[Plugin: NextGEN Gallery] Reading keywords
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Hi!
The main reason I decided to use NextGEN Gallery for the images on my site is that it can read the keywords I embed into my photos using Lightroom. However, I’ve been unable to find a plugin that can in turn read what NextGEN pulls off the images. I want one so that I can enable my users to search for (and then buy) images according to their keywords. Is this possible somehow? My developer doesn’t know how, and has now pretty much given up on that module of the assignment. I’m assuming there must be a way, though. Otherwise, why would NextGEN show all the keywords in the backend?
Cheers,
Robin
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Just to add that when I said ‘keywords’, I meant what NextGEN Gallery calls ‘tags’. Any help on this would be hugely appreciated!!
Robin
The plugin you are looking for is NextGEN Search Engine 0.7.0 available on Alex’s site at http: // alexrabe . de / 2010 / 01 / 13 / search-for-images /
You or your developer should read the documentation though. The install consists of two parts. Install the plugin. Then make sure to install the Search.php file into your theme file or modify your theme Search.php to add the NextGEN search lines.
Works perfectly with keywords, titles, descriptions.
Lee
Hi Lee,
Many thanks!
My developer’s response was “I’m a little hesitant to use the plugin that you have mentioned as it may mess up the hard work that we have put in, but if you insist I will try it out”. It seems from the discussion on the page that it’s a work in progress… could you tell me what the risks are?
Thanks again!!
Hi Robin,
I can assure you and your developer that the plugin works perfectly.
The discussion you see on the plugin page stems from the lack of documentation on how to implement the Search. Alex (the developer) is usually the first to admit his lack of skill in the documentation department.
The installation consists of 2 parts. 1. install the plugin. 2.add the lines of code to your theme “search.php” file or use the search.php file he provides and make sure to change the NGG lines of code to say your theme name rather than “twenty-ten”
I am happy to provide precise step-by-step instructions to anyone who needs it.You can see it in action here:
http://mywptestingsite.dreamhosters.com/This is a generic WP test site used for testing code and plugins and styling, so don’t expect beauty. However, try out the search with the words “beach” or “bird” or “canyon” or “flower” or whatever.
A production site that uses it is SF Windsports
Again, try the words “Aldo” or “girl” or “sky” or whatever.
Just to put your developer at ease, I’m not only a photographer, but have been designing and developing for almost two decades, have taught Advanced Technology and Media and so on. I understand the caution, but assure you both this is an easy one.
Regards,
Lee
Hi Lee,
Many, many thanks! I have passed this onto my developer – hopefully she will be able to take this forward.
One other thing I wanted to achieve with my search function is what Photoshelter have: the ability to re-search for further images based on check boxes that can be selected by the keywords from the original image returned. An example of what I mean is at http://olsonfarlow.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Travel-Miami/G0000HE9fq.m8ijw/I0000G9fsA8zkBAA (bottom right). Have you any idea how something like this can be achieved?
Warm wishes,
Robin
I’m familiar with the function and have used Photoshelter for one site and use the great stand-alone gallery program 4images for another stock site. Both have the related images by search keyword function that returns thumbnails.
NextGEN has the beginnings of that and you can choose “Activate related images” on the Options page under General Options and then choose categories.
It is not, however, integrated into the search function yet. I haven’t looked at hacking the code to allow it, but might in the future.
Certainly searching by any keyword or combination of keywords does produce nice thumbnail results, just not the list function you seek.
I look forward to that as well!Cheers,
Lee
Hi Lee,
Thanks for your thoughts on my further hopes for my site’s search function. It seems I will have to investigate this at a deeper level some time in the future. For now, I continue to feel stymied by my attempts to get some form of image archive search working on my site. The woman who did most of the building of the site installed the plugin you told me about and activated it, and also changed the code where she was told to. She then asked me to see if it worked… and it doesn’t, as far as I can tell.
My site is http://www.robinwyatt.org/photography and the user should be able to click ‘Image Archives’ at the top and then search. Currently, there’s link to a holding page there, while the actual archives front page is privately published. I don’t have to publicly publish this for it to work, do I?
So, for example, if I search for India, only journal entries with the word India come up, not individual photos.
By the way, does the user HAVE to use the regular WP search function, or can I have a search on the Image Archives page that is for pictures alone? I would prefer the latter, to keep photos and text separate.
Thanks so much for your help! I (we, actually) am (are) totally clueless without it.
Robin
Hi Robin,
A couple things. You have a plugin installed – “wp-custom-fields-search” – that will override the gallery search.
Your preference for having the image archive search separate is much easier. Yes, you can do that. A wonderful example of just that function with NextGEN is http://blog.aengusm.com Look at the menu at top and click on “Search Image Database” It only searches his images, nothing else.
The code to accomplish this is here: http://www.vrwebdesign.co.uk/tutorials/search-images-gen-gallery/That should give you and your designer a head start!
Your site is a great showcase for some stunning work! I like your watermark as well. Well done!
Lee
Many thanks, Lee, and thanks also for your kind feedback on my site and work! Positive feedback always feels good. I’ve passed on what you said to my designer… fingers crossed! I will report back here… .
Robin
Just an update to say that my developer refunded what I paid her as she was unable to complete the task, so I will have to get my head around this myself! I hope this topic will remain open in the meantime so that I can come back with any questions later… . Robin.
I’m so sorry! I’ll monitor this thread and am available if you need.
I think you may be making it harder than it is – so let me know if you get stuck.Lee
Ok, trying to do this myself now… .
I see wp-custom-fields-search – do I need this or not, do you think? I suppose my developer must have installed this when she was trying to make the image search function work.
