ruby templates for export - future compatability?

[jjtiziou]

So the ability to really customize the html export template is a key feature that I've been requesting for a long time, and at long last it's finally here. However, the fact that the new exporter is in Ruby makes it a little bit more complicated. *(I currently generate my web galleries through photoshop, and it's way easier to edit those templates through dreamweaver)

Here's my question/concern: How is the export part of the program going to evolve down the line, and are there plans to keep things compatible? In other words, I'm about to throw a sizeable chunk of cash at hiring a programmer to customize that ruby template for me, and it would really be frustrating if it then stopped working in v.4.5.3 or v5.0

Any thoughts? I realize it's a risk no matter what, but if you have a clue as to the likelihood of any significant changes in the future that might break my customized templates, then that'd be most helpful..

thanks!
-jj

[Kirk Baker]

JJ,

So the ability to really customize the html export template is a key feature that I've been requesting for a long time, and at long last it's finally here. However, the fact that the new exporter is in Ruby makes it a little bit more complicated. *(I currently generate my web galleries through photoshop, and it's way easier to edit those templates through dreamweaver)

Here's my question/concern: How is the export part of the program going to evolve down the line, and are there plans to keep things compatible? In other words, I'm about to throw a sizeable chunk of cash at hiring a programmer to customize that ruby template for me, and it would really be frustrating if it then stopped working in v.4.5.3 or v5.0

Any thoughts? I realize it's a risk no matter what, but if you have a clue as to the likelihood of any significant changes in the future that might break my customized templates, then that'd be most helpful..

We will do our best to not break any of the export template API, and will assist anyone with a custom template that is broken by our changes.

We have plans to make a new generic template that will allow simple token substitution like Photoshop or iView Media Pro so you can use things like Dreamweaver to accomplish your goals.

-Kirk

[jjtiziou]

Hi again Kirk-

That's *fantastic* to hear-> token substitution photoshop style would be way simpler-

Any idea how far down the pipeline that's going to be? If you do that and add in an automation feature so that I can easily output many galleries, now man, that would make my day. Although your software makes my day every day, given the amount of time it saves me. Thanks again.

[Kirk Baker]

JJ,

That's *fantastic* to hear-> token substitution photoshop style would be way simpler-

Any idea how far down the pipeline that's going to be? If you do that and add in an automation feature so that I can easily output many galleries, now man, that would make my day. Although your software makes my day every day, given the amount of time it saves me. Thanks again.

I want to get it into 4.6 which should begin development very soon.

What kind of automation are you thinking of?

-Kirk

[jjtiziou]

Hi Kirk- sorry about the delay on the reply. I think I touched on this in another thread, but the kind of automation that i'd like to see would be processing several different folders sequentially, keeping the same folder structure.

For example, the project that I'm working on now has a bunch of folders that look vaguely like this:
2007/07/20070727a_radiopcp
2007/07/20070728a_radiopcp
2007/07/20070729a_radiopcp
2007/07/20070730a_radiopcp
2007/07/20070731a_radiopcp
2007/08/20070801a_radiopcp
2007/08/20070802a_radiopcp
2007/08/20070803a_radiopcp

It would be nice to be able to output  a series of separate html galleries for all of these folders, keeping the same folder structure, without having to open each folder separately, start one gallery, wait for it to finish, start the second, wait for it to finish, start the third... for processing a bunch of different folders, this rapidly becomes tedious, and it would be much nicer to have a way to enter the information up front, and then let PM crunch until it's done. Particularly if working with a whole lot of images. This kind of functionality could be useful in html exports, but also in save-as steps, etc.

hope yr well,
-jj