Organizing Your Catalog with Galleries

Another method for organizing your catalog is to use individual galleries. A gallery is just a collection of catalog items from your CataBlog Library. While galleries have titles and description, for now those values are strictly for organizational purposes in the Admin section. Because galleries have an arbitrary order that is specific to the gallery, you may not use the sort or order functions when displaying them. CataBlog Galleries add the ability to control the specific order of how the catalog items are displayed.

Making a Gallery
Before you can add any catalog items to a gallery, you need to make the gallery first. Simply login to your site's WordPress Admin and go to the CataBlog Galleries Admin Panel, its under the CataBlog section. There you will most likely find an empty list of CataBlog Galleries and a small form on top of the list with a text field to name your new gallery. Click in the text field and type out the name of your first gallery, then click the "Make New Gallery" button or hit return on your keyboard. You just made your first CataBlog Gallery, congratulations.

Add Catalog Items Into A Gallery
Once you have made a gallery, you may add items from your library into that gallery in the CataBlog Library Admin Panel. Go to the main library view and select a few catalog items by checking the checkbox on the left side of their row. Once you have checked all the items you want to add to your gallery, remember you can only check items on one page at a time, go to the bulk actions menu and select "Add to Gallery". A new window will appear on the page and you will be allowed to select which gallery you would like to add there items to. Keep in mind that you have not made a copy of the catalog item, but instead linked those items to the gallery. If you ever delete a catalog item from the library it will be removed from any galleries it is in as well.

Editing Galleries
If you want to reorder, remove or change your gallery simply go to the CataBlog Galleries Admin Panel and click the name of the gallery you would like to edit. The edit form allows you to rename your gallery and add a brief description, but more importantly it lets you reorder and remove catalog items from your gallery. Simply drag and drop the different catalog items to reorder your gallery. To delete a catalog item from your gallery simply click the red x that appears when you hover over it. Your changes are not finalized until you click the save button, so if you accidentally delete an item don't fret, just reload the page.

Displaying Galleries The [catablog_gallery] Shortcode, used to display your CataBlog Galleries is conveniently displayed in the CataBlog Galleries Admin Panel. Simply click the Shortcode and copy and paste it into any WordPress post or page. If you want to further control how your gallery is displayed add the template attribute to the Shortcode, this will let you render your gallery however you want. You may also use the limit and navigation attribute in the Shortcode, here are some example CataBlog Gallery Shortcodes:

<small>Show CataBlog Gallery with id 65</small>
[catablog_gallery id="65"]
<br />
<small>Show CataBlog Gallery with gallery template</small>
[catablog_gallery id="65" template="gallery"]
<br />
<small>Show CataBlog Gallery with pagination and a page limit of 10</small>
[catablog_gallery id="65" limit="10"]

Important Note
Remember, a gallery consists of only links to your catalog items. If you remove a catalog item from your main CataBlog Library it will be removed from all galleries as well.

86 Responses to Organizing Your Catalog with Galleries

  1. Niya says:

    Hi, Zach
    I have this question:
    How to make the gallery name to appear above/next to the images of the respective gallery?
    When I post several gallery IDs it is not clear which images to which gallery belong.
    Thanks!
    Niya

    • Niya says:

      And one more:
      When I use the limit attribute, “Previous – Next” appears above and under the gallery section. How to make it appear only under?
      Thanks ๐Ÿ™‚

      • Zach says:

        If you are using the Shortcode in the WordPress visual editor it is easiest to just type the name of the gallery above the shortcode, perhaps making it bold or a header tag if you want.

        You can change navigation setting in the CataBlog Options Admin Panel under the navigation tab. There is a drop down menu that lets you select where you want the navigation to appear.

        You should note that you should not have multiple galleries with navigation controls on the same page. All the gallery will display the page set in the catablog-paged url parameter.

        • Niya says:

          I have done first two (adding name above the shortcode and changing navigation), the thing is that there is extra space between the name of the gallery and the images. I don’t know if that can be removed…
          And I am not sure I understand why not to have multiple galleries with navigation controls on the same page. What does it mean: All the gallery will display the page set in the catablog-paged url parameter.
          Thank you

          • Zach says:

            The spacing can be changed by modifying your theme’s style.css file. Sounds like your theme has a large bottom margin for heading or paragraph tags. You could also switch the WP editor into HTML mode and add a style attribute to control the bottom margin,

            example:

            <h4 style="margin-bottom:0;">My Gallery Title</h4>
            

            As far as having navigation for multiple catalogs on one page…all the galleries will be on the same page, so lets say you have 3 galleries and someone clicks next page on gallery 1. You would want gallery 1 to be on page 2 and galleries 2 and 3 to still be on page 1. What will happen is galleries 1, 2 and 3 will all be on page 2. Does that make sense?

