This is a very general question so forgive me. At work, I would like to implement a photo gallery for staff members that would do a number of things.
When idling, the screen should loop through pages of staff members (in alpha order) e.g. 20 to a page. The photos will be accompanied by a small amount of descriptive text for each staff member.
In front of the screen will be a keyboard that would allow users to search for staff members, or at least serach by first letter.
Staff member details and pictures would be stored on a simple database which could be easily updated as staff come and go. Some sort of simple back-end system I guess.
Touch screens are available for use.
I am from an IT background and am happy to get my hands very dirty but I don't really want to create a solution from scratch. Ideally I'd like a ready made solution that I could customise.
Ideally this would be a Windows based solution.
There is a small budget.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?
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Hi John
>>> "The points are already yours..." <<<
Don't be too hasty. We may have a visit from a very experienced IT Marketing professional who designs eg. Kiosk-mode type touch screen browsers for conferences or something.
A budget of £200!! Wow, that's really out of my league. I've never paid that much for anything, even a car. I've made it my duty to find freeware alternatives for just about as much as I can. Sometimes the results are polished, but sometimes they are a bit rough but serve the purpose.
Looking at some possibilities now before I get ready for nightshift. I'm in the UK too.
John
I'm struggling a bit for free time to test out a few things. I will try my best to explore some possibilities before and through the weekend if you can be patient. Let me know if this is a rush job that you need right now, and I could post a less informative list of links and basic notes rather than a more comprehensive list of tested options as I will try to do.
Bill
Bill, it's not exactly a rush job. I have a few weeks to play with although I need to appear to be on the case. If I come up with something I will look good. I'm also interested in a soloution as it may have some potential beyond my workplace. The fact that I had to come on here suggests that a tiny gap exists in a perhaps depleted market. I don't know, what do you think?
What I think is that modern "digital living" has resulted in people walking around with devices through which they can view practically any web resources they wish. Only a short number of years ago people were aware that they were going to an "online" web resource to look something up, rather than view some resources on their home PC or on their corporate workstation. We now have people walking around with mobile phones and other similar devices where they have such instant access to web resources that they no longer have to even consider (or care) where the resource is being served up from.
People in front of a TV at home can flick between TV programs, computer-based multimedia, and web resources without considering where it is all coming from. People in front of a home or mobile PC/hand-held device can listen to Internet radio, watch movies, and telephone Australia for free. Computer users can back up immense amounts of data to online servers without knowing exactly where it is, and can use Office applications that are somewhere out on the web to create spreadsheets and letters without needing to install any programs.
The knock-on effect of this I believe is an obvious move away from Intranet resources on company servers to hosted sites that often supply ready-made templates for all manner of subject matter, and often do not demand any web creation knowledge or skills. So instead of a new employee or college student being able to familiarise themselves with staff members, curricula, and other essentials, from a workstation serving up pages from the in-house server, the same resources may now be on a hosted website where the HR assistants just log on and upload new data to it using an idiot-proofed FTP upload program based on the web server.
I think this type of advancement has almost spelled the demise of bespoke applications to create the kind of resource you are looking for.
Nevertheless, I will attempt to provide some suggestions that I would be trying out for myself if I were looking for a solution to a problem.
Thanks Bill, I appreciate your opinion. I guess I am looking for a clean robust solution and am very interested in your ideas. The other route I was contemplating was somehow attaching a database to PowerPoint but the more I think aout it, the more I feel it should be browser based. I await your suggestions with baited breath. 500 points is already a paltry amount for what you've done so far. I would increase it if I could.
I discovered something that may prove useful.
The Windows XP "My Pictures Slideshow" screensaver is:
C:\Windows\System32\ssmypi
This type of screensaver is an executable file.
The commands to Install, Configure, and Test a screensaver are stored under the registry key:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\scrfile
The Configure command (ie. what would happen if you normally just double-clicked a *.scr file) just opens the configuration dialog to show user settings if there are any available for the particular screensaver.
In the case of "ssmypics.scr", the settings are stored under the key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
The Install command, which is not useful to our aims, is:
rundll32.exe desk.cpl,InstallScreenSave
The TEST command is the most useful for us, and is:
%1 /S
in other words:
ssmypics.scr /s
whereupon (in the case of "ssmypics.scr") it will display images from whatever path has been set in:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
"ImageDirectory"="FolderNa
and will display them as configured.
