Ok, I think I'm about ready to just go ahead with a 2.2 version next (instead of a 2.1.2 or whatnot). I may/may not release a 2.1.2, and then work on 2.2, I'm not sure yet.

The major items on my list right now are as follows:

1) (Literally, number 1 issue) Layout. I want to improve the layout based on the feedback I've received, but also ensure it's as easy as possible to change for those that wish to change it. Right now I find the feedback in this topic and this topic. Will still need to work on a few mockups to get it all looking proper in a universally acceptable format.

2) Resources. Nothing is "cached" in Gallery, when much of the data most certainly could be (form fields, media types, categories, for starters). Additionally, some of the 'cached' data really shouldn't be cached - user 'names' for example (else when you change a display name, not everything is properly updated. And further to this, proper recursive functions need to be done.

3) Moderation and image controls. Moderation differences between Categories and Albums are clunky. You cannot move images between the two, and a few various bugs prevent proper usage for members with restrictions (i.e. cannot delete own images from categories, even if permitted). It should be easier to moderate, both from a member's perspective, and from a true moderator/admin perspective.

4) Better album control for members. Ability to control sorting/displaying of images within an album, for example. Ability to add members to be able to view the albums (private club) over/instead of just public and private. Sub albums, maybe?

5) Various suggestions from the massive ongoing feature suggestions topics, though don't expect all of them to be added


I really want to work on simplifying the backend code, namely centralizing more functionality that is called often, and making use of the IPB caching capabilities (ibf_cache_store and/or alternate caching mechanisms) to make certain functionality smoother. I am not fond of the current category class, for example, and I believe we could quite effectively streamline the various skin template files, and skin templates. There are several templates with nearly, or exactly, the same html code in them - there isn't much of a need for this naturally.

Likewise, I want to get a template going that everyone can be happy with. Of course, this may mean 2 or 3 templates, or extra controls for one template, but there needs to be some sort of common ground.


Looking for any specific feedback before I begin that would help ensure the next gallery release is slightly better received.

Great to hear. I'm a customer of blog, gallery and idm, and I often feel they only get updated when IPB does, and come with little improvements. It's nice to know that you guys haven't forgotten these products and that they are treated as a "we'd like to upgrade this product to make it better" rather than "we have to upgrde this product so it's compatible with the new IPB" that they sometimes appear to be as.

I think the main thing as you said, is layout, and obviously fixing all bugs. I'd also like to see much improved mod features (as you said) and support for different cache methods (also, as you said).

Also, perhaps you could add in different storage options, as you did with IDM.


Like I said, fantastic news and I look forward to the release, keep us updated

I would ask that you release a 2.1.2 version first to get rid of some of the current bugs on the bug tracker , then you will have more free time to work on 2.2 with out having to worry about customers with the bugs currently on the tracker. Namely for myself the catagory array issue and the animated gif issues are ones i want fixes for as soon as possible. Heck if you just post the fixed i can adjust the nessasary php files myself , easier just to release 2.1.2 though.

As for the new version 2.2 yes it needs to be done I agree, the gallery at present makes way to many queries calls depending on what you have for catagories etc.. I had one catagory making 79 queries to look at the listings of its 24 sub-catagories. I did reduce that number by balancing the catagories a bit but still needs improvement there.

Good luck Brandon!

Hi, I'm new here because I'm using IPG for 1 week, because of troubles with moving from CPG.
For me it's perfect that I have nice gallery 100% bridged with forum - that's great, but real functionality of IPG in comparition with CPG seems not good.

First of all (after one week of usage) we miss:
- more than 10 last comments
- more than 5 last uploads
- watermark scalling (different size for watermark if picture has 400x300 and different if picture is 1024x768 - this is working perfect in CPG)
- moving between categories and albums (look at my site - www.agrofoto.pl/forum - is it ok that categories looks like empty but there is a lot of pictures?)

That are things that make me and my users crazy, we have about 8500, about 2500visits per day, about 300 new picture daily so we 1000% need 2 first requirements. next 2 will be very usefull.

