CE3 Updates: Auto Index, Gallery, Pages, Publisher
The following updates are available now:
TTG CE3 Auto Index 6.0.1
TTG CE3 Gallery 5.0.1
TTG CE3 Pages 6.0.1
TTG CE3 Publisher 1.1.8
To access the updated versions, please lookup your downloads by order number.
There is quite a lot to the updates, but before getting into that I feel I need to address our handling of update notifications going forward. In the past, we have pushed notifications from the system to all users of specific products. However, the introduction of the CE3 Web Publishing Bundle introduces a new wrinkle to the process. Today we have updated four separate plugins, and so if I were to push product-based notifications from the server, bundle users would receive four identical update notifications. I have no desire to spam my users in this way. Therefore, I think from here on we will be relying more upon the blog and the newsletter to notify customers of updates. Therefore, I urge you all to make a point to follow the blog so that you may keep up with CE3 news and releases. We offer several options for following our feeds:
- You may signup for email notifications from the blog. To do so, use the form in the sidebar of this page.
- You may follow the blog via RSS in your aggregator of choice.
- You may follow @theturninggate on Twitter.
- You may like our Facebook page and follow us there.
- You may rely upon our regular newsletter for updates; we endeavor to send newsletters once a month, though our schedule is somewhat irregular.
Regardless how you follow the news, you may always access your downloads by looking up your order numbers in our sidebar. Please keep your order numbers and the email address used for purchases on file for this purpose.
Now, let's get on with the updates. I will call out some of the highlights here; if you'd like to full list of changes, please see the Changelog for each plugin on the wiki.
Permalinks open correctly in mobile galleries
We have always supported image permalinks in Highslide-style galleries, but these permalinks did not translate through the mobile redirect. Now, when using TTG CE3 Gallery and TTG CE3 Publisher, permalinks will open the correct gallery page and image even on mobile devices.
Again, this feature applies only to galleries created by TTG CE3 Gallery 5.0.1, using Highslide, and managed via TTG CE3 Publisher 1.1.8. Ben offers the following advice on upgrading to the latest publisher version:
- Upgrade both server-side and Lightroom components according to the wiki.
- There is no need to republishing any galleries or photos.
New options for mobile gallery navigation
CSS font-weight and text-transform properties now translate to mobile navigation, and I've added a text-align option specifically for mobile. Also, there is a new "Mobile Navigation Type" option, which may be either "Collapsible" or "Natural".
Collapsible is the navigation from the previous version, and that seen on the promo site, http://ce3.theturninggate.net. The new option is "Natural", which results in mobile navigation in this style:
Not the best choice for large drop-down menus, but fine for more compact navigation. When set to Natural, neither the navigation nor the block will collapse on mobile.
Finally, when drop-down navigation is setup in Lightroom, navigation will now collapse up to 1024px (up from 992px), an iPad in landscape orientation. This will prevent iPad visitors having to struggle with hover events and drop-down navigation on the touch screen.
New "buffer" sliders in Page Setup
In the Page Setup control group, in the Site Info pane, there are two new sliders:
For those of you not liking the automatic 24-pixel on desktop, 8-pixel on mobile paddings applying to block elements on your pages, these sliders will allow you to adjust or nullify those values. Please be careful when using these, and check your design using a responsive workspace.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you probably don't need to worry about these. When in doubt, go with defaults.
Other changes
Other changes include:
- Removed the option to fetch the latest jQuery from jQuery CDN, as it was causing problems in some configurations.
- A new ALBUMTITLE constant for use in PHPlugins.
- New minimum width for the Social Networking "Core Width" slider, allowing you to better fine tune the spacing between social networking icons.
- UI updates.
- Other tweaks and fixes.
March 12, 2013 at 9:29 am
When viewing CE3 plugins in LR we’re not seeing any versions numbers?? Might be an idea now we have to check-in to see if updates are available..
March 12, 2013 at 10:48 am
look at the top of the Site Info control pane, just under the name of the plug-in being used.
March 13, 2013 at 4:09 am
I can understand the reasons for moving away from separate ‘per-order’ notifications of updates, and I’m happy to monitor the blog for news – do that anyway (RSS feed) to keep in touch. But a consequence is that it is now necessary to know the order number for a particular plugin to get the update. Any chance that the ‘search for your orders’ process could be updated so that (logging in with/entering) my email address could show a list of my plugins and available updates? Sure the data is there!
Thanks
Geoff
March 13, 2013 at 4:46 am
Sadly, no. Not something I have control over. I’m poking around, though, and I might be able to push SKU-based updates, rather than item-based updates, which would solve the problem — the bundle is a single SKU with multiple items.
March 13, 2013 at 8:46 am
I’m with Geof here; having to keep track of order numbers is a pain compared to the push of the email.
Some mechanism to look up current orders and status with a link to download updates would be ideal.
March 13, 2013 at 9:52 am
Well, I can file a feature request with the company I use to handle that stuff, but I can do no more than that.
Hopefully, though, I can get back to pushing email notifications with the next update.
March 13, 2013 at 11:11 am
As a workaround, I’ve simply listed all the order numbers in a text file – at least that way, they’re all in one place, and I can keep track.
Geoff
March 13, 2013 at 1:26 pm
The update process is not very good and will get worse with this change…
Is it possible to collect all our plug-in in one order? Or keep the e-mails as an option?
March 13, 2013 at 2:08 pm
When I look up my order numbers, all I get is a link to the text file enabling me to buy the CE3 version for a discounted price (which I’ve already done). I don’t see a link to enable me to download the updated version.
March 13, 2013 at 7:53 pm
Then you should have one or more newer orders that you should be looking up for your CE3 purchases, and should no longer need the CE2 order.
March 13, 2013 at 8:39 pm
Got them. Thank you very much.