The idea of these scripts is that each folder
(directory
of images) contains a descriptior file named index.xml,
which lists the images, along with captions or other descritive
information. This index.xml can be created and managed
using various tools/scripts, or edited manualy with a text editor.
Then running qalbum generates all
the HTML pages, creating scaled images as needed.
The resulting web pages can be uploaded to a web server, or
browsed as-is from the file system.
You can go back
and edit the index.xml, and then re-run
qalbum to get an updated web folder.
Here is an example
page that illustrates many qalbum features, and here is the
picture group
file describing it.
There are a number of tools which do similar things. This one has some nice little extras:
fancyfeatures are implemented using fairly portable client-side JavaScript. No server support is needed. Everything works even if the
web folderis burned to a CD-ROM, say.
A suggested naming convention: Each .jpg
file should follow this naming convention: prefixNnX.jpg,
where prefix is name common to a group of files,
and Nn is a serial number.
(Hence prefix should not end in a digit.)
The X is an
optional code letter, for scaled/rotated images that are
normlly generated automatically: Where r means the picture is
right-side-up but rotated relative to the camera original;
p is a page-size image (scaled and perhaps cropped and rotated
so it is suitable for viewing in a web page by itself); and
t means a thumbnail image (scaled to show multiple images
per page).
If you have a group of pictures you want to web-ify, this section gives suggested instructions for what to do.
lib directory
The lib directory contains files that are
shared between albums - currently two JavaScript files and
help.html.
The directory can be anywhere, if you explicitly specify
the --libdir=directory when running
make-xml.sh.
However, if you use ../lib, ../../lib, or
../../lib (relative to the album you're working on)
then the scripts will find it automatically.
So create a directory named lib next to your
top-level album.
When you run qalbum later, it will copy the necessary
files over.
I assume the qalbum script is in your path. (Alternatively,
you can type the full path instead iof just qalbum.)
Start by putting the .jpg files in the desired directory.
Then cd to that directory.
Run the qalbum script as follows.
If you follow the naming convention given below, you can do:
qalbum new "Title" image1.jpg ... imageN.jpg
Here "Title" is the name you want on the title page
of your overview page, and image1.jpg ... imageN.jpg
are the image you want to display.
You can leave out the image1.jpg ... imageN.jpg list.
In that case qalbum will make a list from all the
.jpg files in the directory
which have the form prefixNN.jpg (i.e. without
the X code letter). The images will be sorted by
the NN sequence numbers - not alphabethically.
Either way, this creates an initial index.xml.
It also creates an initial set of web pages.
If the current directory is /home/me/vacation,
then you can view the web pages and images by pointing
your browser at file:/home/me/vacation/index.html.
Some cameras (including my current Canon A540) can detect
their orientation
(i.e. if the camera is rotated), and write
that into the saved file.
The qalbum script can detect this (at least for the Canon A540!),
and automatically takes care of the rotation.
If you have such a camera, you can skip this section.
Suppose when viewing index.html, a picture is rotated 90 degrees
counter-clockwise (to the left). In that case, edit index.xml
to add in the corresponding <picture> section:
<original rotated="left"/>
If the picture is rotated 90 degrees clockwise (to the right), instead add the following:
<original rotated="right"/>
Then run:
qalnum
This creates rotated copies of the files you specified
as <orginal rotated="xxx">, and
also edits index.xml for you.
If the original file was named xxxNN.jpg,
the rotated file will be named xxxNNr.jpg.
Check index.html with a browser to see if you got it right.
If you didn't, re-edit index.xml.
For any picture that was rotated the wrong way,
delete the rotated file:
rm xxxNNr.jpg
Re-run qalbum.
Check again; continue until all the pictures are right way up.
A picture-group file is an xml file, which looks rather like an html file, but with different tags (element names). Also the syntax is more strict: For example, for every start tag (such as <text>) you have to include the end tag (e.g. </text>), and they have to be properly nested. Also, attribute values (such as in width="1280") have to be quoted (with single or double quotes).
<group> element:
<group>
element.
Each <group> must contain <title>
element, fullowed by any number of <date>,
<picture>, <text>,
and <row> elements.
<title> element:
<group> element
(usually at the start), and contains the title of the folder.