If the "ImageDirectory" value in that registry key is blank, then it will display image files in the root of the system drive and then work its way down through the folders on that drive.
Here's what I did as an experiment:
1. Copied "ssmypics.scr" to a neutral non-system folder and renamed it as "Staff_Pics_Slides.exe".
2. Opened it in a hex editor and changed the string "Screen Saver.Slideshow" to "Screen Saver.StaffShow".
3. When double-clicked to Configure it, this creates a NEW registry key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
with the same user option settings as the default
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
registry key for the actual screensaver file.
4. When now run using the command:
Staff_Pics_Slides.exe /s
it will run as a screensaver displaying images as set in step 3 until the mouse is moved or any other key apart from the Arrow keys is pressed (if you choose to allow arrow key navigation in the configuration).
5. This *.exe runs in that mode WITHOUT changing user settings in relation to the screensaver. In other words, if the user has set the Desktop Properties > Screensaver to (None), then running Staff_Pics_Slides.exe WILL NOT make it active or reset it as the current screensaver because it is being run in TEST mode.
If you make staff photos large enough and leave a little bit of empty space at the top of each image, the "File Name" (if set to display in the configuration options) shows in that area. It shows with the full path though, and I am unsure how to make it only display file names. If staff photos are named logically with the person's name followed by their title, then you have a slideshow of staff photos that can be called by another program, and would disappear to show that program as soon as someone mobed the mouse.
There is a program named HTML Executable (G.D.G. Software - http://www.htmlexe.com/) that is primarily designed as an "eBook Compiler", but has a number of other similar uses. What it allows you to do is create a Web Site locally, and then wrap it all up into a single executable, while setting various options or restrictions for runtime.
I used to use an older version of this program for distributing CD Autorun content to others, because there is the option to embed the viewer into the *.exe so that it runs solely from the resources on the CD.
I see that it has been updated so that the embedded "browser" now supports DHTML, JavaScript, CSS style sheets, etc better than the older retail version I have.
Now, I will have to reinstall and test my version, but as far as I recall it is possible to have different pages call commands when closed, and if my memory serves me correctly this could allow you to launch the Staff_Pics_Slides.exe /s command on closing a page.
It is possible that am muddling this up with another program I used to use for creating Autorunning CDs named "Autoplay Menu Studio". I had version 3.1, but the name changed to "Autoplay Media Studio" when the program was extended to encompass media-rich content.
See http://www.indigorose.com/
It is a fully featured development interface that has a lot of templates to create audio/video browsers, image browsers, and a whole lot more.
There is one avenue that you perhaps may not have considered. Windows Help uses C:\Windows\hh.exe to display *.chm (Compiled HTML Help) files. As you will be aware, the Windows Help layout is a 2-pane affair that creates an index of links in the left and the content in the right. It can display image content and text in the right pane, so this could be a reasonably good format to allow users to browse staff members.
The Microsoft HTML Help Workshop allows to to decompile *.chm files to the individual components packed into them to see how they are arranged, and allows you to compile *.chm files from scratch using your existing HTML web pages and associated folders.
Developer Resources:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/
Downloads:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/d
The company that sells the HTML Executable program that I mentioned above (G.D.G. Software) also has a CHM To Exe program to decompile and convert Microsoft HTML Help files (.chm) into executable files:
http://www.htmlexe.com/chm
This allows you to extend the functionality of an existing *.chm file of your own creation and perhaps allow it to launch something like the "Staff_Pics_Slides.exe". I have not used this program, but have had it downloaded for a long time.
Even if you choose not to use my interesting variation of the "My Pictures" slideshow screensaver as an *.exe, or if any of the programs aren't able to launch it when the user goes back to a static interface, perhaps the JavaScript options I gave links to in my earlier question may be supported in the other potential solutions I have mentioned in this comment.
You should be aware, of course, that hex editing a copyright protected screensaver file for your own use may contravene your license agreement. On that basis I am compelled to say that I provided the information purely as "informational" ;-)
Tell me what you think of the attached image slideshow.
Extract "Staff_Slideshow.txt" from "Staff_Slideshow.zip" and rename "Staff_Slideshow.txt" to "Staff_Slideshow.exe".
