Changing a JAlbum skin to generate your stock photo site – Part 8
By Harry Kaplanian
April 10, 2004
JAlbum does not automatically create the code for your buy buttons on your web pages, but you can easily modify a skin to add purchase buttons for all of your stock photos!
The PayPal code looked like this:
<![CDATA[
<form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="emailaddress@mailhost.com">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value=stockphoto name>
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value=151-5147_IMG.JPG>
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="9.99">
<input type="hidden" name="image_url" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://payloadz.com/d1/default.asp">
<input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="image" src="../../res/x-click-but22.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
<input type="hidden" name="add" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="http://payloadz.com/pay/index.asp">
<input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="handling" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="cbt" value="Continue to Download">
</form>
]]>
The only things that need to change here are the lines that contain the item name and item number. Everything else will stay the same. The change to the skin is pretty easy.
The steps are:
1. Install JAVA if its not currently installed on your computer. It can be found here.
2. Go to JAlbum and download and install JAlbum.
3. Spend some time looking over the skins and choose one you like. Screen shots are available for may of them in each skin directory. If you installed JAlbum on your C drive, the path most likely is “C:\Program Files\JAlbum”. The skins exist in the subdirectory called “skins”.
4. Make a backup copy of the skin you want to modify.
5. Make sure you have a valid PayPal Account and a PayLoadz account. If you need to signup its free. Click the following PayPal or PayLoadz for signup.
6. Assuming you want the purchase buttons to appear on the index page, open the file called “index.htt” in the skins directory. You can easily edit it using notepad.
7. Paste the above PayPal Code where ever you want the button to appear.
8. Change the two lines:
<![CDATA[
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value=stockphoto name>
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value=151-5147_IMG.JPG>
]]>
To
<![CDATA[
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value=$fileName>
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value=$label>
]]>
Note that $fileName and $label are internal variables that JAlbum uses to keep track of the photograph name and the photograph filename.
9. Save the skin.
10. Run JAlbum and make sure you select your modified skin.
If you had JAlbum automatically place the files on your website, test it! You can also test the files it created on your local computer by opening the pages in your web browser.
You can see an example of a Stock Photograph site that was partially created using JAlbum at Harry's Stock Photos. All the actual stock photo pages were created using JAlbum including the buttons that add items to the shopping cart.
You can download a sample skin with the above changes by clicking the following button:
Previous | Home | Next