In general IPG is much faster than CPG, I can compare it in that way: the same server (athlon a64 3700, 1gb ram, apache2) I could serve 50users online on CPG, now I had 95 and everything was going nice. But as I see number of queries You need to think about optimalisation.

Is it possible to release version 2.1.2 with bugfixes and then 2.2 with general improvements?

Best regards,

Thanks for great job,
YacentY

Tomm - that's unacceptable in my mind. Can you submit a ticket for me please? There's no way, in any configuration, Gallery should be making 79 queries. If you could submit a ticket for me I'd like to see what is happening so I can fix any issues causing that.

+1

+1

Wouldn't the bugs be addressed in the 2.2 version? Seems logical. If he can address the current bugs within the 2.2 release, I say go for 2.2

That is true but clearing the bug tracker by releaseing a 2.1.2 version soon would give him more time to concentrate on the design issues on 2.2 without having to worry abut putting out the fixes that the customers are asking for.

I disagree I say have all bugs fixed in 2.2.0 is the Best way to go

I been gallery customer since it was first introduced and I say 2.2 is needed more with 2.1.1 bug fixes

Well if the bugs are already fixed just throw out 2.1.2 this week then concentrate on 2.2. The main reason is so that me and other customers would not have to wait till 2.2 to get some current bugs fixed. If I have to wait till 2.2 god knows how long i will have to wait since 2.2 is a major revision. Either that or post the fixes to the bugs some where. Thats like saying that there would be NO minor fixes (2.1.1, 2.1.2 etc..) when Board 2.1.0 came out and customers would have to wait till the next major revision 2.2.0 to fix a all the bugs.

@.will - Hell yeah! 2.2 is needed but lets at least clear the recently fixed bugs to keep current customers happy so people are not buging Brandon all the time for bugs already fixed but not released so he can concentrate on the redesign of gallery etc...

I currently use (Menalto) Gallery 2.2 on my main site, which has 13,500 travel photos on it, but I'm setting up a related site using IPS Community. One of the most useful features of Menalto Gallery 2.2 is the ability to re-arrange images on line with a click of the mouse. Not only is this a lot easier than using the "re-order by number" method also provided, but it also gives you a much better idea of the graphic flow of the thumbnail page and the image sequence as you can see all the album images (in columns of three) as you edit.

Using Gallery Remote, (the Menalto Gallery desktop uploader) does let you adjust the album sequence before you upload, but when your users are simply uploading directly via the website, it's really essential to provide an easy way for them to rearrange their shots after they see them in their gallery album and realize "they're in the wrong order". If they can't, it can be very frustrating for them and cause dissatisfaction with your site.

The ability to caption and keyword 12 shots at a time is also a good admin feature, and the opprtunity for extensive commenting as well as rating is useful for a Web 2.0 type of site.

HTH,

Tony Page

I agree with this guy.

Get the bug fixes out first. Then work on 2.2, makes more logical sense.

Signposts - where's 'Wales' on your website!? We're not part of England. we're our own separate country, like scotland and northern ireland.. sort it out

2 releases in a short while is just more work for bfarber

if you combine those into 2.2 then its like killing 2 birds with 1 stone

bugs and new/better features

I say 2.2 is better because you all want better faster loading and better on your servers query wise well 2.1.2 will not be that way

all in all its bfarber's final descision

Although I'm not affected by any of the bugs that need to be sorted out, and I am looking forward to 2.2, there are still a lot of customers who are unhappy, who could be made happy in a relatively short amount of time if a bug fix release is made first. So I'm not being selfish here, it just seems the logical route to take (as anyone who's studied software lifecycles will also tell you).

"2 releases in a short while is just more work for bfarber" - in the short term, maybe.

But he has already fixed the bugs in the tracker (most of them anyway) , thats the whole point. So just put up 2.1.2 this week and continue to work on 2.2. Not sure if Invision wants to stick to the newest practice of releasing updates for baord, blog and gallery all at the same time or not but i imagine that this is not a viable way to go as some products have more bugs than others .

There is no general policy of releasing all updates at once - it's just generally how things tend to work out.

