Put Your Pictures On The Web
You've got pictures you want to share with your friends and family. They are
digital images, and you can email them - if you want to flood everyone's inbox
with a bunch of big files. You can burn a CD and mail it to everyone you
think would like to have a copy - if you want to go through the time and
expense of creating the CDs, buying packing and postage, and waiting for
delivery.
It seems like there has to be a better way to share your pictures, though -
and there is: Put them on a Web page, and email a link (URL) to the people you
want to share them with so they can view them with their Web browser, at their
convenience.
One problem, however, is that building a Web page full of pictures that loads
quickly over any Internet connection takes a lot of work, and can be prone to
error. Again, there is a solution:
ThmIndxrTM (pronounced "thumb indexer") is a Windows
application that was written specifically to simplify the process of creating
"index" pages for collections of digital images. Whether you're a novice
computer user or a seasoned Web professional, you'll find ThmIndxrTM is a useful tool that can help you quickly produce the Web pages
needed to display your pictures. Simple enough for a beginner, yet with a
sufficiently wide range of adjustable parameters to keep a "power user" happy,
ThmIndxrTM meets the needs of a broad community of users.
ThmIndxrTM automatically writes all of the HTML code required
for building a Web page, and creates the thumbnail images that are a key part
of building a page that will load quickly. The pages it builds are compatible
with any hosting solution: Whether you use a free service such as GeoCities or
MSN, or have your own Web site, displaying your image collections with pages
produced by ThmIndxrTM is a simple task: After running ThmIndxrTM, all you have to do is load the HTML file, the thumbnail
directories, and your original images onto your server. After doing so, you
can immediately either publish the URL where you installed your new pages, or
provide link(s) from your existing pages: As soon as the pages ThmIndxrTM creates are loaded onto the server, they are "ready to go."
The next release of ThmIndxrTM is
planned for fourth quarter 2004, and will include creation of
slide show pages, creation of intermediate-size images
for high-resolution originals (an important feature if you're working with
a 3+ megapixel digital camera), and support for arbitrary
caption text. (For hints about the updated user interface, which show the
new options that will be available for controlling ThmIndxrTM's
operation, check out the TixrCmd User Interface and TixrCfg User Interface pages.)
Registered users will be entitled to a free upgrade when the new version
is released. Avoid the registration fee increase by
registering your copy today!
ThmIndxrTM is a powerful, flexible HTML table generation tool.
It is used to automatically create thumbnail index pages for collections of
image files. The pages it produces are designed to load quickly and give the
surfing browser a rapid indication of what they contain.
Unlike general-purpose page layout tools, ThmIndxrTM is
optimized for creation of thumbnail image table pages. The HTML code it
generates is clearly understandable and automatically produces balanced table
rows, even when there are an incomplete set of images to fill the final row.
In addition, ThmIndxrTM does something no ordinary page layout
tool can claim to accomplish: It creates the actual thumbnail images
needed to speed delivery of your index pages across the Web. Rather than
sending the full-size graphic images, which would then be resized by the
surfer's browser (further adding to the time it takes a page to load), the
pages ThmIndxrTM produces utilize the thumbnail images that it
creates during page construction. Since the thumbnail images are typically
between 1/10 and 1/100 the size of the full image, your pages
are perceived as being dramatically faster in loading.
Whether you're maintaining a graphic-intensive Web site with thousands of
pictures in the collection, or just have a page with a few pictures you'd like
to update once in a while, ThmIndxrTM can simplify the task and
save hours of time.
If you are producing a CD-ROM collection of images, you will also want to
consider ThmIndxrTM for development, rather than shipping a
"slide show" program: By installing HTML pages in each of the directories on
your disc, you will be practically guaranteed it will be usable on nearly any
computer or operating system your users are running: Anyone with a Web browser
(practically everyone with a computer) will be able to access your collection
with their existing software. How's that for cross-platform compatibility!
ThmIndxrTM was run on a 133 MHz Pentium system using Windows NT
3.51 with a small MPEG movie being displayed when it produced the sample pages
on this site. Faster systems, obviously, will get better results.
Most of ThmIndxrTM's features are controlled through the
configuration and command files, which give it an amazing level of
adaptability. Nearly every aspect of the HTML page that is produced can be
adjusted to meet your needs. On the other hand, if you do nothing more than
define the title string for your page on the command line, the program will
produce a reasonable HTML file that can be used as is.