  2. Guy P. says:

    How can I change the appearance of the titles that pop up on thumbnails for galleries displayed in gallery view. The titles look blurry. I’d like them to display a clean white font.

    <div class="catablog-row catablog-gallery">
      <a href="%LINK%" class="catablog-image" %LINK-TARGET% %LINK-REL%>
        <img src="%IMAGE-THUMBNAIL%" alt="" />
        <strong class="catablog-title">%TITLE%</strong>  Do I change this code?
      </a>
      <div class="catablog-description">%DESCRIPTION%</div>
    </div>

  3. judy says:

    How can I print out the metadata of all my galleries? I would like to print out my gallery names and descriptions.

    I thought I could use the following, but it didn’t work for me. What name do I reference when I want to print the metadata for each gallery?

    %TITLE%

    %DESCRIPTION%

    I’ve tried a few things but can’t seem to figure out the meta names. I don’t want to display the items in the gallery, I know the name to use for that.

    Thank you.\
    Judy

  4. Niya says:

    Hi Zach,
    Can you please advise if is possible the bellow:
    What I want to do is to have on one page several galleries and each to show part of the image content (example 3 images from gallery) and to be able to review the full gallery when click on the gallery title.
    I would like to remove the navigation option because I understood what you mean it affects all galleries on page at same time.
    The thing is that when I set the gallery code with limit option happens that I am able to review in zoom only the 3 images that are visible and then I am moved to the next gallery images and not the ones that are hidden.
    Is there a way to be able to review all images of a gallery, no matter if set with limited view and when done with one gallery not to pass automatically on the next one’s images?
    Thank you again ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. Kirk Hall says:

    In Catablog Galleries I can’t see the Shortcode the way it is intended to be viewed. Here is a screen shot. http://i.imgur.com/xfqdu.jpg
    I can get it other ways, using firebug or just clicking edit on the gallery and getting it out of the address bar but that’s not right.
    If I add
    width: -moz-available; to #catablog_items input in the catalog-admin.css it works fine but will that mess up something else in admin? So far I have not noticed anything.

  6. Geoffrey says:

    Loving your plugin, but I’m having a small problem. I’ve created a gallery and have it displaying in the place I want it. However, I want the the thumbnails to be bigger. When I go into CataBlog > Options > Thumbnails and try to change the width from 100 to 146, the “Save Changes” button at the bottom turns gray and will not save the changes. I click it and reload the options page and the setting is back to 100. Help!

  7. Gilles says:

    Hi,

    First, I would like to thanks you for your fantastic plugin.
    I have a small issue with the gallery function.

    When I select “Add to Gallery” in the main view and then “Apply” button, the screen “Add Catalog Item’s To Gallery” doesn’t appear anymore.

    It happend since the 1.6 version. I made a test with a fresh install of WordPress 3.3.2, without any other plugin, I have the same problem.

    But if I go back to the 1.5 version of Catablog, it works fine, the screen to select the gallery name is there !

    Any idea why I can’t have it since since the 1.6 version ?
    Many thanks for your help.

    • Zach says:

      What browser are you using? I will look into this.

      • Gilles says:

        Hi Zach,

        I made a test with Chrome 18 (version 18.0.1025.162 m), Internet 9 (version 9.0.8112.16421) and Firefox (version 11.0 and 12.0)

        I can’t see the screen with these 3 browsers.
        I use Catablog 1.6.3, with the French localisation.

        Thanks again for your help.

        • Zach says:

          Try removing the french language files from the localization folder and see if that fixes the plugin. Someone else had problems with the French localization, there could possibly be a bit error or something in the translation files.

          I wonder if anyone has gotten the French version working besides me?

          • Gilles says:

            Hi Zach,

            You are right, there is an issue with the french version.
            After deleting the french files (.mo and .po) in the lacalization folder, the โ€œAdd Catalog Itemโ€™s To Galleryโ€ screen is back ๐Ÿ™‚

            Many many thanks again for your help and for your great work with this plugin !

          • Zach says:

            Gilles, can you try the french version again, upgrade to CataBlog 1.6.4 and then see if you still have that problem, I believe it should be fixed. Thanks in advance for your time.

  8. GCB says:

    Hi,

    I really am loving this plugin. Thank you.

    I’m having a problem getting galleries to display now. They worked before, but I just noticed they’re not anymore. I have not upgraded my wordpress (still on 3.3.1) and am running Catablog 1.6.1. I haven’t upgraded either because I have a lot of customization and don’t want to break it.

