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I need to understand what capabilities Backlight has and what ones no longer exist. One of the reasons I still use CE2 (argh!) is because the feature I use here Avonsoccer was abandoned in CE3 & forward. Can this be accomplished using Backlight?
Secondly, I am using CE3 for my main site here Schlotz's Place and would like to be assured the basic concept can be duplicated. i.e. main page with single slideshow and text. Can this be done using Backlight?
Lastly, it was a real PITA to learn when going to CE2 & CE3 that there was no provision to easily migrate from the old to new. Instead, each time it was a complete redo. I stopped upgrading for that reason. So, has that concept been rectified with the introduction of Backlight so that going forward there will be a path to migration that does not force a user to yet again re-invent the wheel in order to upgrade?
Thanks,
Matt
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I need to understand what capabilities Backlight has and what ones no longer exist. One of the reasons I still use CE2 (argh!) is because the feature I use here Avonsoccer was abandoned in CE3 & forward. Can this be accomplished using Backlight?
Not currently as you have that page configured. You could have a slide show with text above or below (or both with a little jQuery)
(Matt just mentioned somewhere - forum or blog post- about wanting to incorporate Galleria into Backlight)
Secondly, I am using CE3 for my main site here Schlotz's Place and would like to be assured the basic concept can be duplicated. i.e. main page with single slideshow and text. Can this be done using Backlight?
yes
Lastly, it was a real PITA to learn when going to CE2 & CE3 that there was no provision to easily migrate from the old to new. Instead, each time it was a complete redo. I stopped upgrading for that reason. So, has that concept been rectified with the introduction of Backlight so that going forward there will be a path to migration that does not force a user to yet again re-invent the wheel in order to upgrade?
If new site structure is introduced, like between CE versions as well as between Backlight 1.1 (okapi) and Backlight 1.2 (Pangolin), then yes, redesign will be needed. But designing in Backlight is so much easier than in Lightroom's Web Module.
Some months ago, Matt was offering CE4 Publisher to those wanting to upgrade from CE3 to Backlight. This allowed for a migration of albums from Publisher CE3 to Publisher CE4 control and then migration from Publisher CE4 to Publisher for Backlight.
But Backlight has been out for well over a year and sale of CE4 components has been discontinued so I don't know if that's still available. If not, you'll need to republish all your albums.
If you weren't using Publisher to begin with then it's a moot point; you'll need to republish all albums if that's the case
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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I was in the same place as you. I think my website was done with CE2 and after a few years, it was time for a new look. I feared having to go through the Lightroom plugin again, as it was, for me, convoluted and difficult to use at times. Probably because it was draped on the shoulders of Lightroom.
It is now a stand alone website design tool, with the option of using Lightroom Publisher, using the add-on from TTG (pretty much a 'must have' for those of us using Lightroom). Publisher has a learning curve but there's easy to follow instructions here.
Yes, Backlight is way easier to use as an unshackled website building tool. The video link on the Doc & Support page at TTG is very easy to follow and once you get a site created, you can modify from there. I created a 'temp' sub directory and copied all Backlight files there first. So if you have a site already, then that is not a bad idea to 'piggyback' the install there first, as you'll want to try out the site before replacing the main one. Once you are happy with it, you can copy all the files to the root. You will only need to change the URL link (from Backlight/Settings) ,edit the 'Menu' links and edit the path in the Lightroom Publisher plugin.
So, easy to experiment and then 'go live'.
You may struggle a bit with terminology: pallets, columns, mastheads, trays (I think that last one was killed off in the latest release). Also Templates are used extensively, so you'll want to experiment. Just change one thing at a time and look for the result. Change it back if it didn't do anything (that you can see anyway). That way you shouldn't get into too much trouble!
When you are playing around, you'll want to 'Clear the Template Cache' every time you want to see how the website was affected.
Since Backlight lives on the 'back' of your website, changes can be seen very quickly.
Edit:
Backlight comes with 'Pages' (so you can have a website front page plus sub pages.
The Lightroom Plugin is also part of the Backlight program).
'Theatre' is an add-on. I was hoping for a full screen slideshow with mobile swipe, but unfortunately, that is not an option. Theatre does have other features though, so you can decide if that's what you need on top of what you get with the basic package.
The 'Client Response' add-on is great as it allows clients to tag photos and send their choices to you. I was using 'Cart' to do this with CE2, so now you don't.
Last edited by peter (2017-11-30 08:19:38)
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Hi Matt,
Backlight is capable of nearly everything older plugins could do, with some few exceptions. In such cases, it's not a deficiency, insomuch as a change in approach. Some things we've streamlined for ease of use, or changing norms and expectations in web-design have caused us to leave some things by the wayside as we've moved forward. In the era of mobile Internet, for example, having a slideshow and text side-by-side is far less a thing than it used to be, and websites are leaning more into vertical stacks of content.
Backlight makes big steps toward allowing you to maintain and carry content forward between versions, redesigns, etc. We are also working to make the processing of updating easier for future releases. Getting out of Lightroom's Web module was the first big step in this direction, and I think you will quickly come to appreciate the difference.
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