The current version of ThmIndxrTM is
shareware,
with a registration fee of only $49. For that bargain price, you'll be
receiving the results of well more than 1000 hours of development effort -
over 59,000 lines of code written directly into this application and its
supporting utilities. Download a copy,
try it out, then send in the registration
fee (or use the convenient online registration
form) if you decide the program meets your needs: You are only obligated
to pay the registration fee if you use the program to build pages that
you publish on a Web site, a CD-ROM, or any other electronic
media. However, in the spirit of shareware, if you use ThmIndxrTM for personal entertainment on your own machine, on a regular
basis, you should send the fee in as well.
ThmIndxrTM is a "console" (text mode) application, and its
configuration and command files are plain ASCII text. For a power user, this
provides the maximum level of control and operational flexibility. It can
also be confusing for the average user, so the ThmIndxrTMpackage includes a set of dialog-based utilities. These can be used to edit
the ThmIndxrTM control files as needed, and to set up the
correct command line to run the program. With the dialog graphical user
interface, even novice users can easily harness the power offered by ThmIndxrTM.
ThmIndxrTM was written and originally tested under Windows NT
3.51. It has also been tested under Windows95, Windows98, Windows NT 4.0, and
Windows 2000 Server. It should operate just as happily in these or any later
32-bit versions of Windows. The program can be run quietly in a minimized
window, or executed with an informative display that shows its progress as
each image is read, processed, and added to the output page.
ThmIndxrTM, its supporting utilities and their Help files, and
the program documentation were written by
Fred
Koschara.
Libraries used by
ThmIndxrTM
ChrWndow.lib |
|
Copyright 1989-2002 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
DOS_IF.lib |
|
Copyright 1986-2003 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
FKETrees.lib |
|
Copyright 1996-2003 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
General.lib |
|
Copyright 1991-2003 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
ImgTools.lib |
|
Copyright 1992-2003 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
IniFiles.lib |
|
Copyright 1996-2002 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
NTIO.lib |
|
Copyright 1996-2002 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
Strings.lib |
|
Copyright 1991-2003 by FKE, L5 Software. |
|
All rights reserved |
ThmIndxrTM is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG
Group.
The Graphics Interchange Format is Copyright by CompuServe Incorporated.
GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated.
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Download sites where ThmIndxrTM is listed
Status & Availability
ThmIndxrTM version 01.22 is available NOW !!
ThmIndxrTM is shareware, so please, feel free to download a copy and try
it out. It won't cost you anything more than the time you need to evaluate
the program. You will be pleasantly surprised at the power and flexibility it
offers. If you are in the business of creating Web pages, this is a tool you
can't afford to work without. Even if you only occasionally put together an
image index, the time you save will easily justify the small cost of
registering your copy of the program. Once you've tried ThmIndxrTM, you can register your copy with our convenient online registration form, and charge your credit card,
if you wish. A table explaining the pricing
options is included on the ThmIndxrTM license page.
This beta software is provided "as is" and cannot be guaranteed to perform
exactly as it is expected to. However, L5 Software is making this program
suite available with the intent of fixing any bugs that are reported. When
the production version is released, ThmIndxrTM will be
guaranteed to perform substantially as is described in its documentation, and
on its Web page.
Please report bugs
<-- (Click here)
Although we strive to test ThmIndxrTM thoroughly to insure it
operates correctly, there are limitations on the process. As a result, bugs
do occasionally get past us, and into the field where users find them, instead
of the development team. ThmIndxrTM is guaranteed to perform
as is described in its manual, and in the online documentation. In order to
honor that guarantee, we need to know about any bugs you find so they
can be corrected. If you do find a bug, please use our
Bug Report Form to let us know, no matter how
trivial it may seem to you: We want this program, and its supporting files,
right!
We are also willing to accept suggestions for improvements or requests for
additional enhancements. If you have an idea, feel free to fill out and
submit our Suggestion Form to send it to us.
ThmIndxrTM Version 01.22 (beta)
The following updates are included in the ThmIndxrTM version
01.22 beta release:
- New features:
- ThmIndxrTM has been upgraded with recursive
directory processing, and the TixrCfg and TixrCmd utilities have
been modified to support the new functionality.
- TxLaunch, TixrCfg and TixrCmd now remember their most recently
used files.
- TxLaunch, TixrCfg and TixrCmd can now remember their main window's
positions.
- TxLaunch, TixrCfg and TixrCmd support files dropped onto their
open windows or icons.
- A status bar and keyboard accelerators for file menu items have
been added to TxLaunch.
- TxLaunch modifies control colors when changes have been made.
- Enhancements:
- A 32-bit installation is now used, allowing long filenames in the
directory name where ThmIndxrTM is installed, and
supporting more automatic deinstallation.
- An icon has been added to the ThmIndxr.exe file.
