2 tablespoons contributes to Gallery 2.1

Gallery 2.1 (blackjack) was recently released and sports some interface enhancements and additions contributed by 2 tablespoons.

I was very active with the project during the past four months. Most of this time was spent implementing usability improvements for Gallery's install and upgrade interfaces. With the help of wonderful usability report from the folks at openusability.org.

Improved install and upgrade interface

The install and upgrade interfaces received a bit of rework and polish. The status bar and help links were moved to the top of the screen for more visual prominence (both were previously at the bottom of the screen). Status messages now have color and icons to reinforce success, warning, and error notices. Finally, the buttons to move through the installer were spruced up with fancy rounded corners and gradients.

Floatrix theme

Floatrix extends the Matrix theme and pulls a few ideas from Michael Elliot's Floating Matrix theme. Thumbnails are displayed in a fluid layout as floating divs. Gallery's sidebar is now an expandable menu that provide more room for thumbnails.

Five star rating module

The new ratings module developed by Don Seilor sports a five star rating interface thanks to graphics support from yours truly.

Exciting additions in store for Gallery 2.2

The theme for additions for Gallery 2.2 is AJAX. Ajaxian, a new theme developed through Google's Summer of Code project, has been added. The admin interface is in the initial stages of being ajaxified.

Hope all of you Gallery users out there find use in the new features and improvements.