Portfolio gallery advice needed

[miguelkp]

Hi, dudes.
I'm going to do an image gallery for my portfolio and there's something I'm not sure about: what language to use.
I first thought about a PHP+MySQL based gallery. I've got experience with Flash (Actionscript) too. And, lastly, I've seen very profesional works made with Ajax. So I'm pretty unsure about the question.

What do you think it would be better? Another one that is not listed here?
Besides voting in the poll, argumented pros and cons will be welcome, of course

 

[Zubair]

I think Flash will be the best option..

Flash Galleries looks awesome..

 

[leafypiggy]

Definitely go with javascript. Flash is all cool and fancy, and is nice sometimes, but javascript/ajax is the obvious choice. Almost all browsers will output the same effects (if they have javascript enabled) and if they don't, you can easily make it so that those without javascript see a dumbed-down version of the page. Whereas with flash you have to have it installed, and it causes a lot of issues with browsers, even new ones.

 

[farscapeone]

PHP+MySQL for beckend script and AJAX (jQuery) for display and interactivity. That's the ideal combination for more then just a photo gallery

If you need a static gallery then you don't need PHP and MySQL.

 

[miguelkp]

PHP+MySQL for beckend script and AJAX (jQuery) for display and interactivity. That's the ideal combination for more then just a photo gallery

If you need a static gallery then you don't need PHP and MySQL.

I see. My idea was to build a flexible gallery to make easier adding more images. And I had planned to use an external image hosting service so I'll need to store image links somewhere.

By the way, I found a framework for Ajax. It's called Spry and you can see it here in action:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/demos/index.html

Can this one be a good way of make what I want? Its photo gallery looks pretty nice. Probably not as eye-catching as some Flash galleries but beautiful anyway. And since it uses XML files, I supose I can do without MySQL.
Would this way be faster (I mean loading the page, not developing it) than others, since it wouldn't have to connect to MySQL server and so?

On the other hand, I really like Flash but, generally, it takes long to load. I don't worry about the need of having it installed. 99.9% of people see Youtube videos, isn't it? Hehehe.

 

[farscapeone]

Using XML is ok if you have a small gallery with hundred or so pictures. For bigger ones I recommend MySQL cos XML would be a lot slower.

If you want a flexible gallery than you have to use PHP. Just thinks about it. You need a script for uploading, a script to dynamically create thumbnails, maybe a rating system and so on.

Here's an excellent video tutorial for dynamically created thumbnails with PHP and GD library:
http://net.tutsplus.com/videos/screencasts/how-to-dynamically-create-thumbnails/

I see you are thinking of storing pictures on a different site. Maybe Flickr? Look at this tutorial and you'll see how easy it is to make a nice looking gallery with Flickr, SimplePie and, of course, jQuery:
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/create-a-slick-flickr-gallery-with-simplepie/

As for Spry I remember trying it once it become a part of Dreamweaver but I never used it that much cos I'm happy with jQuery.

I agree with you about Flash. Avoid it if possible.

 

[miguelkp]

Well. I think that, at last, I finished the gallery.
I made it only with Javascript (actually jQuery... thanks, leviathon, for advise me to try it XD That framework is just amazing). Nor XML, neither MySQL. It's static but I realised that I didn't really need a dinamic one since there will not be too much images (about 50 or so).

Now I have to make the contact form . And to fill the gallery with high quality content, of course hehe.

I think I'll have the whole site online in a few days or maybe in a week (because almost sure I will get a job and I'm pretty busy right now )

Thank you for your replies, dudes.

 

[farscapeone]

I'll be happy to see the end result