Author Topic: Open Source Platform For Selling Images: Authors and PHP Developers Wanted. (Read 77901 times)

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #150 on:** February 14, 2013, 23:48 »

Quote from: Pixart on February 14, 2013, 23:41

I think this deserves a ~~Wooyay~~ HOORAY! Lookin slick!

Thats funny. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing everyone else "go crazy" on things creatively, make it their own, and professionalize it. Especially the front-end design. Of the people contacting me, there are a few designers who I can't wait to give this to.

Something else (sort of a huge priority since this really is a designerly crowd) is that I'd like to have a few "looks" available on click, and those looks can be further adjusted with color pickers, options, etc, without breaking the general continuity of the community's look.

leaf · « **Reply #151 on:** February 15, 2013, 04:51 »

It's looking great.

sharpshot · « **Reply #152 on:** February 15, 2013, 05:55 »

This is quite exciting. So nice to have something positive to read about here.

THP Creative · « **Reply #153 on:** February 15, 2013, 06:21 »

Loving your work on this so far Kona, keep it up!

Amanda_K · « **Reply #154 on:** February 15, 2013, 13:47 »

Back end is looking so great! I can't wait to play with this

Already getting a domain and branding lined up and some design ideas. When it comes to customizing look and feel I hope to be able to help out a bit for others who are new to Wordpress and CSS.

I'd say to anyone that's watching this project with interest don't be intimidated by setting a a WordPress site. It's an absolutely fantastic platform, very user friendly and massively well documented with a really helpful web community.

Pixart · « **Reply #155 on:** February 15, 2013, 16:37 »

Trust me... if I can build a WordPress site - YOU can too!

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #156 on:** February 15, 2013, 16:49 »

On a user level the investment of education is not that much when it comes to this stuff. Especially compared to the gains of getting more independent.

cascoly · « **Reply #157 on:** February 15, 2013, 19:00 »

Quote from: KonaHawaii on February 10, 2013, 00:53

Quote from: cascoly on February 09, 2013, 19:24
i've got a software license at http://cascoly.com/license.txt that anyone is free to modify - it was used mostly for CDs of lowres images; it originally came from a shareware forum

404 not found. Its a good template to start from at least!

sorry,
should be
http://cascoly.com/license.asp

Smithore · « **Reply #158 on:** February 15, 2013, 19:05 »

Looks really exciting, hope to test soon

luissantos84 · « **Reply #159 on:** February 15, 2013, 19:05 »

thumbs up here too

THP Creative · « **Reply #160 on:** February 15, 2013, 20:12 »

Quote from: KonaHawaii on February 14, 2013, 23:48

Quote from: Pixart on February 14, 2013, 23:41
I think this deserves a ~~Wooyay~~ HOORAY! Lookin slick!

Thats funny. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing everyone else "go crazy" on things creatively, make it their own, and professionalize it. Especially the front-end design. Of the people contacting me, there are a few designers who I can't wait to give this to.

Something else (sort of a huge priority since this really is a designerly crowd) is that I'd like to have a few "looks" available on click, and those looks can be further adjusted with color pickers, options, etc, without breaking the general continuity of the community's look.

I think this sort of thing is crucial. Since we can't use our own theme and plugin the functionality that you are building, then the theme itself needs to look great and highly customisable for those (like myself) with little to no CSS ability.

Hopefully the designers that you are in contact with can come up with something really great that will be a crowd-pleaser as well as allow for some variety between sites.

I gotta say Kona, this is shaping up to be the most exciting stock development for a LONG time.

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #161 on:** February 15, 2013, 20:28 »

The crowd pleaser will have to be how invisible the "basic" look is. Basically a showcase for the product, which is what its all about.

But I'm hoping after everyone refines that "canvas" we can build style folders that paint on that canvas, giving more flare, and further enhanced by other things you can do in the admin area (fonts, colors, backgrounds).

I'm hoping it opens up opportunities for the various designers who get involved to sell their style schemes. I had in mind that when a style-plugin is uploaded, Symbiostock will process it to work with the site properly.

Oshoot · « **Reply #162 on:** February 15, 2013, 21:59 »

Just dropped in after a few weeks absence. What a wonderful thing to see such creative, positive energy at work. I can offer no experience in programming, and may not be skillful enough to even figure out what appears to be a really great, easy to use plan, but I sure am willing to give it a go. Thanks for a real day brightened!

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #163 on:** February 15, 2013, 22:06 »

The positive response keeps me going. Also Mtn Dew and 80's music. TY!

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #164 on:** February 15, 2013, 22:13 »

For those of you prepping - let me list some packages you might want to get familiar with that I'm using for this. That way you can hit the ground running on release:

Presentation:
Font-awesome
http://fortawesome.github.com/Font-Awesome/ (minimal icons, scalable, etc)

Twitter Bootstrap
http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ (for modern responsive layout and other perks)

Google fonts
http://www.google.com/webfonts (for the website font, and the future ability for customer to switch)

Plus other stuff I'm probly forgetting.

