It’s with great pleasure and excitement that I announce the immediate availability of wxGallery v1.2.0.

This new release includes enought improvements and new features to make it up for v2.0.0. However, we felt that this was quite a jump versioning wise and decided to stick with v1.2.0 instead. Let’s start with our big new [...]]]> Hi folks,

It’s with great pleasure and excitement that I announce the immediate availability of wxGallery v1.2.0.

This new release includes enought improvements and new features to make it up for v2.0.0. However, we felt that this was quite a jump versioning wise and decided to stick with v1.2.0 instead. Let’s start with our big new players.

Amazon S3

It’s finally here, and it’s dummy proof. This is the first Joomla! “gallery” (not every component advertised as gallery is actually one) ever to provide this functionality, not because it’s useless, but because it’s damm hard to properly implement it. This requires a solid and well thought architecture and it took us several weeks of design, work and re-factoring but we finally made it and we are very proud and happy with the result.

No more worries about disk space or scalability issues. Now you can just switch your file container to Amazon S3 and start storing your image files (originals and thumbnails) in the cloud. Cloud storage will also enhance your page loads by delegating HTTP image requests to Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers. This will have both impact on user experience (UX) and page ranks (PR). Another advantage is that you don’t have to worry about file backups anymore. Cloud storage usually provides all the required redundancy for ensuring that your data doesn’t get lost.

Tagging

This is one that we have been dragging for a longtime, not because we are lazy people but  because we didn’t come with the right solution to the problem before. No worries folks, we’ve finally nailed it !.

Image tagging is available since v1.0.0. What has been missing is putting those tags into some useful purpose, i.e. filtering !. As for now all tags are clickable. A click on any tag will take you to a brand new view which display images tagged with the selected tag. When you click on an image while in this view, not only the image URL stays the same as if the image is accessed from an album view, i.e. no URL duplication, but navigation (next / previous image) is also consistent with the referrer. This means that if you click on the next image button you’ll end getting the next image with respect of the previous view you were at, i.e. images tagged with the selected tag. While this sounds obvious, there are no other galleries out there that provides this kind of UX.

We’ve also added a backend view for managing tags and tagged images.

Bootstrap

At weXtend we are passionate about technology, and work hard for delivering the best there is. We’ve just started using LESS CSS for extending the fabulous Twitter’s Bootstrap Framework, which we are now implementing on all of our work.

wxGallery is now taking advantage of this wonderful framework on its frontend interface, and will probably do so soon in the backend as well. We have re-developed all of the component’s frontend templates for adding an extra touch of character and personality while keeping them simple and effective.

Eveything else

For v1.2.0 we tackled no less than 20 feature tickets. Some of them involved lots of work while others a bit less, but more often than not it’s the small details that count. Without looking forward to provide you with an extensive list of improvements and minor new features, v1.2.0 also introduces:

1. A new backend uploader in addition to the frontend uploader.
2. A re-factored frontend album view: Images from the current album and their children are now displayed while browsing an album.
3. Added image quality settings for both uploader (client side resize) and server side image processing (thumbnails).
4. Added maintenance toolbar buttons for resetting likes count and deleting thumbnails.
5. A new model (closure table) for handling hierarchical data (albums). Without it, the tagging work exposed above wouldn’t have been possible.
6. A smarter installer that’s capable of lunching migration scripts (PHP and SQL dumps) depending on the previously installed version. We want you to get you started ASAP, i.e. install/update with just a click.

and a lot of minor but important improvements here and there.

As always, your opinion matters a lot to us. We are counting on your feedback and experiences with this new release. It’s with your help that we want to craft and build the best image gallery component there is.

Thank you for reading us !.

Enjoy !.

In this release we introduced modules. In this package we included two [...]]]> We are happy announce the release of WxGallery v1.1.0, the first feature release since launch. Things are going a bit fast in terms of releases as we want to fill the gaps left by the retirement of JWallpapers as fast as we can.

