Here is the change list:

• Added localization support
• Reduced HTML footprint
• Changed the get limit from 500 to 300
• Allow viewing the portfolio by list
• Added a check that may allow Photos to work with GD 1.6
• Change check for GD version, should be more compatible.
• Upgraded to Exifer 1.41
• Stopped using the deprecated ‘call by reference’
• Date picker works properly when a number of months other than 3 is selected.
• Added a setting in the language file for the character set of the page
• Added a check to remove the error message if you clicked the ‘Add Details’ button and no photos needed details addded.
• Fixed search by ‘Need Details’
• URL encoded the photo URL in the EXIF and IPTC pop-up windows
• Fixed a problem with single quotes in photo paths
• ‘previous’ was misspelled on entry page
• Download link for latest release version on about page was broken
• List view change works in Portfolio screen now
• Hidden files (beginning with ‘.’) are properly hidden on the load folder screen

Note: to use Photos, you must have PHP installed with the GD image library enabled.

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final

I would recommend people use this version instead of 4.0.1 as it fixes a number of issues that were in 4.0.1.

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I’m hoping to do a final release of 4.1 next week.

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Changes in this release

• Translated a more strings that had slipped through (all the JavaScript strings in particular, oops!).
• Date picker changes months properly when a number of months other than 3 is set in your config.
• The Delete button is working again.
• A few more PHP Notices have been suppressed.

Many of these have been reported in the forums, I really appreciate the help!

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• Several strings that were missed in my initial internationalization pass. Big thanks to Peter Schagen who is working on a Dutch translation.
• IPTC import is working properly again. Thanks to Frank for catching this and posting it in the forums.
• The date picker wasn’t working because I’d forgotten to include the language file.

Internationalization is really hard to test when you only speak one language and are just pulling the strings out into a language file. If anyone else is planning to do a localization, I’d be very happy to have you work on this version and send in any bugs you find.

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This has a number of small bug fixes, but the big change is internationalization. Of course, I’ve included the English localization, so you should be able to just translate that, set the language in the config file and Photos should run in the language you’ve created. Send me the language file and I’ll include it in the distribution. I’m sure I’ve missed a string here and there, so let me know if anything shows up in English after you do your translation.

I also took this opportunity to reduce the HTML in the pages and add more CSS in certain places and make a few changes here and there as I ran across them.

Photos was my first PHP project and there is a lot I’d like to re-write in this code; it will happen over time I guess.

Here is a list of noteable changes:

• Stopped using the deprecated ‘call by reference’
• Changed the get limit from 500 to 300
• Added a setting in the language file for the pages character set
• Added a check to remove the error message if you clicked the ‘Add Details’ button and no photos needed details addded.
• Fixed search by ‘Need Details’
• URL encoded the photo URL in the EXIF and IPTC pop-up windows
• Fixed a problem with single quotes in photo paths
• Allowed viewing the portfolio by list
• Added a check that may allow Photos to work with GD 1.6
• Lots more little stuff I’m forgetting about
• Upgraded to Exifer 1.41

Lots of code was changed, so there are some probably some good bugs out there to be found.

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It will be good to get this version out, especially with the bug fixes from version 4.0.

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I worked on this a little on the flight last night and found that I couldn’t resist ripping things out and making a number of improvements I’d already made in the Tasks codeline. I’m looking forward to getting the long overdue 4.1 release out. Once I get the Tasks releases out the door.

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I’m also going to be heading up the localization effort for WordPress; Matt and I talked briefly about it last night. There are a few grass roots localization efforts for WP that I need to take a look at, but I’m pretty well set on what needs to happen from my experience with Tasks and other enterprise software projects I’ve worked on. I’ll be adding a small language class that holds the strings and has methods to do token replacement of data within the strings (to handle the variable phrasing of different languages). Sounds like there is time to get localization in for WordPress 1.2, so that’s the current goal.

One of the nice things about being self-employed, I can take time to work on projects like this and give back to the community.

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I don’t build web applications because I prefer them to native applications, but because of the benefits you get from a web application (centrally located, accessible by any computer, etc.). I work hard to make the interface as rich as possible in my software to improve the user experience with things you don’t normally see in web applications (progress bars, resizing text areas, etc.) but it can’t match the power of a native application.

We also discussed the data format. Adam wants to use IPTC data to store the data about each image in each image. I agree with this approach. It lets you use a number of standard tools without tying you to any specific tool. Most good digital photo applications know about IPTC data.

I’ve been approached by several people who have asked me to make the photos database mirror the IPTC data format. I resisted at the time for several good reasons:

• Most people who use digital cameras don’t know about or care about IPTC data.
• More fields make the application more complicated and slower to use.

There are also technical issues around adding multiple keywords and such (make the user enter them one at a time or separate by commas, etc.). I think I’ve come to the conclusion that for all of this, the value of working with a standard set of data is worth the extra hassle.

Using IPTC fields as the main database fields would also make it easier to write that data to the photo files and (gulp) even sync the data between the database and the data in the file. It will also make the application more suitable for newspapers, magazines and other industries that already use IPTC data for everything.

I’m not sure how this fits into the photos roadmap I outlined last week, but I know the upgrade script will be a royal pain in the arse.

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I’m going to get the current tasks development all wrapped up before changing gears and working on photos again, but here are some of the things I want to do in the upcoming releases.

photos 4.1:

• Upgrade to latest version of Exifer.
• Add support for Exposure in Canon 300D.
• Localization - the longer I wait, the more work it becomes.
• Bug fixes.

This could be photos 4.5:

• Support for groups/albums/rolls - however you want to call it.
• Add ‘browse’ bar w/ previous and next links.
• Adding data to multiple photos at once (editable list).
• Select multiple photos and change data about them (for example ‘indoor’ to ‘outdoor’).
• Improve image quality trying various techniques (imagecopyresampled).

This could be photos 5.0:

• Support for additional image formats.
• Export to web gallery applications.
• Slideshow export.

This could be Photos Pro 1.0:

• Multi-user support.
• Allow ‘browse only’/guest access.
• Support for linking photos together as ‘versions’ of the same photo (print version, web version, thumbnail, etc.).

Thoughts?

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The easiest is probably to install photos in a separate directory, use a symbolic link to the gallery_photos folder in your original install, and use a database user that only has SELECT privileges, not INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE. If your visitors try to edit or add photos, the SQL queries will fail and nothing will happen - probably some errors will show up.

Another way to go is to do the separate install and limited access database user, but also go through the app and pulll out all the edit, delete and add buttons. You could also use an .htaccess file to require a username/password for certain pages.

Anyway, users and read-only access will be coming in a future release.

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hidden

Open up ‘load_folder.php’ and look at line #5 and #6.

// $iframe = '<iframe src="load.php...
$iframe = '<iframe src="load.php...

Change that to:

$iframe = '<iframe src="load.php...
// $iframe = '<iframe src="load.php...

(uncomment the first line and comment out the second line) and you’re all set. My apologies to the 684 of you who already downloaded.

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