Jonah Gets EsoSkipped Before I Do
Jonah Ministries, a web design project I recently took on, gets my best work. Of course I put my best efforts into all my work, but as I learn more and develop new tools and scripts, each subsequent site gains the benefits of my work. I guess I should start releasing versions of my scripts, like EsoGallery 1.1.0.7 or something. I have no idea how developers decide which decimals to use in version numbers! At any rate, Camp Jonah has a higher EsoGallery version than Esotropiart at the moment :) Due to the large size of some of their albums (over 700 photos in one!), I modified my gallery script to break the thumbnails into manageable blocks that can be navigated through by way of link controls. I am randomly calling this feature "EsoSkip". These links also provide a way to quickly jump forward or backward in a large album/gallery (like chapters on a DVD). The number of members in the range/skip can be set easily. 50 seems to be a reasonable number of thumbnails to load, and a good divisor for breaking down large galleries into chunks. I also added slide number labels to each thumbnail. This creates a visual reference for the user to remember where they left off in browsing, and is generally a sensible addition in my opinion. I suppose I could go even further and have a checkbox for show/hide slide numbers, but for now I'll leave them be. Now I just need to port my changes back to Esotropiart so my own site isn't behind the times! Visit the new Camp Jonah Photo Albums.
