Noscope

Researching Photo Gallery CMS’s [Update]

April 23rd, 2005 by Joen cms, interface-design, photos, usability, voxpop

Currently, Noscope is using the very nice CMS, Photostack, for the Photography section. No more. Now using zenphoto.

Photostack allows me to upload a folder full of JPEGs, update a single text file, and voila: an online photo album.

This is how it’s supposed to be. Upload pictures, push the button, and all pages, thumbnails, links and everything are created for you by the little goblin inside the computer. Unfortunately, I’ve grown out of Photostack, and now I need more features. I need a new photo album CMS.

This is where it gets difficult. There are literally hundreds of solutions for people like me. Some have waay too many features. Some (like Photostack), are simple and neat, but miss just the right extra features. That’s where you, Esteemed Reader, comes in to the picture. If my referrer software analyzes you correctly, you are most likely web-savvy and interested in photography. It’s quite likely you know something I don’t.

Note: Michael already wrote an excellent article about this. Unfortunately it didn’t result in a solution, thus this repeat.

Needed Features

These are the features I’m looking for.

• Upload JPEGs + push a button = Online album
• Automatically generated RSS
• Allows descriptions on each photo
• Allows user comments on each photo
• Really simple templating system
• PHP & text files or PHP & SQL
• As little clutter as possible
• Not Flickr
• Cruft free URLs
• As you can see, if it wasn’t for the fact that Photostack doesn’t allow comments on individual photos, I’d be a happy camper.

Solutions

Here are some solutions that I’ve been looking at:

• Chris J. Davis’ Visuals
  Pros: Great Wordpress integration.
  Cons: Relies on JavaScript, has navigation issues, is limited.
• PixelPost
  Pros: All the necessary features.
  Cons: Too many features, seems hard to template, navigation issues, cruft in URLs.
• Gallery
  Pros: All the necessary features.
  Cons: Total feature overkill, lot of work to template, cruft in URLs.
• Pictorialis
  Pros: All the necessary features. Wordpress “compatible” (it’s a fork).
  Cons: Two Wordpress’ish installations? Seems to be a lot of work.
• Coppermine
  Pros: They tell me it has all the right features.
  Cons: They tell me it’s bloated like there’s no tomorrow.
• LinPHA
  Pros: Has all the features.
  Cons: Look at it! You want me to template that!?
• 4Images
  Pros: Has all the features.
  Cons: Takes a lot of work.
• Folderblog
  Pros: Most of the necessary features: Thumbnails, comments, good description system.
  Cons: Truly unbearable category system, no RSS, no automatic thumbnails, limited templating, cruft in URLs.
• Zen Photo
  Tristan might just make the ultimate system from the bottom up. It might just rock. Update: Tristan did make the ultimate system.
  Pros: All of the good features.
  Cons: I’m told it’s not flawless on Windows-powered servers.
• Minigal (Demo)
  From what I can see, Minigal actually seems like a viable solution! It seems easily templateable, it has the most needed features, and it’s GPL. Except for the cruft in the URLs, this might actually be it.
  Pros: Does most of what I need.
  Cons: Comment author doesn’t seem to be cookied, no RSS, cruft in URLs, unbearable album categorization system, photos must be placed in root.
• TinyWebGallery (Demo)
  Like Minigal, this also seems like a viable solution. It does seem as though there’s a bit more work involved, on the other hand, the commenting and URL features seem better.
  Pros: Does most of what I need.
  Cons: No RSS, cruft in URLs, requires PHP Safe Mode off.
• SPiD (Demo)
  Pros: Has what I need.
  Cons: Requires PHP Safe Mode off.
• Plogger
  Pros: Great admin, easy install, coments, works in PHP Safe Mode, FTP Upload, automatic thumbnails, cruft-free URLs and RSS in the future
  Cons: Flat storage of photo files (everything in one folder).
• Hotscripts Image Gallery CMS listing

Suggestions are welcome.
Results

• Update: I’ve installed Minigal. Removed Minigal. The fact that I can’t categorize pictures into folders killed it for me.
• Update: Tried TinyWebGallery. It won’t work either. It requires PHP Safe Mode to be off, which it’s not.
• Update: Tried Pictorialis. It’s good, but it’s got too many remnants of Wordpress. It’s simply not mature yet. Plus, it didn’t like that my server runs PHP Safe Mode.
• Update: Tried Pixelpost. It’s good, but it doesn’t allow for me to upload bulk pictures using FTP. FTP Uploads are available using an addon included in the Pixelpost package. (Thanks Ramin)
• Update: Tried Plogger. Currently the clear winner of the bunch. Unfortunately it uses a flat structure for storing files. On the upside, there’s an active development on this one. Keep your eyes on it!
• Update: Zenphoto is the way to go.