- Gallery is a freeware software package
- Freeware photo album module to install on your web site
- Could be used to create your own photo sharing web site
- Easy to install on your own web server
- Fully configurable through a web based installation wizard
- Doesn't require any special permissions so fine for use on rented web servers
- Create albums to view as web pages or slideshows
- Suitable for embedding in a variety of different content management systems
- Works with different image manipulation packages for maximum compatibility
- Fully customizable using CSS
- Java uploader available as well as methods for uploading from Windows XP and iPhoto
- Users can leave comments on albums and photos
- Support for many different languages
- Freely downloadable package
Gallery is a software package that can be installed on a web server to provide photo sharing functionality. It is not a photo sharing site in itself, but if you knew what you were doing, you could create your own site using it. Even with a limited knowledge of building web sites you can use it yourself to add photo album functionality to your web site. If you are looking for an easy to use, out of the box, photo sharing web site Gallery isn't for you, but if you are a developer looking for a useful building block, read on.
Gallery is essentially a PHP module that you can use to provide photo album functionality to your web site. It supports many of the features you would expect from a photo sharing web site such as album creation, slideshows and comments. With a bit of effort you could build your own entire photo sharing web site taking advantage of the functionality Gallery provides. There is no support for user handling so you would need to implement this yourself, but everything photo-wise is taken care of.
Gallery is very easy to install, even without too much knowledge of web servers or programming. The installation procedure is taken care of using a web based wizard which allows you to configure a number of different settings. Handily you don't need any special permissions on the web server you want to install Gallery on, which means it is ideal for use on rented servers as well as your own. Gallery also provides a remote protocol so that other applications can interact with it to upload or retrieve photos. This makes it possible to develop your own uploader tools if you want, but a Java based uploader is already provided.
Gallery has an active forum for development support, but as it is a freeware application, you won't find much in the way of official support. However, the documentation is comprehensive and the developers often answer queries on the message board so you shouldn't get too stuck. It is also constantly being updated so if there are new features you would like added there is a forum for posting your ideas.
Gallery does the job pretty well as a PHP module for providing photo album capabilities to your web site, but it is not a ready-to-go photo sharing web site. As such it will probably only be of interest to web developers or even just enthusiasts who don't mind putting in a bit of effort. Gallery is also freeware so you can use it all you want and it is well worth a look if you are planning on developing a web site.
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