What can I do with ANT?

DrMabuse · Post by **DrMabuse** » 2009-03-18 03:52:44

I don't really need help with anything right now, but I have some questions since I'm just about to give ANT a chance. But before I start typing in all the movies I'd like to know - once I'm done, can I make it into a catalogue that people can download and scroll through? Are there any sites out there were they've used ANT Movie Catalogue, I'd like to see what it looks like and what I can do with it.

Thanks

Post by **antp** » 2009-03-18 08:10:25

It is possible to export the catalog to static html pages, using templates.
There are also some php dynamic templates, but these may be a little more difficult to use.
But why not do a test with few movies?

DrMabuse · Post by **DrMabuse** » 2009-03-20 00:30:04

I'll do that.

The thing is I'm thinking of opening a web DVD shop, and I know there is osCommerce and stuff, but I'd like something more that doesen't look like a webshop. Don't ask me why. Anyway, I was wondering if there is a search function in ANT, so that the customers can search after title, director, actors and/or year?

Question 2: When I save picture, I can choose between

a)store picture into catalogue
b)copy picture to catalogue folder and link to catalogue
c)only link picture
d)make relative path if possible

Since I have a lot of movies to add, I don't want the site to be running slowly. What should I choose? I assume there are options that don't store the image in ANT, but rather link the image to the file on my computer where it is stored. I guess that would make the site run faster, or am I wrong?

Wotan · Post by **Wotan** » 2009-03-20 11:28:59

I would use b), if you use a) it will make the database pretty big when you have added a lot of movies. There is a search function in ant yes.

Post by **antp** » 2009-03-20 13:10:37

You are mixing two things here. Ant Movie Catalog is a desktop/windows program, not a web program. So a site would not rely on what AMC offers, since AMC would be used just to manage the database. I do not really see what would be the interest here though. For a shop you will need something made for that, not just something that shows a movie list.
There are some PHP-based stuff which can use AMC's database, but usually they either use SQL export or AMC's XML file format.
The storage of picture concerns AMC's binary own file format which is not used by any template (yet) as far as I know.