Drupal images and galleries

this is a Page Type content

- uses Node Gallery and Image Attach (not active nov/2009)

What I need/want to achieve is the following

• An image gallery that can be included in the content (or content in the gallery of course, and then customized)
• ONE (1) gallery for all different languages
• also possibility to go to independent image pages
• compatible with lightbox2 for on-page slideshow
• possibility to choose and use existing images on the server
• batch upload support (well ok, 6 browse and select fields is acceptable)
• customizable automated url paths (for the ever SEO)
• taxonomy

So many Image and Gallery options in Drupal.... but for the moment none fully covers the needs, let's see how far Gallery Assist goes...

With images it is all the same as the rest of Drupal: before being able to really go life, first you have to investigate all the options this o-so flexible CMS offers and find out which application or configuration is the one that less problems generates on implementing and future upgrading.

To achieve Image + Gallery pages Drupal offers several specific modules, with different characteristics and sometimes incompatible amongst each other, and then there are the costum kind of solutions/workarounds through Views, CCK fields or other, with several possiblities to combine them.

I started out with

1. the Image Module, thinking this was THE basic/essential module for Images + Galleries in Drupal, later I learned this possibly is not the case and that
2. other solutions through Views
   
3. or CCK + Fields might be better.
4. Then I discovered Node Gallery which seemed perfect but does not accept translations. You need a completely new gallery for each language.
5. Next was Gallery Assist, which again seemed perfect, even accepting translations for one and the same gallery, but then gives problems when customizing

Galleries and translations

1. An apparent translation solution for Image Gallery: http://drupal.org/node/480902

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Some of my tryouts and observations

Here just a try. This is a Node Gallery type content, but I want to have an image within the text, through the WYSIWYG editor.

 So anyway I will need the Image Module, WYSIWYG and TineMCE. Will this explode using it within this Node Gallery?¿?¿?

Inserted "forpages" size, with filtertag, so unfortunately Lightbox won't work, but it opens in a popup window...

• 1st try: picture doesn show up...¿?¿?¿?
• 2nd try: changed to thumbnail size.
  allright, so it seems a Node_Gallery Type page does no interpretation of the filtertag, so it must be HTML then, else the code just comes up instead of the image:
  [img_assist|nid=127|title=Alameda :-)|desc=Summer on the Alameda|link=popup|align=right|width=100|height=75]
• 3rd try.
  Strange.... right-aligned and it comes up above with seemingly no alignment...
  ------
  ok turns out that there is no alignment in WYSIWYG, but it IS right aligned in the page

What I want/need with Images + Galleries, comparing Image Module and Node Gallery:

CCK + ImageField and Views don't seem to offer many options or flexibility.

Due to incompatabilities between the standard (?) Image module and the Node Gallery module, one has either to choose or inefficiently combine the two... (if only one of them were able to include existing images from the server).

So a lot of modules are involved. To make Image & Gallery handling a bit easier, I'll just make my own list of related links below and avoid jumping around all the drupal Drupal Administration.

Image Assist: forlistings, right, link to image page, HTML

Links related to getting Image Galleries into Nodes.  That's actually the only thing that is really missing in the Image Module - the solutions I found were not real great workarounds - and what led me to Node Gallery Module in the first place. Now I have been comparing and wrestling with alternatives since two weeks and I still haven't found the optimal balance....

• Insert node gallery images into content (I go try now with IMCE...)
• Can't upload to gallery when image type is image
• downloaded IMCE, IMCE_WYSIWYG, gallery manage
• http://drupal.org/project/image_gallery_access

Now trying with IMCE as in http://drupal.org/node/517228#comment-1807514 - for finding existing files on the server

For example, I require my users to upload into their gallery first. After the pics are in the gallery, they can use the server browse button from IMCE (on the FCKeditor Insert Image dialog) to browse their gallery folders to link to their pics. If you want them to use a particular size of pic, you can set Image Cache accordingly and the setup IMCE to allow the user's Image Cache folders to be accessible to the user. IMCE will allow you to define what folders are accessible to users.

installed IMCE, don't see a button in for TinyMCE as I expected, but the form for images does seem to offer an option to look for files on the server, gonna try now.

First an image from the Node Gallery series - path: /sites/default/files/imagecache/node-gallery-thumbnail/salon-entrada.jpg

You'd have to manually put in a link to go to the bigger picture, the gallery or open Lightbox2 - search directories with IMCE

and also an image from the Image Node series - path: /sites/default/files/images/asfaltar-feria209.thumbnail.JPG

Same thing here...