Chapter 1. Introduction

This document describes how to create new web page templates for NeoPhoto(tm).

THIS IS A ROUGH DRAFT.

1.1. About Neophoto

NeoPhoto(tm) is a Microsoft Windows(tm) desktop application that makes it easy to build digital photo albums and share them with family and friends. With it you can quickly organize countless digital photos into albums. You can rotate, resize and crop your photos and also add titles and captions. It takes the tedium out of organizing and sharing your digital photos.

For more information about NeoPhoto(tm) please visit our website at NeoPhoto.com.

Figure 1-1. NeoPhoto

A key feature of NeoPhoto(tm) is that it can create webpages from your photo albums. These pages can be put on a webserver to form an online photo gallery. NeoPhoto can create these online photo galleries in a number of different web page themes.

Figure 1-2. The web page templates included with NeoPhoto(tm)

When creating webpages in a given theme NeoPhoto(tm) automatically

generates all the HTML
resizes the photos
creates the thumbnails
creates index pages
adds next and previous buttons
adds page indeces
formats captions, titles, and graphics
links all these elements together.

All this is accomplished by a powerful template language built into the software. Each theme has a corresponding “template file” that contains instructions describing how NeoPhoto(tm) should create webpages in that theme.

These template files are simple text files written in an HTML-like language called the NeoPhoto Template Language. This template language can be used to create just about any kind of web photo gallery one might want. If you are familliar with HTML, you can create your own templates and make them available to your users from the Select Template Dialog in the software.

When designing the NeoPhoto(tm) Template Language we placed our emphasis on flexibility and expressiveness somewhat at the expense of simplicity. As a result learning to create your own templates is a bit more involved but you'll be able to create a much wider range of themes than you could with a simpler language.