Template talk:LTM collection

Justification
I'm not all together convinced that this template is justified. When adding images, one will still have to browse and, thus, find the exact image URL. Templates are not to maintain external links (similar ones have been deleted after going through WP:TFD). Would it not be better to create a project for this topic and include a link to the gallery and information on how to include the material.

If there is set up a project, pages relevant to that article could be placed in a category to have a centralised overview of them. --Swift 21:23, 23 August 2006 (UTC)


 * The justification for this template is that a direct link to an image page on the London's Transport Museum Photographic Collection site creates a URL of more than 700 characters thus:


 * http://photos.ltmcollection.org/ixbin/hixclient.exe?IXsort=sort+select%28lcase%28production_role%29%3d%3d%22photographer%22%2cproduction_date_from%29&IXsubject=&_IXsubject=&_IXDB_=ltm&_IXSS_=_IXFPFX_%3dfull%252ft%26_IXMAXHITS_%3d15%26%252asform%3dsearch_form%26IXsearch%3dRayners%2bLane%26_IXDB_%3dltm%26IXsort%3dsort%2bselect%2528lcase%2528production_role%2529%253d%253d%2522photographer%2522%252cproduction_date_from%2529%26_IXSESSION_%3dmRNLTzMxj_i%26IXsubject%3d%26_IXx_%252ex%3d19%26IXfromdate%3d1934%26IXtodate%3d%26IXlocation%3d%26_IXx_%252ey%3d9&_IXSR_=wt1&_IXSESSION_=mRNLTzMxj_i&_IXSPFX_=full/t&_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXFIRST_=1&submit-button=summary&_IXSECTION=&IXsearch=Rayners%20Lane&IXfromdate=1934&IXtodate=&IXlocation=


 * This is impossibly complex to type and also unneccessarily long in terms of memory usage. The alternative short URL which can be obtained from the image properties of the enlarged version of the image has the much more compact format thus:


 * http://photos.ltmcollection.org/images/max/9n/i0000k9n.jpg


 * This template combines this short form and an image tag in one easy package. I don't see that there is any reason not to use a template to maintain an external link to this information. It works in much the same way as more than 200 similar templates listed at Category:External link templates which do the same thing.


 * This template qualifies under the first of the three reasons given in the introduction to Category:External link templates - the London's Transport Museum Photographic Collection site contains primary source material. The information on that site is a unique historical record which is copyright of Transport for London. It cannot be added to Wikipedia, and there is simply no public domain collection of this sort of material.


 * With regards to having to browse the site for the information needed to complete the template, the instructions are included above on this page [in the documentation sub-page] using much the same methodology given for the Imdb template at Template talk:Imdb name. - DavidCane 00:42, 24 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks! This is a justification, indeed. --Swift 05:59, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Updated Photograph URLs
I have visited the LTM Photographic Collection website, and I have noticed that the site has been redesigned recently. As part of this modification, the URL format for the photographs has changed slightly. For example, the original URL for the Looking down station platform, 1921 photo (linked from the Covent Garden tube station article) is http://photos.ltmcollection.org/images/max/i9/i00009i9.jpg, but with the new format, the URL for this photo is http://www.ltmcollection.org/images/webmax/i9/i00009i9.jpg (the 'photos' subdomain is now simply 'www', and the 'max' subfolder has been renamed 'webmax'). The images still exist at the original URLs, however, so is it worth updating this template to reflect the new URL format? Andrew (My talk) 23:45, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I noticed this myself the other day and, although the old format still works, I was planning to revise the template to use the new format URL in case LTM stops supporting the old style - this is now done. --DavidCane 00:32, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, no probs [[Image:Smiley.svg|16px|:-)]] Andrew (My talk) 15:44, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Direct linking versus linking to image page
This template appears to be linking directly to the images. More correct would be to link to the page describing the image. This can be done if you know the image number. Currently, the template is producing a link like this, when it should be producing a link like this. The former takes you to the photo alone (which is often not very helpful), but the latter takes you to the photograph documentation page, which will tell you things like when the photograph was taken and what it is a photograph of and other details that the reader will want to know. It is also likely that those who maintain the website would prefer to see traffic going through the documentation page, rather than direct to the image itself. Once you've found a picture by searching, the correct way to link it is through the "bookmark this page" link at left, which gives the URL needed. The difference in this case appears to be: '9861981' versus '1998/61981'. You may need a bot to fix the 251 transclusions of this template to modify the parameter, and at the same time tweak this template to use a slightly different URL. Carcharoth (talk) 23:38, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Template now broken
This template now appears to be completely broken. All the pages that use it display a 403 forbidden page when clicked. It appears that the path to the image files has been changed by LTM, but also that the names of the images have also been changed, so I have had great difficulty finding any of the images for Pimlico tube station, for instance. The same issue seems to affect Template:LTM photo. It doesn't look like there will be an easy fix unless there is a way to turn the old image names into new image names. Bob1960evens (talk) 08:07, 11 April 2023 (UTC)