Starting In The Middle

CaliD · 2018-07-22 14:16:31

O Learned Denizens,

I humbly prostrate myself before your collective wisdom.

Short Version: I want to get started but I don't have a clean slate. Nor do I want to clean my slate before I start. Looking for hints.

Longer Version: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I downloaded TTG Slimbox and customised it to look like I wanted in Lightroom 2. I also downloaded a web site template from Andreas Viklund in Jokkmokk and customised that how I wanted, too. An accomplished shell script programmer from a former life with many flavours of unix workstations, I knocked up a tool to stream edit an ever-growing index gallery and to upload updated content. When command-line ftp went away from OSX, I learned about scp and now use that instead. The bottom line is that my website (www.damianharty.com, thanks for asking) looked like I wanted, behaved how I wanted and was easy to maintain using the export-and-publish paradigm.

This was in approximately 2007. I've got older, I've updated operating systems, laptops, cameras, and Lightroom. All went well until I went to move on from LR5.7, at which point the TTG galleries disappeared from Lightroom - for reasons that aren't either obvious or that important.

Right now, I will just keep using 5.7, but I do have an ambition to catch up and use Classic CC. It seems pretty clear to me I need to move to Backlight - which looks great.

However, it's clear to me that I need to play some kind of game of chess. Right now, I just want to be able to export a web gallery in one of the new styles - let's say the grid style, because that feels comfortingly similar to what I had before. I don't want to mulch my entire site, imperfect as it is, and start again. Not yet, anyway.

I can readily imagine customising a web galleries to get the look I want, but what's not clear to me is whether there are any yawning pitfalls that will cause me to unknowingly lose stuff. Because I back up nightly, if I know I've lost something it's OK, but if it's gone more than 24 hours then the backup is overwritten too. Of course I can always pull it down again from my hosting site, I guess.

But anyway, any hints on jumping in at the middle instead of the start?

Thanks in advance,

Damian

rod barbee · 2018-07-22 22:07:41

Hi Damian,

Sorry to tell you this, but Backlight is completely different from the old Web Module plugins. In fact, those are a thing of the past and there is no more exporting and uploading of web galleries.
In your case, there is no jumping in the middle, you’re just going to have to start from scratch.

But you can do that without needing to interrupt your current site. Yet.

You can design a new site in a sub-folder or sub-domain on your site and once you get things looking like you want them to, delete everything from the old site and move the files from the test site into the root of your main site.
(There’s a little more to it than that, but not much; it’s pretty easy to do)

Matthew · 2018-07-23 02:55:24

There's nothing about Backlight that should cause you to unknowingly lose anything. Backlight 2 is also on the horizon, which will provide still more flexibility in how you manage your images online, whether you want Lightroom to be a part of that, and should make it easier to stay up-to-date.

CaliD · 2018-12-25 05:14:27

So, I waited until Backlight 2 became available because I didn't want a false start.

Reading the blurb now, I see:

"Create your entire website using Backlight 2, or supplement an existing website with Backlight's image galleries."

(Italics are mine). So this idea of supplementing an existing site was pretty much what I was asking about in my first post if I've understood it correctly.

Anyway, I am close to pulling the trigger and getting going, but I really want to understand the difference between the base Backlight 2 and what I get from the "Galleria" option. Is it just more gallery styles, or do I need the Galleria option to make any galleries?

Thanks in advance!

Damian

rod barbee · 2018-12-25 05:37:20

The Galleria add-on gives you the ability to present images in a nice looking fade-dissolve slide show on desktop and a swipeable slide show on mobile.

It is not necessary. Backlight comes with album (gallery) capability right out of the box.

You can see examples off all the various album and add-on presentations here: http://theturninggate.net/galleries/01- … strations/

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2018-07-22 14:16:31

Starting In The Middle

#2 2018-07-22 22:07:41

Re: Starting In The Middle

#3 2018-07-23 02:55:24

Re: Starting In The Middle

#4 2018-12-25 05:14:27

Re: Starting In The Middle

#5 2018-12-25 05:37:20

Re: Starting In The Middle

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