How to... Build a CD-Rom album

Introduction

If you have a CD writer, why not put all your pictures, the album file and the MyAlbum application on a CD you can take with you so you can show your pictures to other persons?

First you will have to choose the kind of CD-Rom you are going to build. The choice will depend on the device on which you will use the CD-Rom:

• A PC running Microsoft Windows. That's the simpler case because you will only need to copy on the CD-Rom the files that are already present on your computer. See the following paragraph on how to build a CD-Rom for running on a PC.
• Another kind of computer. The computer is not able to run the MyAlbum application so it will not be able to open your album. Exporting your album as HTML pages and writting them on a CD-ROM is then the best solution.
• A DVD Player. This kind of device is only able to play some standardized CD format. The VCD and SVCD formats can be used to build photo albums that will be playable on most DVD players.

Building a CD-Rom for a PC

Here are a few tips for building a CD-Rom version of your album.

First:

• Have all your pictures located in the same tree structure with the album file at the top. Do the same thing for the background music files.
• Check the check-box, Use relative path in the Album information dialog box.
• MyAlbum is a self-contained application that doesn't need installation to run, so it can be launched directly from the CD even on computers where it has never been installed.

Without the two first points, MyAlbum may not be able to find your pictures on the CD (depending of the computer, the CD-ROM can be the D:, E: or whatever letter: drive).

Select the other settings for the album like color, delay,... (do it before burning the CD!).

Prepare an autorun.inf file to make your CD start automatically when you insert it in a computer. This file must be located at the root directory of the CD-Rom.

A minimal file will look like this:

[autorun]
icon=MyAlbum.exe,1

icon=someiconfile.ico
open=MyAlbum.exe album.alb /play

shell\play = &My beautiful photo album
shell\play\command = MyAlbum.exe album.alb /play

Some useful command line parameters:

MyAlbum.exe album.alb
    Will launch MyAlbum and load the specified album.

MyAlbum.exe album.alb /play
    Will launch MyAlbum, load the specified album and start a sequential slideshow.

MyAlbum.exe album.alb /playrnd
    Will launch MyAlbum, load the specified album and start a random slideshow.

Use the Auto-flip option of the album to make the slideshow automatic or use the /auto parameter.

With your CD-R software, select all the needed files:

• the autorun.inf file,
  
• the MyAlbum files (minimum is MyAlbum.exe, you can also add the online help file MyAlbum.chm and, if needed a language file MyAlbum.dll),
  
• the album file,
  
• all the picture files and, if needed, the background music files and the scripts.

and start burning the CD!

More information:

The autorun.inf file

The 'autorun.inf' is used for building CDs that start automatically when inserted.

It's a normal text file that must be placed at the root directory of the CD. You can edit it with the standard Windows Notepad.

You may find on the Internet useful information about autorun.inf files (syntax, samples,...). CD bundled with computer magazines will also give you examples of autorun.inf files.

Putting all the chances on your side

Two things (at least) can occur to make the CD album fail.

One is that the CD drive on the other computer doesn't use the same drive letter as your own computer. The Use relative path option (in the Album Information dialog box F6) is for dealing with this problem.

Two, the links to the pictures stored in the album file are still pointing to the original pictures on your hard drive. The CD will seem to work fine on your computer only because it's still reading the pictures from the hard drive and not from the CD.

To put all the chances on your side, follow these advices:

• use the Use relative path option. With this MyAlbum will use the actual path of the album file to access the pictures.
• place all the pictures in a folder structure with the album file at its root so the relative path option will work.
• try to test before burning the CD (or use CD-RW rewritable CD!).

A nice and useful trick for testing is the old DOS command SUBST. With it you can create a pseudo-drive that will map to any directory you want.

Supposing you have your pictures and the album file in d:\Pictures\XMas, type the command:

subst k: d:\Pictures\XMas

You now have a new K: drive (or use any unused other drive letter). Open the album file that appears in this drive and test the album to see if the application is accessing the pictures in the K: drive (that is good!) or in another drive (that is bad!).

Another good thing to do is to prepare a folder that will be the image of future CD.

Copy in this folder all the needed files (MyAlbum application and help files, all the pictures, the album file and the autorun.inf file).

Do a subst on this folder to create a pseudo-drive.

To check how MyAlbum is accessing the pictures the following script can be useful, it lists all the picture in the current album and for each its path as it stored in the album and the path used to load and display the picture.

Copy it in MyAlbum script window and click Run.

app.ClearTrace
set alb = app.GetCurrentAlbum
nb = alb.nbPicture
app.Trace "Pictures in this album: " & nb
for i=0 to nb-1
    Set pic = alb.GetPicture(i)
    s = alb.ExpandMacro( pic, "%RP" )
    app.trace pic.sShortFileName & " [" & pic.sFileName & "]->[" & s & "]"
next
app.Trace "Done !"

Another way is to temporary change the Display String for the full-screen view (replace it by "%FN [%FP]->[%RP]"). With this you will see a similar information when viewing the pictures.

To test the autoplay feature on a subst drive, you may need to change the NoDriveTypeAutoRun key in the Windows registry.

Caution: if you are not a registry expert, DO NOT try to modify directly the registry.

Microsoft Support Web site has a nice page about the NoDriveTypeAutoRun parameter:

It's still not working!

• The autorun feature is disabled on this computer (some CD burning application disable it as it can interfere with them). Try with a CD that comes with a magazine.
• The autorun.inf file cannot be found. To be auto-start a CDRom must contain a file named autorun.inf in the root folder.
• The autorun.inf file is not correct. Windows cannot understand it's content or cannot start the specified comand.
• MyAlbum is starting but not loading the album.
  • Check that the alb file is copied on the CD.
  • Check that command in the autrun.inf file is able to load the album.
    Something like: open=MyAlbum.exe album.alb /play
• MyAlbum is loading the album but cannot display the pictures.
  • Check that the pictures files are copied on the CD.
  • Check that the Use relative path option of the album is set.
  • Check that the folder structure of your picture files (if any) is the same on CD as on your hard-disk.