Catalog and MetaCreator

**valentin** · 12/16/2009, 01:06

I know this is already in the Feature Report / Bug List for Catalog 2.0 but I´m wondering if this can somehow be solved for an older Version.
On a project-website for my Gallery I have masses of Images that are generated via Catalog. I can easily edit the Text in the Lightbox with MetaCreator but can´t sort the order of the Images.

The way I solve it now is quite time consuming:
My Imagefiles have names like: 010image.jpg, 020picture.jpg, 030bitmap.jpg,...
The Images in that Folder will now be displayed in that order. If i want to have the 030bitmap.jpg in between the other two images I rename it 015bitmap.jpg.
Of course now all the Information is lost and I have to connect it in the Metacreator again.

The website has quite some content already so i can´t wait/update for 2.0.
Any help/suggestions are really really appreciated.
Best,
Valentin

**thyon** · 12/16/2009, 07:08

The Metafile parsing was done, just not the sorting on meta.

I've now implemented this in a new build 0.8.9 build 21. It will now sort on your meta.txt information instead of filename. I've also silently inserted some other sorting methods, which we can add, once I've completed the back-end side (date, filename, meta).

Sidenote: you cannot display meta.txt as a filename as it is removed from the list of displayable files by the parseMetafile method.

**valentin** · 12/16/2009, 08:56

Thank you Thyon!
So it´s no problem for my website to update this via Repository? No risk? I´m really afraid losing any data on this.
Btw.: I´ve tried downloading catalog1.0a3.zip but can´t unzip it. Is that file corrupted?

Best regards,
Valentin

**valentin** · 12/16/2009, 09:01

ups.
I´ve updated the site from build 18 (i think) and now i have a few display errors and this line:

Code:

Warning: join() [function.join]: Bad arguments. in /var/www/vhosts/christinekoeniggalerie.com/httpdocs/system/modules/catalog_ext/ModuleCatalog.php on line 1831

have a look yourself: http://christinekoeniggalerie.com/kuenstler.html

**thyon** · 12/16/2009, 09:06

It should be fine, because between 20 and 21 builds I only updated the ModuleCatalog.php file, but if you are concerned then do the following:

- backup your ModuleCatalog.php file, e.g. copy it to ModuleCatalog-backup.php
- download the extension manually rather by clicking on the ZIP file in TL Extension List website
- then ONLY copy the ModuleCatalog.php file to the correct location and overwrite the old one (you have a backup of course)

Then if anything doesn't work, you can simply revert back to the previous ModuleCatalog-backup.php => ModuleCatalog.php

Version 2.0
I would not recommend going directly to the new version 2.0 alpha3, unless you're testing a new site. If there is a problem with the download of the Alpha 3 version, then send a message to xtra (who compiles the downloads).

**valentin** · 12/16/2009, 09:16

ouch. too late.
I seem to have an error in this ModuleCatalog.php.

On several of my Sites, the images are not displayed now. I think this has to do with Sites which show images out of folders that have no meta.txt so far.
This of course is a problem, don´t you think.

I´m not 100% sure but since i know that all of the images that are not shown here: http://christinekoeniggalerie.com/kuenstler.html have not been edited in the metacreator by now.

any solution for that?

**thyon** · 12/16/2009, 09:42

Please try Build 22. I've made it so that if there is NO meta.txt, then it displays normally, otherwise it takes it from the meta.txt file. I've tested this on my installation using both single and multiple files and folders, so it does work. I've also corrected another string casting problem.

**valentin** · 12/16/2009, 09:53

wow.
I´ve installed and tested it now.

It works just as you´ve described and I need it.
Wonderful. Thanks a lot!

**thyon** · 12/16/2009, 09:57

Great. I'm sorry, grafting into a previous build isn't always that easy -- so I made a mistake

I'll also make it possible to select the image order like in the galley extension, date, filename, meta and maybe even random.

**valentin** · 12/16/2009, 11:06

Thyon, thanks for your great help!

The catalog module is really incredible. I´ve been reading a lot through this forum and studied the upcoming features. Wow. Looking forward to Version 2.0!

Cheers,
Valentin

**valentin** · 01/31/2010, 20:47

Hi there, I just got stuck in another tiny problem. As you probably all know: the "alt text" is messed up when using the Meta Creator.

I´ve found a few threads in the german forum but none of them worked. Where can I set the alt text to an empty value? Has that do be done in the catalog/catalog extension or in the metacreator?

Your help is very appreciated.

Best,
Valentin

**thyon** · 02/08/2010, 16:01

i believe that would be a template issue that you can resolve. The meta data is provided to the template, where you can simply remove/add any data to the lightbox/image rendering.