I expect to release 2.1.2 relatively soon (after QA testing) before working on 2.2. Likewise, I believe a board update is needed soon too, which I will likely work on before much major work is put into Gallery 2.2.

Thanks!

Bore da, Tomturd, the truth is, I didn't really have enough shots to merit a separate album, and being English originally I thought I'd be letting the side down if I didn't do my bit to keep the Welsh barbarians under the Old Country's heel (I mean, just because a few English Kings came from Wales means nothing, the present lot originally came from Germany and as for Phil the Greek...). Stiil, your point is taken. Anyway, now I'm Australian too at least I can support a good cricket team...

On IP Gallery, I'd support a quick release of a bug fix version. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and putting the extra pressure on Brandon to come out with 2.2 while he's aware that people are champing at the bit for fixes is a recipe for more bugs in the new version in my view.

Tony Page

Right now the watermark can be positioned only at the bottom right corner. Is it possible to add more options such as:

1. top left corner
2. top centre
3. top right corner
4. middle left corner
5. middle centre
6. middle right corner
7. bottom left corner
8. bottom centre

any ideas when 2.1.2 will be released?

regards,
YacentY

2.1.2, 2.2, doesn't matter to me.

As a feedback idea, if you have to do 2/3 templates as you say, as an idea to make it uniform can you make it like the dropdown for "Standard, Linear +, Outline"? It could have a little outline of the layout as well

When we decide it's ready.

so could we try?

In all honesty... the IP.Gallery v2.1.0 has become one of my favourite components for IPB (along with the Links System v3.0)... and although we only have just over 300 photo's online... it is being used more and more each month as people figure it out.

The biggest issue I have with it though... is the fact that there is no notification to the admin of any new photos being posted, nor comments.  

With several sub-galleries... it can be a pain trying to find out if someone has posted a new comment...esp. in reply to a question asked (i.e. where was this photo taken?).  This goes for the admin, and members whom have posted photos and have had someone leave a comment for them.

Keep up the great work on it... might even have to give up my other coppermine galleries down the road if this progresses the way it has been doing.

Great.

Notifications is one thing severely lacking, I agree. It is a top priority for the next version.

I think you will find you are trying.

any plans regarding releasing 2.1.2? as I remember it should be at the begining of last week?

QA has not given the go ahead yet.

Please stop asking for when we will release the next version, as I have no way of knowing for sure. Primarily, we don't release estimates due to this exact statement:



As a result, we don't give estimated release dates - it will be released when the quality assurance team deems it to be ok.

And besides, this is a 2.2 feedback topic, so let's keep the conversation in this topic regarding Gallery 2.2.

Please forgive me if this is the incorrect place to post this, but... I like most of the improvements to the Gallery. Here are my suggestions for even greater improvement:

-email notification to the user of any comments made to their gallery post. I noticed the suggestion to have notification given to the admins, but the users would also like to know about the posts. This would also be best if it is optional at time of image upload.

-ability to view ALL gallery images by most recent. The 5 most recent images is nice, but when a gallery really starts jumping, so many images will not get viewed. It is too difficult to try and hunt thru all of the different albums to find recent images. A link in the heading bar would be great! Something like this:
Recent Photos 1 day 7 days 14 days all

Thanks for making wonderful improvements!

hey, looks like absolutely NO ONE has installed 2.1.2 yet...! So let me be the first then... must say I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there was an update available, as I was after some of the fixes this release has addressed.

cheers!

Thanks.

It's far from perfect, but we'll get there.

its better then version 1.0

thanks for new version of board and galllery, seems that many disturbing errors are corrected, all my users has task to find new ones:)

thank You very much,

best regards
yacenty

Yeah I was wondering about this one myself as I edited the topic view and I ended up having to edit it three times to get it all looking the same one for the Gallery one for the Private messaging and one for the Topic view itself.

