I haven't started this project yet. I'm looking for advice so that i might better prepare for success when i try to build this app.

I have a friend, a talented, freelance pro-amateur photographer. he does really nice work, but so far, it's still his hobby-- but he has expressed his passion to me.

I'd like to create something simple for him-- as i don't know how "computer literate" he truly is. he seems to have no problem e-mailing attached photos-- they used to clog my inbox at 1.5 megs a piece, but now they are of a manageable size when he sends them, so he must have learned a bit about down-sizing with image editing-- what i'm getting at is that the success of this project will be at least somewhat dependent upon his ability to use my proposed web application.

my plan is to start simple, and then maybe add some features as he gets the hang of using it. he will need to be able to upload photos. we don't want him uploading a ton of huge photos, so we'll need to have some sort of testing mechanism-- something like no more than 600px wide or tall. once the photos go up, they will need to be automatically given some sort of an ID code, so there is some way to reference each individual piece. so, that's the basic start of it-- a folder browsing mechanism for him to easily locate the local file and upload it, and then a way to automatically index the photo while storing it in a folder on his site. (it would be nice to be able to allow for entire folders to be "batch" uploaded, but perhaps that's more advanced than i'm ready for. if it's not too much more involved, then a batch folder upload would be a nice addition. heck, i imagine that this whole thing is "more advanced" than i'm ready for, but i've got to challenge myself at some point, don't i?)

once i've got him using the site, and getting the photos up there, we need to have a way for him to browse the current catalogue of images. i guess that should be part of the primary function, so put that in w/ "phase one" as well. so, we have uploads, size testing, indexing, and browsing.

the first additional feature i'd like to add would be the ability for him to place the photos into categories, like "wildlife, nature, people, places" etc. and those categories should be named by him so it feels more like it's "his" thing.

some other features which i think would enhance it would be to allow for visitor commenting on each individual photo, and even a way to purchase/ order prints and frames (if he would decide to offer that feature).

this guy carries folders of 8x10 photos and his top-notch Nikon SLR w/ him everywhere he goes. it's obvious that he loves to show off his work. so, my reasoning is, why not go global? why not tell your friends your URL and let them browse all day and order prints!?
none of these features necessarily need to come at a later time, i said it that way thinking that the less "complicated" a presentation i can offer him, the more likely it will be that he uses it. if the first thing i show him is a very complex structure, i'm afraid he may never try it, and it will be a huge waste of time, aside from what i'll learn while building it of course.

so, that's my idea. i have never developed any kind of web app on my own yet. i've worked through a few tutorials, and i have a pretty good grasp on PHP / MySQL interaction, and basic PHP functions. this will be my first true challenge as it involves features that i haven't yet touched-- like the folder browsing/ upload feature. i have no idea how i will do that. then, how to index them for later retrieval and categorization-- it will all be quite the challenge for me.

maybe you know of some tutorials geared toward this type of app? maybe you know of a photography/ web developer resource? anything that you can think of that might help me to build this site for him as a gift, i would really appreciate the help. maybe there's already a script floating around which i could use and modify as i needed?

thanks!

    Hello,

    A project like this is a big challenge, if you haven't ever done big PHP projects before.

    I have started developing a photo-catalog on my own, but i stopped it one day and I think today, I would not continue developing as I did, but restart from scratch ...

    On the other hand, I starded developing a "gallery" tool, which is intended to publish collections of objects: imagine you are collecting sculptures, you can then exhibit each sculture you own, with different views on it; the visitor can browse the diferent views, and for each object, and even for each image you can add detailed information. In this thing, I als need the upload thing, but I did not yet touch it ...

    Maybe it would also be a good idea to opt for an existing tool, like COPPERMINE, which is intended to present image galleries. (The version I once tested was somewhat limited in the number and the naming of datafields for describing and categorizing, thats why I started working on the tool described above.) You may find more tools like this on sourceforge.

    Concerning the categorization of the data, you might want to use an normalized classification, like the IIM (Information Interchange Model) developed by the IPTC Consotium (You can find the specifications at http://www.iptc.org/download/download.php?fn=IIMV4.1.pdf )
    There are (poorly documented PHP functions to parse and to embed IPTC data (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTC )

    Professional (or semi-professional) photographers might also be intersted in the EXIF data encoded by their camera(s). Don't forget these !

    Good luck ...

    JJ Mouris

      wow! thank you very much for the extensive info. my guess is that your response is coming from either a photographer's view on the issue, or you're an artist w/ empathy for photographers. this is interesting because i was approaching it strictly from an "application development", "informational" and "organizational" viewpoint. i hadn't really considered much about the content other than the categories i mentioned about "wildlife, nature" etc.

      i'm glad you confirmed my assumption that this in fact will be a challenge. i suppose part of my reason for wanting to do this is so that i am faced w/ a challenge and forced to learn how to deal with it. i'm afraid if i go looking for pre-written code at places like sourceforge or hotscripts.com, then i'll spend a lot of time trying to tweak it, and not enough time learning how to approach this kind of a challenge. however, it's quite possible that i would otherwise be overcome by frustration, and repeated failure and bugs in the code, so maybe your suggestion is the best route for me at this point in my PHP career.

      i'm not sure what you're telling me about the "normalized classification", and how it necessarily relates here, but i assume it's to allow for a standardized organization of his photography subjects based on guidelines developed by that consortium? if i'm correct, my impression of my intended user is that he wouldn't be at all interested in that sort of thing-- he's not the type to "run with the crowd", and i doubt that he cares how he (or his work) fits into any group of photographers like himself. then again, i may be misunderstanding you, and misjudging his true preference. i should note that i've asked him to do this before (which at the time, i was going to do a static site w/ his few selected images), and i received luke-warm, if any response at all. i believe that i will have to make this, and probably repeatedly encourage him to use it at first. i think once he starts though, he'll get into it.

      i'm far from being an expert on digital photography, but i have seen the EXIF data when dumping photos from a camera using ACD See 7, so i think i know what you mean. isn't that sort of a digital tag telling the characteristics of the image data (as in pixel dimensions, camera used, etc) which were placed there by the camera device? again, i don't know that it would interest this guy. all he would want (i think) would be a very simple interface with which he could locate local folders and upload images. probably even the cateogrization thing would be too much, although it would help greatly in the long run when searching for specific shots if the database grew very large.

      i'll investigate the links you provided and see what i can come up with. thank you for your advice!

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