HelpConsole 2008 SP1

Shozam generates in essence a self-contained Web site. You can integrate it by simply placing a link from your Web site pointing to the main gallery intro page.

If you have an existing site, it is recommended to upload the gallery in a separate Sub-directory, so the gallery files do not mix (or overwrite) your existing Web site files. You can create a new directory on your server and upload the gallery files in there by simply entering a Sub-directory name in the FTP upload preset.

You would then link from your Web site to http://www.mydomain.com/gallery/index.htm. This example link assumes your Web site is at "www.mydomain.com" and you have uploaded the gallery in a Sub-directory called "gallery". You can open the gallery into a new browser window or in the same window.

To integrate with your Web site's navigation (particularly important if you open the gallery within the same browser window), you can create a link in your gallery pointing back to your Web site. You can create links in Step 5, on the Link Tab. For even tighter integration, you can use the Theme Customization features in Step 4 to make the gallery have the same "look and feel" as the rest of your site. If you have a navigation bar that you use on your Web site, you can also place it on all your gallery pages by using the HTML Tab in Step 5.

How do I open my gallery into a new browser window?

If you have an existing site, you may want to open the gallery into a new window. This way viewers can just close that window when they are finished viewing the gallery and they will then see the previous browser window still showing the main Web site. Here is the HTML syntax for a regular link:

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery">my originalAttribute="href" originalAttribute="href" originalPath="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery">my originalAttribute="href" originalAttribute="href" originalPath="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery">my originalAttribute="href" originalAttribute="href" originalPath="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery">my originalAttribute="href" originalPath=""http://www.mydomain.com/gallery">my" gallery</a>

The link above is displayed as "my gallery" and will link to a gallery that was uploaded to www.mydomain.com in a subdirectory called "gallery". To have the link appear in a new window, you will need to specify a "target" for your link, telling the Web browser that the link should be opened in a new Web browser window:

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery" originalAttribute="href" originalPath="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery" originalAttribute="href" originalPath="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery" originalAttribute="href" originalPath="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery" originalAttribute="href" originalPath="http://www.mydomain.com/gallery" target="_blank">my gallery</a>

How do I put the gallery in another Web page?

You will need to use HTML FRAMES to do this. A frameset looks like one page in the Web browser but it is actually created by a number of adjacent "frames", each pointing to a different page, so it displays the content of that page. So different rectangular regions of the page will display content from different Web pages. One of the frames can point to your gallery and another can show a menu for your Web site. We generally do not recommend frame structures; it is "old technology" and it does not work well with search engines. However, frames do offer advantages which are hard to be obtained otherwise. For example, if you want to have continuous background audio throughout the gallery, audio which would not get interrupted when the user moves from one gallery page to another, you can place the audio source in another frame. As long as the frame with the audio does not change, the viewer can navigate the whole gallery (displayed in its own frame) and the audio will not get interrupted. Also, if your have an existing Web site and it already uses frames, that may be another reason to keep using frames when you integrate the Shozam gallery with the existing Web site.

You can also display the gallery in the middle of your page, by using IFRAME (inline frame). This structure does not require a frame to go all the way to the edge of the window, rather it allows a frame to "float" in the middle of the page. Note however that IFRAMES have specific dimensions so longer gallery pages will make scrollbars appear. You can prevent "longer" pages in Step 5 --> Label Tab by checking the "Hide" option for the Index and Details All pages (which are generally long). Here is some sample code:

<div align="center"><iframe align="center" src="http://my.shozam.com/examples/yellowstone/index.htm" name="shozam-gallery" originalAttribute="src" originalPath="http://my.shozam.com/examples/yellowstone/index.htm" name="shozam-gallery" originalAttribute="src" originalPath="http://my.shozam.com/examples/yellowstone/index.htm" name="shozam-gallery" width="790px" height="820px" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>

Or, to avoid unnecessary scrollbars:

<div align="center"><iframe align="center" src="http://my.shozam.com/examples/yellowstone/index.htm" name="shozam-gallery" originalAttribute="src" originalPath="http://my.shozam.com/examples/yellowstone/index.htm" name="shozam-gallery" originalAttribute="src" originalPath="http://my.shozam.com/examples/yellowstone/index.htm" name="shozam-gallery" width="100%" height="3000" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>

Note that using HTML FRAMES/IFRAMES may be somewhat easier to implement but are generally not recommended. Some of the drawbacks of framesets are related to not being friendly to search engines and their inability to provide specific Web addresses (URLs) to each page displayed. Best results are achieved by placing your Web site's top banner and navigation HTML code in Step 5 --> HTML Tab. This will place your Web site's top banner, navigation and graphic elements on each page generated by Shozam.