    Any ideas on what might cause galleries to stop working? They simply don’t appear on webpages anymore.

    Also I can’t seem to display items by product code (I use this to display current latest items in blog posts).

    TIA.

    • GCB says:

      I figured it out. For some reason when I exported my items in a CSV file, added some, then imported, it broke the galleries. I just had to re-add the items to galleries and they are working fine again. Perhaps this is a weird little bug.

      FYI, when exporting the latest data file and importing it with additions, I select the “replace all data” checkbox, in case that makes a difference.

      Thanks for this plugin. I really do love it ๐Ÿ™‚

      • Zach says:

        Yes, unfortunately catablog galleries are dependent on the catablog library items having the exact same database id. If you do not select “replace all data” it will update items with the same id as your CSV instead of making new items with new ids. Sorry for any confusion caused by this.

  9. judy says:

    I am using WIndows 7 and when adding an item to the catalog I cannot see the ‘categories selection’ portion. The only time I see category selection is after I save the new item and go back in and edit it.

    I can see description, link, price and order.

    Is there a setting somewhere?

    My wife has Windows XP and she can see category selection and make the selection when adding a new item to the catalog initially. She does not have to save it first and then go back in a edit it to make category selections..

    • Zach says:

      What browser are you using? Internet Explorer? If so what version. Also, is there any third party software, “non-normal” customizations or extra security features enabled that might block part of a website.

  10. Karen says:

    I’ve been searching for ages for a catalog that will work with my website – this is perfect – thanks Zach. One question though, what about optimization? Will keywords within the item descriptions be found by the search engines or is there some other method I should use?

    Thanks much.

    Karen

    • Zach says:

      Your catalog will be rendered into the actual HTML document, so yes all the words you put in the catalog will be crawled by web spiders. The one caveat is that some other WordPress plugins and features may not play so well with CataBlog because of Shortcodes, and how they are indexed by searches. I would recommend a Shortcode expanding plugin such as Relevanssi to expand and index your CataBlog Shortcodes.

  11. Karen says:

    You the Man! Thanks!

  12. Kirk Hall says:

    I could have sworn that you could use template=”gallery” and have the sub images display when you hit next in the fancy box. Am I wrong or was that never the case and I dreamed it? I have sub images and they work and display fine unless I use template=”gallery”. Are sub images suppose to show up when one uses gallery or not?

  13. ragz says:

    I am using the plugin and it is simply awesome.
    I was facing 1 issue though, whenever I am using the sortcode [catablog catablog_gallery id="249" template="gallery" limit ="9" sort="asc"] It displays the entire images in the library rather than the specific gallery ID. Please help me with the issue.
    Thanks.

  14. Rachael says:

    LOVE the plugin – have been searching for something like this for a long time. Have one small issue though – I have the thumbnails set up in rows of 5 – when scrolling over the last image in the row, the formatting goes all crazy and the first image in the next row moves underneath the last image and the others move to a new line. Testing in Safari. The blog is currently in Under Construction mode while I figure out how to fix this issue.

    • Rachael says:

      Nevermind – it was a CSS issue with a dotted border underneath the links that was causing the issue. Works perfectly now and this was a lifesaver for my project!

  15. Harold says:

    Thanks for your plugin it is just what I was looking for.
    I have one question thought – I created two galleries and added items from the catalog library.
    What I’m trying to get is to display only the thumbnails of the two galleries on a page, one gallery below the other one, users will click on each gallery and they will be able to see the items contained in such gallery. I’m using the shortcode [catablog_gallery id="xxx" theme="gallery"] but i don’t get to work the way I planned, it displays the items of both galleries on the page instead. Please advise whether it is possible or am i missing something in the shortcode.
    Thank you in advance.

  16. ganesh says:

    I am trying to use the catablog gallery. It is showing some border lines how to remove them.

  17. Gallery Title & Description displays using short codes:
    I modified the plugin to display the Title & Description for the gallery using the short codes.
    If anyone would like the code feel free to email me. Thank you
    Zack, excellent plugin. I had to mod your plugin because I went to the trouble of creating several galleries and added the title & description to them only to learn there were no short codes to display them. Anyway, I am sure you will add this feature to a future release but I thought I would release my addition to your code until you do. Thank you for all your hard work on this excellent plugin!.

    • Greg says:

      I was just searching around this site for such information! I couldn’t find anything indicating how to display the Gallery Description on the front end.

      Not a huge deal, I guess. I’ve been pasting the Gallery Description into whatever page/post in which I include the gallery shortcode. But it would be handy with shorter descriptions to ensure they’re always included via the shortcode!

