Digital Photo Gallery Blog

Redesigned Changelog

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:34:00 GMT

Digital Photo Gallery is under constant development. The changelog has just been redesigned so it's now easier to keep up with the very latest system updates. You can visit the new changelog at changelog.digitalphotogallery.com or follow @dpg_changelog on Twitter.

Enhanced Image Selection

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:13:00 GMT

It is now even easier to make image selections in admin.digitalphotogallery.com. By using a combination of mouse and keyboard modifiers you can speed up the process of managing your images. Holding down the alt key allows you to click anywhere on an image icon to select it, while the shift key allows for quick batch selections.

FTP Uploads

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:16:00 GMT

If you regularly upload large sets of images or if you'd like to upload without having to log in, this feature is for you.

The new FTP users panel on the upload screen allows you to create an unlimited amount of virtual FTP users, each of which can be mapped to a set within DPG. Images can then be uploaded using your favourite FTP client, preserving metadata and set structure.

There are numerous uses for this new feature, here are a just a few examples:

Upload from your desktop using cross-platform FTP software like Cyberduck.

Mount a virtual disk for drag-and-drop uploading using Transmit 4.

Publish directly from Adobe Lightroom using the FTP Publisher plugin.

Upload straight from your iPhone or iPad using Filterstorm 2.

Shoot live to the system using a wireless enabled camera system like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II + WFT-E4 II.

If you come up with your own uses for the virtual FTP let me know by commenting or emailing.

Introducing templates

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:54:00 GMT

Every Digital Photo Gallery account has access to an ever growing library of HTML5-based website templates, all of which look amazing when viewed on anything from iPads through to huge desktop displays. The graphical admin interface means you don't need to know any code to design and update a site, but if you already have the skills, you have full control of the style sheets and custom jQuery libraries that each site is built with.

Watch the video to see just how easy it is to create a new website and see below for samples of a few of the templates that are available to all users right now.

DPG powered sites #3

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:49:00 GMT

http://www.andrewwhitton.com/

http://www.andrewkendall.com/

http://www.ifshotscouldkill.com/

http://www.dianaramos.com/

http://www.fairytalevegas.com/

Chrome Web Store

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:01:00 GMT

Digital Photo Gallery is now listed in the Chrome Web Store.

DPG powered sites #2

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:49:00 GMT

http://www.andywillsher.com/

http://www.stuartleech.com/

http://www.conormcdonnell.co.uk/

http://www.dayhowarth.com /

http://www.mattrichardsonphoto.co.uk/

Improved image integration for blogs

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:19:00 GMT

If you regularly add images to a DPG powered blog, you're sure to appreciate the improved image posting features. Click on the 'Insert/edit image' icon when editing a blog post to access the new options.

URL shortener

Mon, 10 May 2010 13:04:00 GMT

I've written a new URL shortener that ties in with many of DPG's services. You can shorten your own URLs by visiting http://dpg.bz/shorten.

File export: PDF contact sheets and more

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:15:00 GMT

With the new export feature you can easily generate PDF contact sheets for printing and client approval. You can also produce text, CSV and MD5 files to cross-reference and verify file uploads.

iPad support

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:00:00 GMT

In preparation for today's iPad launch I've spent some time optimising the DPG admin interface for use on Apple mobile devices.

Carry your image library everywhere

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:29:00 GMT

I've added a new feature to make it even easier to access your full resolution image library, no matter where you are.

Case Study: Rhys Frampton

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:11:00 GMT

The relaunched www.rhysframpton.com is a great example of bringing an existing site design across to DPG.

Rhys already had a website, and while he was happy with how it looked there was no easy way for him to update it.

The DPG website builder is based around HTML, CSS and JavaScript so converting the site was easy. The whole rebuild only took a couple of hours and DPG's automatic HTML generation and error checking ensured that the code quality increased dramatically.


Before - 59 Errors	After - 0 Errors

Updating the website is now simple and there is no need for Rhys to worry about repetitious tasks like resizing images or writing code. All he needs to do is log in to the admin section, upload his images and add them to the appropriate set.

The site also features new additions like a blog and image scaling, so that pictures look great whether they are viewed on a netbook or a 30-inch display.

RSS feeds are automatically created and updated, sitemaps are submitted to search engines and various other processes ensure that the website is easy to find.

Now Rhys is in control, he can forget about the tedious aspects of maintaining a website and spend more time taking fantastic photographs. I'm looking forward to keeping up with his latest work.

