News from Piwigo.com, online photo gallery software
On Wednesday July 25th 2012, 4AM UTC, important system upgrade on Piwigo.com servers. The downtime should last 1 hour, maybe less.
Don’t know your timezone compared to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)?
Happy summer time!
Update: the downtime has lasted 1 hour, as expected. Everything went fine. MySQL server was a little slow at startup, but now running very fast.
A few users of Piwigo.com have also subscribed to the newsletter on Piwigo.org and of course, since last friday they know about Piwigo 2.4 availability. Several of you have already asked us how to update their gallery.
On Piwigo.com, you don’t manage updates, so it’s useless to try by yourself. The update to Piwigo 2.4 will be applied automatically without any action from you. The next question is “when?”. Here follow a few details about how Piwigo is updated on Piwigo.com.
First we must slightly adapt and test Piwigo for Piwigo.com architecture. You must understand that on a given server, thousands independant galleries are installed but they are all running on the very same source code. This is what we call a “massively multisite” Piwigo.
Then we install Piwigo 2.4 on Piwigo.com and we start to switch galleries, one by one. Of course updates are automatic. What makes your gallery updated earlier or later? It mainly depends on the extensions you use. Indeed even if Piwigo 2.4 was released two days ago, most of the extensions are not compatible with 2.4 yet.
Progressively extensions are made compatible with Piwigo 2.4 and we install them on Piwigo.com. The upgrade script detects the extensions you use and if all the extensions are available on Piwigo 2.4, then it upgrades your gallery. Maybe it would be good that you deactivate all the extensions you don’t really use, if you want to upgrade as soon as possible.
Now you understand the process we use, but it doesn’t really answer your question “when?”!. Let’s go back in time and see how fast was the upgrade to Piwigo 2.3 on Piwigo.com: the first galleries were upgraded after 3 weeks and the latest after 8 weeks. Considering that version 2.4 brings much more changes than version 2.3, it would be a real performance if we finish with the same delay.
Once your gallery is upgraded to version 2.4, you are notified by email with a summary of changes. To sum up: be patient, Piwigo 2.4 and its major changes are coming soon on your gallery!
Following our roadmap, a new major version of Piwigo every 6 months, version 2.4 is now ready for beta-tests. The stable version is planned for April and then plugins and themes will be updated for compatibility. If you want to know all details about version 2.4, read Piwigo 2.4.0RC1 announcement.
Here follows a list of the biggest changes you’ll find in Piwigo 2.4:
Piwigo 2.4: when visitors browse your gallery with a smartphone like iPhone or Android, Piwigo automatically loads the mobile theme.
Before Piwigo 2.4 stable is available, we propose you to beta-test it. Either you simply browse the Piwigo 2.4 beta-test demo, or we create a complete 2.4 installation for you with administration panel available, just ask!
Small update on theme Simple today. This update brings bug fixing such as centering photo on slideshow but also a new display option. On the albums page, it is now possible to display album title and description under the album thumbnail and not only next to the album thumbnail.
Piwigo and theme Simple: album description can be displayed under the album thumbnail
Piwigo and theme Simple: by default description is displayed next to the album thumbnail
To configure theme Simple, open screen [Administration > Configuration > Themes] and click on the “Configuration” link in the Simple box.
Link to configure your theme in the administration
This update automatically implies bug fixing and new option on child themes Simple White and Simple Black.
A new plugin is available on your screen [Administration > Plugins > Manage]: GThumb+. This plugin modifies the design of the thumbnails page. All thumbnails have the same height, except the first one which takes 2 lines.
Piwigo and GThumb+ plugin in action, all thumbnails have the same height except the first one.
Plugin GThumb+ doesn’t modify your existing thumbnails, it just creates new and specific thumbnails for its own use. GThumb+ is compatible with all themes.
Theme Stripped, born only one year ago but already very popular among Piwigo users, is now updated to version 2. This theme was created by Julien Capitaine (aka Zaphod), amateur photographer, user and talented contributor to Piwigo. Version 2 brings improvements on graphical and layout sides.
1. 3 Styles
In the theme configuration, you can change the Interface style. You can chose between original, white and black. Style original looks like Stripped version 1. New styles white and black, which only differ by color, bring a different layout, especially on the photo page:
Piwigo and theme Stripped version 2, style White: whatever the height of your screen, the photo is centered.
Piwigo and theme Stripped version 2, style White: information tabs are sticked on the bottom and when opened, the information are displayed over the photo.
2. Photo Preloading
Stripped version 2 optionally offers to preload photos. For example, when a visitor opens the first photo in an album, then Stripped will automatically preload the next 5 photos. Number “5” can be modified. Result = faster browsing.
3. Optional Frame
Another new option in the configuration of Stripped: you can deactivate frame around thumbnails.
Piwigo with theme Stripped version 2, style Black: frame around thumbnails.
Piwigo with theme Stripped version 2, style Black: no frame around thumbnails.