  18. Belpaire says:

    Please help,

    I can’t built gallery : I’ve create 2 gallerys, when I clic “add to gallery” (in library) , no window appear in page. So, no items in gallery and I can’t display gallery in page…

    WP v 3.4.1 / default theme WP /plugin catablog 1.6.3
    I’m testing the plugin and develop my site with MAmp (local server)

  19. jeff says:

    Love the plugin, wondering if there is a way to display the image TITLE and DESCRIPTION on the image pop up in the galleries.

    Would think if this was possible in the WP admin panel it would be in Catablog > Options > Lightbox but I am not seeing the capability.

    I love how when you hover over the image you can see the title but when the thumbnail is clicked, the image opens in the pop up but would like to see the title and description in the white area below the image.

    Please help!

    Thanks,

    Jeff

  20. Philipp says:

    hy Zach

    Great Plugin.
    i have a little Problem – if i move over the thumbnails, the gallery switch from left to right…..????
    please have a look: http://philip2.myhostpoint.ch/wp/kunden/

    whats wrong?

    thanks for your support…

    Phil

  21. Tanika says:

    First off thank you guys for this plugin, it’s one of a kind and I love it’s simplicity but I have one question – I’d like to give users the option to filter by year and author, how do I do this?

    Thank you again.

    • Manuel says:

      Hello Tanika, I am not sure if I get what you are trying to achieve. Do you mean the year the image was added to the site and the Author of the post or the image?

      Kind regards

  22. Laura says:

    Hi Zatch
    I would like to thank you again for such a brilliant plugin!
    I have a couple of questions:

    – I am trying to show different catablog galleries with pagination and a page limit. How can I do this?

    Show CataBlog Gallery with pagination and a page limit of 10. I have tried this:

     [catablog_gallery id="464"], [catablog_gallery id="474"], [catablog_gallery id="475"], [catablog_gallery id="487"], [catablog_gallery id="493"] [limit="10"]  

    and I have tried also with each indivual gallery but doesnt display it correctlly, is there a way?

    2. How can I remove the “previous” word at the end of each gallery page?

    Many thanks, hope you can help.
    Laura

    • Manuel says:

      Hello Laura, try the following shortcode:
      [catablog_gallery id="474" limit="10"] , this will display one gallery with a display limit of 10.

      In regards to removing the word previous, go to CataBlog >> Options >> Navigation and delete the word previous.

      I hope this helps you.

      Kind regards

  23. Hey, I am using minimatic wordpress theme, and I was trying to input your gallery plugin. But I am getting stuck, because it only displays 4 images, out of the total I have in the gallery. Please advise soon. Thanks!

  24. Chris says:

    Hi Zach, how do i change the size of the thumnails for individual galleries on the same page?

  25. tan says:

    Hi, thanks for the great plugin. I have some troubles with css using gallery.
    http://www.tanykim.com/temp/
    There’s a big top margin, and I don’t know why I have those black lines around the image. I don’t think it’s conflicting with other css…do you have any idea how to fix it? Thank you very much!!

    • Manuel says:

      Hi Tan, sorry for the delay, I had a look at your URL link and I couldn’t see any issues. Have you fixed this problem now? If not can you please point to the problem by providing more details.

      Thank you.

  26. Ron Ibarra says:

    Hey! Love the plugin and plan to use it but I am having trouble with my gallery.

    I will use [catablog template="gallery"] and it will show the whole gallery but is there a way to show only a category in the same style that the gallery shows?

    For example when I use [catablog template="gallery"] – it shows my entire gallery in a grid format which is perfect with the exeption that what I want is to show [catablog category="tile"] but instead of the list format I want the grid format that gallery offers.

    I apologize if it is a stupid question but I am not code savvy.

    Thanks!

  27. enoc says:

    Can i create a gallery within another gallery like a sub-gallery?

  28. Cemlyn says:

    HI

    My links are not working.

    I have added an url for one of my pages to am image. That image is in a category and I have gallery. I am displaying a gallery with the ‘single’ template. When I hover over the image I see the link is the address for the image itself nit the link I have entered. I have switched off the Lightbox. Now when I click on the image I get a single image with no navigation whatsoever. Everything else of my page has disappeared. All I see is the zoomed in image. The only way I can move is to use the browser back button.

  29. AM says:

    Hi – Is there a shortcode to display a specific category on a page? I have several handbags and am getting in men’s wallets, and other things. I went into the shopping cart and put my products in 5 different categories. How do I get a specific category to show on a specific page please? I’m sorry I am not as techy, but I will do my best.

