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Noel Jackson has released the beta of the new version of Photostack! Congratulations!

I have to say that the original Photostack was about 65% of the inspiration for zenphoto. I loved the innovative way it just took folders of photos and stuck ‘em online, and the only reason I wrote zenphoto was because I saw demand for something that could move beyond Photostack, that I could play with and innovate on in little areas. I haven’t tried the new Photostack yet, but I’m thrilled to see it doing the same thing.

Come to think of it, there are a lot of good new photo gallery apps popping up. I say try them all and use what works best for you. I know I’ll try Photostack, if only for old time’s sake…

Zenphoto 0.9 fixes a lot of stuff. From the changelog:

• Removed web_path and server_path config variables. They are now automatically deduced (and there was much rejoicing).
• Added theme functions: getPrevImageThumb() and getNextImageThumb() – return the path
  to the thumbnail of the previous or next image relative to the current image.
• Fixed bugs with using next_image() (for iterating through all album images) on an image page. You should now be able to use any loop anywhere without affecting the state.
• [Bug 005102] Images smaller than the standard image size will not be sized up anymore.
• [Bug 005125] AJAX-editing no longer strips HTML from titles/descriptions.
• [Bug 005086] Using zenphoto without mod_rewrite should work fine now.

Go grab it at zenphoto.org.

Finally got around to moving my own photo gallery to zenphoto. Check it out. I uploaded a couple new albums to sweeten the deal.

Thank you all for the wonderful response to the release of the zenphoto beta (read the post below, or go to zenphoto.org to grab it).

zenphoto support forums

Of course, like any beta release, it’s a bit hard to install, and is pretty inconsistent over different platforms, so I’ve opened up the forums so you can get help easier and faster. If you need help, just start a new thread there. If you want to help give support, please create an account and start helping people out. I’d appreciate it greatly.

There were a few common installation problems people have experienced:

• The ‘albums’ directory cannot be found or is not readable means that you have your ’server_path’ variable wrong. This thread shows how to find out the right path.
• Permissions on the ‘albums’ and ‘cache’ folders have to be world read/writable (eg: chmod 777 in unix/linux)
• Problems without .htaccess or mod_rewrite enabled will be addressed in a later release. For now, to get to the admin pages without it, go to [zenphoto dir]/zen/admin.php manually.

Other issues and bugs will hopefully be fixed soon. Also, I’m looking for more developers to help with everything. If you’re an experienced programmer, know languages other than PHP, and think you have good software design skills, send me an e-mail at the obvious address (everything trisweb).

Available at zenphoto.org.

Wow that felt good. It took me a while to realize what I was actually doing, but then when I uploaded the front page of zenphoto.org and looked at the domain in the address bar, it hit me.

It’s not 100% as complete as I wanted for 1.0, but it’s pretty darn good, and definately good enough to use and to start making themes for. Speaking of which, theme developers: I’ll have some documentation up soon, but until then, just look at how the two included themes are built and you should be able to figure it out. If you know PHP, the template-functions.php will be good to look at.

So, with that, I leave it to you. Remember that this is a developer release, and as such I won’t be supporting it much. I’m trying to get a support forum set up so you can help each other out.

If you get it installed and working, leave a comment here with a link (if you want) and a sentence or two on your initial thoughts. Thanks!

Update: We now have support forums, which should be better for helping everyone. Please keep the tech support there and the links and comments here from now on. Thanks!

Needless to say, school has started and like I knew all along, development on ZP has slowed. I swear I want to get this first release out soon, but I just can’t make promises anymore. I have so many other things which are so unfortunately more important.

That said, I have tomorrow off, so maybe I’ll finish it all.

I have made several updates, including the ability to select the thumbnail for the album from its images, with a preview in 100% CSS-styled listbox goodness. The preview doesn’t work in Internet Explorer, but frankly, neither should you.

Also included are all sorts of updates to the admin control panel from Joen which I forgot to include in the last version.

zenphoto 0.6.1 (admin)

Note: You may have to delete the zenphoto cookie from trisweb.com to log in, since I changed the cookie to remember multiple logins on multiple ZP installs on the same domain (a good thing ). To do this in Firefox, go to Tools»Options»Privacy and find the “View Cookies” button. It’s actually harder to figure out in Firefox 1.5 beta, but about the same.

Update: I didn’t realize how much I would like being able to set the album thumbnail. I find it produces a much better-looking album index.

Joen’s theme for the upcoming zenphoto is complete, so check out his post on the usability and design strategies he incorporated into it.

I figured I should show it in action, so I’ve uploaded the latest zenphoto to the usual place, which is full of some great new design.

No, it’s not done yet. Look, I’m on 0.6, and I’ve got 0.7-0.9 to go before I can call it 1.0! If you want to see exactly how much left there is, look at the list, and please tell me if there are things in for 1.0 you don’t care about so I can put them off until later.

Also, while I remember, I prefer the spelling “zenphoto”, though I really don’t care if you capitalize and add spaces.

Also, if you’re looking for an amazing new album to listen to, get Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens (iTunes) now. It’s blown me away on first listen, and I’m still only on track 20.

I’ve been working hard on the list, and I do believe I’ve got everything I wanted for 1.0 in.

So what are we waiting for? I don’t have internet. I’m working internetless, and then borrowing some poor soul’s wireless connection from the other side of the house for e-mail and necessities.

We’re also waiting for Joen to finish his theme, which will be the one shipped as “default” with the 1.0 release. So put the pressure on over there!

For now, I invite you to take a look at the newest version, which is done enough for me to start using it. You’ll be particularly interested in the new “options” admin tab, with a theme switcher, with a first draft of the new default theme…

Zenphoto 0.5 (new photos from Yosemite)
Control Panel (user: admin, pass: 1234)

I left uploading on, but please be nice and just do small pictures if you want to test it. Also, try not to delete too many comments. Thanks.

Update on the Safari bug: – It should be working now. Again, to try it, just log in to the admin, click “view gallery” and try to edit a title and description. Thanks for testing.