• Pixaria Gallery
• About Gallery
• Gallery Features
• Gallery Demo

• AssetDeck
• About AssetDeck
• Compare Features
• Free Demo

• Further Info
• Tech Specs
• Requirements
• Get Web Hosting
• Design Services
• Sell Photos Online
• Use Of Cookies
• Contact

• Feeds
• Pixaria News
• Documentation
• Twitter

Pixaria 3.0 and PHP 4

Is your Pixaria installation running on PHP 4? If so, I need to hear from you as I'm currently investigating the possibility of dropping support for PHP 4 in Pixaria Gallery from version 3.0.

There are a many reasons why moving to PHP 5 would be good for Pixaria but the most important are:

1. PHP 5 is generally better performing on the same operations than PHP 4.
2. PHP 4 is no longer supported or actively developed.
3. New features in PHP 5 allow for the creation of more reliable software in a shorter period of time.
4. It's very mature and has been around for 4 years - if your host isn't using it, they should be!

With Pixaria Gallery being such a large project and me being the only developer, maintaining easy to manage code is really important. With PHP 5, this would be a significantly easier job for me.

To help me make this decision, it would be a big help if anyone still using PHP 4 could let me know. You can see what version of PHP your server is using by going to the admin area of your website and following these links:

'Tools' tab > 'Diagnostics' > click the icon for 'Server Status Information'

Scroll down to the section entitled 'PHP and Web Server' and the PHP version is the first item in the list.

Most good hosting companies now offer PHP 5 as a standard for new accounts but if your hosting provider doesn't, you should consider asking why and seeing if you can be upgraded. Pixaria 2.5 is fully qualified for use with PHP 5 and won't need any modifications to work correctly so don't hold back, upgrade today!

Please address any questions about PHP 5 to me via the forums.

Pixaria Gallery 2.5.5 Now Out

Just a quick message to say that Pixaria Gallery 2.5.5 is now available. This update adds a new Dutch translation (for which big thanks go to Ivo Ruijters!) and a new setting in the admin area to turn off the simple slideshow in the front end. There are also the obligatory bug fixes and minor tweaks which are detailed in the release notes.

For full details of all the changes, please see the release notes and for a list of all the files modified in this update check out the changelog.

To get the update, please drop me an e-mail to upgrade@pixaria.com and I will send over your updated files as soon as I can.

Ad-busting in Berlin

Subverting the meaning of posters and billboards is nothing new but these examples in Berlin are quite clever. As one of the comments points out, it's a bit of an inside joke but it's still clever...

http://www.gizmodo.com/

Pixaria Gallery 2.5.4 Released

My first release of Pixaria for 2009 is now ready to roll in the form of version 2.5.4 and it's a free upgrade for all current users of version 2.0 and above.

This release includes fixes for a few minor bugs and a some enhancements to the store control panel to allow for longer sales instructions to buyers. As usual, there are full details of all the changes in the release notes and a list of all the files modified in this update in the changelog.

To get the update, please send an e-mail to upgrade@pixaria.com and I will send over your updated files as soon as I can.

PopCard.me Adds Flickr Support

PopCard.me proved so popular over the holiday period that I decided to lavish a little love on it between Christmas and New Year. The fruit of my labours is fully integrated support for making cards based photos from Flickr.

The new Flickr section shows off a frequently updated selection of Creative Commons licensed images tagged for 'interestingness' and also enables visitors to search for images by keyword and create cards from them.

Playing around with the Flickr API was an enjoyable break from the normal routine of my day to day programming work and having a chance to see some of the amazing images on Flickr was an eye opener too. Flickr's interestingness algorithm exposes some truly incredible photography and is well worth a look.

New Documentation Coming Soon

One of my plans for Pixaria in 2009 is a complete overhaul of the online documentation to make it easier to use and maintain and to generally tidy it up a bit. At the moment, documentation topics such as the installation instructions are spread across multiple pages which makes them harder to browse and time consuming to print off for later reference.

With these design goals in mind and after a good bit of hunting around for the right solution, I finally settled on using MediaWiki which is the same software used by Wikipedia, among many others. The new docuementation site has been online since November and work has already begun on moving all the existing documentation topics over to the new site, cleaning them up and merging topics which used to be multiple separate pages into single, consolidated articles.

As many people will be aware, MediaWiki is a collaborative software application which means that for the first time, I have the potential to open up the documentation to allow other people to contribute. While I won't be going down the route of allowing an editing free for all like Wikipedia, I am looking for volunteers who would be interested in registering as editors to help keep the documentation up to date.

If you're interested in helping out when the new documentation website is completed, please drop me an e-mail to let me know and I'll get back in touch with full details after the new website is complete.

Pixaria 3.0 Sneak Peek

As promised in my end of year ramblings a few days ago, I want to keep everyone up to date on my progress with version 3.0 and also prove that I'm not sitting on my butt doing nothing so here's the first public screenshot of version 3.0.

This screenshot shows the general settings control panel of the admin area which now features a tabbed interface, larger text and larger quick link icons. One of the design goals for the admin area is to make the forms easier to use and clearer to view on screen.

Feedback is always welcome via the forums..!