How do I password-protect albums?

Password protection is a function of the Web server; it is not controlled by the program or the gallery files it generates. Your Web host can advise you on how to set permissions on various folders on your Web server. However, since the gallery pages are tightly cross-linked, our recommendation is to create whole galleries that are either public or private. To make a gallery private, set password protection for the Web folder containing your gallery on the server.

How do I move galleries from one computer to another?

This question may come up in the following scenarios:

You are a Web designer who creates galleries others, and you need to send completed galleries to someone else
You bought a new computer to replace your old one, so you need to move the Shozam program, the galleries and your images to your new computer
You use a desktop computer and a laptop; you may want to use both to operate on the same gallery online

There are a number of solutions for each of the scenarios above. To determine what is right for you, it is best to understand how Shozam works. All the input you enter in Shozam when you create a gallery is captured and stored in a gallery project file named WebGallery.xml. This file is created by Shozam in the root of your gallery folder, which by default looks like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Shozam Galleries\[Gallery Title]/WebGallery.xml

This xml file includes the paths of all the images you add to your gallery, image captions, album descriptions and all other options and settings that you enter in the program when you create your gallery. The xml file is created the first time you generate the gallery and is updated each time you modify your gallery. In Step 1, if you choose to modify an existing gallery, you basically need to point Shozam to the folder that contains the existing gallery. The program then looks for the xml file and needs to be able to validate it and read it in order for you to be able to advance to the next step and modify your gallery.

The xml file contains several important references which need to be correct in order for the program to validate it as a Shozam gallery project file. You can open this file in Notepad and see some of those references. Here is an example of the pertinent information which can be found in the xml file (additional information in the file that is not relevant for this discussion has been removed):

<data version="1.1.0.19">
<WebInfo>
    <Folder>C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Shozam Galleries</Folder>
    <Theme>0</Theme>
    <GenAdvOpt>0</GenAdvOpt>
    <AlbumNameSeed>1</AlbumNameSeed>
    <ThemeFolder>C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Shozam Themes\[Custom Theme Name]</ThemeFolder>
    <ThemeName>[Custom Theme Name]</ThemeName>
    <WebName>[Gallery Title]</WebName>
</WebInfo>
<album>
    <info>
      <albumpage>1</albumpage>
      <albumimagepath>C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Pictures\8957ae.jpg</albumimagepath>
    </info>
    <group>
      <picture>
        <name>C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Pictures\8957ae.jpg</name>
      </picture>
      <picture>
        <name>C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Pictures\B2_07.jpg</name>
      </picture>
      <picture>
        <name>C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Pictures\B2_03.jpg</name>
      </picture>
      <picture>
        <name>C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Documents\My Pictures\B2_04.jpg</name>
      </picture>
    </group>
</album>
</data>

NOTE: As a convention, we are placing variables in square brackets and italics; so, for example, when you see [User Name] in a path above and the name for your Windows user account is John Doe, then you should have that name instead. So your My Documents folder path will be C:\Documents and Settings\John Doe\My Documents

As you can see highlighted above, the xml file contains references to the folder containing the gallery folder, the folder containing the custom theme (if a custom theme is used) and the paths for each image used. For Shozam to be able to open and edit an existing gallery, it needs to ensure that at least the first two are valid.

So, if you want to be able to edit on a new computer a gallery that was generated using an old computer, here are the general steps you should take:

Install Shozam on the new computer.
Copy the gallery(ies) from the old computer to the same relative location on the new computer; so if the gallery files resided in My Documents\My Shozam Galleries\[Gallery Title] , copy the [Gallery Title] folder and paste it in My Documents\My Shozam Galleries on your new computer. If the new computer is used by another user, then you will need to edit the xml file and replace [User Name] with the correct one.
Copy the custom theme(s) from the old computer to the same relative location on the new computer; so if your themes resided in My Documents\My Shozam Galleries Themes\[Custom Theme Name], copy the whole My Shozam Themes folder (or just the themes you want) and paste it in the same relative location on your new computer. As above, make sure the new path is the same as the old path and if not, edit the xml file accordingly.
Do the same for all images. Note that this is optional. It is not critical for Shozam to find the original images at the location from where they were originally added into the program (and captured in the xml file.) This is because if Shozam does not find the original at that location, it will then use the image it has previously generated and that is already part of the gallery files. However, it is important to understand that if the program does not find the original images, it will not be able to perform certain functions such as change the level of compression or place watermarks on the images. All image processing features require the program to be able to access the "original" images, at the location from where they were originally added from.

