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The Future of Gallery 1
Submitted by Tim_j on Mon, 2007-04-16 19:12
A few months back we released a preview for Gallery 1.6. This contained many new features including access keys, a template system, captcha support, and group support but it also is a dramatic change in the code and layout handling. To this date we have received almost no feedback on these new features. Without any feedback, it is hard for us to know if it still makes sense for us to release Gallery 1.6, especially in light of the fact that it is significantly different from Gallery 1.5. Please read on!
The upside of Gallery 1.6 is that you get all of these new features in a Gallery that doesn't require a database. It continues to be an easy upgrade path from existing Gallery 1 installs with the same system requirements, and the code is much cleaner and more organized making customizations easier. The downside is that users with a modified version 1.5.x or prior would have to do all of their modifications again.
So, we're asking all of you for your opinion on Gallery 1:
- How do you see the future of Gallery 1.x?
- Do you think we should release Gallery 1.6? Why or why not?
- Would you prefer some new features for the 1.5 series without having to redo customizations (even if it means the features take longer and the code isn't as organized)?
- If you would like to see further development of G1, would you be willing to help out? This could be coding, translating, make skins, giving suggestions, etc.
We are relying on your feedback to decide the future of Gallery 1! If interest is low, then we will likely continue to fix any major bugs that crop up and release bug-fix releases appropriately, but will cease other work on Gallery 1. So please, let us know how you feel!
Agreed. I've been running G1 on several sites for the last 4 years or so. On one private server, I tried upgrading one gallery to G2, and I wasn't at all pleased with the results. That was well over a year ago, and maybe it's time I tried out G2 again, but honestly, G1 does exactly what I need and does it well. That being the case, I plan to keep using it for as long as it keeps working, and barring any incompatible changes in future PHP versions, that should be a Long Time.
To the developers who continue to maintain G1: THANK YOU!
I've used G1 for seemingly years now, and find it fast and convenient. I've tried G2 but went back to G1.
This evening I've just been changing one of my G1.5.6 installs so that it generates XHTML 1.0 Transitional code, so I can embed it within an existing site ... well, embed the site around G1 using the custom headers and footers. Means it also works fine in IE6, IE7 and Safari etc.
Must admit I hadn't even noticed the 1.6 preview being available ... so I'll go and have a look now.
Also a big THANK YOU to the developers past and present for G1.
Mark
Having recently migrated to G2 and shortly migrated back to G1 I would have to say keep a steady keel with G1 yet see if you can integrate the most loved features of G1 into G2. Namely the ease of use. Having used G1 for so long I don't find G2 initiative at all and I'm with Chronos...if you can give me a G2 theme that can make it difficult to distinguish the end result between G1 and G2 I may go back to G2. Until then, it's G1.
You know, I pop in here every so often to see if there are updates, I have a couple of G1 galleries set up, and I did see the 1.6 trials being available for download. But I also saw the warning that I'd have to redo everything if I tried it, and that stopped me. It might have deterred others as well, which might explain why you weren't getting comments.
I had to do some serious searching and learning to integrate the headers from my Wordpress blog into the 1.5.x versions, and there appeared to be no documentation on how I might do the same with 1.6.
The only addition I would like is the captcha, or support for something like Spamkarma for Wordpress, just so I don't have to keep weeding out the ads and crap periodically.
I just downloaded rc3, and will give it a try, but it would also be nice to have instructions for reverting if it doesn't work out. The lack of those has also prevented me from trying it previously.
On the G1 vs. G2 front, I also tried G2 several times, and could not do one simple thing: put the albums in a single column, arranged by date, latest first. I worked with several versions and could not figure that out. If it's simple, please tell me how and maybe I'll look into G2.
For now, G1 is simple and sharp like a good chef's knife or carving tool, while G2 feels like a Swiss Army knife, too many things I don't need in the way of doing what I want. I got so frustrated in the preferences that I pounded the table, so gave it up for health reasons.
I thank the developers of both for taking the time and enormous energy to keep making the best gallery software I've found. Someday G2 will mature into something I can use like G1, maybe I'll switch then.