Next steps

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:43:00 GMT

If you've been keeping up with the changelog, you will have seen many months of almost daily updates to the admin sections of Digital Photo Gallery. From today, the focus is switching to building amazing sites and templates, while making the site building process as fast and intuitive as it can be.

I will be working my way through the registration list and sending out invitation codes shortly. If you have signed up, please be patient, it will be worth the wait.

In the meantime, I will be posting a series of tutorial movies to this blog so you can get started as soon as you receive your invitation.

Introduction video

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:55:00 GMT

A short movie highlighting some of the main features of Digital Photo Gallery.

Register your interest

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:37:00 GMT

http://accounts.digitalphotogallery.com/register

Recently launched DPG powered websites

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:42:00 GMT

http://www.nataliebrewster.com/

http://www.philsharp-photo.com/

http://www.krisatomic.com/

http://www.amymuir.com/

http://www.timothycochrane.com/

Changelog on Twitter

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:43:00 GMT

You can now find an in-depth Digital Photo Gallery changelog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dpg_changelog.

Custom admin menus

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:21:00 GMT

You can now add custom navigation items that allow you to quickly jump to all of your favourite sections of the DPG admin site. To add a location, click on the star in the top right hand corner of any of the admin pages and to remove, simply click the star again.

Code validation

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:57:00 GMT

A new feature for the website builder is automatic validation of CSS and JavaScript code. Validation is performed every time a file is saved and provides a line number and brief description of any errors to aid with debugging.

Import images from a web page

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:04:00 GMT

A newly added feature is the ability to import images from any standard web page, images can be imported straight into sets and even information such as image titles are retained.

Increased image processing speed

Tue, 19 May 2009 06:43:00 GMT

Today I activated the new faster image processing servers, my early tests show that you should see around a 4X speed increase in all image related operations. Click here for an example of working with a 24.4MP image.

Twitter, Facebook, FTP and Flickr support

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:04:00 GMT

Integration with other web services is a prominent feature of Digital Photo Gallery, editing images with Pixlr has been discussed briefly in a previous post and now the latest stable update has introduced two way syncing support for your Twitter, Facebook, FTP and Flickr accounts. To make use of the new features login to http://admin.digtalphotogallery.com and take a look at the 'Services' page. Linking your accounts only takes a few clicks and the import and export of images is equally as straight forward, if you have any questions just ask.

On the subject of services, DPG development will very soon be entering a feature freeze as a build up to the next phase of testing. Before that process begins, I'd really appreciate your feedback on which other web services you'd like to see supported. If you have suggestions you can email them to info@digitalphotogallery.com or 'Share an idea' at http://getsatisfaction.com/digitalphotogallery.

Get Satisfaction

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:56:00 GMT

Although there are many systems setup throughout the DPG software to identify errors, nothing beats human testing. For example, over the last few days there were intermittent problems with the main image processing server that weren't being caught by the built-in error reporting. The issue was trivial to fix, but it wasn't identified until I was alerted by email. As such issues affect all users it would be very helpful if they could be shared.

With that in mind, it's time to move from pure email support to something that everyone can get involved in. To start with we're going to be trying out Get Satisfaction, using http://getsatisfaction.com/digitalphotogallery you will be able to request new features, share your problems and discuss all aspects of Digital Photo Gallery with fellow users. I'm looking forward to your input.

Geotagging

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Support for geotagging is back in the admin interface. The process is automatic, simply upload your geotagged images, then click the icon on the image list or review screen options bar to bring up the map view.

Cooliris support

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:22:00 GMT

Cooliris support for websites is back. Click here to watch a movie.

Pixlr integration

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:07:00 GMT

You can now edit your images inside the browser, straight from the DPG admin interface.

Making use of both the Pixlr and DPG APIs the process is as simple as click, edit and save.

Click here to watch a movie of DPG/Pixlr integration in action.

Login URLs now permanent

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:35:00 GMT

After a lot of hard work things are finally settling in to place. The production servers are up and running and things are entering the final stages of development!

All of the URLs you use to access resources are now becoming permanent, including the address of this blog. If you were subscribed to the previous DPG blog please switch across as the old address will be phased out in the coming weeks.

In terms of image admin there are now two addresses you can choose from:

http://admin.digitalphotogallery.com/ - The stable release branch
http://admin.beta.digitalphotogallery.com/ - The test release branch

Most of the time you will be safest to use the stable address, but from time to time you may be asked to try new features using the test branch.