Implemented Albums within Categories

Slavik

XenForo moderator
Staff member
Currently images either get filed in a Category or an Album, theres no possibility for both.

It would seem a logical step to create Albums within Categories.

For example, a Category section called "Pets" would then allow each user to create their own Album in the Pets category so they can post all their pet photos in one Album, but still be relevant under the category.
 
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Wouldn't it be better to have a generic "tag"-based system where photos can be added to an arbitrary collection of "categories/tags".

If I have 100 categories and 1,000 users, each wanting to crate their own album within each category, we suddenly have 100,000 albums to deal with?

In my own situation, I have photos from over 1,700 zoos, each zoo would have its own category. Currently users can upload photos to any category - but in many cases we end up with dozens of almost identical photos of the same elephant in the same enclosure at the same zoo from multiple users.

My current thinking on how to deal with this (based on a concept for a custom gallery I was about to start building) was to allow users to upload photos to their own personal gallery only. Other users can browse photos within a specific user's gallery, but they are not part of the global media collection.

Users can then submit photos for "moderation" to be considered for inclusion in the main media collection (one of the 1,700 zoo categories), and only those deemed good enough will make the cut.

I'm not sure I can currently achieve this with the current XFMG album/category structure, but I'm looking for ways I can structure things.

Back on the categories+albums idea, users uploading to their own gallery will likely want to categorise the photos - although I guess they can create multiple galleries can't they?

The main problem with categorisation is that it only permits a photos to belong to a single category - where there are some situations where multiple categories make sense.

I want my users to be able to not only see photos of all animals from San Diego Zoo, but also photos of elephants in any zoo, and then photos of elephants from San Diego Zoo. This type of granularity simply isn't possible with a basic one-dimensional category structure and is much more suited to some kind of tag based system.

Just dumping my thoughts - there's no simple solution to this stuff and very much depends on use cases for each site.
 
Really yours is a different suggestion and so should be made as such.

This suggestion is purely about albums within categories. It's a popular request too from the original made on Xen Resources.

I wasn't making a new suggestion other than to consider whether albums within categories is necessarily the best way to go about this. Perhaps categories within albums is better? Perhaps a different structure altogether?

I was also offering some use-cases to illustrate the problem with having albums within categories.
 
I wasn't making a new suggestion other than to consider whether albums within categories is necessarily the best way to go about this. Perhaps categories within albums is better? Perhaps a different structure altogether?

I was also offering some use-cases to illustrate the problem with having albums within categories.
It meets exactly my needs and those who have previously supported it. Your suggestions are different and wouldn't meet my needs.
 
Currently images either get filed in a Category or an Album, theres no possibility for both.

It would seem a logical step to create Albums within Categories.

For example, a Category section called "Pets" would then allow each user to create their own Album in the Pets category so they can post all their pet photos in one Album, but still be relevant under the category.

This and the ability for users to create sub categories was already suggested for XMG. Not sure if all the suggestions made the transfer over but this would make structuring the gallery content much easier.
 
I've disabled albums on my forum until this is (hopefully) implemented because having two separate systems does not make sense to me.

Its not really even 2 separate systems. You have site albums and user albums. Different names. Site wide came first and it wasnt ever intended to house a users albums.

Different sites will use the gallery differently and so it makes complete sense for some and not for others.
 
I also see the current category / album system as overly complicated and not logical for users. Allowing albums in categories would make the whole thing even more complicated.

I support @Sim s idea!
 
I also see the current category / album system as overly complicated and not logical for users. Allowing albums in categories would make the whole thing even more complicated.

I support @Sim s idea!
I agree with a way of users organising their albums (which could be something like categories within albums). However I don't think the current way is overly complicated and logical. On my site, all users use categories for submitting their media (mostly videos as we are a gaming site). Only active and premium members have the ability to create albums and they use them for things like personal screenshots/videos of them gaming plus 'real life' stuff. There is absolutely no confusion from users on how the system works. I guess some of this comes down to organisation and explanation to users - if they know the purpose of things, they'll (generally) use them correctly. If they are just presented with a tool like XFMG and there's no indication to them on it's purpose and how you want to use it on your site, then there will be issues.
 
Currently images either get filed in a Category or an Album, theres no possibility for both.

It would seem a logical step to create Albums within Categories.

For example, a Category section called "Pets" would then allow each user to create their own Album in the Pets category so they can post all their pet photos in one Album, but still be relevant under the category.

absolutely agree (y)

at Pinterest you do have the same structure:
- a bunch of categories
- each user put his Albums (they name it "Collections/Boards") into the respective categories


https://www.pinterest.com/categories/tattoos/

https://www.pinterest.com/all/hair_beauty/

:coffee:
 
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Rather than just disagreeing with everything everyone suggests - the ideal would be to make it configurable so that you can do things the way that suits your needs and others can do it differently. Everyone wins.
I don't disagree with everything that is suggested - you'll see I have liked the OP's suggestion. I have liked and agreed many suggestions too.

Making everything configurable to every single suggestion that's made would turn XenForo into something with so many options that it'd be a confusing mess. Some things should be implemented, others should be rejected.

There's nothing wrong with users disagreeing with suggestions, they are here to be commented on both in favour and against. Its an important part of the process in helping the developers decide on what to implement and what to reject.
 
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Actually the solution that @erich37 wants would be simple if the OP's suggestion is implemented as you can already disable site categories, thus giving what he wants.
 
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