PHP slideshow recommendations

[kb2001]

I am building a site to host pictures. These are pictures of my family for the past 60 years and everything is password protected. The website is written in PHP, and the data is served up from a MySQL database. I am looking to add a slideshow feature. The idea is that people will be able to construct a slideshow from the pictures and share it for other family members to view.

The slideshow pictures will be stored in a table with two columns, slideshowID and pictureID. POST data to the page will be a slideshowID, nothing more. Does anyone have recommendations for some scripts that will accomplish this? I can handle building queries to gather the required data to send to pre-written scripts, as long as I know what the required inputs are. I've looked at a lot of different possibilities online, but am hoping to get recommendations on some that can handle the situation I'm presenting.

As an additional thought, I would like the ability to play an audio file with each picture before going to the next picture. This is an extra feature which I'm not as concerned about, but would like the ability to move to down the road. Growing up, slideshows with actual slides were a big part of my family reunions. The point of this entire project was to capture my 87 year-old grandfather's comments on each picture in audio files, and be able to present it to whoever in my family wants it over the web. So the ability to incorporate audio files that are associated with each picture is an important one, but not a necessary one at this point.

Big request for an internet forum, I know. I'm really looking for scripts for a slideshow that are easily customizable (meaning I don't have to rewrite the entire thing). Any help or direction on how to proceed with this is very much appreciated.

 

[Stretchwickster]

I've used Monoslideshow (

http://www.monoslideshow.com/)

in the past.

Clive

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"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." (Paul Ehrlich)
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[jpadie]

i use gallery2 a lot and that has a neat java slideshow applet that you could take guidance from.

alternatively, app frameworks like silverlight will surely offer you this kind of ability: the key, to my mind, is to offload the processing to the client side so that the server just has to act as a bit pipe for these activities.

i've also become a real fan of the mootools javascript application framework recently. some bright spark has written a port of lightbox to mootools which could be just what you're looking for. adding music would be pretty straightforward. link is

http://www.digitalia.be/software/slimbox

and mootools link is

http://mootools.net/

lastly, mac osx has an application that can create such slideshows that can then be uploaded and streamed. not creatable on the fly of course but might be useful.

 

[Stretchwickster]

I too use Gallery2 but I must say I haven't really looked at the java slideshow applet. I've just had a look at mootools - looks fantastic, thanks for the link jpadie.

Clive

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." (Paul Ehrlich)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To get the best answers from this forum see: faq102-5096

 

[kb2001]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I appreciate it, and still welcome more.

Stretchwickster- I checked out the monoslideshow. It costs money, so for me that one is not really a viable option. Although it looks to have some great functionality that I could take advantage of down the road when the cost is worth it to me.

jpadie- thank you again for helping me out, it's not the first time. I'm looking for a sever side solution though. Given the audience (extended family and friends), I'm not likely to see a lot of hits and am protecting against it. This site will be hosted by someone else and the server load is not a big concern with this one. That mootools does look pretty nice though. I might have to take advantage of that at a later date.

 

[Stretchwickster]

kb2001, you didn't mention that it had to be a free solution. Besides monoslideshow is very inexpensive ($19.95), you only have to buy it once per site and for your money you get free updates!

Clive

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." (Paul Ehrlich)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To get the best answers from this forum see: faq102-5096