I have been wanting to improve the search engine friendliness of Pixaria Gallery for a while now but the main obstacle has been that in order to do this, there would be a lot of changes to the front end templates. Since that was always going to happen with version 3.0 anyway, I decided that it would be best to incorporate these optimisations into this update.
Optimising a website for image searching is difficult because there is no published documentation on how the major search engines index these types of media. That said, there are some common sense guidelines which I have applied in version 3.0:
For best results with search engine optimisation in Pixaria Gallery, there are a couple of important guidelines to remember:
LONDON, England - November 22, 2010 Pixaria Software today unveiled Pixaria Gallery 3.0, a powerful digital asset management software package that offers creative professionals everything they need to publish and sell digital images, prints and other products on their own website for just $249.
"I'm delighted that Pixaria has once again evolved by leaps and bounds in version 3.0." said Jamie Longstaff, creator and developer of the software. "Pixaria Gallery is a leader affordable in web based digital asset management software and version 3.0 adds a new level of polish and refinement to the software along with exciting new features like the ability to sell products like workshops or books."
At its core, Pixaria Gallery is a digital asset management system with its entire user interface designed for use through a web browser. Powered by a combination of a MySQL database and the popular PHP scripting language, Pixaria Gallery is simple to install on the website packages offered by all the major hosting companies. For creative professionals who are new to the dark arts of web design, servers and databases, the developer offers free installation onto any web server that meets the system requirements.
With a big emphasis on customisability and standards compliance, Pixaria Gallery 3.0 boasts an entirely re-designed look and feel that brings together clean, CSS and HTML 5 code alongside a wealth of new admin configuration options to provide a best in class user interface with pervasive search engine optimisation and improved accessibility.
Thanks to the brand new HTML 5 and CSS layout, Pixaria Gallery 3.0 is easier to customise than ever before. Themes in version 3.0 now make use of separate stylesheets for the basic HTML layout and the colour scheme which makes it a breeze to change the entire look and feel in a matter of minutes without affecting the core layout of the software. For those looking for inspiration for their own themes, version 3.0 ships with two new front-end themes, Charcoal and Snowflake, and with more coming soon, getting the perfect look for your site will never have been easier.
For photographers, probably the most important new addition to Pixaria Gallery 3.0 is the introduction of new product types to the e-commerce features of the software. For the first time, it's now possible to sell products such as books or workshops that are not directly derived from images in the library. New administration tools make it simple to create and configure product options which customers can choose from at the time of purchase. The entire shopping cart system in the front-end has been updated to provide a simpler purchase and checkout process for customers.
With more and more businesses looking to manage their libraries of digital images, a welcome addition to Pixaria Gallery 3.0 is support for a range of new image formats. First up are the popular and widely used web image formats PNG and GIF which now natively supported, including those images with alpha transparency. For specialist applications and on servers with the ImageMagick graphics library installed, Pixaria Gallery is also able to import and display TIFF, Photoshop PSD, Windows BMP, JPEG 2000 and even EPS and PDF files, all with automatic thumbnail generation and metadata import.
Other welcome additions to the software include: revamped front-end contributor tools including a new multi-file uploader and sales reporting system; simplified image colour tagging and an improved image colour search algorithm; support for the Google Maps version 3 API and a new integrated AJAX gallery browser for distraction free viewing of images in the galleries and user lightboxes.
Pricing & Availability
Pixaria Gallery 3.0 is now available for $249 (US) through www.pixaria.com. Customers who purchased Pixaria Gallery 2.0 on or after November 21, 2009 are eligible for a free upgrade to Pixaria Gallery 3.0. Customers who purchased before this date, can upgrade for $99 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Pixaria Gallery, can be found at www.pixaria.com.
About Pixaria
Pixaria Gallery is now in its fifth year and has a devoted user base of amateur and professional photographers who participate in an active community on the Pixaria website. Pixaria Gallery was created by London based, independent software developer Jamie Longstaff with the goal of being the most affordable way for both amateur and professional photographers to get started selling images on their own website.
Acknowledgements
I'm indebted to the following for their assistance during the development of Pixaria Gallery: Andres Lesauvage, Matthias Zehnder, Leo Garcia and everyone who took part in the beta testing program.
Press Contacts:
Jamie Longstaff
info@pixaria.com
I'm delighted to announce that Pixaria Gallery 3.0 is now available! For full details of what's new in this update, please check out the release notes and official press release and of course, do make sure you stop by the demo site.
At the present time, the documentation relating customisation is still being updated and I will shortly be transitioning to a new helpdesk to replace the current forum system so bear with me as I continue with these changes..!
Please note that version 3.0 requires PHP 5.0 or above and that themes built for version 2.0 are not compatible with version 3.0. If in doubt, please drop me an e-mail for more details.
PermalinkI'm very pleased to announce that work on Pixaria Gallery 3.0 has now wrapped up and that final testing is drawing to a close.
Version 3.0 is a major upgrade and with the holiday season approaching, I've decided that the initial release will be in the form of a public beta. With businesses winding down before the end of the year and a very busy schedule for me, this will enable early adopters to get started with the new features of the software while those who want to continue with a mature, stable release can continue using version 2.0.
It's taken nearly a year of development to bring this update to completion and during this time, I've worked hard to add expanded product support, simpler theming and improved customisability which are three of the most often requested changes I receive for the software.
My focus from here on will be incremental addition of new features and enhancements - a process that's easier to manage and organise than big, feature packed releases. Users of Pixaria Gallery 3.0 can look forward to many more enhancements coming over the course of the next year but in the meantime, here's a taste of what's new..!
Changes and New Features in Pixaria Gallery 3.0
A small selection of the new features in Pixaria Gallery 3.0 include:
Full details of all the new features and changes will be announced when the software is released.
Important Notes About Upgrading
Pixaria Gallery 3 is probably the biggest upgrade I've ever done and involved completely re-writing all of the front end templates, adding support for new image formats, migrating much of the code to PHP 5, adding new product and cart administration tools and re-designing the front end user interface to simplify the process of creating customisations and themes. Because of all these changes, it's important to note the following before you consider upgrading:
Purchase and Upgrade Information
Pixaria Gallery 3.0 will be made available on Sunday the 21st of November and it will be a free upgrade for anyone who purchased an earlier version after November 21st 2009 or who has a valid upgrade and support license.
Users who purchased the script before November 21st 2009, can purchase a one year support and upgrade extension for $99 here.
*These file formats require ImageMagick and a Linux, Unix or Mac OS X operating system on the server where Pixaria Gallery is installed.
PermalinkPixaria Gallery 4.0.5
Friday, May 10, 2013
Pixaria Gallery 4.0.4
Monday, April 29, 2013
Pix Update
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Pixaria Gallery 4.0.2
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Important Update!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Website Comment
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Pixaria Gallery 4.0 Demo
Friday, September 28, 2012
50% Discount
Friday, September 28, 2012
Pixaria Support
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Support Tickets
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
