solution for CPG with large # of albums and categories?

[DefenceTalk.com]

One of the user's at Defencetalk.com suggested this idea. I don't know if it would be valid or has been requested before but here goes.

I will use my site as an example to keep things in perspective.

Currently, I have this layout:

>MAIN CATOGRY (country / topic based)
>>Sub-category (airforce)
>>>sub-sub-category (fighters)
>>>>cooresponding albums (F-16)

Now, DT has close to 700 albums, some 300 categories. By the time when all is set and done, we will have close to 1000 albums. Thats when trouble comes when someone tries to upload the pictures. Scrolling through that amount of albums isn't fun.

Here is the idea that user suggested when uploading pics....

When you go on the upload page, it should give you atleast different drop down boxes:

Drop down box 1: >MAIN CATOGRY (country / topic based)
Drop down box 2: >>Sub-category (airforce)
Drop Down box 3: >>>sub-sub-category (fighters)
Drop Down box 4: >>>>cooresponding albums (F-16)

When you would select drop down 1, it should populate drop down 2 with sub-categories, when you select a category in drop down 2, it should populate drop down 3 with sub-sub-category, when you select the sub-sub-cat, it should populate the last drop down(#4) with albums that are in there.

I don't know if it makes sense. If not, I do have a html page which demonstrates this idea....  :-\\

Thanks to one of the team members at CPG by suggesting a mod for sorting albums and categories very nicely (all 700 of them ) - which DT is currently using to cover come the above issue. Thanks nibbler!

[Joachim Müller]

absolutely makes sense for large galleries like yours. Preferably the subsequent dropdown lists should be populated using some dhtml magic (instad of having to submit each choice to the server to generate another dropdown list for the nested category). Any code submissions / contributions would be very welcome.

Joachim

[paulaerison]

DHTML magik sounds wonderfull, but the sheer AMOUNT of java code and the resulting transmitted data would be stupendus...

I HAVE heard of a way (using java) to have a callback to the page that only updates the java code without requiring the page be reloaded.

Use eBay and theier category selection engine for sellers as an example of how to do this.

[Joachim Müller]

You probably know and just mis-typed, but I'm just trying to avoid/stop the popular myth, so let me add a little side note: "Java" and "JavaScript" are not the same thing. In fact, they have nothing in common except the name that often leads to misunderstandings. When refering to DHTML, you usually mean "JavaScript".

I agree though that the list might get very long - maybe a cached list of categories and albums (made up using php to populate an xml file) might be a solution.

Joachim

[paulaerison]

not mistyped, just misquoted. I was actually referring to a java serverlet, and javascript/applet.

Might not even need the serverlet, but the applet would alow the script to "query" special html/xml pages on the webserver to populate its data dynamicaly.

[srirangan]

Yes, DHTML does indeed refer to the combined use of Javascript and CSS. And for DefenceTalk.com a DHTML Tree Menu can be a viable solution. On the user end it does indeed seem ideal, but we do need to take into account the nature of DefenceTalk.com. DT is a regularly updated high bandwidth consuming popular website. For 90% of related searches on Google, a link from DT appear in the first 10 if not first 5 search results.

For such a highly active website, the Tree Menu may indeed be in DHTML but it needs to be dynamically generated from the server side. If someone can just post the database schema of the gallery categories and album's table, I'ld come up with some PHP code snipplets for the DHTML menu.

[Nibbler]

The schema is in the package, sql/schema.sql, and of course in the CVS.