Gallery Server Pro Roadmap

I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback in the poll about the future of Gallery Server Pro – keep on voting! I am particularly pleased that the two lowest vote-getters are “improve performance” and “improve reliability”. That tells me you think Gallery Server Pro is fast and robust. I spent a lot of time getting it there, so it is gratifying to see some objective confirmation.

Based on those results and my internal spidey sense, here is where I see the upcoming versions and features working out. This is rough and can and will change, but at this moment it is my best guess.

2.4.7 (Released April 21, 2011)

• All known issues in the 2.4.X code base are fixed and the product is stable and performing well.

2.5 (June 2011)

• Migrate the code base to .NET 4.0.
• Replace the SQLite data provider with SQL Server CE 4.0. This will allow for simple xcopy deployment that works in medium trust – kind of the holy grail I’ve been wanting for several years.

3.0 (2012)

• Easier skinning/customizing UI (the top vote-getter in the poll)
• User comments/ratings (#2 in the poll)
• New upload experience (#3 in the poll). Allow multiple file selection on client. Possibly include option to create optimized images on client and upload those rather than original images, greatly reducing upload time.
• Tagging (heirarchical?)
• Virtual albums: browse by tags, most recent, top rated, most commented, user
• Editable metadata
• New sorting options
• Allow users to password protect individual albums/media objects
• Namespaced javascript so multiple instances of control can be on same web page

Future (2012-2013)

• Add viewmode 'Map' that displays map of GPS coordinates
• Allow gallery-level settings to be overridden at the album level (MO title template, watermark, etc)
• Allow separate media object title templates for thumbnail and optimized images
• User quotas
• Ability to regenerate captions from updated MO title template
• Mobile app support
• DeepZoom support
• Fullscreen slideshow
• Expand scope of error log to be an event log
• E-mail notifications of gallery updates
• Log history (viewing, edits, delete, etc)

Way, way Future (2040-2050)

• Include teleport feature to take viewer to GPS location embedded in image

Keep your feedback coming. Does this roadmap gel with your needs?

And keep those donations coming! Your financial support allows me to continue working on Gallery Server Pro instead of taking some high-paying consulting work. The pay is poverty-level (average donation for Jan-Mar 2011 was $1300/month), but is highly satisfying, so I expect to keep at it as long as I can keep paying the bills.