Choosing a Gallery / Media Presentation plugin for my friend’s WordPress
I am looking for something i can put on my friend’s WP site that i’m setting up for her. Needs to be foolproof and easy to use. Not requiring FTP but that does not require giving too much power to the scripts or major changes to the server config. Stuff that works with Iphoto would be good, cos she gotta Mac.
Browsed WP Plugin Directory > Images (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/)
looked at:
Inline Gallery
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/inline-gallery/
looks ok - can’t seem to see any thumbnail examples for it though. many of the demo galleries come out with 404 errors - need to investigate. Just spotted a flash demo at : http://m0n5t3r.info/stuff/inline-gallery/ig_install_demo_final.swf - look easy and simple. Perhaps i could train my friend to FTP her pics up to the site..Darn, just spotted note on
Known issues and enhancement ideas > 30 > … “gallery admin is non-functional until the next release”. Shame it looked promising.
word Tube looks promising:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordtube/ - i think i’ll use it, but don’t think it does photo galleries as i wanted.
Gallery 2
looks good, but requires too much altering of settings of the server config for my liking
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpg2/
looking at imageshack uploader. need to check out imageshack before i know what the score is with this.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/imageshack-uploader/
Lightbox JS v2.2 Plugin - very nifty, but not quite what i was looking for.
http://www.4mj.it/lightbox-js-v20-wordpress/
pictorialisII looks really good. But the documentation is a bit thin. Relies on a support forum as far as i can tell. Readme file in the dowload just goes to WordPress. Really would like to see some form of step-by-step guide to install and set-up. I like to see a beginning middle and end to documentation. The example blog seems to be a dead link too. Overall the project appears to have died.
http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2004/06/14/pictorialis-ii-ready-for-download/
fgallery looked good but needs safemode off
http://www.fahlstad.se/wp-plugins/fgallery/
Lazy Gallery Plugin - summary looks promising. http://www.lazyboy.dk/wordpress/?page_id=14 . don’t like seeing “ALPACINO WAS HERE” at the top of the page -> looks like its been hijacked which doesn’t bode well for the script (although it may be coincidental). Too scared to proceed with this one.
Keep on Searchin’
going through list on http://codex.wordpress.org/Photoblogs_and_Galleries
Coppermine looks good. Seems very powerfull. See no mention of CTRL+F for “Wordpress” in the docs though. So not sure if it sits next to WP or can be merged together.
http://coppermine-gallery.net/index.php
oh, just spotted link to CoppermineSC (http://www.55rueplumet.com/plugins/copperminesc/) on…
and on, and on…
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Images
Duh Gallery (http://blog.perfectspace.com/2006/03/28/duh-gallery-the-simple-wordpress-photo-gallery-plugin/) looks interesting. Had a look at the instructions, didn’t quite understand the known issues with width sizes. will follow up later.
WPIG (http://www.thepenguinmafia.com/projects/wpig) sounds good too. need to investigate. Looks really good. seems simple and easy to install and use. not much has happened on the project since dec 06 - (although that really is not so long ago). ******
PictPress (http://www.curioso.org/2005/12/09/pictpress-10/) - summary also looked good. also linked to a dead page. perhaps my internet connection is not at full speed. ok now, it was my connenction. Humm. I seem to have been here before. recognise the curioso logo.
going through: http://wordpress.org/search/gallery
seems to be a lot of dead links. may be temporary problem.
Photopress (http://familypress.net/photopress/) - summary looks good. Doh, links to a dead page! Aargh. Looks worth tracking down though, may be later. ok now, it was my connenction. Taken a brief view of the site. Looks really neat plugin. Even has an SVN dev repository. ******
Decision Time
Ok I’m tired and i wanna give up the search.
I think i’ll go with PhotoPress cos they seem pretty-on-the-ball and it looks simple to use.
I downloaded the plugin.
Pleased to see a lovely readme file with neatly organised step-by-step instructions.
Took a look through the code. Considered altering the path to the photos folder (Don’t like to use ’standard paths/filenames’ with 3rd party plugins). But, thought i should just test it before i tinker.
Uploaded and activated without problems.
Pointed browser to: WP Admin > Options > Photopress
Pleased to see that you can change the paths there without having to dig into the code.
Checked radio option to use permalinks.
Change Album token for permalinks to “pictures”.
Made a few other tweaks.
Had a play around.
Don’t understand what is meant by my “Browse Tab” mentioned in the README.
Still can’t quite figure out how to actually insert an image into a post yet.
Noticed my random pic appearing in the meta info. Also noticed that it didn’t seem to be linking to the right place - getting a 404. I think it may have something to do with my permalink option not being able to write to my htaccess (i don’t like the idea of any scripts writing to that file) - so i turned off permalinks in the photopress options and the link worked. Haven’t spotted any helper script that tells me what to hard code into my htaccess.
Played around with the “Hide the built-in uploader in WP 2″ option and managed to spot a browse tab. If i don’t hide WP 2 uploader the Photopress one disappears again. Very strange. The options tip is right about the confusion this causes.
Oooh wow. Spotted a button called “photos” in the code view of Admin > Manage > Posts > Edit. Spotted the “browse tab” when i click on it. Oh, and a graphic button appears in my Visual view now, too. Not sure if it was there before , but hey, praps I hadn’t refreshed the page or something.
OK. I think i’ve worked the thing out now.
Photopress Voted #1 WordPress Picture Gallery Plugin by Me!
Woo hoo! Thanks Photopress you have provided the perfect gallery plugin which is quick and easy to put in place. I recommend you add a little more explanation about where the browse tab can be found into the readme file - but that’s just something that can be found after a quick play around anyway. The “browse tab” appears in the upload window which appears when you click on the “photos button” in toolbar of the Manage>Posts > Edit> WYSIWYG editor (and below the WYSIWYG editor if the correct options have been set in Options > Photopress > “Hide the built-in uploader in WP 2″ ).
After about four hours of plugin research and tweaking I have got what I wanted. (That beats many more hours of the coding that I might have ended up doing instead. So, wow, this whole Wordpress thing is fantastic).
If anyone knows of a comparable plugin that I did not spot, feel free to mention it in the comments below.
Stuff I picked up during my searh / Things i need to learn about in future:
What the earth id EXIF all about?
WebSVN http://websvn.tigris.org/ (as spotted on Photpress repo. ) need to learn more about it.