If you do not already know, the Alumnae Association has a large online photo gallery. I upload photos and manage the gallery with a free application called JetPhoto which I've written about in the past. I really like the many features of the online gallery which include:
- Themeable pages
- Keyword Searching
- Categories
- Multiple Views
- Flash Slide Show
- Ability to write descriptions for each photo
- Easy upload of images with automatic resizing
One of the significant things that was missing for me was the ability for visitors to post comments about the pictures. I contemplated developing the feature myself in PHP. What looked like a rather simple project soon became much more complicated when I started contemplating how to combat spam, how to store the messages associated with the images, how to monitor the comments and how to easily delete or edit them. Then I wondered if someone had already developed a script I could integrate into JetPhoto without having to reinvent the wheel.
After searching the web for a while I came across a free open source script called Comments from ScriptsMill.com that fit the bill. It does everything but allow me to easily edit the comments. For that I can use PhpMyAdmin, another cool open source tool that allows for management of MySQL databases.
The program installed easily onto the web server and integrates easily within the gallery with just one line of code. I discovered a bug on the admin control related to the long URLS generated by JetPhoto. I emailed the developers and they got back to me within a couple hours with a solution. In my experience with web software and services, it appears that the turn around time for support is in proportion to what you pay for it. Assistance on free open source programs is usually the same day. Whereas, for commercial applications resolutions can be days, week or months.
In addition to the comments feature I added the ability to easily hide or expand the comments, as well as, the photo details which show the exposure, camera, ISO speed, aperture and so forth.
Another free open source option for hosting your online galleries is a program call Gallery which is a full featured application written in PHP with numerous options and add on modules and themes. I like the fact that there now many ways to upload your photos to gallery including plug-ins for Picasa and iPhoto. If that was available a year ago I would have probably went with Gallery instead of JetPhoto. JetPhoto was the tool of choice when I needed to easily upload numerous photos the same day they were taken during Reunion.
Coppermine is another open source option with many features. I used it for the Alumnae Image Gallery where alums could upload their own pictures during reunion, unfortunately it was under utilized. With services like Flickr, I may not offer it next year, especially with spam being a concern.
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