Suggestion/Feature Request: "Flat view"

kuzmandi

I would like to make a suggestion to display photo galleries without hierarchy, but with sections, more like a photo album.

Is it possible to add an alternative view to display the images of all folders and subfolders on one page, with optical dividers in between? The selected view (list, blocks, grid...) and sorting would apply within the blocks, but overall the order contents would be sorted in the same way as it is otherwise in the hierarchical arrangement on the left. At the beginning of each block, you could see the folder name that includes the images underneath.

A setting could limit the depth of subfolders to (i.e.) 5 levels (default). Folders below that would be shown as folders, which a click would open.

For example, you could scroll through an entire vacation trip grouped into folders by place or day or event (or whatever) without having to click through all folders. By cleverly creating the folders and subfolders, you could present this nicely.

What do you think?

Edit: Maybe the main area with the sections are moving up and down by anchor links, when the corresponsing folder is selected in the hierarchical view on the left side. And reverse, moving up and down the sections would highlight the current corresponding folder on the left side.

So it could be really just an additional "flat" view without affecting the whole usage.

Karl

I like the idea itself, but it's a bit of a technical nightmare for a single-file non-database browser-based PHP server application ... I understand this is how some cool photo applications might work on desktop or mobile, but that's an entirely different ballgame. Big apps, using database, running directly on the device.

In Files Gallery, we would need the PHP/server to "load all images recursively from within this folder", and this isn't very compatible with cache. Then filtering, sort and changing layouts for multiple sections would have to deal with "multiple" galleries at the same time, instead of just the current loaded gallery. I could go on ...

I will assign "todo" tag for this, but it's not likely this will get done in the immediate future. Your suggestion is still much appreciated of course.

kuzmandi

Thanks for your reply, Karl. And the Todo-Tag! 👍️

I'm desperately looking for a solution for the "Digital Family Album" project. I want to look at holiday photos with my family in front of a 12" tablet (without cloud or complex, proprietary image management software) and files.gallery is so close to that, that I don't want to give up yet. Unfortunately, I'm just not able to program something like that myself, so I try to make suggestions and persuasion. (I'd even be willing to sponsor such a feature.)

A vacation album that's sorted into folders according to certain criteria just isn't fun when you have to navigate through a complex hierarchy. 🤔

In Files Gallery, we would need the PHP/server to "load all images recursively from within this folder", and this isn't very compatible with cache. Then filtering, sort and changing layouts for multiple sections would have to deal with "multiple" galleries at the same time, instead of just the current loaded gallery. I could go on...

For a first version I would not allow a separate sorting or filtering for each section. I think that would go beyond the scope... It would be enough (for me) if the sorting and filtering were applied to all sections in same way. So all folders would just "be open at the same time", in the order in which they can be seen in the folder column on the left. But I agree with you, the number of files to be processed would be much more than it is now.

Karl

kuzmandi I understand you would like to see this feature, and I'm not saying it's a bad concept. There is a MASSIVE workload involved with changing the system from supporting ONE folder, to hosting multiple galleries in the same view. It's really that simple, and that's why I needed to emphasize in uppercase. As you will find with almost all web-based file viewers / browsers, especially folder-based, they simply display the selected folder, because it's feasible.

I have tagged this as "todo" because it's an interesting concept, possibly something for the future. However, considering the timeline, and priorities, this is not something you would be able to expect within any reasonable timeframe unfortunately. Thanks again for posting though!

kuzmandi

Hmmm. Maybe I have to try to build something with /'embed/ and a few lines of PHP... Is it possible to embed multiple instances of that in one page? 🤔

The problem is that (all kind of) galleries always display all images one after the other. It is not possible to form groups and prescribe an order of this groups. You can specify an order by cleverly naming the files and create something like a separation with empty images or images with text, but that's always a mess.

Karl

kuzmandi Hmmm. Maybe I have to try to build something with /'embed/ and a few lines of PHP... Is it possible to embed multiple instances of that in one page? 🤔

It should be possible to have multiple instances, but it isn't unfortunately. It would definitely be possible once I find the time to update Embed. However, I'm not sure this is exactly what you are looking for ... You would be able display multiple galleries on the same page yes, but they would all be independent instances with their own navigation.

kuzmandi The problem is that (all kind of) galleries always display all images one after the other. It is not possible to form groups and prescribe an order of this groups. You can specify an order by cleverly naming the files and create something like a separation with empty images or images with text, but that's always a mess.

I hear you, I do. However, this kinda functionality is normally reserved for hardcore image-organizing apps like "Photos" app on Mac/iOS ... Uses smart tags and organizes based on some built-in database. Not only is Files Gallery essentially just a file-browser that reflects your folder structure, it is web-based and runs off server/PHP as a single file. This is kinda beyond it's capabilities, sadly I have to admit.