Front-end redesign

[recman]

I was a long time ago a Coppermine user, and from time to time I check out the progress of the work. I think Coppermine has the best back-end interface and functionalities for photo-uploads and management out there, but unfortunately the front-end looks real out-of-date. I have spent hours looking for a theme that makes Coppermine look fresh and modern but there doesnt seem to be one. All themes are more or less based on the same layout with just colors, backgrounds and such replaced. Since I dont (since I havent the skills) make themes for Coppermine I can only guess, and that guess is that this is because Coppermine itself doesnt allow to much freedom when themeing, correct?

I therefore suggest, wish, hope and pray that the awsome boys and girls who stands behind the development of Coppermine will take a whole new fresh grip on the design/layout parts of Coppermine. I would die for being able to use Coppermine as my choice when making a nice looking photo-portfolio/site.

I hope no one takes this the wrong way now. Its a fact that Coppermine works awsome for showing photos on the internet, but it has no eye-candy, it just look so...90-ish
A great example of similar project that has the opposite problem (great front-end but not so flexible back-end) is PixelPost (http://www.pixelpost.org/). Unfortunately this project has died since the people behind it couldnt get time for it in the end. They are looking for someone to take over it acctually. Coppermines back-end + PixelPosts front-end would rock the world and be an answer to my prayers.

[Αndré]

That's no feature request and additionally just a matter of taste IMHO. If you want to look Coppermine like Pixelpost (I just had a short look at http://www.pixelpost.org/demo/index.php and cannot see any outstanding front-end feature), you just have to move some things around and switch some colors in your theme. The main difference between Coppermine and Pixelpost seems to be that Pixelpost looks much cleaner because it seems to have almost no features compared to Coppermine (and thus needs no corresponding buttons) and hides the infos and comments by default. I assume it's already possible to create a Coppermine theme which looks very close to Pixelpost without any core code changes. If you're not able to create it yourself, you have to pay somebody.

[recman]

A modern design is a feature request imho.

You did only look at a default theme, have a look around and You will see what can easily be done (and have been done) with PixelPost. But Im not here to compare PP and CM in any way. If the people behind CM thinks their coredesign is modern and flexible thats fine, then we just dont share the taste.

[recman]

35mm is the name of the most popular PP theme, if something like that would have been possible (with smooth effects when changing photos or expand comments, and clean proffessional layout) in CM I would be really pleased. But since no one has made a theme even close to this (please prove me wrong if thats is the case) or in any way near that direction I guess CM need some kind of redesign to make it possible for theme-creaters to have bigger freedom in their design. THATS a feature and thats my feature request.

[Αndré]

smooth effects when changing photos

That smooth effect can be added to Coppermine with a plugin (or even with a theme but I prefer plugins as they're more flexible). Unfortunately it's just a "cheat", i.e. the page isn't loaded completely - no AJAX - and some JavaScript just waits until the image is loaded and then fades it in.

I guess CM need some kind of redesign to make it possible for theme-creaters to have bigger freedom in their design

This is wrong in my opinion. Coppermine is very flexible, as themes can overwrites whole functions. It's the task of the theme authors to use that flexibility. Of course Coppermine has a basic structure (categories / albums / pictures) which scares theme authors to break through that borders, but it is already possible. That's why I think Coppermine doesn't need a re-design.


Maybe I'll create some proof-of-concept page to show what's already possible with Coppermine's theme engine.

[recman]

Maybe I'll create some proof-of-concept page to show what's already possible with Coppermine's theme engine.

That I think really would be awsome. Not just for me but for all new curious visitors that visits the site to see what Coppermine is all about. The demo's available today at http://coppermine-gallery.net is, as I wrote earlier, pretty much same same, just different colors in most cases. So a demo-site where Coppermine really shows of and proof
the muscles it has (as You say it does) would be a good addition.

[Αndré]

Unfortunately I'm no theme author who builds complete themes from scratch. I can just try to adapt things I see elsewhere, e.g. I can try to make Coppermine look like Pixelpost.

[lurkalot]

Maybe I'll create some proof-of-concept page to show what's already possible with Coppermine's theme engine.

That I think really would be awsome. Not just for me but for all new curious visitors that visits the site to see what Coppermine is all about.

I agree this would give people the chance to see what's possible with a bit of imagination, (and I guess some coding skills).  Got someone making some dark themes for me as I type, these will be matching themes for SMF2.0.2 and Coppermine.  But I'd love to see what can be done, and maybe put it to good use.

[Αndré]

Attached is a plugin which adds the same fade-in effect as Pixelpost's 35mm theme. The same can be achieved by modifying Coppermine's (theme accessible) function "theme_html_picture", but a plugin can be used with lots of/all themes.

You can find the plugin here.

[Αndré]

Attached is a theme that should look similar to Pixelpost's 35mm theme at a first glance. I tried to adapt Coppermine's intermediate-sized view, except the prev/next buttons which are displayed directly on the picture (there's already a Coppermine plugin which adds that feature) and the info/comment box. I didn't want to create a complete new theme but just show that Coppermine themes can look differently with some effort.

For comparison I attached 2 screenshots from Pixelpost and Coppermine, each showing the same picture.

[phill104]

Great work Andre.

To the OP, the problem we have here is that the team is mainly mad up of coders (for which we would love more of). To design a really stunning theme takes a designer/coder combo. We would love to have a good designer on the team and then we could really show off what coppermine is capable of.

[nickelas]

Theme looks interesting, but I am getting an error when I try it:
"Fatal error: Call to undefined function cpg_picture_dimension_exceeds_intermediate_limit() in " + the url + "on line 355"
Any idea?

http://uppsalafoto.se/galleri/

[Αndré]

That function has been added after the release of cpg1.5.20. Either wait until cpg1.5.22 is released or add the following function to your include/functions.inc.php file:

Code Select Expand

function cpg_picture_dimension_exceeds_intermediate_limit($pwidth, $pheight) {
    global $CONFIG;

    $resize_method = $CONFIG['picture_use'] == "thumb" ? ($CONFIG['thumb_use'] == "ex" ? "any" : $CONFIG['thumb_use']) : $CONFIG['picture_use'];
    if ($resize_method == 'ht' && $pheight > $CONFIG['picture_width']) {
        return true;
    } elseif ($resize_method == 'wd' && $pwidth > $CONFIG['picture_width']) {
        return true;
    } elseif ($resize_method == 'any' && max($pwidth, $pheight) > $CONFIG['picture_width']) {
        return true;
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

[pols1337]

+1

I totally agree with recman's original post.  As much as I love Coppermine, I wish the overall design could be 'modernized.'  Sometimes I feel that Coppermine (for Photo Gallery) and Simple Machine Forum (for Forums) are stuck in the 1990's. 

Here's a nice example from Piwigo.org, another free open source photo gallery: http://mimmosantorofotografie.piwigo.com/index?/category/43-auschwitz_birkenau_oswiecim

Piwigo looks clean and modern and fresh. 

[phill104]

Again, ideas are great but what we really need are people to help implement these ideas. As coppermine stands, themes can easilly be made but it takes a good designer with coding skills to come up with a truely great design. Joachim did a great job with the Curve theme for CPG1.5.x given that he is one of the best coders I have ever known and not a designer.