First of all i'd like to congratulate with this gallery script. It's great. I've downloaded an early version a couple years ago and waited patiently for a version that could suit a production enviroment, and I can say that finally that version has arrived. Every week for the past couple years i have been visiting the website to check out progress!

Meanwhile I have been using the most horrible gallery script i have ever used and that is Gallery2. WAY too complex to personalize. WAY too complex in it's infinite (and useless features) and WAY too complex in how it has been put together, from the grafical user interface to the usability.

The approach zen uses is far much simpler and having used wordpress I feel at home when using it.

Having said that, I finally installed the latest version and tested it here and there, and feel the need of saying a couple of things:

First of all, when going on with the developement PLEASE ALWAYS remember the main reason zen was born in the first place: simplicity. I found a couple things in the latest version wich started to make me think it's getting a little complex for the average user like me. For example, the way albums and sub-albums and images all share the same template. To fully understand how the "$firstPageImages = normalizeColumns" works, took me some time and still don't think I have grabbed the concept pretty well. I would love to see a VERY SIMPLE way of dealing with how these three elements share a same template page. I'm sure there is a simple way of doing it.

Another thing I'd like to see is a separation of files in the templates exactly like wordpress does, with separate files for header, footer, albums, images, and maybe sub-albums why not? That way i don't have to edit each file every time... Of course i could do php includes but i noticed it slows a bit when used (maybe i did something wrong).

A part from that, a couple of other feature suggestions (not essential at the moment):

- Tagging right in pictures with layers (like facebook)

- Visitors can tag images (with approval option), and relative template function that lets you show/hide tags from users along with tags from admin.

- Javascript lightbox zooming of image

- Editing of templates directly from admin (like wordpress), with a list of functions available to copy paste directly. This makes it very easy for everyone to edit/add features without no html requirements. It's like a "copy-this-code-to-your-website-to-show-image" you find in facebook and myspace.

- Simple stats (Very simple).

- Album rss feed (not image)

thank you

Simon

Thanks for your kind words. That column feature is really a little complicated, but what it does is, too.

Regarding your suggestions, if you want to have a feature you can open a feature request ticket for it on the trac, too. We then will add that request to our poll to see what general interesst is existing (to plan our resources).

But anyway a few statements to your suggestions (my fellow developers may see some things different...:-)):

[i]nother thing I'd like to see is a separation of files in the templates exactly like wordpress does, with separate files for header, footer, albums, images, and maybe sub-albums why not? That way i don't have to edit each file every time... Of course i could do php includes but i noticed it slows a bit when used (maybe i did something wrong).[/i]
You can organize your theme any way you like. You have the absolute freedom to modify your theme that way.
By the way, Wordpress uses php includes and I would not know how to do it differently (which does not slow down BTW)...:-)

[i]- Tagging right in pictures with layers (like facebook)[/i]
I don't know or use facebook, so I neither know what that is nor what this is for. Is it the same as the flickr notes? A user made something up for that: http://www.zenphoto.org/support/topic.php?id=2372&replies=10

- Visitors can tag images (with approval option), and relative template function that lets you show/hide tags from users along with tags from admin.
I personally have never thought about that. Please open a ticket.

[i]- Javascript lightbox zooming of image[/i]
Lightbox is easy to implement with in a theme and will never be a core feature itself (BTW, thickbox js is included in zenphoto). It has been done numerous times (I believe there is already a theme with it). Please do a forum search on that.

[i]- Editing of templates directly from admin (like wordpress), with a list of functions available to copy paste directly. This makes it very easy for everyone to edit/add features without no html requirements. It's like a "copy-this-code-to-your-website-to-show-image" you find in facebook and myspace.[/i]
Editing templates is already on our poll, so head over and vote for that feature...:-)

[i]- Simple stats (Very simple).[/i]
What exactly do you mean? We have a bunch of functions for archive, latest, most voted, top voted, most viewed images.

[i]- Album rss feed (not image) [/i]
Do you mean a feed that shows the latest added albums?