HowTo: Use "Photowidget" by RoyTanck with G2

Hey there,

just thought I might share some stuff I came up with recently.

Photowidget is a nice flash app to display images on your webpage. In combination with the external image block you can actually use it with your gallery. That's how I got it to work:

/* settings */
$g2_url = 'www.mygallery.com';              // url to main.php
$thumb_size = 60;                           // thumbnail size in pixel
$images = array ( 'randomImage'   => 12,    // number of types of images
                  'recentImage'   => 0,
                  'viewedImage'   => 0,
                  'randomAlbum'   => 0,
                  'recentAlbum'   => 0,
                  'viewedAlbum'   => 0,
                  'dailyImage'    => 0,
                  'weeklyImage'   => 0,
                  'monthlyImage'  => 0,
                  'dailyAlbum'    => 0,
                  'weeklyAlbum'   => 0,
                  'monthlyAlbum'  => 0,
                  'specificItem'  => 0 );


while( list ( $type, $count ) = each ( $images ) ) {
  for($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
    $image_list .= $type . '|';
  }
}
$image_list = substr($image_list, 0, -1);   // get rid of trailing '|'

/* create source code */
$code = file_get_contents('http://' . $g2_url . '/main.php?g2_view=imageblock.External&g2_blocks=' . $image_list . '&g2_show=none&g2_maxSize='. $thumb_size .'&
g2_itemFrame=none');

/* regex rules */
$regex_image = '=^(.*)(<img|<image)(.*)src\="?(\S+)"([^>]*)>(.*)$=msi';
$regex_url = '=^(.*)(<a)(.*)href\="?(\S+)"([^>]*)>(.*)$=msi';

/* start creating xml content */
$xml = '<images>'. "\r\n";

while (preg_match($regex_url, $code, $finds_url) && preg_match($regex_image, $code, $finds_image)) { 
  $xml .= '<image href="' . $finds_url[4] . '">' . $finds_image[4] . '</image>' . "\r\n" ;
  $code = $finds_url[1];
}

$xml .= '</images>';

/* write xml file */
$file = fopen("photowidget.xml", "w");
fwrite($file, $xml);
fclose($file);

This piece of code only creates the required photowidget.xml, using pathnames from the external image block. You still have to embed the actual flash file acording to the instructions on the widgets homepage.

Maybe someone finds it useful.

Cheers,
Felix

See it in action here.

That's what I forst wanted to do. I tried after you had mentioned your script a while ago - but somehow I didn't quite understand where to start
Might have a closer look again at some point

Felix

Hi! Its very interesting. But how exactly do you get it to work?
I mean, is that the code that goes IN the .xml file? Or is that php code that goes somewhere else?
Can you be more specific?
Thank you!

http://www.lucasmarin.com

Hey Suprsidr! Thanks for the reply. Yes i have. As a matter of fact, i am using the miniSlideshow in my main page, but i really liked the photowidget. Is a really good alternative to a tag cloud i think.
But no matter what, i coudlnt make it work. I am definitely doing something wrong.
Any ideas?

http://www.lucasmarin.com

Hey Dreamingof8a! Thanks for the reply.
I put the code, and its generating the photowidget.xml file, but its generating it empty, with just "<images></images>".
That is when i try it in localhost. When i tried online, it didnt generate a file at all.
In $g2_url i used localhost when i tried it here, and www.lucasmarin.com when i tried it online.
Any ideas what am i doing wrong?

http://www.lucasmarin.com

Hey dreamingof8a. I finally got it working, but in the strangest way. Maybe you can explain me why.
The .xml file is generated if i put it in a file like "test.php" which is outside the gallery folder and i call it with a line like "require_once('...\public_html\test.php');".
But if i put that code inside lets say Theme.inc or main.php, it does not work.
Does it have to do something with the way you are calling the imageblock?

http://www.lucasmarin.com