Looking for Install & Config Help
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Where would I be able to find someone who can help me with this plugin? I would like help to configure this plugin and get a hands-on lesson on how to use it, based on what I’m trying to do with it. I have a specialized need that involves categorizing and tagging images, then creating galleries based on those categories and tags.
Any help in finding someone would be appreciated.
And if you’re an expert at this plugin, please let me know how I can contact you and we’ll set something up.
-Mark
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Thanks for your question and for outlining your application goal.
Your application “involves categorizing and tagging images, then creating galleries based on those categories and tags“, which is a very popular use of MLA. You don’t say how much WordPress experience you have, but a solid understanding of how “Custom Taxonomies” are used in WordPress is a good place to start. Just Google “WordPress Custom Taxonomies” and you will find many resources to get you going.
MLA adds taxonomy support to Media Library items and tries to be as WordPress-like as possible. MLA provides two custom taxonomies for you and you can add support for other taxonomies on your site if you need that. Most users find that using the “Att. Categories” and “Att. Tags” taxonomies are sufficient.
The Settings/Media Library Assistant Documentation tab is the next resource to study. I know it’s more reference than tutorial, but it does have many examples showing how the
[mla_gallery],[mla_tag_list]and[mla_term_list]shortcodes work together to do exactly what you need.For the “categorizing and tagging images” portion of your application you might be able to use the IPTC/EXIF mapping features of MLA. Many image files have embedded metadata that MLA can extract and use to populate taxonomies or WordPress custom fields for filtering your galleries. Of course, that depends on how the image files were prepared by tools such as Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.
The support forum has accumulated many solutions over the years. You can start with these topics and go on to the topics they link to for lots of application ideas:
Is there doc that shows how to use this plugin?
Filterable Portfolio with Media Library Assistant
As you can see from the earlier topics, I try my best to respond to specific application questions and needs. I am marking this topic resolved, but you are welcome to update it or start another with more information on your application and questions about how to use MLA to get the results you need. Thanks for you interest in the plugin.
Wow, David!
Thank you for the very detailed reply. And, since you asked for it, I’ll give you a detailed answer to your questions.
So far as my own experience is concerned, I’m a web developer. However, I personally try to do as little developing as possible, and have other people do it for me. I like to outsource to people who are expert at what I need done. It’s not that I can’t figure this out, I just would rather pay someone who knows exactly what to do to get this done for me in an hour or two, rather than me trying to squeeze it in between all my projects. (I’d like to get it done this year! <grin>)
So that’s why I reached out to try to hire someone.
I was going to save the details for when I found someone to help me with this personally, but since you asked….
Here’s what we’re trying to do. My wife, “The Invitation Maven,” makes wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitations, corporate invitations, party decor, etc. She has made invitations for thousands of events but only a handful are on her website (www.invitationmaven.com) currently. We’re about to totally redesign her site (It’s currently dated and ugly) and I want to feature hundreds of her invitations on the new site.
The behavior that I want is for a bride to go to, for example, the Wedding Invitations page and be able to click tags that represent what she is looking for (ex: Style-Formal, Color-Blue, Color-Pink, Ribbon-Yes for the bride who wants a formal pink and blue wedding invitation with a ribbon) and then see all of the invitations dynamically change on the page so that all she sees is what she is looking for.
Of course, all of the images would be previously tagged with all of those attributes.
In order to accomplish this, I’m planning on using the following:
* Adobe Lightroom to tag all of the images.
* The WPLR Sync plugin (https://meowapps.com/wplr-sync/) to automatically upload and synchronize the tagged images from her computer to WordPress
* Your Media Library Assistant plugin to define and maintain the taxonomies (tags and categories)
* Some Gallery plugin (to be determined) to maintain and define the actual galleries
* Justified Image Grid (https://justifiedgrid.com), to dynamically display the gallery (FYI, JIG recommended your plugin)Basically, the behavior that I want is similar to what you’ll find here on the Justified Image Grid filtering examples page: https://justifiedgrid.com/features/filtering/
I want someone to be able to select multiple tags and have them all apply. Scroll to the last example titled “Intersect (AND), thumbnails will match ALL of the selected terms”, to see what I want to do.
What I don’t know is…
1) Will WPLR feed the tagged images to MLA properly? (I’m open to just periodically uploading the images if I have to, so long as I can use LightRoom to easily tag them in bulk).
2) How should I set up the tags in MLA? Do I need different taxonomies for Style, Color, Layers, etc? Or do I use just one taxonomy and name them as I wrote above? And how does that decision affect how I tag the images in Lightroom? And how do I map the Lightroom Tags to the WordPress tags?
3) What gallery would be best suited for me?
4) How do I configure the various plugins so that it works as I expect?
5) Those are the questions I know I have. But I don’t know what I don’t know.So, now you are getting an idea of why I wanted to hire someone. I don’t know if you’re available for hire beyond what you generously give to the public, but I’m betting that an hour or two from someone as smart as you would probably be enough.
So, now knowing far more than you ever expected, what do you suggest?
–Mark
p.s. Once this is working, I’m happy to write something up or make a video and share the solution with your community (if you think it would be helpful to others).
Also…My wife and I were thrilled to find your FairTradeJudaica.org site and are exploring it now. Happy Passover!
Thanks for your detailed response and for the kind words regarding our fair trade work. Working on that site is what got me started with WordPress and inspired the creation of MLA.
Your application ideas are sound and the combination of MLA, WP/LR Sync and Justified Image Grid should give you what you need. I have worked with the developers of both plugins and am committed to supporting this combination.
Regarding your questions:
“1) Will WPLR feed the tagged images to MLA properly?” It looks like you can use the Synchronize Keywords feature to do this. You should be able to populate the “Att. Tags” (attachment_tag) taxonomy MLA provides, and you may be able to populate more than one taxonomy if that’s required.
“2) How should I set up the tags in MLA?” There are many possible approaches. You can use a hierarchical taxonomy with Color, Layers, etc. as parents and more detailed choices as children. You can use separate taxonomies; MLA will support as many as you need if you define them in some PHP code. You can lump all of them into Att. Tags as long as the term names are unique. The best choice depends on a number of factors such as how many term values there will be in total.
“3) What gallery would be best suited for me?” As I wrote, JIG is excellent and I recommend it.
“4) How do I configure the various plugins so that it works as I expect?” That depends on the overall application design. Once I know more I can give you some mre specific guidance.
“5) Those are the questions I know I have. But I don’t know what I don’t know.” It is always thus.
I am traveling off-road (spending Pesach in the desert) until April 9, but I can give you more help after I return home. If you give me your contact information and I will send you an email address you can use to continue the dialog. You can use the Contact Us page at our web site:
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for working with me offline to go through your application ideas. I am happy that we were able to find a solution using just the filtering features built in to Justified Image Grid. I also enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Adobe Lightroom and the WP/LR Synch plugin.
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