NextGEN Gallery 1.9.0 Beta 1

WordPress 3.3 will arrive in the next weeks, so it’s time for the new version of NextGEN Gallery. This version introduces along with WordPress 3.3 the new PLupload feature. I also rework a bit the PNG /GIF format handling, so that transparency images are should be shown up correct.

NextGEN Gallery 1.8.0 Beta 1

Whoa… long break till the last release. I’m currently heavily busy with my daily work, so I need to slow down a bit the development the last months. Anyway something is changed under the hood. I’ve finally added the new permalink structure, as the current is ‘not-soooo-url-friendly’ and I’ve added a sorting option for the manage gallery page. Hope you like this improvement…

My next vacation is in front of me, so I decided to release a first second beta, that you are able to test this new features. I’m happy for any kind of feedback about this version.

Windows Live Photo Gallery with NextGEN

I’m happy to report that the people from Krangoo create a new addon for for Windows Live Photo Gallery that enables you to upload photos from your computer to NextGEN Gallery.

Download & check the details here

WordTube 2.4.0

No I’m not dead, just take a longer break… or should I say : Blame it on my Playstation 3 ? Anyway just released in this minutes a new WordTube version which added the ability to sort a playlist. Not that big thing, the next step should be a integration of HTML5 video tags.

Have a nice sunday !

Scalability

Since 2006 I go with the WordPress development and I’m always really impressed the way it works for small and large installation. For 4 years I’m now writing plugins, I must admit that in the beginning I had no clue about queries, performance and traffic. I learned a lot from the code base of WordPress and improved my plugin’s as good as possible. wp-Table, my first public plugin is a mess if you look for database queries, never would do this again 🙂

Today I’m focused on NextGEN-Gallery , which is a real challenge for me. It has a large user base and is used in various way. I spend a lot of time for the upgrade process, so that a new version (hopefully) will not break your work. It’s real easy to write a new plugin, but when you have a lot of user, every single line needs to be reviewed. This makes the develeopment for my plugin so hard, I’m really no professional programmer, I never used or tested my work on high traffic blogs, never worked with large multi site environment, nexer used more than 1000 images.

So instead of adding more and more features, I will work in the next time just on scalability and UI. Some time ago I ask how many images you have uploaded with NextGEN Gallery, and I’m really impressed about your response. But sadly this amount of images shows the current limits of my plugin. I never thought in this amount, so I programmed some features which are good for a couple of image/galleries, but not for hundreds of them.
One big flaw is the TinyMCE Dialog window. You can select in the WYSIWYG Editor easily a image or gallery from the drop down field and insert the shortcode, but it’s a mess if you have 10000+ images. One first improvement is part of the upcoming V1.7.0 : Auto complete for drop down fields.

With the help of jQuery UI Autocomplete, you can select one of the last 50 images or you can search for any image and select then the desired image. There are more places in the admin back end which need as well a full rework (i.e. Album management) but I just would like to get first your feedback on this new feature. I finished the first beta of V1.7.0 and it would be great if some of you can test this version. I’m already upgraded my test blog & live system, so it should be stable enough to give it a shot. Let me know here in the comment section if you have any problem, or feel free to open a issue at my Google Page. Thanks !

80.000 Blogs

The people behind the WP.org introduced a new pie chart. It returns a percentage breakdown of the versions being actively used by that plugin’s users. I’m very surprised how many user are currently uses (or activated) NextGEN Gallery. It’s more than 80.000 blogs worldwide… More over I’m astonished how many user are not updating to the latest version, only 18% installed the latest version….

IE Users – Welcome to rounded corners !

Downloaded the IE9 Beta yesterday to test the “new” experience and I’m really happy to welcome all IE user now to rounded corner. I’ve tested jQuery UI dialog and the progressbar, when you upload your images. It look’s really much better then in IE8 (or IE7, don’t talk about IE6) :

And here IE 8 mode (the ugly of the web) :

Adobe Lightroom

A cool addon plugin for Adobe Lightroom export direct the images to NextGEN gallery. You can optionally create a post including the exported photos (the post is left in draft mode, so you can edit it later).

Download this plugin here.

wordTube Version 2.3.0 released

I’ve uploaded a new version of wordTube to wordpress.org. This version contain the new JW Media Player V5.1. The path to the player is now editable, so that you can upload your custom version (You can also use version 4.x, as the player is backward compatible). Please note : In the next version I will remove the flash file from the repository. If you not move your flash player file outside the plugin folder, it will automatic erased during the upgrade routine.

Please verify the path of your player in the wordTube options, if you have any other trouble with the new version, please report it at the forums. Thanks !

Photocrati SuperTheme

The people behind Photocrati create a new Premium Theme with 15 layouts included ! This SuperTheme feature the full power of NextGEN Gallery functions, which is a great thing. I’m especially very happy that they re-style the gallery layout in a really nice way…