Jan. 2010: At this stage, Gallery2 or Gallery3? NetPBM or ImageMagick?

Originating post:
http://gallery.menalto.com/node/93702

So you recommend ImageMagic over the other toolkits, if I understand you right?

And can I only use ImageMagick after executed an installer locally on the windows-server (where Apache is running, not IIS) or can I also place the necessary dll's in the bin from remote by using FTP and install it through Gallery2 if I have all the needed NT rights on that bin folder?

This my sysinfo:
System information 01-08-2010 22:56:50 Success run now
Get system details; useful for copy/paste into G2 support forum.
Last Run Details:

Gallery URL = http://sub.mydomain.com/multi-media-center/main.php
Gallery version = 2.3.1 core 1.3.0.1
API = Core 7.54, Module 3.9, Theme 2.6, Embed 1.5
PHP version = 5.2.3 apache2handler
Webserver = Apache/2.2.4 (Win32) mod_ssl/2.2.4 OpenSSL/0.9.8e mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.2.3 mod_perl/2.0.3 Perl/v5.8.8
Database = mysqli 5.0.45-community-nt, lock.system=database
Toolkits = Gd, NetPBM
Acceleration = partial/1800, none/0
Operating system = Windows NT UNIMS03 5.2 build 3790
Default theme = matrix
gettext = enabled
Locale = en_US
Browser = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Rows in GalleryAccessMap table = 9
Rows in GalleryAccessSubscriberMap table = 305
Rows in GalleryUser table = 2
Rows in GalleryItem table = 305
Rows in GalleryAlbumItem table = 20
Rows in GalleryCacheMap table = 24

I allready agree on the GD part, read enough articles and posts of ppl that pointed out some memory issues and with you confirming this, GD is not really an option anymore.

What I am trying to find out more at this stage, where the Gallery is finally running pretty much ok although still in a test-environment, is wether I should focus myself on using
NetPBM or ImageMagick.

And since this a quite a big website with lots of multimedia on it and quite some visitors, wether i should choose to use the stable 2.3 version or the beta 3 even.

Any recommendations for this newbie gallery user, who spent about 32 hrs to get it all up and running this far and now likes to start finetuning and tweaking?

And what are the expectations of G3 then, if it is not a "next version"?
Will G3 become a more used, but also more supported version than G2?

G2 is great, from what I've intensively try to research last few days.
But not being able to bulk-upload, or running into some minor issues as I did until now,
is not really what I call 'Mature'.
So what I am hoping for and I find it hard to believe that I am the only one,
is that either G2 will be updated in the future (which I know is almost impossible with a new version in Stable production) or G3 will at least offer most crucial things that G2 also
offers and promisses to be developed actively to keep up-to-date.

When it comes to new developments like stable bulk-uploads being possible in the future for example, is it wise to choose for G3 immediately or do most of you guys over here still
recommend staying at G2 for a while, because I use it for my customers which are high demanding
when it comes to multi media?

Is G3 ment to stay into the 'competition' with other great online gallery- and publishingservies?
Threw all my hope on Gallery actually, hoping I could use this for all the websites of our customers, small and big ones... but also keeping up to date with new demands and new functions.
I really like to contribute on making things better, either on G2 or G3.. I just are a little bit confused wether to choose between G2 and G3 at this specific moment..
Any more suggestions?

Also about the recommendations between NetPBM and ImageMagick?

---------------------------------

Drive By Radio : American Urban
www.drivebyradio.eu

http://www.baschny.de/graphic-test/

G3 is beta so it is up to you if you use beta software or not.

Dave

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Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team

I don't think anyone has created a full feature comparison yet.

That reference you found from 2004 comparing G1 to G2 is ancient. Basically what's happened over the years (IIRC) is Gallery started as some personal piece of software for Bharat to share photos on his site. Some people (or person, I can't recall) he knew/knows liked it and thought "hey you should make this into a project and share with everyone". Gallery1 was born.

Time passes, more people get involved. Everyone sees that Gallery1 is a less than ideal piece of software to grow, maintain, etc. The longer G1 lived, the harder it was to maintain. Gallery2 was born. This was going to be everything that Gallery1 was and everything Gallery1 couldn't ever be. Database driven, flexible, works on all platforms, etc, etc, etc. It turned into a HUGE bloated pig. It's still great, scalable works well on massively large galleries (on proper hardware). It also took YEARS before there was traction where people were contributing themes and modules.

Gallery3 was born. Leaner, meaner, focused. G3 is also built on an existing, stable, proven framework, helping make things a lot easier. We already have a lot of modules and themes people have written before final release. Sure some need work to get back up to snuff, but that didn't happen with G2. G2 was quite a bit learning curve compared to G3 (I never did end up developing my dream theme for G2, but G3 is a heck of a lot easier, waaaaay easier). If you're missing something from G2, it can most likely be done in G3 with a module to add or extend that functionality.

Every version of Gallery has been a different piece of software and not just an upgrade, but an evolution with a different mindset behind it. I (and I believe others) really do hope that the architecture behind G3 remains in place for a long time to come.

If you're just displaying photos, G3 can easily replace G2. If you're selling photos, need to share more than just jpg, gif, png, mp4 or flv files, then probably stick with G2 for the time being. Also, if you need fine grained permission control, again, stick with G2 for now.

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Yes, there is a user_albums modules:
http://www.gallerymodules.com/

But check it out, it may not be what you want. I also don't know if migrating from G2 to G3 will take user albums into consideration from G2. In G3 permissions can only be applied to albums and groups. So for the user_albums module to work, right now, it only creates an album when you create a user, it creates then also creates a group and puts that user in the group and sets permissions on the album it created. As far as I can tell there also isn't a setting for where to put said album(s). It's a good basis for people to either submit enhancement requests against or better yet and hopefully for someone to make some changes to.
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Like Gallery? Like the support? Donate now!!! See G2 live here

We will reorganize the forums once G3 is released and some feedback like this comes forward as to what the community wants/needts.
There is only soo much time in the day.

Dave
_____________________________________________
Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team

There is no feature in G3 for this right now. Someone would need to create it.
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Like Gallery? Like the support? Donate now!!! See G2 live here