OddThinking

A blog for odd things and odd thoughts.

Online Photo Database Project – Status

Welcome to the Online Photo Database Project.

This is an ongoing project to evaluate a number of different web-based photo databases, and select the best one to host my 4000 personal photos, and replace a hand-written solution that was developed from 2002-2005.

This project page attempts to provide an index into the many other pages, and provide information about the project progress. This page will be incrementally updated with progress. (Note: It was created well into the project, as the amount of documentation became unwieldy.)

This investigation initially started early in 2008, and was carried out in an ad hoc fashion. That attempt was abandoned in April 2008. The investigation was restarted, with more formality, in June 2008.

The goal was to have the replacement system operating by January 2009, and the bulk of the 4000 photos being hosted by it in February 2009. That deadline was missed. A new deadline has not been established.

Stage 1

Stage 1 was to produce a problem statement, and a rough list of requirements which I could use to evaluate various solutions.

Stage 2

Stage 2 was to produce a clean set of requirements, based on the Stage 1 document. The requirements were categorised, prioritised and numbered.

Stage 3

Stage 3 was to identify a list of solutions that might meet the requirements. Initially, around 15 solutions were proposed, but more continued to be added as they were identified.

Stage 4

Stage 4 was to evaluate each of the solutions against the list of requirements.

In the special cases of WordPress and Drupal, it was necessary to carry out a mini-evaluation of the possible plugins, to determine which deserved a full evaluation against the criteria.

Stage 4 Mini-Evaluations Complete

Stage 4 Evaluations Completed

  1. Julian’s Custom Software
  2. Facebook
  3. Coppermine
  4. Windows Live Photos
  5. BeenUp2.com
  6. Zoomr
  7. SmugMug
  8. Phanfare.com
  9. ZenPhoto
  10. PhotoBucket
  11. Jalbum
  12. PixelPost
  13. My PictureTown
  14. Flickr Pro
  15. Picasa Web
  16. PhpWebGallery
  17. WordPress + PhotoQ
  18. Gallery2
  19. 4Images
  20. Acquia Drupal

Stage 5

Stage 5 was to produce a culled list of 3 or 4 of the top solutions for further investigation.

Stage 5 started with a first cut of 5 candidates.

Then it stalled for some months, and the original deadline was passed. When the project was revived, I advanced straight to Stage 6, accepting the first cut of all 5 for further investigation.

Stage 6

Stage 6 is to do further research on the final solutions, double-checking the evaluations, reading other reviews, and perhaps subscribing to some of the paid services.

Stage 6 started with investigations of the two online services. While Flickr beat out SmugMug, it was determined that it wasn’t a great fit for the requirements. Focus was pushed to self-hosted solutions.

Stage 7

Stage 7 will be to declare the winner.


Comments

  1. I’m a big fan of Drupal, but IMO, one of its weaknesses is image handling. So I’ll be interested to see the results of your evaluation.

    You may want to consider the Acquia Drupal download. It comes with some image-handling modules included. This might save you a bit of time.

  2. There are a lot of different ways to do galleries with Drupal. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. It’s really hard sifting through the enormous number of modules and plugins, and sometimes the least promising looking is actually the best in the long run, and vise versa. Hope I can help.

    -Robert

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Web Mentions

  1. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 1 - Problem Statement, Loose Requirements

  2. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 2 - Clean Requirements

  3. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 3 - Identify possible solutions

  4. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: WordPress mini-evaluation

  5. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4a - Evaluation of Custom Software

  6. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4b - Evaluation of FaceBook

  7. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4d - Evaluation of Windows Live Photos

  8. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4i - Evaluation of ZenPhoto

  9. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4n - Evaluation of Flickr Pro

  10. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4o - Evaluation of Picasa Web

  11. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4q - Evaluation of Gallery2

  12. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4q - Evaluation of WordPress + PhotoQ

  13. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4s - Evaluation of 4Images

  14. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Drupal mini-evaluation

  15. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 4t - Evaluation of Acquia Drupal

  16. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 5 - First Cut

  17. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 5 - First Hurdle with SmugMug

  18. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Back in the Saddle

  19. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 6 - Privacy Requirements clarification

  20. OddThinking » Online PhotoDB - Stage 6: Deeper evaluation of SmugMug

  21. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 6 - Deeper evaluation of Flickr

  22. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 6 - Deeper evaluation of Coppermine

  23. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 6 - Quick evaluation of Gallery 3

  24. OddThinking » Online Photo DB: Stage 6e - Another look at WordPress and PhotoQ

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