I read and respond to all emails and support forum messages, and the reason I do it is because I want to keep on top of what people find useful about Web Photos Pro, and what they find frustrating.
The other day I received something like my 20th message asking whether it was possible to create a local preview using the “Save Album To Disk” function. “Ok,” I thought, “that’s it, let’s see how hard this really is.”
I’d been putting off adding this functionality because my first impression was that I would have to make changes all throughout the code, everywhere that a URL was calculated (which is dozens, if not hundreds of places). I decided to go for a long run – which is how I like to clear my brain – and somewhere in the middle of the run I realized that I had been thinking about the problem all wrong…instead of trying to fix all of the individual URL calculations, why didn’t I do some simple post-processing instead? And when I sat down in front of my computer, still sweating from the run, I saw I was right – instead of hundreds of places to fix, I only had to write one routine, and call it in two places.
And so that’s how this release came to be, hot on the heels of the iPhoto 5 release just six days ago.
Of course, as I mentioned in the last blog entry, there’s always a little cloud on the horizon here in Cornwall, and the same was true of this release. Just as I finished the release I got an email from someone who was seeing weird things happening with his iPhoto-based albums. After a couple of back and forths I quickly realized that there was a bug. The bug occurred when several albums were added at the same time…which is just what this person had done …he’d added all of his iPhoto albums in one go, and it had triggered the bug.
Squashing the bug was easy, the hard part was what to do if I found that the bug had corrupted someone’s workspace file. Instead of trying to fix it automatically, I’ve decided to inform the user if the bug has bitten them, and ask them to email me so I can help them fix it. So, if you get a dialog popping up saying that there’s a problem with one of your workspaces, let me know. Ok?
Regards,
– Frank
Note: This page has been updated to describe the new iPhoto 5 features available in Web Photos Pro version 1.0.1.
Overview
Web Photos Pro works well with any photo organizer that stores photo albums in individual folders on your computer. Point Web Photos Pro at a folder of photos, and it will create a web album which can be uploaded to your web server.
But Web Photos Pro works particularly well with iPhoto 5. That’s because Web Photos Pro knows what albums you’ve created in iPhoto 5 (and iPhoto 4), and which photos have been added to each album.
In addition to knowing about which photos are in each album, Web Photos Pro is able to extract the photo captions, comments and keywords (storing them in Web Photos Pro as titles, descriptions and tags). It also knows about the ordering of photos in your iPhoto albums, allowing you to keep both the information and the ordering synchronized in your Web Protos Pro albums.
What Data Gets Read From iPhoto 5?
Web Photos Pro is able to read the following data from iPhoto 5 (and iPhoto 4):
- iPhoto albums, Smart Albums, Slideshows and Books.
- iPhoto photos, as well as photo ordering within each album, Smart Album, Slideshow and Book.
- iPhoto captions and comments (transferred to Web Photos Pro as titles and descriptions respectively).
- iPhoto keywords (transferred to Web Photos Pro as tags).
Limitations
There are four limitations related to iPhoto 5 present in Web Photos Pro 1.0.1 that you should be aware of:
- Foreign characters in file names and keywords
Web Photos Pro 1.0.1 is unable to read photos whose file name contain foreign characters, including Unicode, UTF8 or high-ascii characters. This will be fixed in a future version.
Foreign characters in iPhoto captions and comments are handled properly, and transferred to Web Photos Pro with no problems. The same is not true for keywords. Some foreign characters in keywords are not transferred properly.
- Photos with the same name
You can have two photos with the same, e.g. IMG_0001.JPG, and as long as they were taken on different days (and therefore reside in separate folders in your iPhoto library), Web Photos Pro will display them both with no problems. The problem arises when transfering captions and comments from iPhoto to Web Photo Pro’s titles and descriptions – there is nothing in the iPhoto database that distinguishes between two photos with the same name (that we are able to determine), and so both of your photos will get the same caption and comment.
This problem does not extend to transferring keywords – they will be transferred properly for two (or more) photos with the same name.
- Two step refresh process
As you will read below, if you want to “refresh” iPhoto-based Web Photos Pro albums, you need to perform a 2-step process. In step 1 you tell Web Photos Pro to reread the iPhoto database, and in step 2 you tell Web Photos Pro to synchronize an iPhoto-based album when you open it.
You might wonder why we don’t just automatically synchronize your iPhoto-based albums each time you open them. The reason is that both reading the iPhoto database, and synchronizing individual albums can take anywhere from 1 second to 1 minute (or more) depending on the number of photos you have in iPhoto. For example, I have an iPhoto library with over 8,000 photos that takes Web Photos Pro about 40 seconds to read the database. And then synchronizing a large album can take 10 to 30 seconds, depending on the number of photos in the album. We decided that most of the time you would not want to incur this overhead each time you opened an album in Web Photos Pro, so we’ve made the refresh process something that happens outside of the normal work flow.
