Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

NevTec · 2019-11-21 13:35:27

Good morning,

When I open the drop down menu for Cover Image within my my Smart Album the Custom Thumbnails appear at the top of the list.....which is nice.....but they are in a totally random order.

I have only just started using this facility and already there are quite a few in there, so in the future as my website grows I can see it will be a real pain searching them out.

Is there a way to get them to sort properly, ideally by Filename I guess? The rest of the photo's in the Album that are shown underneath the Custom Thumbnails are sorted correctly.

Thanks,

Neville

Ben · 2019-11-21 16:11:54

Hi Neville, I’ll look into this. I had to-date thought the ordering issue pertained to standard thumbnails, so had never been able to see the problem.

NevTec · 2019-11-28 13:11:32

Hello Ben,

Any update on this issue?

Or does anyone out there know a workaround?

Or is it a bug?

Thanks,

Neville

Ben · 2019-11-28 15:26:55

No updates yet. It’s on my list. Not a bug.

Ben · 2019-12-13 13:19:24

Hi Neville, I've only just had a chance to look into this. In my testing custom thumbnails are being returned in alphabetical order.
In my list I get the following:

Random
Custom
[the list of images in alphabetical order from custom_thumbnails under the album on the server]
[the list of images in alphabetical order from thumbnails under the album on the server]

Just to confirm: is this an issue with the drop down you're seeing for Cover Image when editing *Albums* (not Album Sets) within Lightroom?

Can you email me a screenshot of the list that you're seeing in Lightroom, and also a screenshot of the contents of your custom_thumbnails directory in the respective gallery?

Ben · 2019-12-13 14:57:36

I've found what looks to be the problem, and it is a bug. Everything is ordered nicely when returned from the server, but the programming language (Lua) that the LR plugin is written is ignores the ordering when getting the values out. I'll try and work out how I can get the code to honour the order.

Ben · 2019-12-27 06:56:57

Closed a similar topic: http://community.theturninggate.net/vie … hp?id=9087

This is proving to be very difficult to fix. I'm still looking into it.

SunFoxNC · 2020-01-15 23:42:06

Ben wrote:

Closed a similar topic: http://community.theturninggate.net/vie … hp?id=9087
This is proving to be very difficult to fix. I'm still looking into it.

Well, at least it's an interesting problem to consider! Those of us who extensively use the custom thumbnails will be very appreciative at the same time we're sad that LUA is making you have to jump through all of these hoops when the server already has done the heavy lifting apparently in vain!

NevTec · 2020-05-15 13:26:12

Hello Ben

I've upgraded to Backlight3 and this problem still persists.

My thumbnails list gets ever longer and searching it takes ever longer!

Are we near any nearer a solution to this, what looks to the layman, simple sort problem?

Thanks.

Ben · 2020-05-15 14:23:18

No nearer a solution. Have you considered setting the cover image using the Backlight admin instead? Let me know if that works for you.

richam · 2020-05-18 19:16:03

Just an idea. How about a work-around? Say, add "auto-select," or something like that, menu item and pick the image that has the word "cover" written in a particular field in the metadata, e.g. Creator, Sublocation, Label. No help with custom thumbnails, but how about another menu item "custom thumbnails" and select items restricted to custom only.

It would be nice to alphabetize the entire select list, but that's still a tedious and inelegant way to pick the cover image.

Ben · 2020-05-18 21:17:36

Hi Mike, thanks for the suggestion. The best approach for now is to set the cover image via the Backlight admin.
I have not heard that this is a widespread concern. Have you found the lack of ordering to be an issue?

richam · 2020-05-19 15:43:19

Ben wrote:

Hi Mike, thanks for the suggestion. The best approach for now is to set the cover image via the Backlight admin.
I have not heard that this is a widespread concern. Have you found the lack of ordering to be an issue?

Yes. In the extreme case, I have one album set with 7,237 photos plus there are 59 custom thumbnails. It's very difficult to locate items.

richam · 2020-05-19 16:38:46

Ben wrote:

No nearer a solution. Have you considered setting the cover image using the Backlight admin instead? Let me know if that works for you.

Ben, this will probably create a Homer Simpson "DOH!" moment for me, but I can't seem to figure out how to do this. Could you point me in the right direction?

rod barbee · 2020-05-19 22:02:50

in Backlight go to Publisher.
click on the “Albums” link on the right side of the page that corresponds to the top level gallery of the album or album set you’re interested in.
Click on the name of album or album set.
Click “Edit Album” ( or album set)
Click on Base Settings
the Cover Image setting is in that group.

richam · 2020-05-19 22:35:19

DOH!

richam · 2020-05-19 22:42:37

Another question on this subject. Is there a size limitation for the number of items in the popup menu? The menu for one of my large album sets has some 600-700 + items by my calculation, while the album set has over 7,000. So the image I want doesn't show up among the menu items. I can solve this with custom thumbnails apparently, but I was curios about the size limitation.

NevTec · 2020-05-24 12:24:30

Ben/Rod

Sorry haven't checked in for a while.

Thanks for your replies.

The Publisher > Albums > Base Settings route is much better......appreciate the tip.

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2019-11-21 13:35:27

Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#2 2019-11-21 16:11:54

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#3 2019-11-28 13:11:32

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#4 2019-11-28 15:26:55

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#5 2019-12-13 13:19:24

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#6 2019-12-13 14:57:36

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#7 2019-12-27 06:56:57

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#8 2020-01-15 23:42:06

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#9 2020-05-15 13:26:12

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#10 2020-05-15 14:23:18

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#11 2020-05-18 19:16:03

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#12 2020-05-18 21:17:36

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#13 2020-05-19 15:43:19

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#14 2020-05-19 16:38:46

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#15 2020-05-19 22:02:50

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#16 2020-05-19 22:35:19

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#17 2020-05-19 22:42:37

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

#18 2020-05-24 12:24:30

Re: Custom Thumbnails Sort Order

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