I, as a G1 user I prefer g1 above the g2 becouse of the following:
- size of the script (4.8 MB for g1 and 18mb for g2)
I think such a big script is way to much for a 'family' album.
- the simple layout for users that are not technical or wath soever.
Those 2 are the main reasons i stick with the g1 series.
Things i like of G2 are layout, it looks much better then g1.
the interface for administrator
the plug in like system.
As sad above: i think that g2 is overkill for a normal (up to 200 pictures) gallery (size and load).
if the support of g1 stops i will look for another script then g2.
Things i like to see changed in g1 are the layout thingies. G1 has a look that you can recognise from miles.
I've been using G1 for about 5 years and tried G2 several times. I've found G1 to be superior when it comes to user friendliness, simplicity and speed. Add my vote for a 1.6 release.
I'm seriously considering dropping G2 and going back to G1. G1 always worked flawlessly for me, but I've had nothing but glitch after glitch with G2. The Database interface is too difficult to work with in a shared hosting environment and not having the time to or know how to get very deep into a database. I believe G1 would be much easier to work with in my environment. G2 has a lot of nice features, but they just aren't worth the trouble. If 1.6 has some nice new features that G2 has, but without the extra trouble, then I'd defiantly be interested in it.
Too bad there isn't an easy way to convert from G2 to G1, or is there?
No, there is no way from G2 -> G1.
If you miss a feature in G1, just put it in http://gallery.menalto.com/node/63475
Thanks,
Jens
--
Last Gallery v1 Developer and v1 translation manager.
the ability to scale to a large number of photographs is my #1 concern. being a long time G1 user I very much vote to see continued development on this project
and for it to focus on:
database integration so it can scale <-- important
rss capabilities (both send/recieve)
there isnt anything i am 'missing' from the front end.
great features i enjoy:
- rearrange items (use all the time)
- edit thumbnail
- sort randomly
- watermarking
- view image, so i can link images to forums, myspace, etc.
keep up the good work
Hello,
about your #1 concern ... Thats why G2 was made with a database backend ;-)
Jens
--
Last Gallery v1 Developer and v1 translation manager.
I for one would like to see G1 development continue. I've tried G2 but just wasn't impressed with it. Lower performance and the interface just isn't as user friendly. I host a gallery with sub-albums that are each owned by different friends (20+ sub-albums with 22K+ images) to post their pictures in. I've gotten comments on how nice and easy it is to use G1. The interface and look and feel of the software is just very clean and uncluttered. Can't really say the same for G2.
Things I would like to see put into G1 are caching features such as this:
http://gallery.menalto.com/node/61794
Code like this would definitely help with the performance of those having problems with G1.
I'm in the same boat here, although I have an enormous G1 family gallery (86k+ pics). The layout is simple, my customization is done. The relatives are starting to find it easy to post. Since the bulk of my gallery in on a home DSL line, I love the mirroring ability of G1. I can rsync the last 30 days to a higher bandwidth site and keep the archives where storage is cheap and plentiful.
All the features I want are in G1 and I'm familiar enough with the code to make it do what I want. Most of my customizations wouldn't make a real feature list. I symlink galleries to other gallery installs to make virtual domains for each family members. I have php scripts that make searching possible without loading all the dat files. I would be happy if G1 just went into security maintainance mode. If a rewrite makes that easier for the awesome gallery programers to maintain, that would be the only reason for me to switch to 1.6. If I want more features, I would switch to G2.
I totaly agree. I use both G1 and G2, and I would prefer that the dev team concentrate on G2 since G1 is stable.
So, What's the verdict?
I tried G2 briefly. Didn't think much of it. G1 is small, simple, and exactly what I need.
I'm a new user, but I like a lot the possibility to have a powerful photogallery framework without a database management!
Please keep Gallery 1 update and alive!
I love Gallery1 - it is small, simple and without MySQL.
I also like the design.
Gallery2 is too difficult - you'd have to be a freak to handle G2.
BUT for my private site i use G2 - but i've needed a lot of time to customize it.
Please keep G1 developement going. I like the simple efficient features and will never get over a 1000 photos on my site. I only use it to display and don't use voting or comments. Thanks to all who have put there time and energy into this great photo gallery. Looking forward to G 1.6 and beyond...
