Resources | JavaScript | Image Gallery

Image Gallery:


If your site has several static images that you want to showcase to your visitors, one option is to set up an image gallery. News sites, like CNN, and Video Game sites, like IGN, use these galleries when they have a group of photos connected to a specific article.

The following code will help you set up an image gallery of your own. It is fairly basic and will allow you to customize it to your own needs. It also assumes that you are going to be using less than 20 images -- if you're going to use 20 or more images, you will need to make a few changes to the SWITCH statement in the javascript.

The first thing you need to do to get started is to set up your images. If you are using digital photos, make sure to import them into a graphics program, like Paint Shop Pro, and optimize the images for web use (in most graphics programs, look for the "Export" option, and make sure you set an appropriate compression value).

Next, you want to set up a subfolder which will hold just the images for your image gallery.

In the code on this page, you will need two copies of each of your images. The original images should be saved in the format "pic0x" -- the first picture would be "pic01.jpg", the twelth picture would be "pic12.jpg".

The second copy of the image should be either cropped or resized to about 20% of the original image's size. This will be your thumbnail that will be first displayed to the user. The thumbnails should be saved in the format "thumb0x". Thumbnail one would be "thumb01.jpg", while thumbnail fifteen would be "thumb15.jpg". Of course, you don't have to have thumbnails -- it will speed up loading times for your visitors, but its not necessary. If you don't want thumbnails, just drop the parts of the code that you don't need.

First set up the javascript for your image gallery page:


Now, somewhere on your HTML page, you want the IMG tag and the Labels that will allow you to move Forward and Backward:



Finally, here is the code for BIGPICTURE.HTML, the page that will load your full-sized images:


To read a discussion of how to do this with ASP and Recordsets, read this thread in our message boards!
Want to discuss this article, or other development issues? Visit our message boards!

Or contact us directly with a comment or question on this article: click here !
armbrustconsulting.com