How to use a different thumbnail image to the original

[cresty]

Hi, I've searched the forum for an answer to this but have ended up with more questions than answers so any help would be most appreciated.

I have 15 galleries all containing 20+ photos and each photo has a long description. So far no problem but I need to have a different (sqaure) thumbnail image that links to a (landscape) gallery image. Is there a way I can knock out the thumb phoca creates and replace it with one I've generated myself?

A few posts I've read concern me as folks are talking about losing the descriptions when doing this, the descriptions are hours and hours of work and having to rewrite them and edit each photo again fills me with dread. Can anyone be kind enough to give me a step by step guide to doing this safely.

Thanks you.

[caro84g]

Hi,

You can replace the thumbs with your own thumbs.
Just create the thumbs yourself (with some offline software like Irfanview, Picasa, Photoshop), name them the same as phoca does. Empty the thumbs folder and upload your own created images to the thumbs folder. Right now Phoca should display your images with the descriptions.

The descriptions are stored in the database and you should be able to remove the thumbs without any problem. I can't reproduce the problem stated in the other topic (and I tried...)

To be secure: create a backup of your site with Joomlapack for example. (and backup your database, 'cause that's were the descriptions are stored in)

Regards, Carolien

[cresty]

Wow! Thank you Carolien, that was so fast, the kettle had only just boiled and already a reply, very much appreciated.

Thank you for the solution, I will try this today and see how I get on.

One more question if I may. For some strange reason on one image I managed to get the description right under the photo but don't know how I did it, every other description since then has dropped down a few lines and starts with quite a bit of space above it. As my descriptions are quite long the former option would be great if I could replicate it I just don't know how I did it!. Would it be because I input it from the front rather than the back end? I did use a different editor and wondered if that played a part?

Thanks once again.

[caro84g]

Hi,

what do you see when you go to the backend and see what the description look like when you edit the image? To determine the differences you can compare the codes in the editor. (I suspect it has something to do with a <p> tag being there)

Regards, Carolien

[cresty]

Hi,
It's as I expected to see - <p description here </p>

Regardless of the image title being shown or not there's at least 3-4 lines space before any description text starts.

Try as I might I just cannot replicate how I did it before, description text starting directly below the image

I'm using Highslide/model box, lots of white space for text under image but unfortunately many lines are being wasted above the description.
Thanks Carolien

[cresty]

Hi again,
Still struggling with replacing the thumbs, followed your instructions but the renaming is a problem. Phoca assigns a file name of phoca_thumb_l_123.jpg etc and in the same directory I have all the thumbs replicated with identical file names except the letter 'l' changes to an 'm' and an 's'.
Firstly, why are there three sets of thumbs and secondly which ones do I rename?

I've had limited succes, I managed to get the thumb image changed but then when entering the gallery it was the thumb that showed up not the main image, help!

Thanks.

EDIT: - 1 of the 2 problems solved, changed the 'large image height' to 150 under 'Images and Windows Size Settings' which effectively knocked out the space the description occupied allowing the text to bump up to just under the photo - lovely jubley.

Still struggling with the thumbs, following the instructions but something still not working.

[cresty]

Ok, problem solved!
Thought I'd jot down the steps in case anyone else had the same problem as I did, please correct anything I've put that misleads.

I needed to show in the gallery a small, square thumbnail of one side of a coin (85pxls x 85pxls) which when clicked would open up the model box to show the same coin side by side with the reverse but this time (500pxls x 300pxls). The problem I had was that when overwriting the thumbs, all large (l) medium (m) and small (s) I overwrote them with the dimensions of the main image which phoca took initially (that's the 500 x 300 size). When overwriting the thumbs with the 85 by 85 set in the global paramaters it squished my image and it all went to hell.

To overcome the problem I did not delete or overwrite the main thumb (phoca_thumb_l_123.jpg) initially created by phoca.
I created my own thumb reduced to size (85x85) and overwrote the phoca_thumb_m_123.jpg with it (this one showed up in the gallery), then did the same for the phoca_thumb_s_123.jpg (didn't have to do this just looked better in the image list window).

Hope that helps someone looking to have different, square shaped thumbs for a different landscape or portrait main image.

Thanks Carolien for you advice
Solved!

[Jan]

Hi, thank you for this information

Jan