Friday, May 15, 2009

Gallery Server Pro 2.3 Released!

Screen shot of Gallery Server Pro 2.3 After several months of non-stop work, I am happy to release the latest version of Gallery Server Pro! Among the thirty-three new features are:

  • Faster, lighter, better-looking pages
  • Zero-maintenance community galleries
  • Improved handling of DIVX, PDF, TXT, HTML, RTF, Word docs and other files
  • Support for read-only galleries
  • Error logging
  • Album paging
  • Ability to download multiple items in a ZIP archive
  • Many other usability enhancements...

There were also more than forty bugs fixed in this release. I described many of the new features in a previous post, so I won't repeat myself. For a complete list of features and bugs, including detailed reports from my tracking software, go to the Release History page.

Upgrading from 2.1 or 2.2 is a snap. Follow these simple steps:

  1. Make a copy of your web.config, galleryserverpro.config and galleryserverpro_data.sqlite files.
  2. Replace the files in the web application directory with the new ones (but don't delete your media object files).
  3. (SQLite only) Replace the galleryserverpro_data.sqlite file in the App_Data directory with yours.
  4. Run the upgrade wizard and follow the directions. The wizard is at default.aspx?g=upgrade. It will help you import your settings from web.config and galleryserverpro.config files.

These are the same upgrade steps you would have followed to upgrade to 2.2, so if you would like more detailed instructions, including how to upgrade from versions earlier than 2.1, refer to the Administrator's Guide.

Speaking of the Administrator's Guide, it will take a couple weeks to fully update this 200-page beast (uggh), so until then use the 2.3 QuickStart Guide to fill in some of the gaps.

As I previously mentioned, our savings account is nearly tapped out, so if you enjoy Gallery Server Pro, please consider a donation. Thanks!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Financial Status of Gallery Server Pro (or: This Guy Needs A Summer Job)

People ask how I can manage to distribute Gallery Server Pro for free. Do I have a rich uncle? No. Are the donations really enough to pay the bills? Well, no, they are not. I want to be completely transparent with you, so here is a report of recent GSP registrations and donations (a registration is simply a request for a product key):

 Registrations and donations to Gallery Server Pro, By Month

The average donation is $45, and has ranged from $1 all the way to $500. I find it inspiring that so many of you donate of your own free will, and $400 per month is a nice chunk of change. But I can't live on that. Margaret brings in about the same with her part-time job, so we have been slowly burning through our savings.

Roger & SkylerAnd now our money is about to run out, so I have to figure out a way to recharge the savings account. An avalanche of donations would be my preferred method, but that is unlikely to happen. Or will it? hint...hint...

I could start charging for GSP. Many have suggested I do just that, and people I respect believe it would be successful. But I am absolutely committed to keeping GSP free and open source. The fact that an average of 8% of you donate is quite impressive - If I can increase the number of registrations to 1000 or more per month, GSP will become self-sustaining. I intend to get there, but "there" has not yet arrived.

What I need to do is find a programming contract that keeps me fully employed for a month or two or six. This is where you come in. Is there a .NET project I can help you with? Would you like a customization of GSP for your website? Maybe there is some feature you would like, like a shopping cart, integration with Flickr, etc.

Visit Tech Info Systems for more information about my consulting and programming abilities. My resume is updated with the latest exaggerations. Contact me at roger*at*techinfosystems*dot*com or give me a ring at 920-563-3165. I will even fly to your location to discuss your project (you pay travel expenses). Projects in New Zealand are given top priority.

Help this guy get a summer job. And when my savings are again stocked, I will be back at GSP full time. There is a lot of great stuff in the pipeline, and I can't wait to open the spigots.