dynamicly creating NEW xml files

So, assuming you wanted CMS Builder to manage these categories, your mainXml.php file would look something like this:

<?php
list($categoryRecords,) = getRecords(array(
'tableName' => 'category',
));
?>
<data>
<imageCategories>
<Category path="All" buttonCaption="All images" title="all pictures"/>
<?php foreach ($categoryRecords as $record): ?>
<Category path="categoryXml.php?category=<?php echo $record['num']; ?>" buttonCaption="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($record['name']); ?>" title="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($record['name']); ?>"/>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</imageCategories>
</data>

And your categoryXml.php file would look something like this:

<?php
list($imagesRecords,) = getRecords(array(
'tableName' => 'images',
));
?>
<images>
<?php foreach ( $imagesRecords as $record ): ?>
<?php foreach ( $record['uploads'] as $upload ): ?>
<image
thumb="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($upload['thumbUrlPath']); ?>"
main="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($upload['urlPath']); ?>"
url="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($upload['urlPath']); ?>"
target="_blank"
title="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($upload['info1']); ?>"><![CDATA[<?php echo $upload['info2']; ?>]]>
</image>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</images>

I'm making some assumptions about how you've got your CMS Builder sections configured. If you want them set up a different way, please explain it and I'll show you how to generate XML for that instead.

Hope this helps! :)

I'm testing this but can't get it to work. I do want to create the categories in CMS Builder. I want clients to control categories and uploads. The problem with the way it's done above is that all the pictures are in one editor. I had it set to 25 per upload. If there are hundreds of pictures in each category, I think it will be hard to manage them. It would be better to have an editor per category for images. ? Or something to better manage the pictures. I don't know the best way to manage a lot of pictures and categories right now with CMS Builder, but if I get this to work either way, i should be able to figure out how to change things.

The second problem with the above way is that the description could be a whole paragraph including links or other html that works in flash. So the info2 field is too small for that. A text box would be better.

Anyway, i didn't get it to work. Looking at the source pages of the xml.php files, everything looks good. I'm thinking Flash doesn't like the file names like categoryXml.php?category=1. but I read that flash doesnt care what the extension is.

I tried to attach the original working files, zipped since you mentioned you would like to try it but the attachment was too large. Is there somewhere I can upload or e-mail it? It's 11 mb because of the pics. Without them, its around 2. I can also send you a link to the zip in a text file attachment?

Let me know. It would be interesting to see this working. I can use a different gallery but would really like to learn how to do this to master different CMS Builder ideas.

Hi rez,

The problem with the way it's done above is that all the pictures are in one editor.

I'll try to think of a solution for this.

...the info2 field is too small...

If you set things up with one image per record, you can use another field in the record for a description (and the title!)

I tried to attach the original working files...

Do you have anywhere you can host the zip and send a link? There are also many free web services for uploading (large) files.

Hi rez,

Hmm, yes, would be somewhat tedious. I'm going to try to come up with a feature request or two on this topic, but no promises!

So, the other solution would be to have one record per category and remove the "maximum number of uploaded images" restriction on the upload field. That should work well, except for the field length restriction on the info fields.

Optionally, we could extend the info fields with some custom programming or with a custom plugin. Please let me know if you're interested in that.