    Thanks.

  30. Tina says:

    a quick question zach: why the thumbnail change their position when i hover it? http://balairungklass.com/galeri/

  31. Mark says:

    Hi Zach, I chose your plugin over Gallery Plugin, because of description and title on each image, for me that’s so important, thank you for a great plugin, however I have something to do that not yet supported with your plugin, I want to display the galleries on single page. Click the gallery thumbnail and go to the a page with the images of that gallery are displayed. Is this possible?

  32. Davide says:

    Hello Zach, thank you for all your work with Catablog!
    Sorry for my english, i’ll try to explain as plain as possible.
    I managed to get Catablog working, and i made a Gallery with 36 photos. With the column and permalink tutorial, i managed to split them in a grid of 4×3 (12 images) and 3 pages. The navigation button between pages works correctly, so when i hit page 2, it show me pages from 13 to 24, and when i hit page 3 it show me images from 25 to 32.
    When i enable Lightbox , when i click to image 1 on the first page, lightbox open up correctly, it loads the enlarged image, and on the image are present the navi buttons NEXT and PREV. The lighbox work until it comes to images 12, then, i can’t go to image 13 (the first image of the second page). If i want to go to image 13, i must close lightbox, go in page 2 with the navigation menu, and click on image 13 to open again lightbox.
    Is there a way to make this page change without closing lightbox? it would be very helpful since i have many items to show (that’s why i had to divide them in multiple pages, using the limit = 12 option), they can’t be in one page only but would be nice if i can navigate through pages within lightbox also. Can this be done? Ty very much in advance.

    Davide

  33. Ve says:

    Hi Zach, thanks for this great plug in…
    I’ve tried to use it and view the catalog as a gallery. By default the number of item shown in a row is 3 items, where can I change the parameter?

  34. Benny says:

    Hi,
    I’m using [catablog template="gallery" category="Alla"] to show all items tagged with “Alla” on my start page. It works fine in desktop mode (lightbox kicks up when clicking on pics) but in mobile (iPhone iOS 7 Safari) nothing happens? How could I fix this?

  35. Hi Zach,
    I can’t make a Gallery with a page limit set, to work properly. See the “Catablog test” menu item on my testsite. Next and previous tags are displayed as are the sequence numbers but clicking them doesn’t do anything.
    What am I doing wrong? I have tested also with only the 2010 theme active and all plugins disabled except Catablog, but no luck.
    Thanks very much in advance for you support,
    Arie

  36. Roxanne says:

    Hi Zach, Could you explain how I edit the code in my Catablog gallery template? The default has each image and title displayed in a stacked row, vertically. I’d prefer each gallery to be stacked horizontally. I would appreciate your help on this! Thanks!

  37. Roxanne says:

    Update: I managed to get my thumbnails in gallery formation by copy & pasting the [catablog template="gallery"] into the text on my page. Now what I cannot figure out is how to get the images broken down into separate galleries. They are all showing up in 1 big gallery. I’m so frustrated, please help!

  38. Krista V says:

    Hi Zach! LOVE this plug-in! Two features I’d be super happy to see added (would gladly donate $$ to their addition) is the ability to add a library item directly to a gallery on the actual entry page instead of just on the main library page. The way I’m using the plug-in requires a two-step process (add to library, then add to gallery from library listing.) It would be so much easier if it could be done directly on the entry page. Secondly, the ability to search within the library would be clutch. Sometimes we have hundreds of items in the library and finding the right one to edit is a bit time-consuming. Again love the plug-in!

  39. Hi Zach, Thank you for making such an awesome plugin!

    Just one question… I’m trying to get the title link to go below my photo’s instead of only when I hover over the top of the photo. I have changed the link target to _below but it hasn’t changed it in my galley. Is there something else that I should be doing to make this happen?

    Thank you in advance ๐Ÿ™‚

  40. kelly says:

    Hello!
    I’d like my gallery to extend the entire width of the page. Currently, there are only two columns and I’d like to increase this. I read through the tutorial, but I am still not understanding.
    Thanks!
    Kelly

  41. Kim says:

    When displaying images in a gallery, what determines the size of the image? My images appear small, similar to your on your demo page, but I came across another blogger whose gallery images were twice the size. Can the image size be changed in Catablog?

  42. Jan says:

    Hi

    I’m just starting with catablog and am displaying the items in galleries which have an excerpt of each item’s description. Is there a way to link from each excerpt on a gallery page to the corresponding single item pages?

  43. Jan says:

    Please ignore previous comment – I missed the obvious, so now it’s working ๐Ÿ™‚

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