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.