Plans that have been tugging at the back of my consciousness have finally prodded me forward to the point that I have made a major design decision for the future of Acidfree. I am hoping that I can get things in order in time for the Drupal 5.0 release, but we will see. Just in case, I will have an escape route to ensure that none of the module users get left behind.

Right now, the changes entail:

  1. Acidfree will no longer create its own node types
  2. Acidfree will be strictly a management module that deals with Image and Video nodes
  3. Use FormAPI and the node->content equivalent to expose a unified API
  4. Use Taxonomy module to create the album hierarchy
  5. Possibly take advantage of view module

These are the points that I think Acidfree does well and are important to me. I am fairly confident that I can accomplish each of these points with the above changes.

  1. Mass import (tar, zip, and unarchived files as well as host-side import)
    • I will just take this straight from the current Acidfree
  2. Album contents
    • I will just take this straight from the current Acidfree because I don't think this is the kind of thing the Views module does.
  3. Image rotation
    • This will be a nodeapi hook that does lossless rotation using exiftran or jpegtran just like Acidfree does now
  4. Automatic thumbnailing of videos
    • This will be a nodeapi hook to work with Video module
  5. Album view (thumbnails with titles in a list or matrix)
    • This might be a views thing or a node->content api thing
  6. Paging through items in an album
    • This will probably be a node->content api thing
  7. Slideshow
    • There is a slideshow module for Image already, but I am not sure what the 'albums' are -- if they are the image gallery or taxonomy or what.
  8. Inline filter (popup filter tag builder -- this is not released yet, but very cool)
    • I think I will keep my current inline filter to keep the whole UI unified
  9. Various blocks (random, favorite, most recent, and quick-add links)
    • I think I will keep my current inline filter to keep the whole UI unified
  10. List view (not released yet, but a nice view as well -- this is the kind of thing the Views module might be use for)
    • This will probably be a Views module thing
  11. Multi-level album hierarchy
    • Taxonomy does this fine
  12. Multiple parents for items
    • Taxonomy does this fine
  13. Easy, unified UI (I know this is subjective, but it is very important to me)
  14. works well with pathauto module (this might be difficult, but it is very important to me)

I would like to hear what other people think are the most important features to them so I can make sure that I don't leave anything out.

Comments

patchak’s picture

patchak commented

I'm glad I choose Acidfree for a new project of mine, and glad also that acidfree will be completely integrated in Drupal. So it's all good news to me!

Are is the release going?? More difficult than you thought?
patchak

Steel Rat’s picture

Steel Rat commented

As many problems I've had installing Acidfree lately, I still like the way the module works, and greatly look forward to the 5.0 version.

Some things i'd like to see:

  • Multiple options for folder and thumbnail frame graphics
  • Setting of a default Mass Import folder
  • Mass Import categorization (opened as a bug in the current release;) )
  • Album items inherit album default categorization
  • Option to view original image instead of download
  • Rating System

I'm sure I'll think of more as I use the current version more. Right now the lack of Mass Import categorization is my biggest headache, since I'm moving an existing gallery to Acidfree, and am importing thousands of images.

vhmauery’s picture

vhmauery commented

Patchak,

The release is coming okay. It is still fairly broken, but parts of it work. Parts of it depend on other modules, so that is a little slower going.

Steel Rat,

As for the list of thing you would like to see, I will certainly keep them in mind.

* Multiple options for folder and thumbnail frame graphics

I am not sure what this one means. If you mean the default Acidfree theme stuff, write a good one and I will use it for the default -- lots of people have complained about the current one but nobody has stepped up to the plate and taken a swing at it.

* Setting of a default Mass Import folder

This could certainly be done.

* Mass Import categorization (opened as a bug in the current release;) )
* Album items inherit album default categorization

These will no longer be an issue because Taxonomy will be used as the albums.

* Option to view original image instead of download

This will now be the responsibility of the Image module -- so however it works will be the default. And currently, if you want to view the image instead of downloading, I believe it is a server setting -- my website lets you view them...

* Rating System

This is the responsibility of the Voting module or something like that, not Acidfree. Acidfree is about content management and a simplified UI between albums, videos, and images.

Steel Rat’s picture

Steel Rat commented

Hi VH,

Thanks for the reply.

Multiple options for folder and thumbnail frame graphics

What I was refering to here was just some other graphics to use as folder representations other than the default, and have them selectable perhaps at the album level (creating a new album/editing the properties), not necessarily a new theme. Don't know how well I would do at theming Drupal in the first place, lol.

Didn't know about the Voting module, so thanks for pointing me there!

SR

vhmauery’s picture

vhmauery commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)