Thread

The Photogallery for EE is just a waste of time

I am not convinced that you have the necessary experience with EE to make that call. It is simple, certainly, but more than sufficient for many purposes. Certainly not a “waste of time”.

Out of the box EE can’t compete with the features of free softwares such as Coppermine or Gallery 2. When you spend your money for an all in one option you’d expect that all features are better than whats out there for free…

I have a license to EE, and I was quite disappointed with the features of the Photogallery.  I wanted something that allows users to upload photos, videos, and rate them.  Then you click on the users profile you should be able to see the last 10 photos/videos uploaded and be able to search.  EE just can’t handle any of that without doing some hardcore coding.  Should I even mention the searching of photos or batch uploading?

EE has the right idea but its gallery feature just can’t compete with the other options out there.

Out of the box EE can’t compete with the features of free softwares such as Coppermine or Gallery 2.

But how is Coppermine or Gallery 2 at content management? 

Point being - an “all in one solution” will never be as fully featured as a dedicated piece of software, regardless of pricing models and it was unrealistic to expect so.

Out of the box EE can’t compete with the features of free softwares such as Coppermine or Gallery 2.

It’s not really meant to. Coppermine, on the other hand, has no CMS features to speak of and is certainly not integrated with EE. There are other disadvantages with Coppermine in particular, but they are probably of a more personal nature so I won’t elaborate.

When you spend your money for an all in one option you’d expect that all features are better than whats out there for free…

No, I don’t. I expect the bundle, the application as such, to be better than competing products. EE has not disappointed me in that respect.

It is obvious that dedicated, specialised modules for very specific purposes may surpass EE’s modules in complexity and power. EE has a mailing list module—which is certainly not as powerful as, say, Mailman, but serves my needs (and those of others) very well. The same is true for the simple commerce module—not a full fledged e-commerce solution by any means, but I use it on a number of sites, and it’s working well. The situation is precisely the same with the Gallery module. Too limited for you? Just use something else. A waste of time? I think not.

I wanted something that allows users to upload photos, videos, and rate them.  Then you click on the users profile you should be able to see the last 10 photos/videos uploaded and be able to search.

Well, you can certainly build something like that, but it’s not a “just-add-water-solution”.

EE has the right idea but its gallery feature just can’t compete with the other options out there.

Well, just use what suits your needs, then, and stop whining.

Thanks all for a good discussion.  I think everything on this thread has been hashed out, and at risk of it devolving, I’m closing the thread.  If you have further questions about the gallery module, please feel free to open a new thread.

NOTE: I’ve deleted a number of responses from this thread.

Its perfectly OK to have a dissenting opinion about our products and to offer criticism. What is not okay is to be argumentative and detrimental to a conversation, which a couple of people were doing.

EE’s Photo Gallery is a great, personal photo gallery solution. That’s what its meant to be. Its not meant to be Coppermine or some of the other dedicated solutions out there. And its certainly not meant to be a host-it-yourself version of Flickr or something similar.

The best way to determine if EE’s photo gallery will work for you is to try out the demos mentioned, check out the Showcase from the previous links to see what others have done with the gallery, and to make a list of what you need from a photo gallery solution. If you post those needs here we will be able to tell you quite clearly if EE’s Photo Gallery solution can meet them or not.

Comparing one system to another while ignoring what you actually need from a solution is a pointless exercise, especially if you combine it with rather negative attitudes. We do our best to discourage such things here.

Manigault, saying the Gallery is a “waste of time” is completely untrue. What it really means is “I had projects where EE’s photo gallery didn’t work for me” which is perfectly fine and I’m glad you found another solution. Its also perfectly fine to say where you feel our photo gallery falls short, how it failed to meet your needs, etc…

However, that doesn’t make it a waste of time for others. There are literally 1000s of people who use EE’s photo gallery and find it a perfect fit for their needs. In the future I hope you can find ways to express your criticism without belittling others.