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#1 2010-05-12 00:40:38

Limbo
Guest

Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Hi guys,

So I'm tired of the other simple image gallery scripts out there because it makes uploading and sorting, and adding info to cars very time consuming, hopefully with Piwigo and Ploader it'll make my life much easier.

Currently, I take 6 pictures of each new car that arrives at the dealership. These cars need to be sorted by Asian, Domestic, and European make. Within that, they need to be sorted by descending year. ie: 2009 BMW M3 to 2002 Audi A4, within the European make category.
Since each car has 6 photos, I guess the best way to go about adding information about each car would be achieved by making a subfolder for each model, and then adding the description to that folder (ie: Asian Makes > 2009 BMW M3 > 6 car pictures), where the "2009 BMW M3" folder description would contain whatever I want to say like, "xenon headlights, 6 speed manual, leather seats, etc", am I correct?

Can someone shed some light on how to make the whole process alot easier and streamlined?
I'm kind of confused with all the options on the web admin panels.
I haven't gotten pLoader to work either on my mac since i'm running 15.8, any way around that? If not then I guess I will run it on my Windows 7 comp at home.

Thanks in advance!

 

#2 2010-05-12 01:06:15

plg
Piwigo Team
Nantes, France, Europe
2002-04-05
13786

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Hi Limbo and welcome to Piwigo forums,

That's right, pLoader doesn't work with MacOs Leopard (only with Snow Leopard). I've notified ron (pLoader master) to come on the dedicated topic and drop a few lines.

Now about the process and organization. The easier to do all this is to use pLoader in my opinion. With pLoader you can create hierarchical categories.

Are you sure "BMW" is an Asian maker? I would rather say "European" and even "German" to be more correct.

If I understand correctly, you're selling cars. Each car is a specific model with specific options. You have 6 photos for each car. Depending on the number of cars you have, you may have 2 "2009 BMW M3" at the same time (the first one would be red, the second one would be yellow, that's quite uncommon, it's just to make myself clear ;-)

Depending on the number of cars you have, I advise you to add levels in you category tree, for example:

- European Makes > BMW > 2009 > M3 > the red one (6 photos)
- European Makes > BMW > 2009 > M3 > the yellow one (6 photos)
- Asian Makes > Toyota > 2008 > Prius > the white Prius

The idea is to avoid to many categories at a given level, because it makes the page painful to scan if there is too much content inside. Try to keep less than 10 categories visible at a given level (you can make bad choice at the beginning and then move your categories, that's not a problem at all).

About descriptions, in pLoader, I advise you to do the following:
- select your 6 photos, pLoader says "I'm in batch mode now"
- apply the same "comment" to the 6 photos, "xenon headlights, 6 speed manual, leather seats for $17k only"
- in the categories zone, right click on any category to add a child category
- in the categories zone, click on "the white Prius" category (that you just created)
- click on "Upload to Piwigo"

In your web browser, open your Piwigo photo gallery into "the white Prius" category. If you are connected as administrator, you will see an icon with some tools on it, it goes directly to the admin page for this category. Click on the icon and apply the very same description to the category "xenon headlights, 6 speed manual, leather seats for $17k only".

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#3 2010-05-12 01:29:47

Limbo
Guest

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Ok great! Thanks for the prompt reply, it would be great if pLoader becomes compatible with leopard.

Btw, regarding the configuration of Piwigo, if I want the gallery to appear when a customer visits http:www.domain.com/inventory/, then do I need to install Piwigo in that directory? Or do I just point it there in the administration panel where it asks for "gallery url", changing this option doesn't seem to do anything...


We are a small dealership so most cars we have on hand is about 30-40.
Therefore I was planning on doing, i.e.:
Asian Makes > all asian cars
European makes > all euro makes
Domestic makes > all domestic makes


Sounds like pLoader is the way to go, so I will go mess around with pLoader at home on Windows and then post here again if things get complicated.

Thanks for the help so far!

 

#4 2010-05-12 01:33:19

plg
Piwigo Team
Nantes, France, Europe
2002-04-05
13786

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Limbo wrote:

Btw, regarding the configuration of Piwigo, if I want the gallery to appear when a customer visits http:www.domain.com/inventory/, then do I need to install Piwigo in that directory? Or do I just point it there in the administration panel where it asks for "gallery url", changing this option doesn't seem to do anything...

The easiest way to do it is to rename your Piwigo installation "inventory" inside the webserver root directory.

The "gallery url" settings is only used in email notifications and things like that. It is more or less planned to be removed in the future.


Limbo wrote:

We are a small dealership so most cars we have on hand is about 30-40.

OK, for 30 to 40 cars, adding to many levels in your category tree is useless :-)

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#5 2010-05-15 17:59:40

Limbo
Guest

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Hi again,

So I've started using ploader with some success, but are there currently any plugins that will allow me to remove all the unnecessary information such as the comments box, EXIF/META data?
Since it is a showcase of our inventory I simply need the Folder name (Car model), and the description of the pictures (where I put the car's options).

Thanks again!

 

#6 2010-05-15 22:44:52

Limbo
Guest

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Btw also, if I messed up my photo orders, for example, if I took a picture of the interior of the car first, but I always want the front of the car as the folder thumbnail, is there an easy way to change the thumbnails of each folder?

Right now I can only click random representative in the Category management page. It's kinda annoying I have to click 20 times to "random" on the right thumbnail i want :(

 

#7 2010-05-15 23:02:22

tosca
Former Piwigo Team
Cévennes (France)
2006-09-23
567

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Limbo wrote:

is there an easy way to change the thumbnails of each folder?

When registered as admin, go to the category and display the picture page of the photo you want to be the representant of the category; among the left icons of the top navigation bar, you'll find one that defines the current picture as the representant of the category.

Last edited by tosca (2010-05-15 23:03:07)


My galleries : Photos, Watercolours, Recipes

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#8 2010-05-22 01:01:11

Limbo
Guest

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

Awesome, thank you!
You've all been very helpful! Inventory is up and running with no problems now :)

 

#9 2010-05-22 01:13:56

tosca
Former Piwigo Team
Cévennes (France)
2006-09-23
567

Re: Setting up Piwigo as an online car inventory showcase

I am glad it's running to your liking ;-)


My galleries : Photos, Watercolours, Recipes

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