v4.x – Gallery Server

10 Feb, 2017

Just Released: 4.3 adds support for replacing existing media files

By Roger Martin| 2017-02-10T14:31:29+00:00 February 10th, 2017|Announcements|0 Comments

Yesterday we released Gallery Server 4.3. You can now replace the file of an existing media asset without losing any metadata or changing its ID. There is also an improved algorithm for generating resized client-side images. And, as always, there are bug fixes. How to apply this update If your existing gallery is 4.X, upgrading is easy — just copy the files from the upgrade package over your existing installation. There are no web.config changes to merge and you don’t have to worry about the version_key.txt file or your license information. Get the upgrade package from your downloads page. If you are upgrading from an earlier version, follow the instructions in the Admin Guide. Replace existing media asset This has been a top feature request and we are glad to finally implement it. It is available in all editions, including Gallery Server Free. Beginning with 4.3.0, a new replace button appears in [...]

8 Dec, 2016

4.2.1 Released

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-08T16:31:53+00:00 December 8th, 2016|Announcements|0 Comments

Yesterday we released 4.2.1. It's a minor update to 4.2.0, containing a few bug fixes and no new features. Applying it to your 4.X installation is easy — just copy the files from the upgrade package over your existing installation. There are no web.config changes to merge and you don’t have to worry about the version_key.txt file or your license information. Get the upgrade package from your downloads page. If you are upgrading from an earlier version, follow the instructions in the Admin Guide. These are the bugs that are fixed. More details are available on the release history page. Error may occur when case of ASPX file name changes Setting ShowHeader to “true” in embed.aspx results in error Error “Value does not fall within the expected range” when adding or synchronizing certain images Spaces in AD role provider configuration may cause exception Gallery Server may try to add or remove a user to/from a nonexistent [...]

13 Oct, 2016

Gallery Server 4.2 released

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:36+00:00 October 13th, 2016|Announcements|1 Comment

Hot on the heels of the 4.1 release, we are happy to announce Gallery Server 4.2. We made it easier to upload a watermark image and updated several third party libraries to their latest versions. And of course there are some bug fixes. Applying it to your 4.X installation is easy — just copy the files from the upgrade package over your existing installation. There are no web.config changes to merge and you don’t have to worry about the version_key.txt file or your license information. Get the upgrade package from your downloads page. If you are upgrading from an earlier version, follow the instructions in the Admin Guide. Watermark image upload This is something we've wanted to do for a long time and it always got pushed to the back burner. No longer. Beginning with 4.2, you can upload a watermark image directly from the Image Settings page. When you upload an image, it is saved [...]

26 Sep, 2016

Gallery Server 4.1 released

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:36+00:00 September 26th, 2016|Announcements|0 Comments

We're happy to announce the immediate availability of Gallery Server 4.1. It includes built in support for Active Directory Groups, a new blacklist option for the auto-logon feature, several workflow enhancements, and more than a dozen bug fixes. Applying it to your 4.0 installation is easy — just copy the files from the upgrade package over your existing installation. There are no web.config changes to merge and you don’t have to worry about the version_key.txt file or your license information. Get the upgrade package from your downloads page. If you are upgrading from an earlier version, follow the instructions in the Admin Guide. Active Directory Groups integration The biggest enhancement in 4.1 is the ability to use Active Directory groups as roles in your gallery. We're excited about this feature because it's been on a lot of people's wish list for a long time. Until recently, Gallery Server required an administrator to manually manage the role membership [...]

29 Jun, 2016

Gallery Server 4.0.1 released

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:37+00:00 June 29th, 2016|Announcements|0 Comments

Today we pushed out Gallery Server 4.0.1. It contains several bug fixes but no new features. Applying it to your 4.0.0 installation is easy — just copy the files from the upgrade package over your existing installation. There are no web.config changes to merge and you don't have to worry about the version_key.txt file or your license information. Get the upgrade package from your downloads page. If you are upgrading from earlier versions, follow the instructions in the QuickStart Guide. You can read the full list of bug fixes on the release history page. Here I'll mention the most important ones. Sort not updated when title is changed If an album is sorted by title and you change the title, the album was not resorted based on the new title. This has been fixed. HTML may be removed from properties and extracted metadata In 4.0.0 and earlier, only administrators were allowed to specify HTML in [...]

