This is my current vision of the minishowcase online photo gallery software (developed by me):
Hi there,
I am very happy about what minishowcase has proven to mean to some people that have shared it with me here in this forum and in some emails I’ve received.
minishowcase has been a delight to work on some times, and a pain some others. But in the end I did it because of two main reasons: 1) I wanted to understand how ajax worked and 2) I wanted to prove that easiness of install and use is something that people care about and want in their software.
So with my very limited resources (I am not much of a programmer) I started minishowcase, and it grew from a very simple php bare-bones gallery to what it is today.
I started this gallery for my personal use, since all other galleries I found were so bloated it took me 4-5 hours to upload 10 albums of 40 pictures each. Then I decided what worked for me could work for others and I started sharing it. It has been useful for some, so I continue sharing it.
Of course, it cannot be good for everybody. I have tried to make decisions that could satisfy my needs and those of the most of you. Unfortunately, I get to hear more often from the ones that don’t like something, since those are more vocal, though many have left great ideas, tonnes of help and support and good praise that I truly appreciate.
Right now I’m faced with several important decisions:
1) On the short run, I have realised loading the galleries is faster and more efficient if done through php, since anyway more than 90 percent of the assets are reloaded, so a total reload wouldn’t hurt and it might prove a faster, more user-friendly (bookmarkable) and less prone to error than the current version. On the long run, I think minishowcase has many needs and flaws (internally mostly) that require attention , and even perhaps a thorough rewriting.
2) I find myself having less and less time for this project, and to be sincere, it is aiming a tough crowd: one of less code-inclined people that just wants their business done without problem. I’m extremely happy about catering to such a crowd, since I think all software should be as easy to use as minishowcase is, but there is little support coming from this audience, and I’m starting to realise this project is a big burden for me alone.
I continue to believe in the same principles and guidelines I believed when this project started, but I want to take it to the next level, and a photo gallery has proven to be in a market with many offers from teams with better skills than mine. Just take a look at the fabulous work done by the creators of the Lightbox JS2 and the ThickBox 2.1, the other two image previews included with minishowcase.
Right now I’m thinking that the little free time I have might be better on projects with more return, so I’ve started to develop other projects I’ve had in mind since a long time ago.
I won’t be abandoning minishowcase until it reaches the 1.0 maturity. However, other paths are proving very tempting, and I’d love to explore them right now, along with you, if you fancy so.
Even though minishowcase has not reached wide notoriety, I’m extremely happy with what it has became. I wish I had the skills to make it even better, or more stable at least. If I ever will, I might try to take it to the next level. This would require integration with blogs and more complex sites, accepting modules or extensions or plug-ins, having an API and being scriptable, an interface that allowed for uploads from mobile devices, adding sub-galleries support, and a good and stable online file manager.
Thanks again to all those that have contributed in any way to make minishowcase a better photo gallery. I hope to see you all around here.
Victor