It is a standalone *.exe package containing 10x fairly small images *.jpg images that will:
- Open as a 640 x 480 "window" with no title bar or navigational buttons with a black background and the file name (no extension) displayed top centre in vivid green 14pt text
- Display images in ascending file name order continuously
- Advance every 10 seconds but can be advanced (left click) or reversed (right click) using the keyboard arrows (or mouse)
- Show a slight blending transition between images.
- Pause Key to stop/start slideshow and Esc to exit.
This was very quickly created using the Free IrfanView image editor, which is equally capable of accepting command line options to launch a slideshow with similar qualities from the path specified on the command line, or from a *.txt file listing image names and paths to them. When creating an *.exe file from images, there are other options such as background colour, text colour and formatting, size to open at, etc.
There is also an option to create a *.scr file rather than an *.exe file. They are essentially the same, except you would usually set a screensaver to run at full screen. You can rename the *.exe to *.scr and it will open on a double-click, but in this mode it won't close on a mouse move - only a mouse click or a keypress other than the arrow keys.
It might be worth considering this as the slideshow portion of your staff browser as long as you name your staff images in a way that the text shows the name and designation of the staff member for the image. I have experimented with file names that are pretty long and provide more than just a name and designation, and it works OK.
There are a number of utilities that provide similar functionality, some producing more polished HTML-based files, and others producing either standalone *.exe files or even PowerPoint-type slideshows with navigational buttons.
I have a feeling that we may have covered many of the possibilities for "programs" that run slideshow type output, so it's just a case of figuring out the best options for the main browser component and seeing whether it would be better to use HTML type slideshow capabilities to tie in with it if we can't get a combined option that does both.
I'll be back ... probably later though as I need to do some things today.
Thank you John. I hope you can find a solution using some of the resources I loosely suggested as possibilities.
I found something else that might be useful to you when I searched for "javascript keyboard":
http://www.greywyvern.com/
You will need to dowload the component files:
The Javascript Code
http://www.greywyvern.com/
The Keyboard Stylesheet
http://www.greywyvern.com/
The Keyboard Icon/Image
http://www.greywyvern.com/
There are some sample forms near the bottom of the page to check out, but there are links further up the page to screenshots of the virtual keyboard being used with web search pages. This opens up some possibilities for what you are aiming towards, although the keyboard is probably too small to be used on a touch screen (if it works).
These might well work with a site search form, if you can tie the code in to search for staff members and load their images and brief bio's:
http://www.codeproject.com
http://javascript.internet
Free online utility to create an "image map", which might be an alternative way to hotlink individual areas in a thumbnail index page of mugshots to separate bio pages:
http://www.image-maps.com/
If you like the general idea of this:
http://www.sothink.com/pro
http://www.sothink.com/pro
then $65 for the DHTML Menu Builder appears to make this type of thing quite easy:
http://www.sothink.com/pro
A useful page for generating the code to create mouseover button effects:
http://javascriptkit.com/m
There are a couple of other tools linked to a the left side of the page:
http://www.javascriptkit.c
There appears to be loads of information here about how to implement an intranet search engine:
http://www.searchtools.com
Internal site search using JavaScript:
http://www.javascriptkit.c
http://www.javascriptkit.c
Using Google:
http://www.javascriptkit.c
There are tons of free utilities, codes, and general information about creating JavaScript "image scrollers", "slideshows", etc, as well as the options above for site searching and virtual keyboards, but I think it's going to be a bit of a problem tying it all together without buying some expensive web development software suite.
For example, the Adobe packages for creating "Flash" content may well provide you with just about everything you would need, but the software is incredibly expensive and requires a lot of practice and learning.
Using something like Microsoft FrontPage, as installed by most of the "pro" versions of MS Office allows you to create things like hotlink areas in images from which you can open separate pages containing details and an image of staff members. With a little experimentation and use of freely available Javascript code that allows you to open the target page as a presized popup without toolbars, etc, could make a reasonably professional end result.
Knowing how to create Javascript Onload (page opens) and Onunload (leave page) events would allow you to always return to a "home" page containing one of the fancier scrolling image slideshow affairs, or a search with virtual keyboard, or perhaps more than one element:
http://www.w3schools.com/j
http://www.javascriptkit.c
http://www.w3schools.com/j
http://www.javascriptkit.c
Complete Javascript event reference:
http://www.w3schools.com/j
The main problem with creating such a project in a web browser interface is that links will not be able to launch executables, so if you commit to this then you have to create the entire content in this format and leave behind any external "slideshow.exe" type content you may have prepared and been very happy with.
