about minishowcase

this is my current vision of the minishowcase online photo gallery software (developed by me):

hi there,

i so far 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 two reasons: 1) i wanted to understand how ajax work and 2) i wanted to prove that easiness of install and use is something that people want to find in some software.

so with my very limited resources (i am not a programmer, i’m an architect that went down the road to interaction design and bumped so much with programming that ended up learning it barely enough for everyday use and survival in a world dominated by it, namely interaction and software design) i started minishowcase, and it grew from a very simple php bare-bones gallery to what it is today.

and all this 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 that was good for me could be good for some other people and i started sharing it. and it has proven to be so in some cases, so i continue sharing it. and that development has had a path and a direction.

but of course, it can not be good for everybody, and i have tried to make decisions that could satisfy me and the most of you. unfortunately, i get to know more often about the ones that do not like something, since those are quite compelled to leave their comments here (though many have come and left great ideas, tonnes of help and support and good praise that i trully appreciate).

but 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 rrove a faster, more user-friendly (bookmarkable) and less prone to error than the current version. on the long run, i have realised 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 might say i’m extremely happy about feeding to such a crowd, since i think all applications should be as easy to use as it is minshowcase, but there is little support back, not in shoulder pads, but in real support, and i’m starting to realise this project is a big burden for me alone.

i continue to believe in the same principles and guidemines i believed when this project started, but i want to take it to the next level, and a photo gallery has proven to be a very covered market by people with better skills than me (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).

so right now i’m thinking that little free timei have might be put to more work and return (not in economical terms, since free is free, but more on a input-output ratio). so i’ve started to develop other projects i had in mind since a long time ago.

i won’t abandon minishowcase until it is on a stable state, so until it does not reach the 1.0 maturity, i’ll still keep an eye and a hand on it. but other paths are proving very tempting, and i know i’d love to walk them right now, along with you, if you fancy them.

so even though minishowcase did not reach wide notoriety, i’m extremely happy with what it has becomed. i wish i had the skills to make it even better (more stable at least), and if i ever can, i might try to take it to the next level, which right now, sadly, would require for it to be integrable with blogs, accept modules or extensions or plug-ins, have an API and be scriptable, easily accessed by a simple e-mail interface that allowed you to upload from mobiles, add subgalleries support, and then a good online, stable, failproof file manager. and i know i cannot provide that right now.

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, as i won’t let the support die until there’s none needed anymore.

victor

(please feel free to comment my comments)