- The directory picker used in the GUI utilities now starts in the
current directory, rather than at the Windows desktop.
- The Registry keys used by ThmIndxrTM and its
utilities have been moved from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive to the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive. Therefore, Administrator rights are no
longer required to install ThmIndxrTM on Windows
NT/2000.
- TixrCmd uses a tabbed property page dialog for its settings,
rather than individual dialogs called up by buttons from the main
window.
- TixrCfg no longer hides its main window when child dialogs are
displayed.
- TixrCmd and TixrCfg convert filespec components passed on the
command line from 8.3 format to long names. This makes dialog
titles less cryptic.
- TixrCfg now defaults image name case processing to "keep case",
rather than "force lower".
- TixrCmd doesn't ask to save changes if none made.
- TixrCmd only enables the sort radiobuttons in the list pages if
there is more than one image.
- The OK button is disabled in TixrCmd until a title is set.
- TxLaunch has an active link to L5Development.com in its About box.
- The utilities now use the current directory as the default
location for saving or opening files under "NT 5.0" and Windows98,
rather than in the "My Documents" folder. This update was
necessitated by Microsoft's changing the way FileOpen handling is
performed.
- Bug fixes:
- Directory selection bugs reported by users in TxLaunch have been
fixed.
- Invalid URL and address information has been removed from ThmIndxrTM and its utilities. ThmIndxrTM now writes the correct URL for L5Sofware.com to the HTML pages it
creates.
- Filenames passed to spawned programs are quoted to support long
filenames.
- Additional checks have been put in place for NULL pointers which
could crash ThmIndxrTM or its utilities.
- TixrCfg was not setting the default ".cfg" extension. This was
fixed.
- TixrCmd now correctly sets the current directory after reading a
file.
ThmIndxrTM Version 01.21 (beta)
The following updates are included in the ThmIndxrTM version
01.21 beta release:
- New features:
- The HTML 3.2 prologue is now written at the start of created pages.
- Pre- and post-processing support is now available through TixrCfg
for both command file sets, and individual images.
- Enhancements:
- The bDirAsTitle and bInheritCmd defaults have been changed to TRUE.
- Separate background image case correction controls have been
provided.
- Extra dialog initialization steps have been eliminated in the
utilities to improve performance.
- A system call was added to the error exit code to insure the log
file is written to disk.
- ThmIndxrTM version information is written when
starting the log file.
- More visual separation is provided between the ThmIndxrTM home link in the footer and the rest of the HTML
page.
- The click prompt text is now additive.
- "Exit on Go" and "minimize on Go" support have been added to
TxLaunch.
- More information is provided in the About ThmIndxrTM dialogs in TxLaunch.
- The positions of the height and width editfields have been
switched in the TixrCmd Table Properties dialog.
- The multiline editfields in TixrCmd now accept "Enter" to start a
new line rather than requiring "Ctrl+Enter."
- Bug fixes:
- An extra paragraph mark was being inserted after adding the link
lists.
- The banner LOWSRC image was not being properly addressed in the
HTML code.
- An unhandled exception occurred if there was only one subdirectory
in the Add or Ignore file lists.
- The word wrap feature for the HTML code was not working properly.
- The default text for the click prompt incorrectly included spacing
codes.
- Some subdirectories were not processed when sorting changed the
list order.
- Pre- and post-processing would only work with batch files.
Arbitrarily complex command lines can now be used.
- LOWSRC images were not created if the target is smaller than the
thumbnail maximum size (when the target image is used as the
thumbnail).
- An unhandled exception occurred when "write all settings to file"
was selected in TixrCfg. (Thanks to Klaus Allerman for reporting
this.)
- Path separator insertion was not using the selected character when
building subdirectory URLs.
- Case correction was not being done before building thumbnails and
LOWSRCs.
- TxLaunch was not setting the current directory properly.
- TxLaunch was not telling ThmIndxrTM to not write a
log file when the log file field was emtpy in both the TxLaunch
and TixrCfg dialogs.
- The current directory display could not scroll to show long paths.
- TixrCmd was improperly inserting the default click prompt even
when a different string was supplied in the command file.
ThmIndxrTM Version 01.20 (beta)
The following updates are included in the ThmIndxrTM version
01.20 beta release:
- Design checks and changes:
- ThmIndxrTM and its utilities have been verified for
Y2K compliance: Any date information in the program includes a
four digit year, so there will be no problem due to
misinterpreting "00" as "1900."
- The DirLowsrc, DirThumbnail selections were moved from command
files to configuration files.
- New features:
- ThmIndxrTM now supports a configurable "click a
thumbnail" prompt.
