Forums | MacLife

I can't really add much to all the good advice you've already gotten, res.  But if you need more reasons why not to open your content in a new window, here's a few.  If nothing else, those links should at least help you to do it "right".  I'm with the others who think it's a bad idea though.

Good luck with your site.  (And it's "bear" with.  I ain't getting naked with you.)

Additional functionality through plugins?  Well, unless I am missing something, most of the plug-ins are not about functionality really, they are ways to modify the appearance or extend current functions.

The themes are about appearance - but for example, I'm using a plugin that allows me to add metadata fields that are stored in the database - there is a shopping cart plugin (useless to me though) - there are plugins to add other types of multimedia content (useless to me though) - etc.

The plugin model allows you to just have what you need without needing what you don't need - and that's nice, because if/when an exploit in a particular feature is found, it can't impact you at all if it is in a feature you have no need of and therefore don't have installed.

-=-

I looked at two different commercial options designed especially for reptile breeders. Both of them were pricey, and cost an addition $200 to have them installed (which required giving them shell access on the server) - and both of them looked like a PITA to install yourself, Gallery has a slick installer.

Neither of them had all the features I wanted, and it would cost me extra money to pay them to add them - features that they then make money off of twice when they sell it in an upgraded version. Community support for the software was absent, you pay for support if you are having trouble. I looked at web sites that used them, and when a data field is empty - it shows the data field anyway, and I think that is tacky. For example, the locality data field for a reptile is only filled in if ALL ancestors of the animal are traceable back to a specific location. Most reptiles have genes from several localities, so they are not locality animals. Therefore it looks rather silly under a picture to have an empty locality data field.

Gallery doesn't have those issues. The module that lets you add data fields lets you decide what order they are displayed in, and doesn't display the field if there isn't data to display. Community support is fairly active, I don't have to pay for squat when I can't figure something out.

Maybe the php code could use some cleanup - I'm no php guru.
But the commercial options I found were worse. Maybe if I hired a developer, but if I don't know php well enough to know if gallery is bloated, how am I going to know that what I'm getting is any better? The only way would be to hire a top $ developer who has an extensive reputation, which is a waste when a free solution does everything I need and does it swell.

resedit wrote:

Neither of them had all the features I wanted, and it would cost me extra money to pay them to add them - features that they then make money off of twice when they sell it in an upgraded version.

That is pretty shady. If they are going to charge you, it is custom work that they shouldn't resell.  Alternativly, if they are going to resell it, you should get a significantly reduced rate.
 

resedit wrote:

Gallery doesn't have those issues. The module that lets you add data fields lets you decide what order they are displayed in, and doesn't display the field if there isn't data to display. Community support is fairly active, I don't have to pay for squat when I can't figure something out.

Then it is a great option for your needs.

resedit wrote:

Maybe the php code could use some cleanup - I'm no php guru.

Realistically, even if you were, you wouldn't want to clean it up.  When you start tweaking a package like that you run the risk of not being able to update when they release an update, or at least not very easily.

resedit wrote:

But the commercial options I found were worse. Maybe if I hired a developer, but if I don't know php well enough to know if gallery is bloated, how am I going to know that what I'm getting is any better? The only way would be to hire a top $ developer who has an extensive reputation, which is a waste when a free solution does everything I need and does it swell.

Generally speaking that is what I meant by commercial solution, hiring a dev.  Yes, it can be a crap shoot.  But I'll share a little secret with you on finding a dev.  If you have a friend or know someone (who you trust) that is a top notch professional dev, ask them to recommend someone within your budget.  Invariably they will know someone (like an intern or junior dev) who will work at a reasonable rate that they can recommend and throw some business at.  And they will probably be very willing to help you for two reasons A) you didn't ask them to do it for them for free(which happens so often it is annoying), and B) you recognized it is a service to paid for and stroked their ego a bit by recognizing their skills may be out of your budget range. It works.

Zombie - but it's my zombie.

Anywhoo - gallery is working for me, but yes - I think I can do better. I think I can do better on my own even.

It's the third project from scratch that I have planned ... though I want to integrate it with my second (second being a database for feeding/breeding records that automagically works out probabilities for simple recessive traits)