[Clipart] Transitioning to the automatic/dynamic screenshots gallery

[Jon Phillips]

Looks really great Nathan, aka Jonadab...

Jon


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nathan Eady" <eady at galion.lib.oh.us>
To: <clipart at freedesktop.org>
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 10:22 AM
Subject: [Clipart] Transitioning to the automatic/dynamic screenshots 
gallery


> Hi, I'm the same person as Jonadab, but this is my work
> address.  (Off-list messages should be sent to my home
> address only, jonadab at bright.net, though really on-list
> replies are even better in almost all cases.)
>
> Anyway, what I want to discuss here is the screenshot gallery.
> I have two questions.  The first is long, and the other one
> is the last couple of paragraphs at the end of the message.
>
> Currently, the screenshots link on the sidebar points here:
> http://openclipart.org/screenshots/index.php
>
> However, that page has to be manually updated, for each new
> screenshot.  As of now it hasn't been updated for the last
> three screenshots submitted.
>
> Screenshots submitted using the new screenshot upload facility
> are automatically shown here:
> http://openclipart.org/cgi-bin/view_screenshots.cgi
>
> That one doesn't have to be updated manually, because it globs
> up all the screenshot description files that have been put in
> the screenshots directory by the screenshot uploader.  From
> the description file it reads the author and description to
> display, as well as the locations of the thumbnail and the
> full-size screenshot.
>
> So here's the first question...
>
> It's possible to get the old screenshots to show up there too,
> by faking the description file.  These are simple text files in
> the screenshots directory with a filename that looks like
> screenshot_n_description.txt where n is an integer.  I went
> ahead and created the description files for the ones that
> show the clipart being _used_, but my question is about the
> very early screenshots that just showed the clipart being
> created e.g. in inkscape.  There's nothing wrong with these
> shots really, except that they just show the clipart itself,
> not actual usage.  So my question is, before we change the
> "screenshots" link on the sidebar to point to the new
> automatic gallery, do we want to add description files for
> those screenshots?  Anyone can do this.  They're just text
> files and they look like this:
>
> ID-Number:   7
> Submitted:   Before the screenshot uploader tool was in place.
> Author:      Here you put the name of the person who submitted it.
> Description: This is where you can put a one-line description.
> ThumbMethod: Unknown.
> Screenshot:  ocal-OOClipart.png
> Thumbnail:   thumbs/ocal-OOClipart_thumb.png
>
> The author and description for most of them can be taken from
> the existing static screenshot gallery.  There's no limit on how
> long the lines (e.g., Description:) can be, as long as they
> don't have any line breaks in them.  The ID-Number should match
> the number in the description filename.
>
> It's probably best to chmod g+w the description files, so anyone
> in the clipart group can update them if necessary.  The screenshot
> upload tool now does this automatically for the ones it generates.
>
> Also, the new gallery sorts newest-at-top based on the modification
> time of the description file (not by ID number), so these will come
> out on top, but they can be reordered back into their original order
> by strategic use of the touch command.
>
> If we decide to disable gallery display of any given screenshot,
> that's as easy as renaming its description file so that it
> doesn't match the pattern, e.g. by adding a prefix or suffix.
>
> If we don't want the just-clipart (i.e., non-use) screenshots
> to show in the gallery any more, then the new gallery is ready
> to go now, and all that needs to be done to switch to it is
> change the link in the sidebar.  But if we want to include those
> screenshots (some of which are rather nice-looking, for all
> their simplicity), then we should add description files for
> them first, before switching the link over.
>
> Also, before the link is switched over, someone besides me
> needs to compare the two pages and make sure the new one is
> okay, in terms of look and feel.  If something's not quite
> right, this is the time to point it out, before it gets linked
> from the sidebar.  That's the second question.
>
> Once again, here's the address of the new gallery:
> http://openclipart.org/cgi-bin/view_screenshots.cgi
> _______________________________________________
> clipart mailing list
> clipart at freedesktop.org
> http://freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/clipart
>