I have been using G1 for quite sometime now. I love the ease of adding it to CMS and Forums. I have many phpnuke sites and G1 plugs right in and runs like a dream. It is fast, stable and does not require a database - those are huge selling points over G2. I wish to see continued development and support for G1 and I wish I had 1.6 beta to test it out.
Both G1 and G2 have their following and niche in the market. I say keep them both going.
So do great work so I will donate again to your projects. Best regards.
Gary
I am going to keep using G1. The fact is that even though I have a very powerful server, G1 is not meant to hold 75,000 pictures and when looking at the front page it is the slowest web load in existance. But! That is why I just cache the front page.
It is still more easy to use than G2 is for most users. And the dynamic features of G2 are cool, but many of my users just want to host their pictures and don't need them. There is unfortunately not a G1 style or theme that I have seen that makes it look exactly like G1, and I would have a revolt if I moved everyone to G2.
I beg of the G1 programmers to keep at it because that the gallery I have with 75,000 pictures runs so well after all of these years once you get into the sub-albums that I have no reason to move all of my pictures even when I do have installations of the other major gallery php scripts.
Though I know I do not have it set to count the number of pictures in total on every front page load, I wish there was another way to speed up or disable more features on the front page! That's all
I've been using G1 for years at my site (www.snagabag.com/gallery).
i LOVE G1 and hope development continues.
The simple UI (for end users) is great for me, and the no DB is nice too.
I have 5000-10000 photos, so not a huge gallery.
Thanks!!
also, G1 is VERY easy for me to manage and this point, and i have very time to manage my gallery. G1+Gallery Remote just WORKS. I don't mind redoing my (very few) customizations as long as v1.6 just works.
Ok, so I did my homework and spent a whole day playing with gallery. I have my gallery installation updated to 1.5.6, so I tried 1.6. It is just amazing, all the things I need (great to have group support and much more)
But after reading all the discussions about gallery2 or gallery1 I also installed gallery2 to see for my self. I arrive to the conclusion that gallery2 is too much for me, not so easy to configure and use, like gallery1. I think both products may be continued, maybe gallery1 do not need so much effort like gallery2 but please, release gallery1.6, it is just great and you already have much work done.
In addition I tried to play with the locales. I could help with the spanish locale for 1.6. How may I do that?
Conclusion:
Gallery 1 is great, no DB needed, easy use and install and not a lot of management to be done. Gallery 2 is a different approach with a lot of things that make it harder to use and configure for a home user.
I hope to have contributed.
Thanks
I used G1 for 4 years, I LOVE it. I hv no DB server (like many other users) I donno programming, so Please continue maintain and develop G1 and release 1.6, 1.7....1.xxx
However, I would like G1 to add user comment in each albums ( not only each photo) and blog mode. :D
Thanks!
I am in the process of reverting back to G1. I used G2 but was not happy with the performance plus the maintenance of the site (backup and such) bacause of the database behind it makes it more time consuming.
I like the simplicity of G1, the simplier the better.
Please present your future Roadmap!
For me there are two possible ways to go:
1) Continue developing both G1 and G2.
or
2) Keep maintaining G1 (security) and continue development only on G2.
I guess you are not sure about this choice and that is why this thread exists. Whatever you choose to do (or not do) I would just like to see a roadmap with the plans for the future. Write down a roadmap memo and post it as a separate page on the website. This will be unvaluable to new users when making the choice!
Thanks for the great products!
Hi
I use both G1 and G2. I'd rather like G1 because it's much faster and I don't need a database. G2 has some nice templates and it's easy to reorder albums and photos. Please go on with the implementation of G1!!!
In G1 I would like an add-on for Joomla to easy integrate Photos in a Joomla-Content. For Wordpress there is a great add-on to integrate G2 photos in a content. Same would be great for G1 with Joomla.
Cheers!