In this release we introduced modules. In this package we included two of them:

• Images: this one will render a predefined (fully configurable) grid of thumbs. If the lightbox feature is enabled, a click on a thumb provides a preview of the images rendered in the grid.
• Carousel: displays an horizontal carousel for showcasing images of a selected WxGallery album.

We’ve also fixed a series of bugs that were present in the installer script. The J!1.5 installer now works.

Stay tuned for the next release !.

WxGallery is the result of our greatest efforts in providing the community with a dead simple photo gallery extension that’s extendable beyond imagination. We hope that, even on its [...]]]> It is with great excitement that I announce the immediate availability of WxGallery v1.0.0: the first image gallery for Joomla! running on top of the Nooku framework.

WxGallery is the result of our greatest efforts in providing the community with a dead simple photo gallery extension that’s extendable beyond imagination. We hope that, even on its first version, WxGallery will live up to your expectations, as we are confident that it will soon become THE Joomla! image and photo gallery extension by excellence.

A new subscription package has been made available in the wextend.com site. We’ve also decided to extend the accustomed support period from 6 month to a whole year.

As a commercial gesture, and to thank all of our JWallpapers subscribers for their support, we have made the WxGallery package available for those who are still in possession of an active JWallpapers subscription. Thanks you guys !.

The next step is to finish setting up the WeXtend Assembla space. This will be the place to look for upcoming versions of the component. The space will also contain some additional information about WeXtend and its projects (Wiki).

Our next main goal is to develop a simple module for interacting with the component and improving tagging support by allowing image filtering using tags. These will probably be our high priority tasks for the next weeks. We will be creating milestones in the Assembla space so that you can keep better track of our progress.

Enjoy and stay tuned !.

The current version of the gallery is being tested on both J!1.5 & J!2.5. Problems are being fixed and small features still being added. It’s by using the gallery that we can tell [...]]]> It’s with great excitement that I’m writing this post. We are only weeks from releasing WxGallery, a project we’ve put heart and soul into.

The current version of the gallery is being tested on both J!1.5 & J!2.5. Problems are being fixed and small features still being added. It’s by using the gallery that we can tell that something isn’t working or missing. We are on it !.

Product packing is also being reviewed, and this is an important part. This is no simple J! extension. We, Nooku devs, are working together on a unified solution for delivering Nooku powered extensions. I cannot provide more details on this matter as this is all WIP. However, do not worry, this problem will be solved in a couple of weeks tops. The solution is already there, we are just fine tuning it.

Last but not least, JWallpapers users, you won’t be forgotten. Next week I’m going to work on a migration script for re-creating your JWallpapers galleries on WxGallery. What will be migrated ?. The answer to this question is: albums, images and tags.

This migration script won’t be automatically executed while installing WxGallery, and there are two important reasons for this:

1. WxGallery users doesn’t necessarily have JWallpapers installed or don’t want their JWallpapers galleries migrated.
2. This is a long process that can’t be executed from your browsers (the script will timeout).

So what does this means ?. It means that you will be given a CLI (Command Line Interpreter) script to be directly executed on your server. I’ll provide detailed directions on how to use this script. In some cases you’ll need to ask your hosting company to do this for you. For those who don’t feel confortable or need some extra help, I will provide migration services. The fee is still to be defined.

Having said all this, I would say that we are 3 weeks from releasing this fine component, perhaps less. I’ve already said this, but I’ll say it again very loud. There are JWallpapers features that are still missing on WxGallery. The majority of them will be integrated on the upcoming months, some will not, e.g. resizes downloads. For a complete list of available features for v1.0.0, please take a look at the blog posts with the wxgallery tag. Modules, plugins and integrations need also to be re-developed, but this shouldn’t take long, we are using Nooku !. The hard and long part is behind us.

If you are using the Contest module, please know that this one won’t work with WxGallery. The same applies to the e-Commerce pack. We are planning on developing a new contest component, which will probably be completely un-related to the gallery. More information about this will be shared when available.