The next thing is that I’m now following the instructions on the site you sent me the link for. The first thing he says to do is locate search.php. I have the following:
/public_html/mygalleryfolder/search.php
/public_html/photography/wp-content/themes/wyattphotography/build_search.php
/public_html/photography/wp-content/themes/wyattphotography/search.php
/public_html/photography/wp-content/themes/twentyten/search.php
/public_html/photography/wp-content/plugins/nggSearch/themes/default/search.php
/public_html/photography/wp-content/plugins/nggSearch/themes/twentyten/search.php
/public_html/photography/wp-content/plugins/wp-custom-fields-search/wp-custom-fields-search.php
I think that my developer simply altered TwentyTen to make the WyattPhotography theme. So I should probably look at WyattPhotography. But I see wp-custom-fields-search and nggSearch in there too. Could these be complicating matters? Or can I just ignore them?!
The next thing is that I looked at the one in WyattPhotography and there’s nothing like <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>, written in there.
Any idea where I should go from here?! 🙂
Thanks so much again!!
Hi Robin,
You do not need custom fields search. That just searches internally on the admin side with results only you can see. Let’s start fresh.
Getting the NextGEN Search to integrate with the WordPress search:
1. Go to your theme directory (wp-content/themes/wyattphotography) and either re-name or make a backup of “search.php”
2. Make sure the plugin NGGSearch by Alex Rabe is installed in your plugins folder. (Important, since there is also a plugin called NextGen Gallery Search and many people confuse the two)
It is the plugin found here: at the top of the page.3. Activate the plugin
4. In the plugins directory under the folder “nggSearch” is a folder called “Themes.” Find it.
5. In that folder there are two folders: “default” and “Twentyten”
6. Open the Twentyten folder and copy the search.php file. (You can use either default of Twentyten, but I generally use Twentyten.)
7. Place that search.php file in the main folder or root of your theme directory. You want to overwrite the file already in there.(In your case, place it in wp-content/themes/wyattphotography)
8. Open the search.php file and find the term ‘twentyten’ (including quotes). Replace the word ‘twentyten’ with ‘wyattphotography’ (including quotes). Save it and overwrite the file.
(Steps 6 and 7 can be reversed if you want)
This will integrate your gallery with your WordPress search.
I’m going to advocate this instead of a separate image search particularly for you as an editorial photographer. Buyers (personal and editorial and stock) love images that not only tell a story, but that have a story. You integrate those in every part of your site.
Understand that when a person searches for “Egypt” the search will return two separate sections:
1. A result section for your posts and pages about Egypt.
2. A separate result section for thumbnail images that are keyworded “Egypt” or that have “Egypt” in the title or description.This is a value added situation for the searcher. “Cool! A story to go with the picture!” Maybe we’ll contact him about that as well. Or maybe it will just add extra depth and dimension to the body of images. And it will almost certainly encourage further exploration beyond the original search goal.
There is a reason PhotoShelter is pushing their integration with WordPress and partnership with GraphPress. ;0
The other solution that I pointed you to substitutes the WordPress search with the image-only search. A case of either/or. In your case, I think that would be an awful shame.
Still, I’m sure there is a way to have both, but I haven’t tried coding it.
At least try this way first and use it for a week or so. I found it annoying at first, but now would not do it any other way.
Call on me if you need or email me at danielsmediagroup at gmail
Lee
Hi Lee,
That seemed pretty simple, thanks a lot! It just came down to changing the theme name in that one place, and the plugin worked fine. I’m surprised my developer wasn’t able to figure that out.
I then figured out how to place the image results before the text results by swapping the relevant bits of code around. Not too tricky, even for a novice like me! I felt that this would make more sense, as people with little time might not even think to scroll down (my own initial reaction was, “so where are the images?”).
I have one small question about operators for this search. I noticed (for example) that a search for ‘Egypt and protester’ returned 69 results, whereas ‘Egypt protester’ returned 47. So it seems the plugin is looking for the word ‘and’, not treating it as an operator. I searched Google for NGGSearch operators (and variations on this) but found nothing. It would be nice to know how it works, as I can then include some instructions for users so that they can search accordingly.
I’ve also contacted FotoMoto to find out whether I can add ‘buy’ buttons to those images that appear in the search results. At present, one can only buy from the Image Archives section and there is no way (as far as I can see) to draw users from their search results to where the image appears in the Image Archives.
Thanks again for all your help! You’ve been a life saver. I hope other WP users will also reap benefits from this thread.
Robin
Hi Lee,
That seemed pretty simple, thanks a lot! It just came down to changing the theme name in that one place, and the plugin worked fine. I’m surprised my developer wasn’t able to figure that out.
I then figured out how to place the image results before the text results by swapping the relevant bits of code around. Not too tricky, even for a novice like me! I felt that this would make more sense, as people with little time might not even think to scroll down (my own initial reaction was, “so where are the images?”).
I have one small question about operators for this search. I noticed (for example) that a search for ‘Egypt and protester’ returned 69 results, whereas ‘Egypt protester’ returned 47. So it seems the plugin is looking for the word ‘and’, not treating it as an operator. I searched Google for NGGSearch operators (and variations on this) but found nothing. It would be nice to know how it works, as I can then include some instructions for users so that they can search accordingly.
I’ve also contacted FotoMoto to find out whether I can add ‘buy’ buttons to those images that appear in the search results. At present, one can only buy from the Image Archives section and there is no way (as far as I can see) to draw users from their search results to where the image appears in the Image Archives.
Thanks again for all your help! You’ve been a life saver. I hope other WP users will also reap benefits from this thread.
Robin
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