iStockPhoto type lightbox

[vinchenzison]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has implemented a lightbox system like on iStockphoto?
I'm working on a site where the client wants to show personal stock video and images that are available for purchase but be able to have users 'add to lightbox' so they can keep a record of ones they've liked for later purchase.

I'm not sure if there is another name for 'add to lightbox' but seeing as lightbox image popups are very popular, it's been difficult finding something on google to help!

Any pointers would be greatful.

Thanks

James

[winanscreative]

Hi James-

I have something very similar that I implemented for a client using the AJAX ratings plugin. It was very custom but I was able to get something similar to what you describe working without much trouble.

What it did was allow people who are logged in to rate a selection of photos on the website, and then they would be able to see what photos they have rated in their account area, and then possibly purchase them. You need to be logged in to see but here is the site:

http://www.vasensavancouver.ca/photo-galleries.html

Because the ratings are stored in a separate tl_ratings table and I am also storing the user ID along with each rating, it was relatively easy to build a custom module that would be able to list the photo ratings (and photos) for the currently logged in user.

I would say that starting with the ajaxrating code will get you started... You need some sort of widget that you can attach to each image which, hen clicked, will store info about the User and the Photo to a separate table, so that you can use that to later list out the User's selections.

[vinchenzison]

Thanks for the info - will have a look at that.
My module making skills are a little lacking so will need to brush up on those first I think!

My other thought was just to use isotope and have some sort of amazon wishlist thing going on

[winanscreative]

You know, that might not be a bad idea either... If you used the person's cart as a "lightbox"... they would be able to eventually purchase them.

[vinchenzison]

Do you know if shopping carts can be saved to a logged in member for later viewing or is it emptied when leaving the site?

[winanscreative]

Carts are persistent for logged in members up to the amount of time set in $GLOBALS['TL_CONFIG']['iso_cartTimeout']... I think it set to default to 30 days (2592000 seconds).

You could simply change that value to something huge to make it persistent....

[vinchenzison]

I looked at using Isotope but I think it was too complex for what I wanted.

I've gone with a simple mootools hash.cookie solution and catalog.
Clicking several checkboxs sets the references and names in the cookie and then makes an ajax call to update a "cart".
As the video's/images are across several pages I needed something better than selecting a checkbox and using $_post.
The info in the cookie is then written to a textarea for submission to request info.

Although I have achieved what I wanted, I don't think I'm using very good practices.
Wish I could get my head around hooks!