The gallery still has some ways to go, adding some sort of authentication for the "admin" page, etc, but I'm pretty happy with how it is currently working right now.

Check out the ReedGal page or go directly to the SourceForge page.

This was also the first design that I modified on my home server first so that I knew exactly what was going to happen when I implemented it. It was a lot easier then the previous design where I was editing in notepad, uploading, and refreshing to see if the desired effect took hold.

If you notice any issues, definitely email me. I've been trying to check everything but you just never know.

Note: I am aware that the site doesn't display perfectly in Inter Explorer 6. The sidebar shows itself below the body. I think I know why but I don't care enough to fix it. IE7+, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are currently supported

So, what's so great about the script? Well, I'm actually proud of making it myself. The script has a few key features:

• Just upload a new directory to a defined image_gallery directory and it'll automatically be displayed on the gallery page
• The icon for each album is automatic. It uses the icon.png file that is placed in the directory with the new images
• The "rebuild script" will create the thumbnails for each album
• The "rebuild script" will also extract the exif data from the images (currently, only date, title, description, camera type (not displayed), and apeture (not displayed)
• If no exif data, the filename is used as the title of the image

Unfortunately, there are some minor "limitations" to how I'm doing things but I don't think they're a problem

• Limited to jpg files. This is more by design and wouldn't be too tough to fix
• Using the GD library to create the thumbnails takes a bit of time. It took about a minute to complete the thumbnail/exif-file creation. Unfortunately, php by default will stop a script from running after 30 seconds. An easy fix if you have access to the php configuration file but not all hosts will allow modification of it
• The album icon is not created automatically. I'm considering a way to do this but it would probably be the toughest part of the script
• The sorting of the images and albums is done by filename. I could probably find a different way to sort but I like the current method. I leave my images with their default names (DSC_0001.jpg, DSC_0002.jpg, etc) and the album folder names always start with the date (20091021 - Something).

Who knows if I'll put the script online for others to use? It was mostly just created from boredom. I'll have to think about it.

Check Out The Gallery

So, what advantages does my script propose over my previous method?

• Dynamically updates - Everytime a new folder of images is uploaded, a new album page is created for the album. No coding required by me
• The script automatically creates thumbnails for the images as needed using sizes specified by the user
• Exif data is pulled from the original image during the thumbnail creation process. This allows me to display time taken, ISO, camera, image description as image title, etc.
• The display of the pages are easily customizable with css.
• The gallery requires only 2 files, the main page (for displaying the albums and pictures) and the thumbnail builder

I will admit that this has taken me about a month to get the scripts to the point they are now but it's honestly because I've been learning as I go. Image manipulation is something new, and thankfully, I had a buddy of mine help me out along the way. Thanks Joe.

The new gallery has not been uploaded yet as there's still a few things I want to make sure are completely polished. I may release it for download for anyone to use but I haven't quite decided yet.

For the past 4+ years, I have been with 1and1.com. They had been decent for the time I was with them but I had many issues with their service. One large problem was in the amount of mysql databases I was allowed. 1 is not enough. While I could work with 1 database, it makes things easier being able to use as many databases as I want, 1 for each site.

While that was a minor issue, the biggest issue I had with 1and1.com was their service. While there wasn't a huge amount of downtime, there was a noticeable amount. In the last couple weeks, I had seen a large amount of downtime with the site and email which was extremely frustrating. Calling 1and1.com for help only connected me with outsourced tech support who couldn't understand what i was trying to say or ask.

Dreamhost has been extremely easy to setup, in general. Except for a minor blip in email service, which I received extremely quick support for, there was very little issues. Getting the sites up with almost no down time was extremely easy. I think the only thing I might complain about is the inability to modify a mysql database without having the domain ready. I had to wait until my domain transfers went through and the nameservers updated before I could restore the main database for this site.

I can highly recommend Dreamhost as a webhost so far. I would also recommend steering clear of 1and1 as their uptime is spotty, trying to regain domains is troublesome, and their phone support is near impossible to actually get anyone who can help.

Please let me know if you notice any problems with the new view. It's still a work in progress.

I still have to fix some display issues with IE7 and Safari. Web kit, why do you hate me? I mean, even the dark IE6 displays the site almost completely like I want. I will code you both into submission, soon enough. I also need to move the portfolio page over. Should be a quick move, I think. Maybe tomorrow.

So what else does this new design provide. Well, after a lot of work, I managed to integrate WorkPress into the design. This will allow me to post tech related blogs or information regarding myself (such as certifications earned as I earn them, etc). This was a lot more work then I thought it would end up being. For the most part, the redesign does look like the design before integrating with WordPress (you can see it here for reference).

There's still a few issues to work out:

• Safari isn't displaying the footer properly, adding a bit of a gap underneath the footer where it's not needed
• Safari renders colors differently, it appears. The banner's background color is off. Kind of annoying.
• IE doesn't render the transparency on the logo png in the footer
• The HTML doesn't pass validation quite yet. I'll be fixing it pretty soon
• Safari displays the navigation bar incorrect
• Proper titles on every page
• Carry over the portfolio page from the previous site

All in all, things are looking pretty good so far. I'll be working a bit more on the design as there are some things still missing (the Portfolio page and Contact Me pages haven't been carried over quite yet). Please post some comments if you have any.