7 Jun, 2016

Monitor video and audio transcoding with the new Media Queue page

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:37+00:00 June 7th, 2016|Announcements|0 Comments

When the FFmpeg.exe utility from the Gallery Server Binary Pack is installed, Gallery Server is able to create web-optimized media files from your video and audio assets. This provides several benefits: Videos that normally cannot be played in a browser such as AVI, WMV and others are converted to H.264 MP4 videos, which can be played in all major browsers, including those on mobile devices, with no plugin requirements. Sizes are dramatically reduced, which improve playback times on cellular networks, reduce bandwidth costs, and are generally easier to deal with than the originals. For example, a 10-second video clip from a Samsung S6 phone clocks in around 16 MB. When added to a gallery, the web-optimized version is 2-3 MB, roughly an 85% reduction. Creating the web-optimized version takes some time, so Gallery Server starts a background thread when you add a video or audio file. You can monitor this process with the new Media Queue page [...]

16 May, 2016

Complete feature & bug fix list for 4.0.0

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:37+00:00 May 16th, 2016|Announcements|0 Comments

We've been busy with post release activities like helping folks install and upgrade their galleries, updating the website and getting documentation in order. Today I wanted to publish the full feature and bug fix list for 4.0.0. You can read about each of these items in detail by downloading the PDF. You can also find information on changes to web.config, database schema, MIME types, and other settings on the release history page. Enhancements (View detailed report) Allow manual sorting as default sort option Add support for automatically logging in a user Support Windows authentication Perf improvement: Use cached copy of roles instead of hitting the role provider on every page Persist metadata changes to original file Add client event during album paging Improve error message when moving or copying a media object having a missing original file Preserve CSS customizations during upgrades Improve support for high DPI devices Improve caching so that [...]

3 May, 2016

Tag once, read anywhere: Write metadata back to the original file with Gallery Server 4

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:37+00:00 May 3rd, 2016|Tips & Tricks|0 Comments

Your tags, titles, captions and more are permanently stored inside the original photo in Gallery Server 4. Gallery Server has long been able to pull metadata out of photos and videos. And since 3.0 was released in 2013, you've been able to modify that metadata in your gallery. What's been missing, however, is the ability to push those changes back to the original file. Gallery Server 4.0 now adds this support. It is available in all editions except for Gallery Server Free. Why do you care? Because you don't want to lose your investment of time. Let's be honest here. You may be using Galley Server today, but what about in 10 years? 50 years? You — or your children/coworkers — may have moved on to something else. By preserving metadata changes in the original file, that data becomes permanently embedded where it belongs — with the file, not in some third party database. That [...]

21 Apr, 2016

Gallery Server 4.0 is released

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:37+00:00 April 21st, 2016|Announcements|2 Comments

We welcome you to Gallery Server 4.0. It is packed with new features that improves performance, helps you manage your gallery more efficiently, and adds nearly four dozen fantastic new features. Here's the high-level overview of what's new: Ribbon toolbar – Manage your gallery faster and with less clicks using the new, ajax-enabled ribbon interface. Most tasks, such as editing properties, creating albums, moving/copying items and more can be done without leaving the current page. Image and HTML editors – Crop, resize and more with the new image editor. Add rich text and formatting with the tinyMCE-based HTML editor. Metadata writing – Common properties such as titles, captions, tags and more can now be written back to the original media file, preserving your hard work long after you’ve moved on from Gallery Server. High resolution viewer – View the original, high resolution images and videos in the browser. Performance improvements – [...]

13 Apr, 2016

License improvements in Gallery Server 4

By Roger Martin| 2016-12-01T16:37:38+00:00 April 13th, 2016|Announcements|0 Comments

The licensing model we used in Gallery Server 3 worked pretty well but had a couple drawbacks. One is that it included free updates to any release in the 3.X family. Sounds nice, right? But it tended to punish those who purchased the product later in the 3.X lifespan because they would have access to fewer updates than someone who bought it earlier. A person purchasing Gallery Server today must pay the same upgrade price to get to 4.0 as someone who bought Gallery Server a year ago. We've all been in that situation where we bought some software only to have a new version come out a few weeks later, forcing us to pay again or forgo the new features. Another issue was that it required that we hold back on releasing features until we could group enough of them together to justify asking you to purchase an upgrade. That meant we've been sitting on new features [...]