Shozam Community

We've been going back and forth about a problem in the Quickview display for albums when using the Firefox browser.  With some themes the selected images will display one whole level below where they should...completely below the level of the album thumbnails.

Related to this (at least in my mind) was my Wish List request for a report that could be generated showing all the variables you selected for a theme in the Theme Editor.  The suggestion was offered up that I just look at the CSS files.  I'm sorry -- but that just doesn't cut it, especially for the non-programmer audience Shozam! is aimed at.  It's just too geeky a solution.  Further, it does not display the theme variables as the user sees them in the Theme Editor -- which is the whole point. My solution was to go through the Theme Editor line-by-line and variable-by-variable and build a paper worksheet for Beta 1.0.0.4.  It allows the user to list three themes on five pages -- exactly what I needed to work on this problem.

Back to the problem...I uninstalled 1.0.0.4, checked for any traces in the usual places, and then reinstalled it.  I built two galleries -- one with the customized theme I knew would present the problem, and the other with a custom theme I knew would work.  And both turned out the way I expected -- one bad and one good.

I went through each theme and recorded each variable on my worksheet and compared them side-by-side.  there were 8 different variables, and one theme used a file for the banner. Two variables were my chief suspects:

BannerBackground | ImageTiling:  "no repeat" for the bad theme.  "default" for the good theme. 

MiddleSectionBorders | VerticalWidth:  "3 pixels" for the bad theme.  "2 pixels" for the good theme.

I changed the first one to match the good theme, with no change.

I changed the vertical pixel width from 3 to 2 and the problem was solved.

To cross check I went into the good theme and changed vertical pixels from 2 to 3 and the Firefox problem occurred.  Changing it back to 2 solved the problem.

I don't know why, and I don't care.  Not my job.

It's also not my job to generate the tool I used to isolate the problem, but that's another matter.

Larry

Hi Larry ,

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you before now but I was involved with an art show  this weekend and everything else was put hold. As you know I seemed to be one of the culprits that created this Firefox problem. I have been driving myself nuts trying to solve the problem and while I have been doing print outs of the css sheets I was not able to spot those details. I had stripped almost all of my galleries back to minimal size because of Time required to upload and publish. I believe you are the one who created the adobe sheets am I correct? They didn't work for me because the field size for data was smaller than I write. If they had allowed for only one maybe two themes it might have worked. The idea was correct &  hopefully that will be something available in the production release or maybe we'll have to fend for ourselves. I will go back through my themes as do some more checking.

Ted D.:

Hi Larry ,

I believe you are the one who created the adobe sheets am I correct? They didn't work for me because the field size for data was smaller than I write. If they had allowed for only one maybe two themes it might have worked. The idea was correct &  hopefully that will be something available in the production release or maybe we'll have to fend for ourselves. I will go back through my themes as do some more checking.

Ted,

I updated the sheet this past weekend so that the space for handwriting notes is a little larger (in those fields where you make manual entries).  I find that I prefer three columns so that I can compare two themes and come up with a third.  Try downloading the revised (1.0.0.4) version.

Larry 

Larry,

I just downloaded the file and will give it a try. What do you have to create the PDF files?  Is it possible for me to edit them? I see your point in the 3 columns, but I would still like to work with just 2 for the space reasons.

Ted D.:

Larry,

I just downloaded the file and will give it a try. What do you have to create the PDF files?  Is it possible for me to edit them? I see your point in the 3 columns, but I would still like to work with just 2 for the space reasons.

Ted,

I could post the source Microsoft Word file so you could fiddle with it...It's a table that's 5 pages long.

Larry
 

Hi Larry,

If you wouldn't mind Sharing that would be great, I would appreciate it. I can tell that you put o lot of thought & time into this.

Larry,

I am sorry for the frustrating experience you've had. The layout was originally designed to maximize screen real estate and to fit within a pixel of accuracy. I didn't realize the borders were modified when the issue was originally flagged but now that you mention the cause, I am not surprised. Thicker borders will simply not allow a Medium image and the Thumbnails to fit side by side.

We'll look into locking the border values to just 0,1 or 2 pixels. The goal for the Theme Editor was to provide a *safe* sandbox where users can play with the various settings and not do too much "damage" that is hard to figure out, like it happened with the slightly thicker borders messing up completely the layout. Providing additional worksheets and printouts of the various settings is beyond the scope of the design for this version.

I can certainly see the use for such a feature targetting theme designers and we'll take a look at how to best implement it into a future version. We do plan to create a thriving Theme Marketplace where designers can create themes, share them and even sell them. With that scenario in mind, we will focus on new features which will make it easy and efficient to design themes. The feature you suggest falls in that category and it will be addressed at that time.

In the interim, I appreciate your understanding for our need to triage features and prioritize our efforts.

Razvan, 

Aw shucks...It was a little frustrating, but it did help point out how a small, mundane thing like a border line width can make a difference.  I was probably at the "Grrrrrr" stage when I "figured" it out.  But even then I couldn't be sure that the change from 2 to 3 pixels was really the culprit, or was just a catalyst or indicator...I just knew what I had to do to solve my problem.

For my part, I'm going to keep making and posting my worksheets (unless you want to go ahead and take over that project), but will be extra alert for changes down the line where you've reduced the pixel width options.  And I guess that also means that you will need to reduce the line style options (kinda hard to do a double line with only 2 pixels .)

Managing the real estate -- keeping the area for image display as large as possible within the 800 x 600 limits -- is obviously tougher than it first appears, especially when you want to offer good navigation and and an attractive appearance -- while satisfying a number of browsers.

At this time I forget whether I'm supposed to say "No harm, no foul", or "Fake an injury."  

Larry 

Larry,

We posted a new version which limits borders. Hopefully this will save others from going through the frustration. Your attention to detail was instrumental in identifying the culprit so we can provide a fix - thanks.

http://community.shozam.com/forums/thread/1048.aspx

Razvan Neagu:

Larry,

We posted a new version which limits borders. Hopefully this will save others from going through the frustration. Your attention to detail was instrumental in identifying the culprit so we can provide a fix - thanks.

http://community.shozam.com/forums/thread/1048.aspx

Razvan,

I took a quick look at the Theme Editor this morning so I could begin updating my worksheet.  I saw the Vertical Line and Thumbnail changes to both the line width and unit.  My guess is that you should also consider changing the line styles.  Some of those are no longer possible with a width of only two pixels, and I have no idea what would happen if a person were to invoke those variables.

Another thing I haven't played with are the units for a some of the other lines.  Do we really need all those units, or could people get the job done with fewer choices.  In some of the other choices, such as ActiveLinkBorder - where my width is 1, 2, 3, or 4 -- do I really need a choice of Pixels, Points, Picas, Inches, Millimeters, and Centimeters?  And do I really need those same units for Font Size 

Currently, we generally expose all (or most) of the "legal" HTML/CSS values for styles and units. In future updates to Shozam we will refine the Theme Editor to streamline choices available. Our priority for now is to ensure the layout design doesn't "break down". With time we will make refinements and trade-offs to optimize workflow and clarity.