I think a better idea would be to use the template conditionals to a greater effect to achieve the same effect with less html markup

bfarber,

The #1 Gallery issue is its layout. The current layout is bad. Version 2.0.7 was just fine.
Please fix what you have now so it looks normal again.

layout is indeed a big issue, but to me the even bigger issue is that from the main board index page there is now ay of knowing when there is anything new in gallery or blog, so people forget to even go to them really. And I think Brandon told me one time that he didn't want to do anything about it becuase it would mean editing a default IPB file. But I just don't see how it will EVER get used the most it could be when it's easy to forget it exists. I forget myself to look at that or the blog components. Of course if anyone on my sites ever were active and using my components, maybe I would look more often. lol

I run a very busy graphics site and I don't recall anyone ever complaining about the layout. What we've got now in 2.1 is fine for the time being. What I do get members complaining about and even reporting as bugs is not getting notified when an image of theirs gets a comment. They would also like to be notified when one of their favourites posts a new image.

Other stuff that really is way behind the times is not being able to search in the gallery itself by member name. Then the search itself is broken. Try doing a search on images uploaded in the last 24 hours. You in fact get all images. It's the basics like this that need addressing before getting into fancy or redesigned layouts.

My 2 cents.

3DKiwi

It looks like Duke Nukem Forever

Hi bfarber,

Good day ! I installed one of your mod i.e. Link Module and work well until ipb 2.2.2 installed. The title appeared to be with {.....} and I think the language file missing. I have another question is that how can I post video file into my IPB via gallery and topic thread?

TQ.

With 2.2 you need to install the universal mod installer and then install version 3 of the Links system. Trying to install the older links sytem on 2.2.2 will give you funning results like this. Head over to IPS Beyond for help with mods.

Funny, I thought this thread was about the gallery. Talking of the gallery is it coming soon?

3DKiwi

@Walter Chew...wrong place mate. Please use IPS Beyond for things like this.


To everyone else, indeed Gallery is in full development. You'll be happy with some of the things already completed....not to give too much away, but to keep everyone's anticipation high, the following (along with many many more great enhancements, which I'd rather not get into) are done:

1) Member zip import
2) Use of IPB cache store for common data
3) Auto-insertion of custom fields into image display screen (no more manually editing the template)
4) Email notification options for albums, categories, and image comments
5) Ability for member's to choose the sorting options for their own albums, just like admins can for categories, plus sort drop down available in albums
6) Some fancy/nice javascript functionality in the ACP (I'm not giving much away here just yet tho...)

And really a lot more....almost every file I'm coding from the ground up. Not entirely, but so much needs/needed to be changed, that I couldn't just hack these changes into the existing gallery. I had to make fundamental changes to how gallery itself works. There's still a bunch more to be done, so I can't give an estimated release date yet, unfortunately.

One downside - right now, for the email notifications I had to add a new section in My Controls to allow members to manage them (i.e. unsubscribe). Because of this, Gallery 2.2 will require IPB 2.3, or you will have to manually modify your IPB 2.2 to add this option in. I'm afraid there's really no way around this. Plus side is, if you are trying to add Gallery 2.2 to IPB 2.2, the only modifications really are to add a language string to lang_ucp.php. Also, a skin template link will likely need to be changed. So far, otherwise, Gallery 2.2 will work with IPB 2.2 or IPB 2.3.

hmm good news thanks

Gallery is being updated
With good featues as well
I am sooo waiting for the upcoming release

Excellent news. Could I suggest that notification of comments also have the option of coming via pm instead of email. For regular members who visit every day this is probably a more desirable method of notification.

3DKiwi

I would think it would be better suited to be the same as topic notifications -- emails.

But it is a good suggestion. Maybe I can convince Brandon to include a central "Gallery Subscriptions" section.

Actually, I had already made a central Gallery Subscriptions area

Don't try to cover it up. You added it after I mentioned it to you.

If he did it in under 20 minutes I'd say let him have his lies!

Good job admin, New gallery feature are excellent!
a] Is it possible to add some basic photo editing tools, like crop, rotate etc?
b] Show different image size like: Square (75 x 75), Thumbnail (100 x 67), Small (240 x 161), Medium (500 x 334), Large (1024 x 685)?
c] Option to blog images.
d] Add notes to images like in adobe Photoshop.