EE2 Photo Gallery Management -- Channel Images vs Slideshow Pro Director API ?

I’m no longer recommending EE to my clients because of the missing functionality as it is no longer a product that adds value beyond the OSS alternatives. I don’t believe gallery functionality should come at an additional cost when other superior alternatives are free.

Theres also a great Flikr module for EE2, that allows you to build galleries in EE based on flikr images - http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/flickr/

Plus theres Brandon Kelly’s matrix fieldtype - meant to handle a matrix of data, but is also another excellent way to handle galleries.

Arbinshire - I was thinking the same as you at one stage, but since then have discovered the power of EE. By the way, the channel images module is far better than anything I’ve seen for wordpress, and lets you bulk upload images, give them name/description/category, and resize them on the fly. I just create a small, med & large version of each image (you can set any number of thumbnailing options), and then if I want any specific sizes, I use the imgsizer plugin.

Plus theres Brandon Kelly’s matrix fieldtype - meant to handle a matrix of data, but is also another excellent way to handle galleries.

Don’t believe it works yet with EE2.

Yep it does, released a couple of weeks ago - I’m using it now 😊

I’m no longer recommending EE to my clients because of the missing functionality as it is no longer a product that adds value beyond the OSS alternatives. I don’t believe gallery functionality should come at an additional cost when other superior alternatives are free.

I’m really new to EE but I think they’re working hard to get solid foundation before adding new features. 😊 Free alternatives? No, thanks, they’re too “unsafe” in a far-seeing workflow. Today wordpress is great because inside the team there are a bunch of cleaver lead developers but things change fast in the OSS world and tomorrow they could go away and bye bye Wordpress as we know it 😊

That’s a personal opinion BTW 😉

To came back in topic, Channel Images is great and you could you use it to manage slideshow in a very intuitive way 😊

Arbinshire - I was thinking the same as you at one stage, but since then have discovered the power of EE. By the way, the channel images module is far better than anything I’ve seen for wordpress, and lets you bulk upload images, give them name/description/category, and resize them on the fly. I just create a small, med & large version of each image (you can set any number of thumbnailing options), and then if I want any specific sizes, I use the imgsizer plugin.

Doesn’t matter, I’m done with EE. I use an outside image management application for the images now. With that gone, there is no point to EE (to me, at least)

Channel Images looks like a good solution for slideshows or gallery per entry.

What I’m really talking about here though is a proper image content management system in EE2, with galleries/albums that can be reused in any channel/entry.

The discontinued Photo Gallery module was somewhat crude, but it did at least allow this level of image management. So far, there doesn’t seem to be a viable replacement in EE2.

For perspective, the last project I built in EE had over 7,000 high resolution images in almost 500 individual albums. It’s just not practical to be uploading those all one-by-one as individual fields.

The only solution I found was to use Slideshow Pro Director to host and organize the images. It has three killer features as an imagine management system:

1. Dynamic resizing from original image file. Upload your images once, and all thumbnails, slideshow variations, etc can be generated on the fly.

2. Smart albums and galleries. Both can be set to be automatically populated via tag rules. Very handy if you have a ton of image content you need presented in specific ways.

3. Adjustable focal point. If you output a thumbnail with a different aspect ratio (say, square vs rectangle), SSP Director will crop the image around the focal point you can set. Very, very cool.

I love all these features. The only downside is that it’s in SSP Director, not EE2. I realize EE2 is a general CMS and SSP Director is a specific niche product built for image management, but it would still be nice to have some of that core functionality within EE 😊

Maybe I just want to have my cake and eat it too. SSP Director is actually a very good product, and having worked closely with the developers, I can say they are just as dedicated as the EE team to ensuring it stays good.

Doesn’t matter, I’m done with EE. I use an outside image management application for the images now. With that gone, there is no point to EE (to me, at least)

Arbinshire - Isn’t that throwing the baby out with the bath water a bit?

See my post above. I’m jonsing just as much for a truly native and robust image management system within EE, but it’s still a pretty peripheral function, probably best left to a module, the way it was with Photo Gallery. I don’t think it’s really fair to dismiss EE entirely as a development platform over that.

As far as I’ve been able to find, NO CMS handles photo albums well natively at the moment. Not even Wordpress.

Can you share what outside image management application you are using?

Yep it does, released a couple of weeks ago - I’m using it now 😊

Schwing! You’re right: http://pixelandtonic.com/matrix

This is awesome news. Matrix looks like a great solution for handling image galleries/slideshows within entries.

No, it is not. I’m able to do anything/everything that EE can currently do with either Textpattern or Wordpress. They both do things differently, but well enough that I can’t justify the expense of Expression Engine. There isn’t anything that EE can do that TXP/WP can’t.

I’ve been currently using coppermine for the image application, and it seems to work well enough for my needs. There’s even a WP/Coppermine plugin that integrates the two, although I have yet to try that.

I’m really new to EE but I think they’re working hard to get solid foundation before adding new features. 😊

The gallery module was an existing feature in the previous release. They removed it without input from their user base.

Free alternatives? No, thanks, they’re too “unsafe” in a far-seeing workflow. Today wordpress is great because inside the team there are a bunch of cleaver lead developers but things change fast in the OSS world and tomorrow they could go away and bye bye Wordpress as we know it 😊

Funny. If EE were to go under, the code is proprietary and would die along with the company. With an open source project, the code can be used as you see fit and can be modified with little to no restrictions. The code can continue on beyond the original developers. E.g, B2 died and was no longer updated, so then some clever devs came along, took the code base, and made it Wordpress. Currently WP has more employees, and is far more profitable than Ellis Labs, with an exceptionally larger user base. How is that, “unsafe”?

I like EE, alot but a feature I deemed critical was removed without any accepted method of conversion. The beta has gone on for far, far, too long, and as I’ve said before, there is little to no value to EE as a result (to me, anyway.)

No, it is not. I’m able to do anything/everything that EE can currently do with either Textpattern or Wordpress. They both do things differently, but well enough that I can’t justify the expense of Expression Engine. There isn’t anything that EE can do that TXP/WP can’t.

So use TXT/WP then.

Why are you here?

… because I still hold on to the hope, however slim, that the devs will respond and reimplement the feature, thus making EE again worthwhile to me.

The gallery module was an existing feature in the previous release. They removed it without input from their user base.

Mmh maybe they had good reasons. Did someone from Ellis official responded to this?

Funny. If EE were to go under, the code is proprietary and would die along with the company. With an open source project, the code can be used as you see fit and can be modified with little to no restrictions. The code can continue on beyond the original developers. E.g, B2 died and was no longer updated, so then some clever devs came along, took the code base, and made it Wordpress. Currently WP has more employees, and is far more profitable than Ellis Labs, with an exceptionally larger user base. How is that, “unsafe”?

It’s not funny at all, especially if you build your everyday work upon a software and, i’m sorry, there’s a difference between how the OSS world should works (in theory) and how it works. I don’t like how everything become a mess in OSS. I know what will happen to WP: soon or later some developer will leave the official group to code its personal WP fork, then someone else starts another version and so on… And will get a mess with XX Wordpress versions with XX plugins incompatible each other.

Until EE will be on rails, i’ll pay for it and for every addon, getting what i need in a simple and fast way. 😊 But hey, It’s the way i see my job, you don’t have to agree with me 😊

And I think we are a bit OT here, so maybe it’s better to stop 😊