It would be wonderful if you could have a web page that acted as a home page to launch something like the free IrfanView image viewer in full-screen or slideshow mode, but of course you can't do this from within Internet Explorer or Mozilla. There ARE some free basic web browsers (often designed to be run from CD) that allow the launching of executables from links. You also have the CD/DVD interfaces often found on PC Magazine discs that can launch an installer program from a link. It may be worth inspecting the resources on some of these CDs to see if they could be reused for your own needs, but I sense that would be in contravention of the copyright.
To go down the road of launching commands that eg. run an external installed or standalone program that plays a slideshow or allows a user to browse an image "album" tpe program, you really need to use some kind of browser or interface like you would find on autorun CDs.
I have no doubt that there are some very nifty programs or applications that you can buy and install which allow users to flip effortlessly through image albums just as though they were hardbacked family abums of photo prints. Often they allow you to save an "Album" that will open in the program on a double-click having had the file type associated with it. Perhaps the program would also allow the creation of a searcheable image index that is confined to the contents of a group of chosen folders. But you aren't going to get your virtal keyboard ... unless ...
you use what's already there in Windows Accessibility Options, ie. the On Screen Keyboard. In Windows XP this is "%SystemRoot%\system32\osk
For example, a simple "launcher" program could open the Virtual Keyboard as the command is passed to open an "album" file. Something along these lines, and the "launcher" can be one of those simple CD-based front-ends.
I hope this may have given you more food for thought.
Regards
Bill
Anyone finding this question through a search on key words may be interested in JohnSaint's follow up question which has been given some fine attention by experts involved at a professional level with website creation:
http://www.experts-exchang
You're very welcome John, and good luck.
I have found it interesting thinking about some workarounds using no budget at all, which is may favoured way of thinking. If you can find a Windows XP computer to test out my sample "Staff Slideshow" executable:
http://filedb.experts-exch
then run it. Hopefully it wll give you a laugh. It was meant to be lighthearted.
See you in the next question (maybe).
Bill
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: BillDLPosted on 2009-01-12 at 12:58:18ID: 23357313
Interesting one. I like "small budget" questions because they match my status and interests ;-)
How much is the budget? $25, $50, $75, $100?
First thoughts?
How many staff members are you likely to have with images and profiles in your "browser".
A simple "Front-End Menu" standalone *.exe from an autorunning CD that takes its menu options from an easily updateable *.ini file. I know the legalities of this, and so the suggestion is only given to spark an idea, but many of the Microsoft CDs containing learning versions have a program named "StartCD" in the root. All you do is change the values in the "StartCD.ini" to load specific images as thumbnails in the program GUI frame on mouse over of the menu items, and the menu items and links are set in the same *.ini file to issue whatever command you wish.
There are free design programs that allow you to compile such executables for autorunning CDs, but they are not something that can just be updated without re-running the compiling program. Better off with a text-based file that can be written to from an input form or directly edited.
I would guess that your best viewing format would be HTML (DHTML), but I am wondering about some of the simple image viewers/editors that accept a lot of useful command line options and can run as slideshows.
The "keyboard" control I believe will be the stumbling block. It would probably be simpler to have a JavaScript popup dialog with a search field. Something like these:
There are (shareware) retail offerings like this that may do the job for you:
http://frogleg.mvps.org/he
http://helpware.net/FAR/he
Click the buttons in the left navigation panel to see it work.
http://www.atrise.com/ever
http://www.atrise.com/ever
There are some ready made codes for fancy HTML based slideshows:
JavaScript slideshow code:
http://www.leigeber.com/20
http://www.leigeber.com/20
JavaScript "Tool Tip" mouse over overlay that could hold some text-based lines:
http://www.leigeber.com/20
The Windows XP Powertoy add-on "HTML Slideshow Creator" may help you create your HTML based image browser:
http://www.microsoft.com/w
There are also other Freeware and Retail programs that allow you to quickly create thumbnail image HTM pages that open the full sized images. They are usually easy enough to maintain.
The number of staff you anticipate being in the "database" would dictate whether this type of approach would be feasible, but only from a maintenance point of view, but taking account of what would the best physical layout of the staff browser front-end.
Good project idea. I will do some messing around for ideas to inspire you, with the emphasis on adding new staff members, or zapping them when fired.