A new update to CataBlog has been released today. It is recommended that all user's running CataBlog 1.2.6 upgrade to this new revision. Version 1.2.7 offers many bug fixes and improvements, without any architectural change. Most importantly is the improvement of security throughout the plugin's Admin Panels. A few actions with security holes have been patched and secure connections are maintained across the plugin's external files. I've also had a chance to do a preliminary test with Internet Explorer 9, and so far everything seems to be working very well. You may read the Changelog for a more detailed list of new features and fixes.
The biggest new feature in revision 1.2.7 is the ability to bulk edit categories. This feature allows one to add or remove specific categories from a selection of catalog items in a single step. While convenient, one should be careful when modifying hundreds of catalog items at once. Larger changes will need a robust server, that is capable of many database writes in a single page load.
Please note if your server is on a shared hosting solution you may have difficulty with very large catalogs. When I say very large, I mean more then a hundred or two catalog items. I promise that soon the admin panel will be paginated, with a configurable limit. In the mean time, I suggest if you are on shared hosting that you keep your catalog under a hundred or so items. Thanks for your patience in this matter.
Another notable feature in this new revision is better server compatibility. This will also be important for people on shared hosting. No longer does CataBlog require the PHP MultiByte String Library. Instead, CataBlog will revert to the standard PHP string functions when necessary. Most likely the MultiByte String Library will be needed for proper functionality in all languages.
Looking forward to all feedback, compliments, bug reports and comments in general.
Hello,
I have just updated your plugin and I think that was a bad idea…… Now when I click on a graphics, the images is repeated 3 times. Please help me to fix that.
Regards,
And also when you want to leave the page there is a black background with nothin else to leave the page…. Great. I need to fix that asap please, thank you.
Sorry to write to you here, could I have your email to write directly to you more than polluted your site ? I have disabled the lightbox which make a mess in my site but I really want to use it asap as a company is going to have a look on my building website for a new job. I hope you can help me soon.
Many thanks,
Morgane
Hi Morgane,
I’m sorry that the upgrade did not go smoothly for you. Next time I would suggest upgrading on a local test server before upgrading a “mission critical” site. What version of CataBlog where you upgrading from? My guess is you are dealing with the 1.2.5 upgrade pains. There is an entire blog post about it here. Of particular importance to you would be the list of things to check near the bottom. I would first try reloading the default template and then mak sure that the LightBox options are set correctly.
To reload the default template simple go to the CataBlog Options Admin Panel and click on the template tab, there you should make sure you select default in the drop down menu and click load, then click save at the bottom of the page.
To check that all LightBox options are set correctly, simple go to the LightBox tab in CataBlog Options, make sure the enable LightBox is checked and that the LightBox selector is set to
.catablog-image.Good luck and I hope that solves you problems.
I’ve translated, just about, the whole language file for the 1.2.6 into Swedish. Any major changes compared to version 1.2.7?
Hi JornB, Thank you so much for translating CataBlog, yes I believe there are changes in langauge from 1.2.6 to 1.2.7. You should be able to place your Swedish language file into a freshly downloaded version and have your PO Editor do an automatic update of all the strings. If you are uncomfortable doing this, simple email me the translation files and I will update them and send them back to you for finalization. Again thanks for helping to support CataBlog and its international community.
Swedish translation for 1.2.7 is done and mailed
CataBlog 1.2.7.1 has your released with your translation. Thanks again.
Hi Zach!
I just upgraded two websites today to 1.2.7.1 (Backup first)
That problem I had on 1.2 with the HTTPS secure section having security errors was solved. http://onthestep.com
Also the lightbox feature that I lost in 1.2 on a second site http://sidewalkflyer.com came back. This site is not in production yet but all is working fine.
Not sure why both issues resolved but wanted to let you know!
The only glitch I had was one of the products was a “0” in the ordering utility, no big deal, just need to go through and fix that.
Great plugin, one of the best ever, and we have been using WP since version 1.2!
Hi Zach,
Great work on CataBlog!
Quick question: Can I add captions/titles to sub-images?
Thanks.
Jeff.
Hi Jeff, currently you cannot add titles or captions to sub-images. Could you please be more specific with what you are trying to achieve. The secondary images are really not suppose to have their own data, but be additional description for the primary image. If you let me know more about what you are trying to achieve I might be able to make some more suggestions. Thanks and please don’t forget to rate CataBlog.
Hi Zach,
Thanks for the quick reply.
As an example, say the primary image is the outside of a house and the sub-images are different rooms within the house. I want to be able to add captions to the sub-images so that the visitor can use the lightbox to navigate from image to image and the caption to indicate which room they are viewing.
