I own Tag 1.0, but am considering upgrading my site to 2.0 if it will do what I’d want it to do - and am looking for some feedback!
Here is the scenario: I run a website that’s mostly an Image Gallery, and it’s powered by the Gallery Module. At the moment, I have main categories, and inside those, subcategories. The subcategories function mostly as ‘albums’, they display a set of related images inside a main category. I have several galleries setup, all for different purposes. Here is a quick example to make it more concrete:
Gallery: Scans
-----category: Actresses
-------------album (subcategory): Angelina Jolie
-----category: Models
-------------album (subcategory): Adriana Lima
Gallery: Wallpapers
-----category: Actors
-------------album (subcategory): Brad Pitt
-----category: Models
-------------album (subcategory): Adriana Lima
Every image is an entry in the Gallery Module. I am running into various limitations with the Gallery Module, that would be easily fixed if I switched to the Weblog Module instead. They include (there’s more, but these are the main ones):
- an image can only exist in one category. if I have a scan with both Brad and Angelina on it, I either have to add it twice, or pick only one album to add it to.
- an album (subcategory) can only live under one main category. Someone like, for example, Jennifer Lopez, can’t exist under both Musicians and Actresses - unless I add her twice.
- the Gallery isn’t easily searchable. I currently use Google Site Search, which does work...but I’d rather use EE’s internal search.
However, the Gallery also adds several things I don’t think I can live without, most notably batch adding and the ability to easily make an EE page that holds the full-sized image (for stats tracking, etc - as opposed to simply linking to the large image directly).
Sooooo. I *think* the Tag module can fix this for me, if anyone can confirm if it will work in the way I am thinking of now. I read the docs, and I think it will...but I’d just like some confirmation and/or additional thoughts on this!
1. I create the main categories as categories in the Weblog Module (Actors, Actresses, etc)
2. I create the albums inside each category as entries in the Weblog Module (Angelina Jolie, Adriana Lima, Brad Pitt, etc). That way, they can be added to more than one category. I then tag each of those entries with the name of the person it’s for.
3. I add my images in the Gallery Module as normal, and tag them too with the name OR names of the people they relate to.
4. Under Templates, I create a template that displays a single entry, and for each entry (album), I simply display all gallery images that have the same tag (related entries?) - it’ll pull in all images tagged with that person, even if I assign more than one tag to that image. Since the template tags are mostly the same, I can display the images exactly the same in tables, paginated and all. In fact, on the page, you’d barely have to notice it was a single entry page for the Weblog Module, unless you looked at the much SEO-friendlier URL - am I correct?
5. And lastly, if someone searches for, say, Angelina now, they’ll get back all the entries I might have for her, in Scans, Wallpapers, Icons, and so on, without getting every individual image I have (which is what Google does, and makes the results kind of chaotic). On top of that, I could create a page that lists everything I have in my entire EE installation that’s tagged with Angelina - whether they be icons, desktops, scans, updates, etc.
Am I right in all that? Will it work that way? Is there anything I should keep in mind performance-wise? I might only have 200 or 300 entries in the Weblog Module (the albums), but all together, these albums contain well over 4000 images - some albums contain 300 or 400 images each. Will it be a problem to retrieve all those using the Tag 2.0 Related Gallery Entries tag?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts and/or advice!!