- Commas in keywords/tags
When transferring iPhoto keywords to Web Photos Pro tags, we place a comma between each keyword/tag. This allows you to have multi-word tags, such as “San Francisco". But, it also means that if you have a comma in your keyword, you will get multiple tags where you probably didn’t mean to. For example the keyword “Testing 1,2,3″ will be seen by Web Photos Pro as three tags – “Testing 1″, “2″ and “3″. Bottomline, it’s best not to put commas in your iPhoto keywords.
Connecting To iPhoto
Go to the iPhoto Preferences panel. This panel is shown in the screen shot below:
The first time you go to this preferences panel, the “Your iPhoto Albums:” list will be empty. Click the “Get My iPhoto Albums” button (the button in the screen shot above labeled “Refresh My iPhoto Albums” will be named “Get My iPhoto Albums” if no iPhoto albums are listed in the “Your iPhotos Albums:” list). Web Photos Pro will read, and then display, your iPhoto-based albums, Smart Albums, Slideshows and Books.
Hint: If you want to select an iPhoto library other than the default library, you can option-click the “Get My iPhoto Albums” (or “Refresh My iPhoto Albums") button. This will open a folder selection dialog where you can select the iPhoto library you want to use.
After reading all of your iPhoto-based albums, Web Photos Pro will display their titles, in alphabetical order, in the “Your iPhotos Albums:” field. An empty checkbox will appear next to each album title.
To add some or all of your iPhoto-based albums to Web Photos Pro, check the checkbox next to those albums you want to add. When you are done, click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the list, and each of the checked albums will be added to the List of Albums window.
Hint: You can select all albums at once by clicking the “Select All” button at the bottom of the list.
When you return to the List of Albums window, you will see your iPhoto-based albums listed with a little blue album icon next to them 
(this is the same icon as used by iPhoto). If you have non-iPhoto-based albums, they will not have this icon next to them.
You will also notice that there is no cover photo displayed on any of these newly added albums. This is because no thumbnails or resized images have been created for the iPhoto-based albums you’ve just added – not yet anyway. Web Photos Pro waits until the first time you open each iPhoto-based album to create the thumbnails and resized images.
Refreshing Your iPhoto-Based Albums and Photos
If you add or delete albums (in iPhoto), change the name of an album (in iPhoto), or add or delete photos to an album (in iPhoto), Web Photos Pro will not know about any of those changes until you do an iPhoto refresh from within Web Photos Pro.
Getting new data from iPhoto into your Web Photos Pro albums, is a two step process, as described below:
Refresh Step 1: Go to the iPhoto preferences panel and click the “Refresh My iPhoto Albums” button. This will cause Web Photos Pro to re-read the iPhoto database, reading albums, photos, captions, comments and keywords, as well as the photo ordering within each album.
This process can take a few moments with large iPhoto libraries. For example, my 8,000 photo iPhoto library takes about 40 seconds to read on my (slow) 2 year old iBook.
Refresh Step 2: Go to the List of Albums window. To refresh a particular iPhoto-based album, hold down the option-key, and open the album (double-click it, or choose “Open Album” from the Albums menu).
You will be asked if you want to update this album’s photos and data from iPhoto. You have two choices:
- New Photos Only: choose this if you want Web Photos Pro to only add new photos (along with their captions, comments and keywords).
- All Photos: choose this if you want Web Photos Pro to add new photos, and to update the captions, comments and keywords (titles, descriptions and tags in Web Photos Pro) on all of your photos with the data from iPhoto.
If you choose this option, you will be presented with a second dialog asking if you want to:
- Update empty fields only: choose this if you don’t want the refresh to overwrite existing data, but rather to only update data (captions, comments and keywords from iPhoto) that are currently empty (titles, descriptions and tags in Web Photos Pro).
- Update all fields: choose this if you want to overwrite all data (titles, descriptions and tags) in your Web Photos Pro album with data (captions, comments and keywords) from iPhoto.
You will need to open each of the iPhoto-based albums this way (with option-key down) in order for Web Photos Pro to re-synchronize the Web Photos Pro database with the iPhoto album.
Hint: If you just want to reorder your photos in Web Photos Pro to match the order in iPhoto, but not update any data, you can do this by
1) holding down the option-key as you’re opening the album,
2) choosing “New Photos Only” from the first dialog,
3) continue to hold down the option-key until,
4) you receive another dialog that asks if you want to reorder your photos according to their order in iPhoto.
Adding and Deleting iPhoto-Based Albums
Creating And Deleting Albums in iPhoto
Creating and deleting iPhoto albums must take place within iPhoto.
To add a new iPhoto album, return to iPhoto, create the album, and add photos.
To delete an iPhoto album, delete it from within iPhoto.
Adding iPhoto-based Albums To Web Photos Pro
When you are done making changes in iPhoto (i.e. adding or deleting albums), return to Web Photos Pro, open the iPhoto Preferences panel (shown above), and click the “Refresh My iPhoto Albums". Web Photos Pro will re-read the iPhoto database (photos, captions, comments and keywords) and display the list of iPhoto albums in the “Your iPhotoAlbums:” list.
To add iPhoto albums to Web Photos Pro, check the checkbox next to each album you want to add, then click the “Save Changes” button. This will add those albums to your List of Albums window.
