Cheddarmonger News -- testing the new gallery software!!

[cheddarmonger]

I have a test running at http://www.cheddarmongers.org/test/gallery2 right now, using the latest version of Gallery software.  This new version includes many new features, such as dynamic albums!!  (albums by keyword, albums by recent, rating, most popular, etc)

right now the test gallery is stand-alone, outside the Cheddarmongers CMS, so you can see what's under the hood.  Everything and everyone there yesterday should be in this test gallery.

Check it out, let me know if you want any more features!

Yes, I was able to get the "get url" feature to work.

[Custom_Hobby]

I will head over and check it out, nice work David.

[cheddarmonger]

Going to implementation phase.  I am upgrading the site, going with a leapfrog upgrade:

I'm copying down the website in order to create a good backup of it, then I'm going to upgrade the gallery from version 2.1.2 to version 2.2.2!  There will be lots of new features to explore, including dynamic albums (woohoo!!) so stay tuned.

To ensure the integrity of the site, I'm making a full backup, then I'll make sure the backup works.  I'll actually apply the upgrade to the backup site, then I'll switch the backup to prod, and vice-versa!  That way, I can easily fail back if necessary.  I'm not going to bother taking the site offline for "maintenance" because it is just too much of a hassle, and honestly I'm not going to work for hours on this, I'll just jab here and there when I get a free moment.  So, if you add any content after the backup started, you'll just have to add it again when I get the new site up.

I put up an announcement to this effect.  Any comments?  Feel free to click here with comments or suggestions.  Thanks!

[Custom_Hobby]

Divid we can also always create a section here for you and call it something like CheedarChat or whatever. Let me know if you want me to.

[cheddarmonger]

Well, the gallery software is now upgraded! Good thing I have test environments and made good backups... the upgrade didn't go as planned, but when I actually upgraded the prod site, it only took a half hour!  Everything should be back to normal.  I'll add the splarkly new featurs of the new software over the next few days.  Enjoy!

[Custom_Hobby]

Remember to come and tell us what they are (you know some of us are blind and the rest are lazy :icon_wink:)

[cheddarmonger]

biggest coolest feature; dynamic albums.  albums by keyword.  albums by most recent, most popular, highest rated. 

For example, try a keyword album on "zombie" -- the link looks like http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/pic/key/zombie

now all I have to do is populate the keywords for the pictures  :icon_neutral:  I hope someone can come up with dynamic albums based on custom fields, so I could say create an album for all things sculpted by Andy Foster, stuff like that.

[Custom_Hobby]

Did you email that suggestion to the people who made the software?

[cheddarmonger]

good idea; if you don't ask, you don't get!  It is open source, like this forum, so they have discussion forums.  I'll scour them to see if it has been brought up.

[Custom_Hobby]

I am sure the mod will be something simple for the people who came up with the entire software.

[cheddarmonger]

Ooh, found another feature!  Instead of using the search box, you can do a search for, say Andy Foster, by doing this:  http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/search/gallery/andy+foster -- okay, it is a little out of alignment with the other dynamic fields, but it works!

edit -- opinions, please??!!

[Custom_Hobby]

Hey if it works for now go for it and just wait for the more dynamic options down the road.