The very same option is available for the “web size” photo, which now becomes optional.
4. Navigation Arrows
In addition to navigation arrows that appear on top of the photo (that’s optional), Stripped version 2 can display two big arrows on the border of your screen, with a fixed position. See the first screenshot of this post.
5. Navigation Thumbnails
With Stripped version 1, it was possible to move from one photo to another by clicking on next/prev thumbnails. This feature disappears with version 2 because the required code was too complex and this feature was rarely used (navigation thumbnails remain available with other themes of course).
Now you can test new themes Stripped White and Stripped Black on Piwigo.com multiple themes demo →
Merry Christmas to you all! Piwigo.com brings you a little gift: this week the referral program is getting bigger.
As you may already know, when a new user subscribes with your referral code, then both of you get an extra month for free. This week, bonuses are multiplied by 2: referrer and new subscriber get 2 extra months on their subscription period.
Unlike chocolate, use without moderation!
Need a reminder about how the referral program works? Read Referral Program
The vast majority of Piwigo.com galleries have now been upgraded to Piwigo 2.3. Our automatic upgrade tool has sent a notification email to each user as soon as his gallery gets upgraded.
So what’s new in your photo gallery with this major upgrade?
Discover the full list of new features on Piwigo 2.3 release notes (screenshots and video inside).
PS: a few galleries are still running on Piwigo 2.2. This is the case if you use a Gally theme or if your main language is Chinese or Spanish. Please be patient, as soon as we have the compatible missing extensions, the automatic upgrade script will notify you.
Piwigo is now available on iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android. Actually, it’s the very same application for the two most popular smartphones and tablets.
Piwigo for iOS, upload photos in your Piwigo gallery from your iPhone
The Piwigo application empowers you to connect to your Piwigo gallery, create some albums and upload several photos at once. The application was not designed to browse your gallery but to perform basic administration tasks, such as photo upload. Our goal is to create a simple and intuitive tool.
The application for mobile has been created by Patrice Gauchon, member of the Piwigo team.
Toxa invites you to travel in many places of the world : Borneo, Costa Rica, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Thailand and in the USA. Many landscapes, but also portraits and a nice set of animals. Read More
Direct competitor to Facebook, Google+ is a social media launched in June 2011, only 3 months ago. Subscriptions have been publicly opened for about 1 month. The photographers are very present on Google+. By “circling” a few of them, you get a nice photo stream to browse.
Thanks to the Google+1 plugin, available on the [Administration> Plugins> Manage], you can display a dedicated button for Google+ with 2 functions:
Google+ : +1 a photo or a page from your Piwigo photo gallery
Google+ : share a page from your Piwigo photo gallery
By the way, if you’re already on Google+, add me in you circles: Pierrick Le Gall profile on Google+. I mainly write about Piwigo!
Piwigo is constantly evolving. Every month a new minor version is released, including bug fixes and adding small features. Every six months a new major version is released, including new features and important changes. This is completely invisible to Piwigo.com users because we care about software upgrades.
The next major version is Piwigo 2.3. The beta-testing is starting. We give all details on the announcement of Piwigo 2.3.0RC1. Here follows an example of improvement in Piwigo 2.3:
The upload form was seriously improved. Among visible improvements, you will find a simpler album selector, maximum filesize and dimensions displayed before you select some photos, a selection button translated in all languages, a progress bar for the whole upload and last but not least, the photos are displayed as soon as they are uploaded, progressively.
We propose you to test the new features, give your opinion and help us to make Piwigo 2.3 as stable and robust as possible. If you are interested and wish to participate, tell us and we will provide you a “ready to use” environment for testing.
Wedding is one of the few occasions in which individuals call a professional photographer. Any modern photographer usually delivers a DVD with all photos inside. Sometimes, the very modern photographer adds a private album with a selection of pictures of the wedding in its own online photo gallery. Thus, the newlyweds and their families can come and admire the dress of the bride and the arrival of the cake (via the website of the photographer who thus improves his own visibility).
Wedding, out of church, by Bernard Le Gall
Piwigo.com proposes a partnership to wedding photographers in order to go one step further: delivering a complete photo gallery, pre-filled with all the wedding pictures to the newlyweds. Thus the photographer expands his own offer. Here is the way the partnership works:
On Piwigo.com side, we transform the trial period “1 month for free” into “6 months for free” for accounts created under this partnership. Let’s summarize:
If you’re interested in this offer try it for your next wedding session. If you know some wedding photographers, tell them about this offer. At the next wedding you attend, tell it to the newlyweds or to the photographer!
Photo by Bernard Le Gall
The photo gallery KMP Photography gathers various photography types, from landscapes to sport, including portraits, black & white and clouds in the sky. To make it short, a set of high quality photos. Read More
The Piwigo Showcase project is under active preparation. To make it short, the Showcase is a Live Piwigo Galleries Directory. Each Piwigo live gallery is shown as a screenshot, a description, some tags and a link to see the gallery in action. Read More