Well what does this mean ?. You will basically create a menu item and define the [...]]]> Just wanted to provide a heads up on what to expect from WxGallery v1.0.0 regarding ACLs. As pointed out in this blog post WxGallery ACLs will be fairly simple and will only used menu items based permissions.

Well what does this mean ?. You will basically create a menu item and define the access permissions (public, registered or special) on it, that’s it. Only root galleries (albums with root as parent) can be selected as entry points of menu items. This way the selected album and all of its children (images included) will be accessible to the selected group only.

Special actions like uploading, tagging and liking can only be performed by registered users. They will only be able to perform these actions if they also have access to the item they want to act upon, i.e. album or image. Anyone that can visualize an image can also download it unless this option is disabled from the component settings.

As you can all see, this is very simple and will probably accomodate the needs of the great majority. We are trying to simplify things here while keeping it logic.

After WxGallery is released, we will proceed with some improvements and the development of missing features, one of which may be extending the ACLs system for providing a more fine-grained control over each action. This has to be carefully reviewed. At this point there are no Nooku powered extensions using an advanced ACL system so we are probably going to be the first.

The last two feature components that were planned for the first release of WxGallery are now ready and tested after some weeks of  final adjustments. Wxterms and Wxlikes are our newest additions to the wextend.com arsenal. These re-useable components provide [...]]]> Yes, we are getting closer and closer to the ultimate goal: getting WxGallery finally released.

The last two feature components that were planned for the first release of WxGallery are now ready and tested after some weeks of  final adjustments. Wxterms and Wxlikes are our newest additions to the wextend.com arsenal. These re-useable components provide tagging and liking support to our new gallery component.

Wxterms, aka com_wxterms, provides a multi-term AJAX tagging interface which  allows to tag items with multiple terms at once. In the same way, users can remove their tags with just a click. Want a preview ?, there you go:

WxLikes (com_wxlikes) is a facebook like ratting component that allows for like functionality to anything you could imagine: articles, albums, and in our case: images.

With these two out, we are only weeks from the first release of the component.

Stay tuned.

WxGallery makes use of the com_wxfiles component which is a homemade re-usable component for file uploads. This component implements the fine plupload library [...]]]> With the uploader being one of the most important components of an image gallery, we’ve put a lot attention and energy for providing a powerful but easy to use upload interface.

WxGallery makes use of the com_wxfiles component which is a homemade re-usable component for file uploads. This component implements the fine plupload library which is IMO the best that there is in terms of stability, compatibility and feature richness.

The new uploader interface is as easy to use as it gets. While browsing an album, the user is given the opportunity to access the submit area which allows him to upload pictures in the album being browsed.

At the submit page the only thing that’s required is to press the “Add Files” button, select some image files and then hit the “Start Upload” button. That’s pretty much it.

After each image is uploaded, a preview thumbnail as well as title and description input boxes for that image are displayed in the “Uploaded images” list located above the uploader. This list allows you to rotate and change the title and description of each uploaded image, and this, while the rest of the images is being uploaded. How cool is this ?.

After all the images get uploaded, the user can continue to upload more images or quit the submit area. I’m considering on adding a reset button for resetting both the uploader queue and the uploaded images list.

In this first version, uploads can only be stored locally. In future releases remote storage (Amazon s3, dropbox, etc.) will be made available. In fact, com_wxfiles already provides the necessary architecture for making this happen, but adding this feature on the first version would mean pushing the release date even further.

In the current version, both admins and image “owners” (uploaded by them) can edit and delete images in [...]]]> Yes !, finally !. As I always promised, this is one of the non-negotiable features that had to make its way for the first release. Today I’m glad to announce that this part is already implemented, yay ! .

In the current version, both admins and image “owners” (uploaded by them) can edit and delete images in the frontend.

What can be done so far:

• Delete images.
• Edit their title and/or description.
• Rotate images.

Want a preview ?, there you go:

Basic editing is also made available in the backend for admins to use.