- ThmIndxrTM supports the option of erasing the
LOWSRC and thumbnails when it is started.
- ThmIndxrTM supports selecting adding links at the
top or bottom of the page.
- ThmIndxrTM includes a configurable limit for table
cell width to reduce page formatting errors, such as when long
filename are used.
- ThmIndxrTM now includes the version 6B JPEG code,
including support for progressive JPEG images.
- ThmIndxrTM will optionally show the color depth for
images in the HTML page.
- ThmIndxrTM can be configured to show file sizes as
either bytes or Kbytes.
- ThmIndxrTM now checks for missing thumbnails if the
"Have Thumbnails" option is asserted. This is slower when first
building a page, but reduces problems associated with missing
thumbnails when rebuilding.
- ThmIndxrTM can be set to break large directories
into multiple linked pages.
- ThmIndxrTM supports recursive directory processing:
- command files in recursed directories
- subdirectory icons
- stop file
- halt at level of recursion
- process command files in recursed directories
- support command environment inheritance
- get the subdirectory's title string from its command file
- optionally use the directory name as the page title
- support including icons representing subdirectories in the
HTML page
- retrieve icon from subdirectory command file
- use a configurable default icon if none supplied
- stop at specified file option
- halt at level of recursion option
- stop if no command file option
- create an advisory HTML page if the child directory is
empty
- ThmIndxrTM includes the total number of files being
processed with the count showing which file it is processing.
- The configuration and command confirmation screens were updated to
provide more information about the settings in effect for the
program run.
- A directory picker is used in the utilities to select the input
directory, rather than a File Open dialog, to provide more
intuitive operation.
- Menus were added to each of the utilities for access to additional
windows that were previously accessed through dialog buttons.
- Each of the utilities now has a "Settings" dialog that saves
operating parameters for the program in the Windows Registry.
- The utilities include an option to write all settings, including
default values, to the command, configuration, or setup file being
created.
- The utilities now have "File/New" and "File/Exit" options.
- Tool Tip support has been added to the utility dialogs.
- TxLaunch updates:
- system information has been added to the About box
- an "About ThmIndxr" dialog has been added
- notifications when child strings override dialog settings
- TixrCmd updates:
- color inherited variables' labels red
- color picker dialog
- background, banner, and image preview support
- folded Edit menu option
- recursion parent page ("trunk") link inclusion controls
- home page link controls to turn inclusion on and off
- sort checkbox in add/ignore list views
- add "ancestors" link control
- apply sort in add/ignore list views when images are added
- don't write a "Title String" entry if none is supplied and
"directory name as title" is selected
- "directory" label in table control
- directory picker for changing current directory
- TixrCfg updates:
- support recursion stop file selection
- support default subdirectory icon selection
- support halt at level of recursion option
- Bug fixes:
- Empty entry strings in the command and configuration files were not
being handled properly. This has been fixed.
- ThmIndxrTM was using the maximum thumbnail
dimensions for images smaller than the specified maximum size.
The thumbnails are no longer expanded.
- Don't always use .GIF as the thumbnail extension if "Have
Thumbnails" is asserted.
- The "sort by extension" option was using the first extension
found, rather than the last one. This has been corrected.
- ThmIndxrTM was incorrectly writing a
fully-qualified path name for the banner image to the HTML page.
It now only includes a relative path.
The beta release of ThmIndxrTM and its utilities does
NOT include an update to the manual or the Help system.
These will be incorporated, along with any bug fixes resulting from the beta
test program, when the final version is released.
Due to the substantial work involved in creating the new release of ThmIndxrTM and its utilities, we will be forced to increase the
registration fee for the program when the final version is released. If you
want to use ThmIndxrTM to build Web pages, we therefore are
strongly encouraging you to register your
copy today, to avoid the coming price increase.
Pending Updates
The following work items remain in the ThmIndxrTM development
program. These features are enhancements that will be available in future
versions of the program. Please feel free to send
email if you think one of these
items should have higher priority than its position on the list indicates.
- version 01.30
- property-page dialog interface
- status bar support in utilities
- create slide show pages for full-size images
- support for arbitrary image caption text
- create intermediate-size images for high-resolution originals
- replace spaces in filenames with underscores ('_')
- "stop at directory" recursion control (e.g., "_vti*" on IIS servers)
- write operating statistics to output HTML page
- detect & handle multiple source images with same base filename
- automatically recognize previous registered versions
- port to other operating systems
- Macintosh
- Linux/Unix
- OS/2
- translation to other languages
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Group,
a private enterprise space exploration and development effort.
Visit The L5 Development
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Last modified October 14, 2004 @ 7:30 am
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