[eluser]Matt Egan[/eluser]
I'm working on my Technology Fair project, its a CI photo gallery where you'll be able to upload photos, and make comments on individual photos. I also plan it to have Albums. I've got my custom configuration files all set up, and I've got my databases laid out. But before I actually start writing my Controllers and Models, I've got a couple questions.
One.
Would I be better off just randomly creating a thumbnail for each photo, or should I have some sort of javascript that allows the user to crop and resize the photo for the thumbnail. Then it could pass the numbers onto Codeigniter's image manipulation class.
Two.
Should I even use the same size thumbnails? I think that photo galleries with unevenly sized thumbnails are pretty ugly. (I'm also looking at this from a design standpoint)
Three.
How much should the model do? I'm really kind of confused about this. Should my model actually make markup? For example, when I pull all of the photo data out of the database, then go ahead and produce some HTML then just output the created variable as a string into the View?
Four.
I'm kind of confused as to where I put my images and Css files. I've extended Derek's video tutorial to give the blog some styling and a little simple back-end administration panel. I've had success just putting the photos in a folder named static inside my Application folder, but then whenever I want to insert a photo or Css file I have to use base_url() and then add the rest of the URL. Is there any simpler way to do this, am I missing anything?
Thanks for all the help. I plan on releasing this after the tech fair, which is in a couple months, I should have a ton of time to work on it now that it's Winter Break. So, I'll put up a little demo when I feel like its ready. You guys seem really helpful, and I'm looking forward to the feedback!