Removing iPhoto-based Albums From Web Photos Pro
You remove an iPhoto album from Web Photos Pro the same way you remove any other album…select the album in the List of Albums window, then choose “Remove Album From List…” from the Albums menu.
Hint: You can tell the difference between a normal album and an iPhoto-based album in the List of Albums window because iPhoto-based albums have a little blue album icon next to them (this is the same album icon used by iPhoto).
Adding and Deleting Photos From iPhoto-Based Albums
Photos in iPhoto-based albums can only be added and deleted from within iPhoto.
To add a photo, go to iPhoto and add the photo or photos to the iPhoto album.
Too delete a photo or photos, do it from within iPhoto.
Hint: You don’t need to delete a photo from an iPhoto album to not have it appear on your website when you upload the album using Web Photos Pro. All you have to do is uncheck the “Upload Image” checkbox next to the image in the Photo Album window and the photo will not be uploaded when you upload the album.
After you are done adding and delete photos, you will need to refresh the albums from within Web Photos Pro (see above).
After you have performed the two step refresh, the album will be open in Web Photos Pro, where the newly added photos will have a blue border, and the newly deleted photos will have a red border (as shown in the screen shot below).
If you have deleted photos, you will be asked if you want to remove those photos from the album now or later.
Reordering Photos In An Album
When you first add an iPhoto album, Web Photos Pro will order the photos in the same order they are in iPhoto.
You can reorder photos in an iPhoto-based photo album just as you would any other Web Photos Pro photo album, by using drag and drop.
If for some reason you would like to reorder your Web Photos Pro iPhoto-based photo album as they are currently in iPhoto, you can do this by following the refresh instructions above (see the Hint in that section above).
Reordering Albums In A Gallery
The order of your albums in iPhoto is ignored by Web Photos Pro. This means if you order or reorder your albums in iPhoto, that ordering will not transferred to the Web Photos Pro album list.
In Web Photos Pro, you can only reorder albums when the gallery filter is set to a specific web gallery. Once you do that, reordering is accomplished via drag and drop, regardless of whether the album is an iPhoto-based album or a non-iPhoto-based album.
Tips and Tricks
- If you want to select or refresh an iPhoto directory other than the default directory, you can option-click the “Get My iPhoto Albums” button, or the “Refresh My iPhoto Albums” button. Doing this will open a folder selection dialog where you can select the iPhoto directory you want to use.
- When you add a new iPhoto-based album or albums, Web Photos Pro will not automatically create thumbnails and resized images for each of the photos in the album(s). The reason for this is that if you add a large number of iPhoto-based albums, you might not want to wait for all of the thumbnails and resized images to be created. So, we wait for you to open the album in Web Photos Pro, before creating the thumbnails and resized images.
Alternatively, you can click the “Smart Refresh” button in the “Images” Preferences panel. This will check all of your albums, and create all missing thumbnails and resized images.
- See the various Hints scattered in the text above.
March 23, 2005 
As the days get longer, and the weather turns to spring here in Cornwall, I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors, staring at the computer screen, and making Web Photos Pro work with iPhoto 5.
It’s turned out pretty nicely, and the result is Web Photos Pro version 1.0.1. (release notes, downloads)
Click the “Refresh My iPhoto Albums", and Web Photos Pro will read your iPhoto library, including photos, captions, comments and keywords. And it’s fast too – my 8,000 photo iPhoto library takes just 40 seconds to read, on my (slow) 2 year old iBook.
The new features include:
- Reads iPhoto 4 and iPhoto 5 albums, as well as iPhoto 5 Smart Albums, Slideshows and Books.
- Reads photos, captions, comments and keywords (storing them in Web Photos Pro as titles, descriptions and tags).
- Converts foreign characters in captions and descriptions to UTF8 encoded html characters, e.g. ümlaut is encoded as ü (ü), and çedilla is encoded as ç (ç)
- iPhoto album photo ordering is preserved.
- If you add more photos to your iPhoto albums, it’s a simple two step process to get those photos to appear (along with the captions, comments and keywords) in your Web Photos Pro albums.
- And if you want, you can even tell Web Photos Pro to refresh all captions, descriptions and keywords and the photo ordering from your iPhoto albums, at any time.
But this release isn’t just about iPhoto 5, I’ve also added a few features that will used by Web Photos Pro Server Edition, such as support for photo album paging, multi-word tags, a “latest photos” album, a “Show Urls” feature, and the ability to specify the default file for your php installation. All in all, a nice set up upgrades for our Server Edition users (once 1.0b5 is released).
Unfortunately, when there are blue skies here in Cornwall there always seems to be a little cloud on the horizon, and so it is with this release. Our cloud has to do with foreign characters in file names. While I’m able to handle foreign characters in iPhoto’s captions and descriptions, I wasn’t able to reconcile the different character formats used for file names in a way that allowed me to consistently recognize foreign characters in file names. So, for this for this version, try to remember not to name your photos something like “Hey niño, olé!.jpg". Ok? If you do that, we’ll try and fix this in a future version.
Enjoy!
– Frank
