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Friday, July 18, 2008

Image galleries: Coppermine, 4images, plogger, Gallery

I've been looking at a plugin to expand my image gallery (hosted at my domain via opensource coppermine, not the flickr version) by using feeds -- basically, for each category I would have a feed. I looked at migrating to different systems, too: Gallery, plogger, and 4images.

Here is the rundown of what I need:
  • RSS Feeds per category/image album
  • Ability to list an image in more than one category/album, e.g., black and white photographs all in one album + in subject albums
  • Ability to assign keywords
  • Easily customizable through CSS and maybe a sprinkling of php
  • Opensource, hosted on my domain (I already have a several art/photography sites at social networking spots)
  • Easy batch upload process
  • Good enhancement and upgrade workflow
  • Plus:
    • Easy import/migration from Coppermine
    • Bridging or crosswalking to Drupal
    • Good documentation (I can usually make things work without a lot of help)
  • Note the importance of easy!
Coppermine does all of that minus the feeds, but there is a feed plugin. To be honest, my only complaints with coppermine, have been 1)some of the developers/user community help -- it can get harsh 2)lack of built in RSS feeds and 3)crosswalking into Drupal -- it's doable, but not quite what I have in mind. Of course, using feeds would probably give me what I need, anyhow.

So, in my various experiments and investigations:
  • Plogger, Gallery, and 4images all have some form of a RSS.
  • Plogger, Gallery, and 4images are all opensource.
  • Plogger, Gallery, and 4images all seem to be relatively easy to install -- relatively.

  • I can import/migrate my coppermine gallery into Gallery. I couldn't figure out if I could do that in plogger or 4images. 4images is primarily in German, so I hit some language barriers a few times.


..and here is my comparison chart -- I'm still trying to figure out some of the plogger features, so that part is a little bit incomplete.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good comparison.
i also tested all galleries. they all have nearly the same features.

an advantage of 4images is, that it can also be used with big video files. so you can build up a youtube like site.

and 4images is the most secure script. coppermine and gallery have many (unfixed) security issues.