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Pixaria Gallery 2.9.1 Released

I'm pleased to announce the immediate availability of Pixaria Gallery version 2.9.1. This is a recommended upgrade for all current users and includes a number of fixes and improvements to various parts of the software. Version 2.9.1 includes a new feature which makes it possible to place expiry dates on user accounts either by limiting access to a defined number of days from the first login or else by locking the account on a fixed date.

To get this update, please drop me an e-mail at upgrade@pixaria.com and I'll send the new version to you. As always, please take a moment to check out the release notes and change log before upgrading as these contain full details of all the modifications in this version.

Note: Technical support for this upgrade is only available to users who are within their active support period (one year from date of original purchase or purchase of a support and upgrade extension).

Pixaria Forum Updates

Regular visitors to the forums will be aware that I don't get the opportunity to respond to messages there as much as I would like. To help improve this situation, I've made some changes which I hope will make the forum easier to use and simpler for me to monitor.

As of this evening, I've consolidated all of the forum topics into a single Pixaria discussion area called 'Pixaria Community Forum' and I've used this as an opportunity to clean up some obsolete topics and sticky messages that are no longer of use or are out of date.

I hope that these changes will make the forums more useful for everyone. If you have any thoughts on this, please let me know in the comments!

Pixaria Gallery 2.8.8 Released

I'm pleased to announce the immediate availability of Pixaria Gallery version 2.8.8 which is an important new release containing a number of significant new features and improvements.

The big news in this update is that, Pixaria now supports uploading and importing of TIFF, PSD and JPEG 2000 images*, further enhancing the digital asset management capabilities of the software and making it even more useful as an archiving and image management software package.

Non JPEG images in the above supported formats are imported and resized into JPEG comp and thumbnail versions which can be viewed and managed in exactly the same way as with standard JPEG files. I hope to be able to further expand the supported image formats in the near future pending feedback on this new feature.

Other new features in this update include:

1. Support for e-mail address whitelisting for new registrations
2. Admin definable download rights for users on a gallery by gallery basis
3. Gallery level control over image product availability
4. Administrators can require users to accept terms and conditions and enter their intended use of images when downloading free files.

Also included in this update are a large number of minor fenhancements and bug fixes. The large number of changed files in this release is due to the new support for PHP 5.3 which has required changes in many areas of the script.

To get this update, please drop me an e-mail at upgrade@pixaria.com and I'll send the new version to you. As always, please take a moment to check out the release notes and change log before upgrading as these contain full details of all the modifications in this version.

*The new image format support requires that ImageMagick is installed on your web server and it not compatible with Windows at the present time. ImageMagick will automatically be detected where it is available and you will then be able to import the newly supported file formats. To check if ImageMagick is installed, browse to the 'Extensions' tab of the software status page in the admin area of your Pixaria installation.

Regrettably, it's not possible to support these additional image formats where ImageMagick is not installed. This is because the GD graphics library which is included with PHP does not support working with image formats other than JPEG, GIF and PNG.

Upgrades and Support FAQ

I've had a few questions about the new upgrade and support extension packages that I've recently introduced and thought it might be helpful to clarify a couple of points:

Why have you introduced this policy?
Because it is not realistic for me to provide free support and upgrades on an indefinite basis. Doing so reduces the time available for development of new features and to support new users and in time, would probably make continued development of Pixaria impossible.

When might I need to purchase an extension?
If you purchased Pixaria over one year ago and wish to continue receiving technical support. Upgrades continue to be free until version 3.0 is released.

Why not charge only for major releases?
I'm moving towards an approach of adding significant new features all the time rather than in big groups as this makes support and development simpler and easier to manage. Adding features simply to justify a version number and price increase is not good for anyone.

Why are upgrade and support extensions priced as they are?
The pricing is extremely competitive when compared to that of similar software packages. Providing technical support is time consuming and expensive and not charging for it is unrealistic given the number of users that Pixaria now has.

