Incorporating coin photo galleries into hand written web sites

I didn’t want to hijack the thread created by @Orfew relating to his own web site, so I will take the opportunity here to respond to a comment/question posed by a participant in that thread:

@philologus_1 wrote:

“My new, little, fledgling website utilizes Wordpress, and as a result it is also quite blog-like. My experience is that a template is necessary, and as soon as you choose a template you are pretty much boxed-in as far as formatting/expansion possibilities (such as for instance the addition of a gallery that links via clicking an image in the gallery to the individual coin's information page). Although I would love to include a gallery on mine, it just does not seem to be a possibility because I lack both the knowledge/skills/experience/time to design and code a website from scratch, and the big buck$ it seems to take to pay someone to do it.”

As with all web pages written using HTML/CSS there are many ways to “skin a cat” in doing what you want to do.

First, if you employ Style Sheets you do not have to concern yourself too much about making a template - just rough sketch .what you want your page(s) to look like, then write the appropriate CSS code. It is then easy to tweak it to accomplish the layout. You can change the structure, style, coloration , etc. anytime to suit your taste - I use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) in writing my own web pages - just remember that quality and reliability of content is king (people don’t visit web pages to admire how they look, but for the information they provide).

And do not pay “big bucks” to anyone to learn how to do all that - I will be glad to guide/tutor you for free via PM - just, let me know, but it should be quick - I do not know how much longer I will be able to do this.

I extracted one of my web sites that includes a simple coin photo image gallery from archive (you can see it is several years old) as an example. All the links are clickable. I have checked the page function and navigation in the Safari and Firefox graphical Browsers on my IPad (that is all I have available now) - I do not know about function in other Browsers). It requires some patience in using the links for navigation - retrieval from archive via Wayback is slow.

Archived page that includes simple coin photo image gallery:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170426124947/http://jp29.org/cdir.htm


James

 

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http://images.mrbrklyn.com/coins/
https://metacpan.org/pod/Apache::Gallery

 

https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/GTK_Photo_Gallery

 

https://www.linuxlinks.com/PhotoGallery/

 

I have had the opposite problem with most. In 1997 I had the desire to learn to code HTML. At the time, there was very little online relating to ancient coins. I decided to start a site on coins. For the next 6 years, I updated, added pages almost every Friday. After that, I tapered off until I lost the ability to log on to the space hosting my site. I have looked at other hosting options but most seem to require the use of their canned software. I stopped learning 'new' HTML tricks and never warmed up to Javascript for what I was doing. Now I often wish I had never started but some people say they got some good from those amateur pages. Now there is no need for mine since professionals are posting things beyond my ability.

Many of my pages are the way they are because I wanted to 'show off' a new (to me) HTML trick I had learned. For example, my index page photo was mapped to allow clicking on a coin and being taken to the page on that coin. Anyone who wishes to copy my code and change the called addresses and change the images is perfectly free to do so. That photo has been copied by over a hundred sites - most without asking. I do not know if anyone copied the code. I had fun doing it and that is the only reason I did it. I worked at a paying job to put food on the table and did not try to profit from my amateur website or the coins it covered. Below is the code that drove that mapped image. I don't know if I could write another one like it or not. I'm sure there have been new ways of doing things like this but this was the one I used 'back then'.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/
Clicking on the photo below will not take you to the sub pages. That would require using the code and having all the involved pages/images together.



The code below specifies a point in the center of each coin and a diameter out from that point that is 'active'. There are a few places the 'aim' could have been improved so it helps to click near the center of the coin.

<center><P>

<!--BODY-->
<BODY BGCOLOR="#C0C0C0" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#990066">
<p>
<MAP NAME="lead">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "83,71,70" HREF="vocps.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "214,81,40" HREF="thrace2.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "332,77,60" HREF="voc.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "395,29,10" HREF="tiny.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "395,129,15" HREF="microdigital.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "477,77,70" HREF="style.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "612,68,60" HREF="voc3.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "556,156,40" HREF="voc5.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "642,166,40" HREF="voc.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "59,200,50" HREF="aurelian.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "175,195,50" HREF="feac36owl.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "275,170,30" HREF="voc6.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "370,195,40" HREF="feac41ven.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "468,200,40" HREF="voc2.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "538,216,15" HREF="tiny.html">
<AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS= "560,208,642,233" HREF="feac56cas.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "675,225,25" HREF="microdigital.html">
<AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS= "15,275,75,325" HREF="voc1.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "100,325,15" HREF="feac64ist.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "135,275,25" HREF="apollo.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "200,280,20" HREF="voc1.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "287,267,65" HREF="apollo.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "405,285,45" HREF="brock.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "505,300,45" HREF="voc2.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "610,285,50" HREF="philip.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "560,340,15" HREF="feac37bar.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "55,390,50" HREF="tech.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "180,375,60" HREF="nerodup.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "320,390,60" HREF="officina.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "430,385,40" HREF="feac74per.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "518,390,40" HREF="legions.html">
<AREA SHAPE="CIRCLE" COORDS= "620,390,40" HREF="feac6.html">
</MAP>
<p align=center><IMG SRC="25group.jpg" width=700 height=450 border=0 USEMAP="#lead" ALIGN="TOP">
<center>
<br>
<p>
</center>

