Publish From a Template

ExpressionEngine has what is called the Stand Alone Entry Form. This allows for members to write new articles outside the control panel. This can be easily customized, use any fields wanted including custom fields, and one can add hidden fields for:
Status - closed for example, awaiting editor-admin approval before going live.
A category that it’s to be posted to if not wanting selectable.
The weblog to assign it to.
Photo Gallery and category to assign photos to.

There is also an Edit form that allows editing outside the control panel which we have been adding for some clients. For this we will want to use a plugin by solspace.com Form Helper.

A combination of the Expression Engine stand alone entry form together with the Gallery Extended Module makes a front end for writing articles and simplified image uploading with them. This makes for the easiest method for members to add photos from the ExpressionEngine site. For user submitted photos nothing could be easier. Automatic resizing set in the gallery makes a completely automated system to add images to articles in EE and have them resized automatically.

One can litterally and easily have entries that are photo galleries combining the best features of weblogs and the ExpressionEngine photo gallery.

Here is a very basic simplified form to make a new article. There is much that could be added such as custom fields, categories and more. I have added another extension to the form, Stand Alone redirect which gives the article it’s id before submitting it. This way when submitted the id can be called in the url. Why? Because after being submitted we want to add photos to the gallery and relate them to the entry,

After submitting the entry,  the next page we can add images using the preset gallery sizes for thumbs and medium images. This makes for very simple uploading to the gallery. Using the extension from solspace.com, Gallery Extended, we can add these to the entry.
Note: This module also adds an Image Tab to the control panel to do the same, add images to an article from within admin.

This is the result. If one is logged in and the author, I have editing options. Edit photo opens the gallery to that image, edit entry opens the article for editing. Add photos goes back to the add-photo page we seen above where one can add additional images.

Here is the same article used in this tutorial showing the new Image Tab added by the Gallery Extended module for Expression Engine. One can use this without the stand alone entry form and it adds a trememndous ability to add photos to the gallery and have them associated to the entry. In the Module control panel one can edit the photos by entry id as well.

Below I use the code from the gallery for the medium image popup which is nicer than the expressionengine photo popup.
Note: This is covered further in Photos in EE Two.

Fraser Canyon

The highway going west from vancouver, I drove this many times.

kamloops Lake

The Balancing Rock. This rock sits on clay and is big enough to land a helicopter on. I lived 6 miles from here when I was a kid..

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