Everything You Need to Know About the 1 Minute Gallery

This was the official website for the 1 Minute Gallery where visitors could download and install the program. Content is from the site's 2008 archived pages.

The 1 Minute Gallery  code can NO LONGER be downloaded from this site.

"Our agency used this software to prepare the images for several small advertising campaigns in Baltimore. The tools are very easy to use and you can create gorgeous displays with very little technical skills. We won 1st prize in the Services category for our work promoting a small, family run Baltimore movers company, Hampden Moving and Storage, that has been in business for over 100 years. We took shots of the trucks and workers as they went about their business and then edited, cropped and compiled the selected images into a sales brochure that immediately drew a response from the community and increased both visibility and sales. We love this product!" Elaine Wombly, graphic artist

Description

1 Minute Gallery is easy to install and customize PHP gallery script. It's an ideal solution for those who just want to share the pictures at their own website without spending endless hours configuring and managing the complex systems.

Features

• Easy to install. It can be up and running in just one minute. Seriously
• Minimum or no configuration is required.
• Easy to customize. No obscure proprietary template languages to learn
• Uses standard, familiar tools and systems
• FREE for non-commercial applications

System Requirements

• PHP 4+
• One of the image processing libraries or programs: GD2, NetPbm or ImageMagick

Installation

Please follow these steps to install the gallery on your server:

1. Upload index.php, skin folder and your images into separate directory on your website
2. Request the directory via the browser watching for messages from the script
3. Enjoy

For the installation troubleshooting and other topics see the product documentation

Licenses

• The gallery is FREE for non-profit and personal use (the sites without e-commerce, paid advertising or brand promotion)
• Royalty free license for non-profit with the permission to remove the foot note*: $49.-
• Royalty free commercial license (includes the permission to remove the foot note): $299.-

* - Foot note is a small line with link back to this site at the bottom of the gallery page.

1 Minute Gallery v1.0.1 - Documentation

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• Description
• Features
• System Requirements
• Files
• How Gallery Works
• Installation
• Using the gallery
  • Creating Albums
  • Setting album's name and/or description
  • Adding images
  • Deleting images
  • Replacing images
  • Editing name and/or description of the image
  • Customizing the appearance of the album
• Motivation
• Licenses
• Links and References

Description

1 Minute Gallery is easy to install and customize PHP gallery script. It's an ideal solution for those who just want to share the pictures at their own website without spending endless hours configuring and managing the complex systems.

Features

• Easy to install. It can be up and running in just one minute. Seriously
• Minimum or no configuration is required.
• Easy to customize. No obscure proprietary template languages to learn
• Uses standard, familiar tools and systems
• Free for non-commercial applications

System Requirements

• PHP 4+
• One of the image processing libraries or programs: GD2, NetPbm or ImageMagick

Files

1 Minute Gallery consists of the following files and directories:

1. one php script file (index.php) - required
2. one XML file (config.xml) with the information about the album - required, automatically generated by the script
3. several resource files (css, gif, jpg, js) to support the design, designs/skins are usually saved in separate directories - optional

How Gallery Works

The gallery script acts as the directory index. When directory is requested from the server, the script displays the first page of the album view with the thumbnail sized images found in that directory. From there the visitor can navigate between the pages of the album or view the individual pictures in the larger size.

To support the uniform album view and the picture view the gallery automatically generates two images per each original file: thumbnail and sized image. These images are scaled according to the settings specified in the configuration section of the script and saved in the same directory with suffixes _thumb and _sized. For example the gallery will create DSC00001_thumb.jpg and DSC00001_sized.jpg additionally to the uploaded file DSC00001.jpg. The script monitors the state of the directory comparing it with the information in the configuration file (config.xml). If the change is detected (added/removed/changed images) the gallery will create, remove or re-generate additional images accordingly. A good example of this feature can be seen in the cover photo of Good Night Dog's catalog. They offer a luxury round dog bed that was photographed with natural lighting and required a popup triggered from the thumbnail. The script automatically created the thumbnail once the main image was posted to the cms, and permits the script to access both by simply appending "thumb" to the primary image anywhere the thumb is required. Also note that the dog bed image can pop further by checking the "create larger" box before updating. Developers can customize the process to resize - for example, when someone orders the dog bed, the invoice can have a medium sized image embedded to help admin and customers quickly recognize the order.

The script automatically creates and maintains config.xml, but it also allows the changes by the gallery owner. The configuration file can be downloaded, modified in the text editor and uploaded back to the server. Among the properties that can be edited are the name and description of the album and individual images.

