Thursday, December 23, 2010

Administrator’s Guide Updated

AdminGuide_ss_116x145The Administrator’s Guide has been updated for 2.4. Get it here. Several sections were completely rewritten, others have been enhanced, and a lot of information was added. Some of the highlights:

  • Updated install and upgrade sections
  • New troubleshooting section
  • Updated for .NET 4 scenarios
  • Discussion of how GSP handles various media types (HTML5, Flash, Silverlight, QuickTime, DIVX, etc.)
  • New section about galleries
  • Rewritten tutorial for integrating GSP into an existing application
  • New tutorials
  • Info about installing the GSP Binary Pack
  • All features and admin pages are now documented

I am hoping the tutorials are especially helpful. I have always preferred a step by step guide for learning something over definition-type documentation. The guide includes these tutorials:

  • How-To: Convert an existing set of directories and files to a read-only gallery
  • How-To: Set up multiple galleries
  • How-To: Add a slide show to a page
  • How-To: Create a treeview menu
  • How-To: Add a gallery to an existing ASP.NET application
  • How-To: Integrate into non-ASP.NET web sites (iframe Method)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

2.4.4 now available through Web Platform Installer

This morning Microsoft completed their testing of Gallery Server Pro 2.4.4 and published it to the Web Application Gallery. Thanks to Microsoft for their speedy evaluation and for supporting open source.

Since Microsoft started distributing GSP a little over a year ago, the Web Platform Installer has become the most popular way to download and install the gallery, with over 100,000 downloads to date. Reviews have been solid, too, averaging 4 out of 5 stars, which is higher than any other gallery!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Tips for upgrading to a newer version of AjaxControlToolkit.dll

GSP uses some clever AJAX functionality from the AJAX Control Toolkit. All versions of GSP (which, as of this writing, is at version 2.4) ship with version 1.0.10920.0 of AjaxControlToolkit.dll. This is the newest version that can run under .NET 2.0.

For various reasons you might want to upgrade to a newer version of the toolkit. Because of versioning issues, there are some common pitfalls that can snag you. So I put together a little KB article to help explain the process and keep you out of the weeds (or help pull you out if you get sucked in). Click the link below.

INFO: Updating to a newer version of AjaxControlToolkit.dll

Friday, December 10, 2010

Gallery Server Pro 2.4.4 Released

Today I released another minor set of bug fixes – hopefully the last for a while. All three flavors of GSP have been revved to 2.4.4: open source stand-alone, DotNetNuke module, and the Microsoft Web Application Gallery version. Note that the MS WAG version will be made public as soon as Microsoft finishes their quality testing – hopefully that doesn’t take more than a couple weeks.

Upgrading the stand-alone version

Upgrading your gallery from 2.4.X is easy:

  1. Copy the GalleryServerPro.XXXXX.dll files over the existing ones in your bin directory.
  2. Replace these files from one of the 2.4.4 compiled versions (doesn’t matter if you use the 32-bit or 64-bit version):
  • \gs\script\mediaobjectview.js
  • \gs\styles\gallery.css
  • \gs\pages\admin\mediaobjects.ascx (not necessary if upgrading from 2.4.3)

Because a javascript and CSS file have been updated, you may need to force a browser refresh to pick up the changes. Usually F5 does the trick, but Firefox may require CTRL-F5.

To upgrade from 2.3, follow the instructions in the 2.4 QuickStart Guide.

Upgrading DotNetNuke

DotNetNuke upgrades are also easy – just log in as host and install the module as if you were installing it for the first time. DotNetNuke will notice it is an upgrade and update your site. Your existing gallery objects and data will be preserved.

Bug Fixes

  • Album begin/end date may be one day earlier than entered by user.
  • Upgrades from versions earlier than 2.3.3750 result in gallery referencing a non-existent jQuery script file.
  • Adding or synching a video or audio file may hang when GSP Binary Pack is installed.
  • Video or audio file does not always correctly play in Silverlight.
  • Media object may have incorrect thumbnail when it's filename matches another one in album
  • IE 7 and 8 users in certain cultures do not see drop shadow around media objects, and borders and drop shadows are not rendered at all in IE6 and earlier.
  • Large amounts of space may appear to the left of a media object.
  • User might get "Insufficient Permission" message after SQLite installation.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Gallery Server Pro 2.4.3 Released

A number of bug fixes and a few changes to video behavior are included in this release. Download it here. At the moment only the stand-alone version has been updated to 2.4.3, but I hope to have the DotNetNuke version updated within a few days. Update: The DNN version is now updated.

Upgrading your gallery from 2.4.1 or 2.4.2 is easy – just copy the GalleryServerPro.XXXXX.dll files over the existing ones in your bin directory. Use the ones in the bin directory of the download named GalleryServerPro_V2_4_3_x86.zip or GalleryServerPro_V2_4_3_x64.zip.

There is one minor bug not resolved by copying the DLLs. To fix a bug that prevents you from specifying zero for the maximum upload file size (which indicates there is no restriction), there is one more file to copy. In one of the zip files mentioned above, copy the file gs\pages\admin\mediaobjects.ascx over your existing one.

New Features

  • Added support for .f4v files
  • Play .mp4, .m4v, and .mov files with Flash/FlowPlayer instead of Silverlight

Bug Fixes

  • Spaces are removed from the file name of a downloaded media object
  • Flash videos don't work after upgrade to 2.4.1 or 2.4.2 (SQLite only)
  • Install Wizard may tell user to manually update web.config file when it is not needed
  • Error log fills with unnecessary messages when caching is disabled
  • SQL upgrade from 2.3 may fail when multiple galleries are used
  • Cannot set maximum upload file size to unlimited (0)

New Video Behavior

There is now support for playing .f4v files, which is the latest Flash video container. Also, several file types (.mp4, .m4v, and .mov) that had used Silverlight (or QuickTime) now use the FlowPlayer/Flash video player.

Why the switch? The FlowPlayer video player has been working very well since GSP started using it a year or two ago. It is open source, has a large user base, and is easy to configure. Plus, it has a convenient full screen button that the Silverlight video player annoyingly does not have.

And even though Silverlight now has about a 50% installation rate in browsers, it still pales in comparison to the 98% who have Flash. So, as much as I have been rooting for Silverlight, I think FlowPlayer/Flash has the edge here.

If you prefer to use Silverlight, no problem. Just update the HtmlTemplate and ScriptTemplate columns for the relevant rows in the gs_BrowserTemplate table to revert to the values they had in earlier versions.