Saturday, November 06, 2004
How this site was built
Lots of people have asked me how to go about building a site like this. There are loads of ways of doing it, some more expensive than others. This one is done on the cheap but requires a bit of basic IT know-how to keep it up to date. I'm not going to explain all the technical details but I'll provide links to sites that do.
Photo Space
The first thing you need is lots of web space to store all your pictures. I am using a host called Brinkster. For US$7.95 a month, you get 3000MB of space. Any host would do however, if you find a better deal please let me know!
If you don't, please use this link to sign up becasue I get a discount every time someone does :)
Apart from space, the only other requirement is that the host should have ASP.NET or mono capability. There is no need to get a domain name with your photo space. My photo site is located at http://molipix.brinkster.net which is a subdomain provided by brinkster at no extra cost (molipix is my username).
Album Software
Next you will need some software to manage your photos. The one I am using is called nGallery. This is free and pretty easy to install and use. Just follow the instructions provided.
Getting photos up on the site
I generally use a web browser to copy pictures to the photo site via FTP (your web host will provide you with an FTP address for your site which you can put into the address bar of your browser). When nGallery is installed on your site, there will be a folder called "Upload". Folders containing your photos can be copied into here and then you can use the "Bulk Add Pictures" feature in nGallery to get the photos to appear on the site. The nGallery documentation should help you here. Once you have done this, you can delete the contents of the Upload folder to save space.
Creating a blog
Blog is short for Weblog - a web based journal. I guess there are a variety of ways to create them but I haven't really looked into it. This is my blog, it was free to set up, you can create your own by following the instructions provided at http://www.blogger.com. When I write a blog entry, I provide links that take you to different areas of the photo site depending on what I am writing about. Eg. this link takes you to the Australia photos..
Including images within the text of your blog
This is quite easy to do. When you are creating a blog entry, switch HTML view by clicking the link at the top right of the text window. You can then add an image tag like this:
<img src="">
This on it's own is not enough to make an image appear. You will need to paste the address of the image in between the quotation marks. To get the address of the image, go to the photo site and find the image you would like to include within the text. Right click the image and select properties. Then select the entire address (URL) on the properties sheet. This can sometimes be tricky as it might be so long that not all of it appears at once:
Press Ctrl-C to copy the address and paste it in between the quotation marks. When you click preview the image should now appear on the site.
Thats's about it for now. Please email me if you try this out an get stuck. You can also add comments below.
Photo Space
The first thing you need is lots of web space to store all your pictures. I am using a host called Brinkster. For US$7.95 a month, you get 3000MB of space. Any host would do however, if you find a better deal please let me know!
If you don't, please use this link to sign up becasue I get a discount every time someone does :)
Apart from space, the only other requirement is that the host should have ASP.NET or mono capability. There is no need to get a domain name with your photo space. My photo site is located at http://molipix.brinkster.net which is a subdomain provided by brinkster at no extra cost (molipix is my username).
Album Software
Next you will need some software to manage your photos. The one I am using is called nGallery. This is free and pretty easy to install and use. Just follow the instructions provided.
Getting photos up on the site
I generally use a web browser to copy pictures to the photo site via FTP (your web host will provide you with an FTP address for your site which you can put into the address bar of your browser). When nGallery is installed on your site, there will be a folder called "Upload". Folders containing your photos can be copied into here and then you can use the "Bulk Add Pictures" feature in nGallery to get the photos to appear on the site. The nGallery documentation should help you here. Once you have done this, you can delete the contents of the Upload folder to save space.
Creating a blog
Blog is short for Weblog - a web based journal. I guess there are a variety of ways to create them but I haven't really looked into it. This is my blog, it was free to set up, you can create your own by following the instructions provided at http://www.blogger.com. When I write a blog entry, I provide links that take you to different areas of the photo site depending on what I am writing about. Eg. this link takes you to the Australia photos..
Including images within the text of your blog
This is quite easy to do. When you are creating a blog entry, switch HTML view by clicking the link at the top right of the text window. You can then add an image tag like this:
<img src="">
This on it's own is not enough to make an image appear. You will need to paste the address of the image in between the quotation marks. To get the address of the image, go to the photo site and find the image you would like to include within the text. Right click the image and select properties. Then select the entire address (URL) on the properties sheet. This can sometimes be tricky as it might be so long that not all of it appears at once:
Press Ctrl-C to copy the address and paste it in between the quotation marks. When you click preview the image should now appear on the site.
Thats's about it for now. Please email me if you try this out an get stuck. You can also add comments below.
# posted by Dominic @ 5:09 PM 