How do I move a gallery with a custom theme from one computer to another?

These instructions assume that the Shozam gallery folder and the customised theme folder ( from C:\[...]\My Documents\My Shozam Themes\[CUSTOM THEME NAME]) have both been copied to a USB drive or or other removable media for transfer to the new computer. When this has been done:

Install Shozam on new computer.
Copy your Shozam gallery folder to a location of your choice on the new computer.
Run Shozam, select Modify an existing Web gallery, navigate to your gallery folder and then click Next .
At this point a message will appear saying the specified theme is not available and a default theme will be used. The gallery will open using a default theme.
Click Next and then Next again to take you to Step 4 (Themes).
Then click Customize.
Click Save As and enter any name in the box (e.g. test). This can be deleted later.
Click the Edit Theme dropdown list. You should see the theme test at the bottom of the list.
Minimize Shozam
Copy your [CUSTOM THEME NAME] folder to the My Shozam Themes folder on the new computer - (C:\[...]\My Documents\My Shozam Themes\[CUSTOM THEME NAME])
Maximize Shozam, Click the Edit Theme dropdown list and select your [CUSTOM THEME NAME] from the bottom of the list. This will then be applied to the gallery.
Continue with Shozam as normal - your custom theme will now be applied to your gallery on the new computer

Based on instructions courtesy of PaulBundy (http://www.paulbundy.com/).

Why are images cut off in the intro animation?

ISSUE:

You have "portrait" oriented images and they look poorly cropped in the gallery intro animation.

SOLUTION:

In Step 3 --> Options tab: Uncheck "Force crop" option for the intro animation album

SIDE EFFECT:

Depending on the theme you chose, the uncropped images may not have a custom fit in the intro animation.

REMEDIES:

Crop your images but control how your images are cropped; select the album used for the intro animation and click Modify album pages (on General tab in Step 3) and then, on the Other tab in Step 2, select an appropriate crop option for each image individually.

In Step 4 --> General tab: Choose another theme, such as Trio-BurntGold, that is not impacted by the orientation of the images

In Step 4 --> Customize tab --> Intro Flash Animation (on the left) --> ImageFile: Delete the path for the graphic used for the intro animation background. Or, if you want to be more creative, you can pick a custom graphic of your own choosing, edited or created outside of Shozam).

What settings for fastest workflow with highest quality images?

If you want to use an image editing program to optimize your images and speed processing in Shozam, consider doing the following:

Check images are in sRGB color space (convert from Adobe RGB if need be)
Resize to w=753px x h=565px (this is the largest image size used in standard layouts for Large Pages) unless you want to use the "Source image" option on the Other tab in Step 2 (in which case you would resize them to whatever dimension you want to use for the Source image.
Sharpen images
Save with a very high quality JPG setting (low compression)
Import images in Shozam
Set image quality in Shozam at 70 or 80. Test out what works best for you in terms of quality vs. file size (which affect download speed)

This workflow offers the following advantages:

Ensures your images show more consistently with the correct coloration on various montitors/browsers (ensured by sRGB)
Faster Shozam processing since input files are smaller and large images do not have to be resized at all
Better quality images since the large images will retain your custom sharpening (since they do not get resized)

Currently, the Large images are still going through the JPG codec and saved at the quality settings specified in Shozam even if the image does not need to be scaled down.

What is a Widget?

A Web widget (also called an online widget) is basically a standalone "section" that can be embedded in any web page, such as your personal blog, a MySpace page, an eBay auction page or an online store pages. The widget usually resides in a rectangular area on the page and its behavior is independent of other sections from the page. Online widgets embedded in a page can be viewed by simply opening that page in the browser.

A Video widget is a Web widget which mainly plays video. YouTube is currently the primary provider of Video widgets. It allows users to easily and reliably convert their videos into a Web friendly format that can be embedded in Web pages.

Can I create a gallery with fewer page views?

You can create a more simplified gallery with "fewer" pages by hiding gallery navigation labels. In the Step 5: Manage Gallery, Label tab, just check the Hide box next to the label you want to hide, and the label(s) will not display in your generated gallery.

Why won't my video play locally on my computer?

Video files will not playback in the generated gallery on your local computer. You will need to upload your gallery files before videos will play. This is due to Web browser security settings. For more information, see About video.