Installation

Please follow these steps to install the gallery on your server:

1. Upload index.php, skin folder and your images into separate directory on your website
2. Request the directory via the browser watching for messages from the script
3. Enjoy

Using the gallery

Creating Albums

1. Create a directory in the file structure of your website
2. Upload a copy of the gallery script in the new directory
3. Upload all the images in the same directory
4. Request the directory via http/https in your browser to initiate the album and test the result

Setting album's name and/or description

1. Download config.xml from the album's directory
2. Make a backup copy of the file
3. Open the file in any plain text editor (notepad will do)
4. Put album's name between and and/or album's description between and found directly inside the tag.
5. Upload the modified file back to the album's directory
6. Request the album's directory via http/https in your browser to test the result

Adding images

1. Upload new images in the album's directory
2. Request the album's directory via http/https in your browser to test the result

Deleting images

1. Delete the original image file from the album's directory on the server (the gallery script will take care of additional images)
2. Request the album's directory via http/https in your browser to test the result

Replacing images

1. Replace the original image file in the album's directory on the server (the gallery script will re-generate additional images)
2. Request the album's directory via http/https in your browser to test the result

Editing name and/or description of the image

1. Download config.xml from the album's directory
2. Make a backup copy of the file
3. Open the file in any plain text editor (notepad will do)
4. Find tag with the name of the image as the attribute
5. Put new name of the picture between and and/or the description between and directly inside the found tag.
6. Upload the modified file back to the album's directory
7. Request the album's directory via http/https in your browser to test the result

Customizing the appearance of the album

This task requires understanding of the HTML and general web authoring skills. Understanding of PHP is required for significant modifications.

1. Download index.php from the album's directory
2. Make a backup copy of the file
3. Open the file in any plain text editor (notepad will do)
4. Locate the template or the section that needs to be customized:
   • tpl_header - header shared by all pages/views
   • tpl_footer - footer shared by all pages/views. Note that the license is required to remove or modify the foot note
   • tpl_pageLinks - the page navigation links in the album view
   • tpl_imageLinks - the image navigation links in the image view
   • tpl_album - album view template
   • tpl_image - image view template
5. Review the existing code, comments and the list of the available properties prepared at the top of the template. Modify the template and save the changes.
6. Upload the modified file back to the album's directory
7. Request the album's directory via http/https in your browser to test the result

Motivation

Pictures and photographs are the important part of the presentation on the web. We need to share them with family, customers and partners. 1 Minute Gallery script is the result of our analysis of the available solutions for the picture sharing, and the study of the popular products in other categories.

Below is the list of commonly available options for picture sharing:

Static HTML Gallery

Static HTML gallery is the set of interlinked static HTML pages with the pictures in them.

Hosted Gallery

Hosted Gallery is a gallery hosted by the third party website and offered as the service.

Gallery Script

Gallery Script is the web application installed on the owner's server.

Our 1 Minute Gallery falls into the Gallery scripts category, and it shares all the significant advantages of the type, but unlike other products it is easy to install and customize. The script consists of just one PHP file, it requires no database and it only needs a working FTP connection (or any other remote file access method) to install and maintain. It is also easy to customize with only the general web editing skills.

We haven't invented any extraordinary technologies to achieve the result, we prioritized the requirements. Our product is designed for those who don't need the gallery with polls, forums, shopping cart, analytics, administrative web panels etc. The main purpose of this script is to share the pictures online with the minimum effort.

1 Minute Gallery further simplifies the gallery management by utilizing existing systems:

• Server's filesystem is used for creating the hierarchy of multiple albums
• FTP (or any other remote file management method) is used for managing the albums and images
• Web server's HTTP authorization can be used for complex user access schemes
• HTML and simple PHP is used for page templates

All these existing systems are very reliable, secure, well documented and familiar to many webmasters. This offers the gallery owner more choices. For example, now the favorite FTP client can be used instead of the web interface or the picture uploader offered by the gallery script publisher. As the additional benefit the utilization of these standards makes it easier to integrate the gallery with other systems and scripts.

Licenses

The gallery is free for everyone to download, install and test in development environment. In order to deploy the script in production environment, publish it on the publicly accessible website or in any other way make it accessible to the end users your application must qualify for or you must purchase one of the following licenses:

1. FREE LICENSE - allows to use the unlimited number of copies of the script in personal (non-commercial) websites without paid advertising and websites of officially registered non-profit organizations.
2. FOOT NOTE REMOVAL LICENSE - same as license above but with the right to remove the foot note. This type of license is available at a fee.
3. COMMERCIAL LICENSE - allows to use the unlimited number of copies of the script in any applications created or managed by the licensee. This license includes the foot note removal rights and it is available at a fee.

See the complete text of terms and conditions in End User License Agreement