I've seen a variety of reasons for those preferring to stay with G1. For what it's worth, I like the simplicity of wrapping up G1 within Geeklog. I would greatly prefer to be able to store the images in a database though because my hosting company does not like the directory permissions and file ownerships associated with G1. Coercing G2 to look the way I want it to and to use the session settings, user names, etc. is an option, but the integration right now leaves a great deal to be desired and seems quite a large hurdle. Perhaps if there were a more seamless transition outside of the wonderful data migration functions? I certainly like what I've seen of G2 otherwise. It just seems like a lot of work to re-integrate it with my existing site.
I would be remiss though if I didn't thank all those involved for their wonderful contribution to the open source community even if their visions aren't quite aligned with my own...
Scott
I can't guarantee what will happen in the future, but my largest photo album (over 29,000 photos) still runs G1. With each new upgrade, there is a bit of anxiety that my antiquated/modified cms will be a barrier to supporting whatever new features come about. Unless I've missed something, there isn't a clear direction as to the integration capabilities of G2. Which means that when the time comes for a cms upgrade on the previously mentioned site, those 29,000+ photos will be migrated to a separate G2-based site and be regulated to an online "museum".
Aside from that, your efforts are greatly appreciated!
G1 has everything I require at the moment. Switching to G2 is a pain, and unnecessary for me at this point in time.
Here is a twist on everything mentioned throughout this thread. Keep G1 & G2 safe and secure, while focusing all efforts on G3! Make G3 the best of both worlds.
I started with G1, went to G2, thought it was better. I've since taken all my sites back to G1. I hope there is continued support/development for G1 as I have no need for G2 or any desire to upgrade again.
I'd like to see a means to resize images already on the server w/o having to download/resize/upload.
Thanks!
I am an avid user of Gallery 1 and have been for years. I definitely vote for continued development. I tried G2 for a while when it came out and really hated it. No offense to those of you who love G2.
But I found G1 to be a lot faster for the end user. I liked it much better in every sense. And it was far easier to integrate withe Wordpress theme I have for my site. Witness:
http://www.rapp.org/gallery/
If G1 was discontinued, I'd stick with the last version until something more compelling came along. I cannot see any scenario in which I'd want to move to G2.
I do prefer G1..
why?
it is database-free..thats for me the main fact..
and it is still fast enough, easy to update and easy to use..
what i would love to see?
I would love to see the inclusion of the flowplayer for flash-movies..
So, i could change the large quicktime-movies into flash-movies, and display them within the gallery-layout..
thats what i would wish
and a better spam-protection..which should work with captcha already..thanks for that..
i will test the rc 1.6 in the next days..
Greetings
Marcel
The only reason I didn't run G2 on my sites because of the database issues. It's extra time spend in terms of getting mysql or other sql database setup. As long as an embedded database available that is easy to setup, I will be moving onto G2 but that isn't the case so I am stay on G1 as long as possible.
G1 does what I want it to do, and I am happy for G1 features to stay as is with bug/security fixes only.
I've been using G1 for 5+ years on several servers and I haven't commented about 1.6 yet, so let me offer my 39 cents... I continue to use G1 because it doesn't need a database, and I understand how it works. Yes I have customized a few things, which is why I haven't looked at 1.6 yet. I'd be willing to customize 1.6 again if some of the bug fixes have been made over 1.5.x... such as the bug for busy sites where the album order keeps getting reset when quite a few users are viewing the gallery at the same time. Most of my customizations have been with the CSS, so they will be pretty easy to make these changes with 1.6.
For G2, I'm a little hestitant to put all my photos in a database. I do like databases such as MySQL but my experience with various web hosting companies is that database performance is often terrible... even though HTML performance might be fine. I'm not sure if the built-in SQLite database with PHP 5 can be used with G2 or not, but that would be ideal for those of us looking to migrate to G2 one day... a simple database without needing MySQL, and hence no big performance drop.
Kelly from [url]www.redbeet.com[/url]
I vote to please continue support of G1 and release v1.6.
I run a Postnuke site and had used G1 for two years. I finally decided to get with the times, and migrated to G2. I loved the look and feel and all the features, but after a week's worth of tweaking and frustration, I just could not get it to embed correctly. I was forced to migrate all over again and return to G1. It was a lot of work, and an experience I won't repeat.
Please, continue support of G1 for the Nuke community!
