Features

A lot of development time has gone into this skin to make it an easy to use and feature rich experience for the user. Some of the features include:

User features

These are the features most immediately noticeable to the user

• Multi-lingual support. Supported languages: Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Portugese, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish
• User selectable "free flowing" or "fixed row and column" format for the index page. In "free flowing" mode the thumbnails on the index page automatically rearrange themselves according to the size of the user's browser
• In free flowing mode, if there are multiple pages of thumbnails an additional "next page" button appears at the bottom right corner. This might help some users who don't pay attention :-)
• Image names can be included under thumbnails on the index page (user selectable) - This is also compatible with "free flowing" mode (a first in the JAlbum world as far as I know)
• Image descriptions and dates/times can also be included under thumbnails (user selectable) (details as per image names)
• User can select the behaviour of the "up" button on the index page
• A new folder is included in the skin directory. When the user copies these files to the image directory things such as "news" can be included. This also allows the user to alter variables on a folder by folder basis. This can be a very powerful feature!
• Custom headers and footers can also be added to all output files via the use of include files
• Folders, unlike images, do not spill across the page, they are listed by default as one folder per line, though this can be configured
• Folders not older than a configurable number of days can have "NEW" stamped across the icon or thumbnail image.
• You can mix folders and images in the same folder, the folders will display one per line (default, but can be changed), and the images as normal. This is called "mixed mode"
• Different style sheets are available with the skin allowing you to select from a range of colours. Customising a style sheet to suit is now very easy.
• The layout on the slide mode will dynamically change depending on whether the image being viewed is in landscape or portrait mode. For example the "mini-thumbs" will shift on the side in a vertical arrangement
• Number of "mini-thumbs" on the slide pages is configurable, and the current thumb will have a border around it to help orientate the user to the current position within the folder. The size of these mini-thumbs can also be configured
• Slide show mode, including options to control the delay time and an option to run the slideshow in a continuous loop. Slide show mode is available both in the slide view and full screen view (if available)
• If using the footer file, the date is automatically checked and a copyright message with the current year is inserted
• It is possible to control whether folder icons are displayed as a tiny folder, or as a tiny thumb from an image inside the directory. The image can either be random or user selected, and will display in their correct aspect ratio. The size of these thumbnails can also be adjusted
• XHTML and CSS conformance logos are displayed on the pages. If desired, these can be switched off
• Additional logos for promotion purposes can be included on each generated page - for example to support charities or open source projects
• User variables can be overridden on a per folder basis - this means different folders could have different layout options
• Keyboard shortcuts can be used by users to navigate quickly through image collections, and a pop-up box helps to inform the users how to use them. Shortcuts can also be disabled.
• It is possible to override the name of a folder displayed on the index page. Normally the folder name from the file system is used, but an entry can be set in meta.properties to change this.
• Image names can also be replaced with alternative titles, without having to rename the file itself.
• End users can order prints of your pictures via shutterfly.com, and these will then be posted to them. This can be disabled of course.
• All user configurable items can be changed via a special tab on the JAlbum user interface, making experimentation with different features very easy.
• Users can directly enter "watermark" text which can be stamped on the bottom right-hand corner of each slide image
• Technical information about digital photographs can be displayed under each slide image. It is also possible to configure this to always display, never display, or to have the user display it via a pop-up box. Both EXIF and IPTC fields will display if present, or their behaviour can be altered via options in the UI
• If desired, the frame around slide images can appear as a "Polaroid" style frame, and the size of these frames can also be adjusted
• A special full-screen mode is included if original images are present. This is more suitable for albums which are viewed offline. Images are scaled to the screen, and displayed in native resolution
• Images in full-screen mode can be further zoomed to display the entire image without scaling (scroll bars are used instead)
• If using full-screen mode, it is possible to configure the skin so it jumps directly from a thumbnail on the index page, to the original image in full-screen mode, bypassing the slide image entirey.
• The navigation buttons for the top and bottom of the screen on the slide page can be independantly enabled or disabled
• Comments can be displayed either at the top or the bottom of the slide image
• Different button sets are available, and the default button set for a given style can easily be overridden via the UI
• If generating an album for a single folder, a special option activates automatically to disable most of the unneeded navigation elements
• A guestbook option allows visitors to an album to leave comments on each image
• Special navigation links can be configured to appear at the top of index and slide pages, allowing the visitor to quickly jump to a different folder in the hierarchy

Plus many of the standard features found in other skins - too numerous to mention

Technical features

These are the features not immediately noticeable to the user, such as internal design or XHTML/CSS issues. More often than not this list is more interesting for other skin designers :-)

• All output files are fully XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant, including a button for the purpose of validation.
• The greatest possible extent, all output should be compatible and produce a consistant experience across a wide variety of browsers and platforms
• All page output is fully CSS compliant.
• There are no HTML tables whatsoever - a 100% tableless layout! No more <TR> or <TD> tags! Other skin designers - let this be an inspiration to you :-)
• There are no pixel shims, or collections of "frame" .gif files anywhere. No graphics with non-transparent backgrounds allow all colours to be defined in the style sheets. Layout is done with CSS - not a hope and a prayer :-)
• The equivalent 35mm focal length is now calculated automatically - specific conversion factors can be entered for specific cameras, or it can also be automatically determined.
• A check is performed and a message displayed to the user if they are not using a minimum defined JAlbum version
• It is possible to embed HTML directly into the JPEG EXIF comments. The skin will strip these out if it will affect layout (for example when you hover over an image) but will permit HTML comments in other places. This means you can place hyperlinks into image or folder descriptions, or even do some fancy CSS effects if you like.
• Takes advantage of the new date features in JAlbum 4.0 to ensure that dates displayed conform to user preferences, and gives the ability to determine the age of a folder.
• Comments can either be stored within the image files themselves, in a separate text file, or in many individual text files
• Style sheets are split into 2 parts, a common layout style sheet governs all other styles, and smaller individual style sheets govern the colours used.
• Where possible, sections of code have been compiled into java byte code, and the skin has been optimised for maximum execution speed
• Different button sets are included and can easily be interchanged with the various styles for maximum flexibility