WAG works great here, but there's a problem I can't seem to figure out on my own.
When I initially create an album, it compiled perfectly and I'm able to upload the output and the album displays perfectly. However, when I wish to add a new photo to the album, I open up the album file however, there are no photos.
Instead, there is a message displaying that says "Error Displaying Photos"
I have not moved the photos from their original directory, nor moved the album files. Everything is in the same place as when the album was originally generated.
This is a big problem for me because I add frequently to the web album and so far, I've had to reacreate it each time which takes hours and hours of time to recaption everything.
Is there a solution?
Please respond here or to my email: jsebenoler@attbi.com
Thank you for any help you can offer!
Technical Support Forums » Web Album Generator
Error when opening previously compiled album file (8 posts)
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jsebenoler
Member
Posted 9 years ago -
fdigiorgio
Member
Posted 9 years agoI too am now having this same problem... I've created several albums with WAG and saved them [.alb]
Any idea's for a fix? -
Mark
Administrator
Posted 9 years agoHmm... I haven't heard of this before.
Could you open the .alb file in Notepad (it's a standard text file) and check to see if all the photo filenames are properly referencing your photograph filenames?
If the locations are different, but are supposed to be the same then could you provide me with some steps to reproduce the problem? I'd be very interested to know what might be causing this error. -
fdigiorgio
Member
Posted 9 years agoMark - per your request I've opened one of my .alb files and looked thru it. The only thing I know that I have changed was the CSS for the album but I notice in the .alb file it's stating all of the original settings chosen when building the album... IE:
[Settings]
PageColor=10526880
TextColor=0
LinkColor=15000804
HotLinkColor=16777215
SchemeName=Slate
AlbumTitle=Deb and Frank photos
I've removed several lines form the original but here are the lines that pertain to the CSS file that would be built from WAG. After the album is compiled, I go back and change the CSS file to suit my needs...
I'm not sure if this is the culprit though... Thoughts? -
Mark
Administrator
Posted 9 years agoWeb Album Generator doesn't look at the css file it has previously generated, so I don't think this is the culprit.
If the paths to the photographs are correct, then I'm stumped. Are you absolutely sure the photos haven't been moved or renamed from when they were originally loaded (that is, from where they were originally added to the album)? -
fdigiorgio
Member
Posted 9 years agoAhhhhh - I think I know what the issue might be and it has to do with paths... Here are my thoughts...
You have a folder called VACATION - it has 10 photos. You add the photos and build your album. The new album has now created sub folders called PHOTOS and THUMBNAILS. In the PHOTO sub-folder are the photos you originally added.
Hmmmmm... after rechecking the .alb file - I see that the paths for the photos are pointing to the original VACATION and not the new PHOTOS sub-folder. After I noticed that WAG copies the photos to the new PHOTOS sub-folder, I deleted the original photos in the VACATION folder and that's where the .alb file is looking for them. I'm going to change the paths in my .alb file and try it. I'm confident it'll work correctly now.
I'm fairly sure that other users may be doing / have done the same thing - move or delete the photos since there regenerated by WAG.
Your thoughts? -
Mark
Administrator
Posted 9 years agofdigiorgio Wrote:
Your thoughts?
This is actually a difficult problem to address, and one that I've given a lot of thought.
Ideally, the .alb file would store the photographs inside it; this would eliminate the problem altogether. However, since people may be adding dozens--even hundreds--of photos to the album, the file size would be very large (possibly in the order of hundreds of megabytes). The benefit, of course, would be that you could then delete all the photos off your hard drive and the album would still have them stored. For version 1.0, I decided the trade-off may not be worth it. I will certainly revisit this decision for future versions.
Like you mentioned, it would be possible to have the paths in the .alb file refer to the photos in the generated album (that is, in the 'Photos' subdirectory of the generated files) rather than their original locations. However, this presents two problems: Firstly, the photos in the 'Photos' folder are not originals; they may have been resized. This means if you generate the album at 640x480 and later decide you want it to be 800x600, it wouldn't be possible. Second, since an .alb file can be saved without actually generating an album, there would be no guarantee the 'Photos' folder would even exist. There are a few other technical and conceptual details that would present problems as well.
The method I chose, which is to have the .alb file refer to photos in their original location, is something I felt was between the two above alternatives.
Personally, (other than the ideal situation) I would like to better distinguish between saved albums (i.e. the .alb file) and generated albums (the HTML and subfolders). It's unfortunate that technical reasons force them to be separated when they conceptually represent the same data (from the user's perspective). -
fdigiorgio
Member
Posted 9 years agoMark - thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I have a much better understanding now of how the product works. Hopefully this will help others who may be having the same issues. Thanks again...