I don’t want to have to edit the sub-images to superimpose a textual description on them. A caption that displays in the lightbox as for the primary image would be perfect.
Hi Jeff,
How are you organizing your house data? Is it stored in a WordPress post or page? If so, you could try organizing your galleries by category and load up one category using the gallery template. Here is an example Shortcode that will show just images in the House 5 category:
If you are attempting to use the new Public feature in CataBlog 1.2.9 which automatically generates pages for each catalog item then there is currently no way to give sub images captions or titles.
I hope that was helpful, let me know…
Hi Zach,
Thanks, but we are already using categories. We really need to find some way of labelling the sub-photos for descriptive purposes. This would make it very easy (and fast) to add houses with multiple photos that are easily identifiable when being viewed in the lightbox.
Love CataBlog – this is our only challenge.
Hi Jeff, I understand that you are already using categories, what is the harm in having two distinct sets of categories. One for whatever purpose you already have, and another for your sets of sub images…just a thought. Perhaps you could enlighten me to exactly how you are implementing CataBlog or give me a link to a page that would explain this. Cheers!
Hi Zack,
While your idea would help us to separate the ‘houses’ and their related pictures, it is does not take advantage of the great hierarchy you have built in the admin area for CataBlog. It is much more intuitive (and displays much better in the catablog admin) for my clients to organize the houses and their sub-pictures (rooms) than to add a new record for each picture and use the double-category option.
Not to mention, it would also create more work when needing to organize the display order of the photos.
I do appreciate the idea, and, if it is the only way, it will probably work – just know titles/captions on sub-photos would be much more elegant (and simpler) a solution.
If there is a ‘hack’ that would enable me to add sub-photo captions, I’m open to doing a little php programming.
No public link that I can share yet but should be one by mid-next week.
Hi Zack,
I played a little with your idea and it works fine from a site visitor’s point of view in that it enables us to label each image. My main obstacle the extra level of complication it adds for my client when setting things up in CataBlog in the WP admin area. It requires more setup to configure it that way and is not nearly as intuitive for a novice user.
I chose CataBlog for this project because of the skill level of my user and the excellent design of you plug in and the associated admin area. Whatever I can do to keep it as simple as possible for my client, the better.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Jeff.
Hey Jeff,
Yeah, I know its not ideal. My main concern though is that adding in a title or ‘caption’ to each sub image is going to lead down a slippery slope of adding other attributes to the sub images. Anyways I will think about it more myself and let you know what I come up with.
Cheers
– Zach
Hey Zach,
I understand the caution. Promise not to ask for anything other than a caption for sub-images 😉
Appreciate any & all ideas.
Jeff.
Really I just want to make sure that the sub-images are not turned into catalog items themselves, with a title, description, price, product-code, etc…
Have you played with the “Public” feature introduced in version 1.2.9? It will make a page for each catalog item, complete with images, sub images and a permalink. The real power is in the ability to make your own catalog item layout file in your theme. Just create a
single-catablog-items.phpfile in your theme’s directory.Jeff,
All the image and sub-image data is stored in the post’s meta data, that means you may access your catalog item’s sub images as a PHP array. Here is how to load the catablog data in the
single-catablog-items.phppage.The var_dump call just prints a string like this:
………….”Cate_West_Vanishing_Files_Wii_4.png” [4]=> string(35) “Cate_West_Vanishing_Files_Wii_5.png” } [“link”]=> string(81) “http://magellan.sketchbookkaizen.com/games-details/cate-west-the-vanishing-files/” [“price”]=> string(1) “0” [“product-code”]=> string(12) “Nintendo Wii” } array(5) { [0]=> string(35) “Cat…………..
That’s just a sample of what I’m getting.
That is because a var_dump simply displays variable names and their values. You will need to use PHP to display those values inside your HTML. Here are some examples:
<?php echo $data['link'] ?> <?php echo $data['price'] ?> <?php foreach($data['sub-images'] as $sub_image): ?> <img src="<?php echo $sub_image ?>" class="catablog-subimage" /> <?php endforeach ?>Hope that helps
I totally understand the rationale, just trying to make the photo descriptions more complete when visitors cycle through the main photo, then sub-photos in the lightbox and keep it easy for clients to update.
I’ll give the public feature a try and see it we can tweak things that way.
Thanks Zach.
some thoughts for the template file below…
Hi Zach,
That’s very helpful. Thanks!
What I might be able to do is get the client to name the sub-image jpg files in such a way that I can convert the filenames to captions using some of the code you provided above.
I’ll keep you in the loop.
Jeff.
Hey Jeff, I was just curious if you ever got the captions working how you wanted for the sub-images?