Thats just the front-end stuff.

Jeffrey · « **Reply #165 on:** February 16, 2013, 00:25 »

Getting exciting.

How can one become a tester?

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #166 on:** February 16, 2013, 01:08 »

I'll be releasing it pretty soon for testing. Once the core features are done and reasonably cleaned up.

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #167 on:** February 17, 2013, 14:48 »

A small update:

The cart is done! Its very simple, only uses paypal. As mentioned in opening comments, you can apply a unique price to each image at any time, as well as discounts. The cart takes all of this into consideration (showing value, before after). It works smoothly without page refreshes. Without a doubt it needs to be improved slightly in bugs and other features. But right now it can "Sell stuff" which is what we want to start with.

Next I will be working on search results and the "symbiostock network" feature.

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #168 on:** February 19, 2013, 15:33 »

Update!

I'm well along on the "communicator" aspect of the theme which supplies both local and remote search requests. Its actually the backbone of what makes it work so uniquely, keep the network integrated and social...all that fun stuff. This is the last big thing and the rest is just small details.

Also the uploader/processor (what gives you a site populated with thousands of images within only hours) is continually being improved to help the user and get bug free.

All I can say is I can't wait to get this thing out.

Oshoot · « **Reply #169 on:** February 19, 2013, 18:32 »

I can't wait either! Sounds like a winning idea. Kudos to you for your hard work!

Amanda_K · « **Reply #170 on:** February 23, 2013, 13:36 »

Hey Kona! Just checking in anything we can do to be helping out? All your hard work is very much appreciated

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #171 on:** February 23, 2013, 15:26 »

Your timing is good. Yes, I could use some help on an important aspect of this project.

But first, here is a status update:

For the last few days I've been solving some pretty deep puzzles in getting the communicator to work properly. In essence it has to switch between xml and human viewable results depending on if the requester is a network machine or person! And all if this while playing nicely with wordpress. Happily, I got the remaining issues solved yesterday

. Now I'm getting into the "just details" phase where I can start wrapping thigs up.

It appears release is getting very close. Also the network will have a "social network" feel to it in the admin area, but I've decided to only put in the necessary things for now, and leave that open for expansion. Right now the "What are you up to?" or "Comment on so and so's image" is not crucial.

I talked some time ago with Microstock group's owner and when unless anything changes, all of the development, chat, and network coordinating will be hosted here on microstock group. Thats a huge privilege, especially in getting a trend started to help people.

Regarding help! Yes, I need help -

Symbiostock main website will need a complete branding scheme with the logo standing central to its influence. We are going to need icon sets, color schemes, and a general direction for the architecture as well. Right now it will be an updates and download hub to start. Very simple.

The general theme of "SYMBIOSTOCK" will appear clean, modern, slightly minimal, with a "natural sciences" feel to it, especially as it relates to symbiotic relationships. Cute plants and insects would be needed the most. Refreshing is the keyword. Also a big goal of mine will be to keep the community's general nature helpful and positive, with minimal drama. No doubt the design could help set this mood.

So along with general icon sets that cover all the standard website functions, we will also need some creative illustrations.

Its also important to mention these are donations for the MAIN WEBSITE and are not going to be a part of the open source package or redistributed - so you'd be able to use them in your own microstock portfolios. Credit would also go to you.

However if someone is comfortable with making some 16x16, 32x32 icons of insects and flowers (viewed from top) for the distributable package, that would be helpful. But this would be a donation. I've already made a few - http://www.clipartillustration.com/freefiles/symbiobugs.ai

Amanda_K · « **Reply #172 on:** February 23, 2013, 17:45 »

I'd be thrilled to help out with some illustrations and icons! I'll email you with a couple questions.

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #173 on:** February 23, 2013, 20:12 »

One more important thing. Its no good for everyone to deploy a site, upload images...and then not have a good User End License Agreement.

If someone can actually put together a nice basic agreement for people to use, standard stuff, good allowances, that will be important. Otherwise everyone will be sort of hanging. I had help with mine, so I can't just post my own for people to use. Put the word out

.

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #174 on:** February 25, 2013, 15:15 »

How many people are following this thread? Like 3? I thought I read that someone actually opened up a website based on the progress of this project. Here's a small update to keep people...updated.

Almost done search results. They are quite interactive with lots of bling and hover stuff going on, custom controls for admins and customers...modal windows.

Why do I feel like I'm designing a whole dang stock photography website like Istock?

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Author Topic: Open Source Platform For Selling Images: Authors and PHP Developers Wanted. (Read 77901 times)

Leo Blanchette

leaf

sharpshot

THP Creative

Amanda_K

Pixart

Leo Blanchette

cascoly

Smithore

luissantos84

THP Creative

Leo Blanchette

Oshoot

Leo Blanchette

Leo Blanchette

Jeffrey

Leo Blanchette

Leo Blanchette

Leo Blanchette

Oshoot

Amanda_K

Leo Blanchette

Amanda_K

Leo Blanchette

Leo Blanchette

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