I only used one other mapped image on my site. It was on the page about my 99 1/2 favorite coins. You can also specify rectangular blocks of activity but I used circles for both of mine. Anyone interested in viewing/copying the page source code on these or any of my pages is perfectly welcome to do so. I will be happy to get private correspondences from anyone but do not guarantee I will remember whatever I once knew. In particular, I guarantee I will not know how to add this code to the pages coded by machines. Following that complex code always lost me.

 

When we were growing up my father made sure EVERYONE of us was fluent in HTML and Perl.

 

I learned a ton from your early web pages, @dougsmit. I discovered that a Postumus I had acquired in the UK in the 80s was actually an Aureolus, for example. I also appreciated the writing style of those pages; they were more conversational and down-to-earth versus the often blandly academic material on other sites.

 

https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_figure.asp

 

James, I am highly appreciative of your time and interest! And for your offer to help! I'm afraid though that help would be like tossing pearls to swine. (To be clear: In that setting I am the smelly pig, and the information you have to share is valuable, precious pearls). I had to search online to even find out about what "Style Sheets" and "CSS" is, and it was over my head. I require more training than could be accomplished via messages. With my various obligations I barely have time to add coins to my website as it is, I don't have the day-to-day time it would take to learn all that it appears I need to learn.

That is awesome! Your father was a wise man! When I was growing up my father was also wise, he made sure my brother and I could type. There was no HTML. I completed my undergraduate degree before Word Processors or computers were used to write/print term papers. We thought electric typewriters (with carbon paper of course) was high tech. After I was in the business world for a while, I went to night school to learn COBOL and BASIC. I used both to write programs for awhile, but then my career took a hard right turn and I no longer did any "programming" as it was called then. So, now, fast forward well over 4 decades, and that was me a few months ago wanting to start a website. BTW: I looked at all your links. Thanks for including them! Sadly, due to my knowledge level of such things, they are over my head (I'm embarrassed to say). There are many things I know MUCH about, but this just isn't one of them, and as I mentioned above, I haven't the time to learn without falling behind on other obligations.

Long-story short, after spending too much money to pay a custom web developer to create one, and having him bail out without producing a website, I next explored (with advice from a knowledgeable friend) several easier possibilities, and he helped me find a pre-existing template which I began to use. With only 10 coins added (and about 500 more to go) this is the current result:

www.biblical-coins.com

I have been hesitant to give the URL out yet because I more than half-expect to get comments in the following A-B-C format:
"A good start... ...But... ...Could you now also change/add ______".
And you see, actually, I am OK with the blog-like format it currently has. Pragmatically speaking, it works for my purposes to achieve my goals. Yes, there are a handful of things I myself would love to be different about it, but they are things that either cannot be added/tweaked, or, that I do not know how to add/tweak.

I am not sure that a clickable coin gallery, such as per the links included by previous posters in this thread, is something that can be added to the template I am using. (And to clarify, it is not a template I designed and 'coded', as I do not know how to do that. Instead, out of my necessity, it is a pre-written 'boxed' template that I selected from a group of similar templates.)

@dougsmit - Your website helped me cut my teeth on ancient coinage as I made the big transition from US modern coins to ancients! And all your pages remains a helpful wellspring of excellent information! Thanks! Although I have not yet done so, my plan is to add a page to my website (which is something I'm proud to be able to say I actually know how to do) which would be titled something like, "Want to learn more about ancient coins?" That page would include a very short list of links -- which I have always planned to include (if not feature) yours. When I get around to adding that page, I will PM you to seek your permission.

Thanks to ALL for your input!!! Once I get up to about 100 coins posted on the website, I will start a new thread on CoinTalk to officially 'announce' it.

 

I understand completely, @philologus_1