I don't want to use a DB for my gallery, I like the files. I think more work should be done to G1. I think there will always be a place for G1.
Oh ya! It sounds like a step forward instead of the giant leap of G2.
1.6 sounds like the way to go, but it should still have the cosmetics (look n feel, speed, ease of use) of 1.5
Sure, but I'm lazy, but I have a big heart and always try to help out. I would not mind giving something back to a great project.
I also run a Postnuke site and selected Gallery 1.x several years ago because it was so easy to integrate and was very functional. I have been looking at discussions on G2/Postnuke integration spasmodically but just really don't have the time to deal with the issues I expect to encounter (like noted above and elsewhere in this thread). Probably a more critical issue is that if Postnuke integration is not supported directly by G2, I have no guarantee that the 3rd party integration will remain functional as Postnuke and G2 evolve. I have suffered through too many third party add-ons that have been abandoned.
I have no problems with using a database (everything else on my site is database oriented) but the 1.x series does what I need and I will continue to use it until it as long as it is still getting security updates OR until G2 decides to adopt the integration efforts for some of the major CMS systems to provide some assurance of continuity.
Gallery (G1 & G2) is a great application and I am very appreciative that someone is still willing to support G1 in spite of all the G2 fundamentalists clamoring for its demise.
Bob R.
I have been using gallery from the very first release, I tried gallery 2 but my sever crawled so I moved back to 1.5 and now I am very happy enjoying 1.6.
I will keep my sites and will keep drumming up gallery to anyone I know and may need a gallery software.
It will be nice to have support for movie files in flv, or quictime.
Thank you!
I've also been very pleased with gallery.
My site, http://www.stenzelfamily.com/gallery/ , is just a family picture site with ~2000 images in 3GB.
I've tried the update to G2 from G1 3 times now, and none have taken.
Major inhibitors include:
1) Navigation is much easier in G1, especially with a "deep" album trees.
2) G1 has better recursion handling -- especially slideshow and image download. In general, I'd like to be given the option to download all sub albums (if they exist) whenever I operate on all.
3) G2's G1 import has enough quirks that it's very time consuming
4) G2 doesn't handle gracefully cases where too many files take too long, leading to unpredictable results (granted this is with capabilities that G1 does not have).
Now, G2 has lots of features that I very much like. And I've been able to tune the feel of my g2 install so it looks very spiffy compared to G1. I'm also open to the possibility that user error caused some or all of my issues. . .
I like the way G1 handles top-level albums better than G2. I don't really have a static portion of the site -- I'm too lazy/buzy to maintain it. Having a title really helps.
Mostly I want to say keep up the good work. If G2 had recursive slideshow and image downloads, I'd be on it now.
--Harley
I'm another vote for 1.6. I tried desperately to upgrade to 2 assuming that 2 had to be better than 1. I no issues with the database integration but 1) could never get my albums to import and 2) missed a lot of the 1.x functionality such as slideshow functionality. Maybe those things are fixed (it's been some time since I played with 2) but I still like the look and feel of 1 out of the box more than the current 2 out of the box look and feel. As others have said, I could be just AOK with security and bug-fixes but I'd appreciate the cleaner code and CSS that 1.6 promises!
Hi Tim, I'm going to be using Gallery 1.x for the VERY FIRST TIME on a real estate website (small number of pictures and albums, one album per property). Jpg photos with fixed titles, no comments from viewers. Would you like me to try 1.6, or should I stay with the current 1.5 until I know something ???
Thanks in advance.
Hello,
What are "fixed titles"?
Gallery 1.6 is nice, if you are just starting its worth a try. If something fails, i can fix it quick. Or if you dont like it, you can switch to 1.5.6 in less then a quarter of an hour.
Jens
--
Last Gallery v1 Developer.
Tryout the TEST-Version of Gallery 1.6
What I think would be a great addition, is the possibility to manually change the order of albums on the first page. But so far I have to say I'm very thankful for now with the just added captcha support
Maken Nieuws
Hello Maken,
this is already possible for years. We call it "reorder".
Jens
--
Last Gallery v1 Developer.
Tryout the TEST-Version of Gallery 1.6