Pixaria Support Extensions Now Available

In anticipation of the July 1st launch of support and upgrade extensions for Pixaria Gallery, I have now updated the Pixaria store and support pages with details of two new support and upgrade extension products.

For all Pixaria Gallery users who purchased over one year ago from the first of July, continued technical support will only be available once a license extension has been purchased for $99. Free upgrades up to but not including version 3.0 will still be available on request but will be unsupported without a support extension.

Purchasing an upgrade extension will entitle you to:

1. Free updates for one year from the date of purchase.
2. Technical support for one year from the date of purchase.
3. A free upgrade to Pixaria Gallery 3.0 when it is released.

By popular demand, I am also adding a new, professional level technical support and upgrade package which includes:

1. Installation of up to 20 updates per year.
2. Priority technical support.

This premium package is priced at $399 per year and represents a 50% saving on the standard cost of ad-hoc upgrade installations.

To go with this package, there is also a new Pixaria Gallery Pro license which includes the same support and upgrade install benefits and is priced at $649.

Details of all the packages can be found on the support page here.

Two New Showcase Websites

As many people will know, I have included a showcase of interesting Pixaria websites here on the website for some years now and I'm pleased to report that I've just added two new sites to the list.

The first, Spectrum Textures, is a free, online resource providing high-quality textures, and abstract images for use in creative projects. Built around the latest version of Pixaria, the implementation was customised here at Pixaria on behalf of the site owner to include site wide support for Google AdSense and a custom front page with Amazon advertising panels.

Next up is the website of professional wedding photographer Sam Chinigo who's new client facing website is powered by Pixaria Gallery. Sam is a widely respected, award winning photographer based in Connecticut, USA and chose Pixaria to provide his wedding clients with an easy way to view and purchase images online.

If you're interested in taking part in the Pixaria Gallery showcase, please let me know by sending an e-mail to info@pixaria.com incuding a link to your site and brief details of what your business is about.

Pixaria Bootleg Problems

Since putting the price of Pixaria up a few weeks ago, I've noticed a distinct increase in the number of bootleg Pixaria installations that have been popping up online. The most commonly installed, unlicensed version of Pixaria Gallery is version 2.3.4 which was released into the wild by a user making a fraudulent purchase in July 2008. By chance, I'm able to find this out because in that release, due to a bug, an e-mail notification was sent to me whenever anyone logged in to a new installation of this version.

There are many reasons why someone might want to install an unlicensed version of Pixaria Gallery such as for evaluation purposes but there are some major drawbacks to using older version of Pixaria Gallery which are fairly important and warrant a mention:

The first issue is that version 2.3.4 is completely outdated and doesn't represent the current state of Pixaria Gallery in any way. The admin area and much of the front end has changed so much that if you compare this version with the current release, they could be completely different products.

A second, more serious issue is that version 2.3.4 contains several known security vulnerabilities one of which could allow users to read any data from any server where it is installed including usernames, passwords and other private information.

For anyone considering installing a bootleg copy of Pixaria, please also consider that continued development of the script is funded in large part by new users and without ongoing support, it's not going to be realistic for me to continue development. I hope that people will do the right thing and avoid unlicensed bootleg copies of Pixaria Gallery and thus help to support continued development and improvement of the software for the entire community.

Ars Technica Reviews Adobe Lightroom 3

Hot on the heels of his review of Aperture 3, Ars Technica's Dave Girard has now taken an in-depth look at Lightroom 3, Adobe's premier digital photography studio software. With big new features including automatic lens correction, it looks like a solid update in anyone's book!

Check out the complete review here.

Back Online

I'm back from vacation and will be making a start on tackling my e-mail inbox over the next few days. Please be patient while I work on the backlog as I'm going through messages in order of priority.

Offline Between June 5th and 12th

From Saturday June 5th until Saturday June 12th, I will be on vacation in Turkey for a friend's wedding (no, I'm not the photographer!).

During this time, I may not be able to respond to e-mails or purchase notifications for up to 48 hours. If you buy Pixaria Gallery during this time, please note that I may not be able to provide you with your software immediately so please be patient.