo album by inserting a content gadget ahead of the photo album gadget. Within the content gadget, you can add a title and description, and format them using text styles. If you plan to add a title and description using a content gadget, be sure not to enter a gadget title as part of the photo album gadget settings. For more information on adding and formatting text, see Using the content editor.
Changing colors and fonts
You can change the colors, text styles, and backgrounds used in your website from the Colors and styles screen.
For more advanced fine-tuning, you can use CSS customization and theme overrides.
For photo album gadgets, you can modify the following elements from the Colors and styles screen:
Gadget title
- General formatting or Typography < H4
- Gadgets or Gadget styles > Title
(Blueprint, Clean Lines, Dark Impact, Fiesta, Firma, Kaleidoscope, Homestead, Showcase, Skyline, Terra, and White Space themes)
Labels
- General formatting or Typography > Text/Normal
Links
- General formatting or Typography > Text/Normal, Link
Any changes you make will be applied to other gadgets that use the same settings.
Viewing photo albums
Each photo album shows thumbnails of photos. The number of photos displayed per page depends on the Photos per page setting within the photo album gadget's settings.
If you are logged in as a member, you have the option to show all photos or only photos that you have uploaded. If you have permission to upload photos, an Upload button will appear.
If the number of photos in the album exceeds the Photos per page setting, then links will appear at the top-right and bottom-right of the gadget that you can use to scroll through the album pages.
To view a larger version of a photo, click the thumbnail within the photo album. On the individual photo page, the photo will be displayed as close to full size as can fit on the page. Above the image, you will see the date the image was uploaded, as well as the name of the member who uploaded it (depending on the member's privacy settings).
To view the full version of the photo in a separate browser tab, click the photo within the photo page. To scroll through other images in the album, click the Previous or Next links.
Uploading photos
There are 3 ways that photos can be uploaded to a photo album:
- from the photo album
- through File management
- via WebDAV
Uploading photos from the photo album
Administrators and members who have been granted permission to upload photos will see an Upload button within the photo album.
Clicking this button will display a dialog where they can select up to 5 images to be uploaded at a time.
You can select photos saved using the following file formats: .jpg, .gif, .png and .tif. The maximum file size of each photo is 100 MB.
After selecting the files to be uploaded, click the Upload button.
The selected photos will be uploaded and added to the photo album.
Uploading photos through the Files screen or via WebDAV
Administrators can also upload photos using the Files screen and through WebDAV.
To upload images through the Files screen or WebDAV, take note of the Album ID displayed on the photo album gadget settings.
Before you can view the album information, you have to save the page on which the photo album gadget appears then refresh your browser (on most browsers: press the F5 key).
To upload photos to the album through the Files screen or via WebDAV, you expand the SiteAlbums folder under Resources then select the folder with the album ID number.
From the Files screen, you can upload any number of files to the album folder.
Via WebDAV, you can copy files to the album folder as you would any other folder on your computer.
Do not add files directly to the SiteAlbums folder. Only add files to one of the subfolders under SiteAlbums.
Downloading photos
Photos added to photo albums on your site can be downloaded from the Files screen or using WebDAV. In either case, you expand the SiteAlbums folder under Resources then select the folder with the album ID number. You can then copy the files to another location on your computer or network.
Adding captions to photos
After a member or administrator uploads a photo, they can add a caption to the image they uploaded. You can add captions only to those photos that you have uploaded.
To add a caption, click on the image within the album and then click the Add caption link that appears below the photo on the individual photo page.
After you enter a caption and click on Save, the caption will appear below the photo thumbnail and on the individual photo page.
There is a limit of 200 characters for photo captions.
Deleting photos
After a member or administrator uploads a photo, they can delete the image they uploaded.
To delete a photo, hover over its thumbnail within the photo album then click the Delete link that appears.
You can also delete a photo from the individual photo page by clicking the Delete photo button that appears in the upper right corner.
Administrators can delete photos from the Files screen and WebDAV. Through the Files screen and WebDAV, administrators can delete any photos whether they uploaded them or not.
Troubleshooting
Image appears rotated
If a picture appears at the wrong angle – rotated 90 degrees, for example – try saving the picture using a different file format (e.g. .PNG) then loading the new file.
If that doesn't work, you can use a graphic editor such as PhotoShop to remove the EXIF data embedded in the graphic file that's controlling the orientation. For more information on this approach, click here.
Unable to delete or rename the SiteAlbums folder
Within your Resources folder on your Wild Apricot, there is a folder called SiteAlbums. You cannot delete or rename this folder.