Linking to high res images using NextGen 2.0 pro albums

G’day mellowvision,

If you want to let people download a single hires image by clicking a link under a thumbnail, I recommend you create a simple AJAX function that forces a download of the selected image, and link to that AJAX request in your gallery template. e.g.

<?php
$args = array('action' => 'download-ngg-hires', 'id' => $image->pid);
$url = add_query_arg($args, admin_url('admin-ajax.php'));
?>
<a href="<?php echo $url; ?>">Download</a>

Take a look at the AJAX handler function in my plugin, and read about adding AJAX to plugins.

If you just want to make my plugin work with gallery templates within albums, link the galleries to pages that use the nggallery shortcode and specify template=download in the shortcode.

cheers,
Ross

Hi Ross,

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve also heard back from nextgen, who suggests just not using the pro templates or waiting for future releases. I didn’t want to have to step down from the pro features, but since I need both captions and the download link, it looks like it might be the simplest solution at this point. At least I’ll be able to use templates and your plugin(Ithink).

Thanks for providing and maintaining this plugin. Much appreciated.

Hi Ross,

I think I’m close to a solution.

Unfortunately, I can’t make pages for all the galleries. I am making only a page that houses the album shortcode, using

[ngg_images album_ids="1" display_type="photocrati-nextgen_basic_extended_album"]

This then generates the galleries deeper in.

So, I’ve specified that the basic extended album will have Basic Thumbnails. Then in the settings for Basic Thumbnails I’ve chosen an override template for the gallery.

I then pasted in your code above. The missing link would be the actual ajax. But I guess I’m wondering if there’s just a way to modify the code you provided above to call your plugin into action? or use your handler?

That seems like the most direct approach to me, instead of writing another handler.

What I ended up doing here was using the Download Shortcode plugin and using do_shortcode in a custom gallery override template.

Getting this to work took a few steps.

1. in the nextgen settings, be sure to store your images and galleries in the uploads folder. This is required for the Download Shortcode plugin

2. create your own custom template for the nextgen gallery, and get that operating

3. insert the a download link into that template using do_shortcode to trigger the Download Shortcode plugin. My code looked like this:

<?php echo do_shortcode( “[download label=’Download’] $image->imageURL [/download]” ); ?>

*big note:
I had about 4 galleries set up and displaying in a single album before I tried this approach. It did not seem to work at first, I think because the images were not originally uploaded within the uploads folder. Changing the nextgen preferences to store images and galleries in uploads did NOT correct the issue for OLD galleries. Any NEW galleries that were created after the change all operated correctly with the Force Download call. So, you should either make all the settings changes first, or be prepared to reupload all your old galleries to make the download links work.

@mellowvision: well done. Sounds like quite the journey, but you got there! It shouldn’t be this hard, really, but I guess NextGEN Gallery just isn’t made for it. You could probably get it going with a custom display type in NGG2, but that’s a whole nuther kettle of fish.

And I’m really going to have to get a wriggle on with my pro plugin, because it sounds like there’s a need for it!

cheers,
Ross

thanks Ross