One of my summer technology projects was to install PHPQuickGallery
at my Web site and the Web site of at least one colleague (so far). The software
lets you easily organize photo collections for display at a Web site. The PHP-based
system allows the site owner to add comments to photos, and it provides
site visitors the opportunity to view images as thumbnails and also in various
sizes. I’ve initiatied my
PHPQuickGallery with photos of my family’s "Baseball Vacation"
and a few archived pictures of the kids.
Norm Boyer is the colleague collaborator/testor so far. He had some great
photos from the England Travels course he taught this summer. Norm helped
me identify a few glitches and workarounds, but most of all, he confirmed how
useful the system is for very quickly posting large collections of photos. I’m
wondering to what extent my colleagues in the Art Department might find PHPQuickGallery
relevant to their needs for organizing the large collections of slides they
use in their instruction.
I found out about this software from the August 6, 2004 Scout
Report. The program is free software, with an unusual but charming licensing
requirement. As the main license condition, developer Benjamin Meyer asks that users send him
a postcard for him to display on the door to his computer room.
Here is how the software is described at the PHPQuickGallery
site:
PHPQuickGallery
PHPQuickGallery is the solution for those who want
to have a simple, easy to manage web gallery. Adding new photos or galleries
is as simple as creating directories and copying in the files (You could keep
them there, but you do have backups of your photos right?). PHPQuickGallery
doesn’t require the user to add the photos to a database, go through some
web form, or have a script run to create new web pages. PHPQuickGallery will
automatically detect and display anything new that is added.PHPQuickGallery includes the following features
- First and formost PHPQuickGallery will check the
comments for spelling when saving them.- Ability to have galleries with images and movies.
- Galleries can have galleries within them.
- Automatic image thumbnail creation. No scripts to
run or import them into the gallery.- Ability to display comments about images and directories
without the need of a database.- Uses the file system for storing the galleries,
images, and comments. It is not stored in a database.- Ability to add/delete comments when logged in.
- Gallery slideshow.
- Scale images on the fly to any size.
- Themes and user prefrences.
- Automatic thumbnail cleanup.
- Clean commented code.