Benjamin Sterling Galleries: Wordpress Photo/Image Gallery Plugin for Flickr & Picasa
New Version and Name Change
The “Benjamin Sterling Galleries” plugin has been renamed and recoded with a ton of new features. The new URL is http://benjaminsterling.com/photoxhibit/ and although support will still be given for this version (1.6.2) I would suggest you checking out PhotoXhibit
Comments for this post are closed, please go to PhotoXhibit for support.
What is it?
A godsend plugin for anyone who wants to add a photogallery to their website using Wordpress and jQuery.
Download (current count: 1,810)
Download Benjamin Sterling Galleries Version 1.6.2
Features
-
Pull in photos / images, thumbnail and large size, from just about everywhere
- from flickr via rss or their json api
- from picasa via rss
- from a local folder
- from photos / images already in the Wordpress database
- Ulilizes the jQuery JavaScript framework’s power and a ever growing list of great photogallery plugins
- Drag and drop reordering of gallery images
- Change functionality of your photogallery with few clicks of the mouse
- Combine photos from multiple accounts and services
- Embed your gallery in posts or anywhere on your site
- Galleries are 508 compliant and will degrade nicely when JavaScripts are turned off
- Preview your gallery on the fly
Resources
History
While wordpress does have a ton of image / photo galleries, I felt that none of them really gave you control over everything in an easy unobtrusive way. Not to say this this plugin is the is all be all, but it will get there.
In my hunt to find a good one for my wife and installing all the ones that I thought had what was needed, I found that none of them made it easy. My wife is a very smart woman, so when she gets frustrated with something it most likely not her. So after a few months of her beating me, I decided to build some jQuery gallery plugins which you can find on this site. This was able to keep her happy for a bit, but I had to go in and make changes everytime she wanted to add and image or take one out. After doing this a few times I decided to just put together a quick plugin that will take in the images via a picasa feed provided by her and let her do the changes her self.
After showing this plugin to a few other developers they suggested I should make it into a full fledge plugin and well, here it is.
Prerequisites
- Wordpress 2.1 or higher
- A Flickr account and api key or
- A Picasa account or
- Images in a local directory or
- Images in your Wordpress database
Aside
Although this plugin was test on a pc in IE6, IE7, FF2, and Opera 9.24 and on IIS6 PHP5, Apache PHP4 & PHP5 and feel comfortable that this plugin will work flawlessly, I am the creator of the plugin, thus, I am naturally going to use it the way it is supposed to be used and not have any issues. That is where you come in, any and all comments and concerns should be posted asap and I will build up a punch list of fixes. Also, if there are jQuery or even other Javascript libraries that have nice photo / image gallery plugins, let me know and I will see what I can do to add that into the mix.
Timeline
Here is a brief timeline of what I hope to accomplish and in what order. There is no exact date for each release, but the time between each release should not be more then two months.
- 1.2 current release
- 1.3
- Add more Picasa interaction
- interactions tbd
- Add more Picasa interaction
- 1.4
- Add more control of the style for each jQuery photo gallery plugins
- The thought is to possibly have all the styles embedded in the database
and then have those styles transfer over when
you create a gallery.
- The thought is to possibly have all the styles embedded in the database
- Add better control over parameters for jQuery photo gallery plugins
- Add more control of the style for each jQuery photo gallery plugins
- 1.5
- Add the ability to change the alt text for each image no matter where
the image is from- The thought is to possibly have an edit icon appear when mousing over
an image
- The thought is to possibly have an edit icon appear when mousing over
- Add the ability to change the alt text for each image no matter where
Installation
If you have ever installed a plugin, then this will be pretty easy.
- always back up your Wordpress before making any modifications.
- Extract the files. Place the benjamin-sterling-galleries directory into wp-content/plugins/
- Login to the Site Admin and go to Plugins and active Benjamin Sterling Galleries
- Then it can be configured from the BSG menu that you should now have on the top menu bar.
More Info
Let me try to explain what this plugin actually does; it builds image galleries or photo galleries. Wow, I know, that was descriptive. But since you look like you are still puzzled by how it actually works, I will go into a little more detail. Say you have a Picasa photo album with all these really nice photos that you want to add to your site either in a post or in the side bar. But, you don’t want to use the “slideshow” feature that they provide. Well, with this plugin you simply use your rss feed link for your Picasa photo album and paste it into the lovely interface that is provided by the Benjamin Sterling Galleries plugin. Then you select what size thumbnails you want to preview and you click a button and wham, you have all your images/photos listed on the page. You double click on the ones you want to add to your gallery, you fill in some info, select the style of gallery you want and click another button and wham, you have a preview of the gallery that can be added to your Wordpress. What? You have a Flickr account too? Well if you did not click the button to add you gallery yet, go a head and paste in the url to your Flickr rss feed and click the first button and there you go, a list of your Flickr photos. Double click on the ones you want and click build gallery and there you go, a photogallery with both your Flickr AND Picasa photos!
The other nice thing about this plugin is that you can re-order the images you want in your gallery. Simply click and drag the images you want to move around and put them wherever you want in the gallery.
Ok, with out rambling too much more, let me ask for your help. What do I need up with? Well, my instructions are very minimal, do I need more? I only have four photo / image gallery plugins installed, do I need more? If so, which ones do you like? And why? Is there a feature that is needed/that is missing? What is it?
The download link is below, please leave comments to help me make this plugin better.
Download: http://wordpress.org/extend/pl.....galleries/
My muse S.Sterling http://www.neurosesgalore.com
1. JJ