Web based Gallery (using Gallery?)

EvilMonkey

Watcha,

I've been wanting to set up a web based gallery to showcase some of my digital photography hobbies best photo's. I currently use smugmug which is great, but I want my own domain name and a little more control.

I'm reasonably adept at a bit of dreamweaver and have built a couple of sites, but am note sure if going down the hand built page route is the best way? Is a content manager like Gallery (as I understand it, it keeps all the pics in a database and then will generate pages on demand according to templates you set up) the way forward? I'm guessing it could end up having a couple of thousand pictures on there, and I'd like the flexibility to change direction (IE add in a way to order prints) if the hobby takes me that way.

Has anyone had any experience of something like Gallery? http://gallery.menalto.com/

How hard is this to set up and get looking like you want it to look?

Any thoughts on this would be helpful!

E.M.

bobbych_2

if you get a domain name, and some web hosting, you can install many types os galleries. if you get web hosting with CPANEL it comes with a pre built script called coppermine which is good for image hosting

EvilMonkey

Thanks Bobby, I know there are plenty of different scripts out there, Gallery and Coppermine seem to be the popular ones (I rather like the look of some of the galleries created using singapore)

What I'm after is a stab out how difficult it is to get it looking like you want it to look? Is it a case of putting some tick in a box? Or uploading a template? Or coding something akin to CSS?

I want to know how easy \ difficult it is to get it looking like I want it looking...

E.M.

mr_fishbulb

I use singapore which is very easy but you can't add stuff like ordering prints to it.

Gallery 2 seems to be very adaptable to tings like that but looks very time consuming to set-up.

wonka

It can be as simple, or difficult as you want.

With most web hosts who provide "cPanel", you are usually provided with a "Fantastico" installer. This means you provide 3 or 4 items of information (such as admin userid and password), and it does the rest for you - i.e. it installs your free gallery software. And then all you do is login to it, and upload your photos.

It might seem daunting, but it really is easy.

Fantastico normally offers: 4Images gallery (www.4homepages.de), Coppermine photo gallery (http://coppermine.sourceforge.net), and Gallery (http://gallery.menalto.com).

All these galleries will have you up and running in minutes. However they are very customisable if you wish to tailor their look and feel.

For free webhosting, take a look at www.jamroll.co.uk (I have no affiliation to them, just a satisfied user).

EvilMonkey

Wonka, this is exactly the kind of thing I was after...

I like the idea of jamroll as well, it would give me the chance to try it out pretty much well risk free. Get a domain, bung it up, try out coppermine (they don't seem to have gallery on the list) and see how I get on.

If it doesn't work out I can pull the site no problems. If it works well I can leave it there or transfer it somewhere else if the ads bother me...

Thanks

wonka

That's how I approached jamroll - just to test out my website for a few weeks, then move to a "proper" webhost. In fact I ended up staying, the adverts they add to your pages are not that intrusive.... and the rest of the service is fine.