It should be a short phrase describing the pictures in the group.
It is used for the HTML <title> of the overview page,
and can contain whatever HTML markup is legal for that.
<picture> element:
id attribute, which is used
to name the web page generated for that picture.
The <picture>
must contain an <image> element,
and may optionally contain <caption>,
<text> (zero or more),
<date>, and <original> elements.
(Old index.xml may also contain
<full-image> and <small-image> elements.)
<image> element:
jpg image file.
This is normally the original, un-rotated, un-scaled image
downloaded from the camera.
(In old index.xml files, this is used for the scaled
medium-sized image, and <full-image> is the
large un-scaled file.)
<full-image> element:
index.xml files,
where it contains the name of the large unscaled image file.
<small-image> element:
index.xml files,
where it contains the name of the thumbnail-sized scaled image file.
<date> element:
qalbum
script generates) YYYY/MM/DD.
(Unfortunately, ISO format YYYY-MM-DD is awkward for ranges.)
The <date> can appear in a <picture>,
or at <group> level; in the latter case it applies
to all following <picture> until overridden.
<caption> element:
<text> element:
<group>
level (i.e. not in a <picture>) are displayed
on the overview page, the slider, and the next following
picture page.
Any <text> elements inside a <picture>
are only displayed on that picture's page, not the overview page.
<original> element:
rotated, which value is
either "left" (if the original camara image is
rotated 90 degrees left) or "right" (the original was rotated
right).
<outtake> element:
<outtake img="filenameNN.jpg"/>or
<outtake img="filenameNN.jpg">descriptive-text</outtake>The elements are ignored, except in the information page of the enclosing
<picture>,
which contains links to the outtake images.
This allows the interested viewer to look at alternate images,
without cluttering up the normal view.
Note that you would remove <picture> elements
for outtake pictures, and instead place <outtake> elements
in the selected (non-outtake) <picture> elements.
<row> element:
<picture> are all displayed on the same
row in the overview page.
Each <group> has one or more
<row> elements, where each <row>
contains one or more <picture> elements.
The <row> element has no semantic meaning,
but it is used to group together those <picture>
elements that should be shown next to each other (on the same row)
of the overview page.
If you leave out <row> elements,
the pictures will be displayed 3 in a line, except that if
there are 4 pictures they will be displayed as 2+2.
These scripts have been run using the Qexo (Kawa XQuery) XML processor. There is an (old) article that explains how it works.
Most of qalbum is pure Java, except for a small
bash wrapper, and should run
on any system with JDK 1.4. However, I have made no attempt to
run qalbum on anything except GNU/Linux system (specifically
Fedora). It should work fine on any-Unix-like OS.
If you try to get this working on Windows, I'd like to hear about it.
You need a Java implementation,
specifically one that has the javax.imagio
classes added in JDK 1.4.
You need Kawa (version 1.9.0 or the latest from SVN); see the instructions for getting Kawa.
You need the jpegtran program installed in your path.
This is used to loss-lessly rotate images when needed.
This could probably be replaced by pure Java code,
but I haven't done so yet.
You also need Dawn Oakes's
metadata-extractor, but this is included in the qalbum
distribution for convenience.
Get qalbum.tgz from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/kawa/.
Extract qalbum.tgz into a suitable directory.
In that directory create a kawa.jar link:
cd qalbum && ln -s /my/path/to/kawa-1.9.0.jar kawa.jar
You might want to create a symlink from some directory on your
$PATH to the qalbum/qalbum script.
That should be it. The qalbum script is smart enough to chase
symlinks and find the needed helper files.
It assumes either of the environment variables JAVA
or JAVA_HOME has been set, or java is in
your $PATH.
The qalbum home page.
These scripts were written by
Per Bothner
<Per Bothner>.
You are free to use these for your own images (personal or business). I of course make NO WARRANTY; if they should happen to destroy your critical files, I'm sorry, but you should have been more careful.
If you use qalbum for you pictures, I would appreciate
hearing about it.
Please do not redistribute the scripts in a product or as part of some other software distribution without permission. ( I expect you to customise the scripts for your own use; if you make significant enhancements, I would appreciate hearing about it.