Permalinks for Album Sets?

Backlight 3 Customization
#1

Probably a Matthew question, but is there any way to setup a permalink to an album set, not just to an album? I had to code an html workaround as I couldn’t find it, but creating a “bogus” album with no photos and html in the page content simulating an album set gallery links page. Permalink is:

https://www.michaelboatright.com/darkhousesatlanta

Which is the html table of thumbnails and links. Unfortunately, the album set shows up in the breadcrumbs (which I would like to keep so that people can navigate to my main page), which looks different than my page content html. Doesn’t suck, but it is a bit of a pain to maintain as I have to rework the html table every time I need to add a new album.

#2

Presently, the custom permalink feature is only available for albums.

#3

I figured that out. So much great stuff in Backlight 3, everybody want’s more, right?

So this may be a dumb question, but in the php plugins, album_top exit, is it possible to reference and load the content of the albumset that the album is part of. I realize than in the php exits, you cannot force a page reload (i.e., redirecting from the album content page to it’s parent albumset), but if there was a way to load the albumset grid, it would have the net effect (at least to the viewer of the site) of a permalink. I.e., I put a permalink on an empty album with a tag to tell me to escape it to the the parent album set.

May we end up being a recursive call or endless loop, and I’m not sure I’m even clear on what I’m asking, but then, I’m old enough to not worry about looking or sounding dumb!

Thanks!

  • album_top
  •  - if return=false, the album content is skipped

  •  - called immediately within the media area

  •  - encompasses the album grid / slideshow; can be used to replace it

  •  - encompasses the gallery grid / slideshow; can be used to replace it
#4

I don’t know how many album-set redirects you need. But if it is just a few, wouldn’t it be easier to have a php or html file in the top-level directory, or in a dedicated redirect directory, from where you load the target album-set?

The code would be something like this

<?php
   header('Location: http://www.google.com');
?>
#5

Yes, guess that would do it. I wasn’t sure if that would muck with Backlight in any way. I’m leery of messing in the affairs of dragons for I am crunchy and taste good with ketchup…

#6

Now I remember why this wouldn’t work…

Permalink: test
http:www.mysite.com/test
works fine

Put test.php to redirect in web root.
http:www.mysite.com/test
Paradox 404

#7

Ohh… how about html redirect?

<head>
  <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5; URL=https://www.google.com/" />
</head>
<body>
  <p>If you are not redirected in five seconds, <a href="https://www.google.com/">click here</a>.</p>
</body>
#8

I’ve never been a fan of HTML redirects. They’re just kludgy. What I ended up doing was replacing Backlight’s index.php with the php redirect in the directory of the “bogus” album I originally described and set the feature, “Hide from Album Set.” This works and as long as I don’t muck with the album, should be just fine, right?

#9

Just remember to never press ‘Update Album Files’! I think this would replace your modified index.php file.

#10

Or to upgrade your modules. Updating album files is often called automatically during upgrades.

#11

Thanks for the heads up. I should probably know that but the explicit reminder is helpful. I’ll put a copy of the the file in a “safe place.” Maybe the next module will include permalink support for album sets… :wink: :rofl:

#12

One other thing. On my web root .htaccess file, I have the following Rewrite statements. On ANY other well run Apache service, this would be identical to a permalink or ./darkhousesatlanta to the index.php file in the album set that I put the header redirect into. Only, on Godaddy it doesn’t do that, because, well, it’s Godaddy.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*$
RewriteRule ^darkhousesatlanta$ “https://www.michaelboatright.com/special-projects/dark-houses-atlanta/” [R=301,L]

#13

Permalinks will be available for Album Sets in the next feature update.

#14

Awesome! Thanks!