Mary Jo Griffin
DIG 500 ”" December, 2015
Final Project
Goal:
To research the native and plugin features of several web applications to identify which best satisfies my goal of building a website that showcases my jewelry designs. The site, or compilation of sites, will contain an image gallery, metadata and CC or copyright information.
For comparison, I also researched the features of gallery applications Koken and My Gallery.
Scope of the Study:
” Which web application (omeka.net, omeka.org, WordPress) has the best suite of features to support my goals, and why I feel that way.
” Limit my research to native functions and plugins for each web application. I will not include PHP functionality.
” I am including documents and videos in my research as I would like to make jewelry training available on my site in the future.
” A chart that summarizes my findings by web application
My Sites:
” A WordPress site that is a 'catalog' and 'gallery' of my jewelry designs and fabrications that contains: images, but no metadata at this time.
” Omeka.net site is an exhibit site that contains: images, training documents (text format), and metadata.
” Omeka.org ”" recently launched, I expect it to look like my omeka.net site, but will use more plugins.
” My Gallery- a photo album gallery for showcasing images.
” Koken Gallery ”" a photo album gallery for showcasing images.
Research
I used Google, WordPress Codex and Omeka Codex as my research sources for functionality. I installed and checked out each of the web apps and plugins. After installing Omeka.org, I decided to remove Omeka.net from my comparison analysis due to its similarity to omeka.org, but without the supporting suite of plugins.
I found that both WordPress and Omeka support almost all of the features in my goals, so the study became more of an exercise in (a) is the feature available natively or by a plugin, (b) how easy is it to use, and (c) how robust is the feature.
WordPress ”" advertises having has plugins for metadata, embedding videos and instructional materials. All of their plug-ins are easy to install and activate.
Omeka - has a few plugins available within their application, but the majority have been developed externally. The Omeka Codex has links to plugin sites. FTP is needed to load these plugins. I also found several require PHP changes. My installs were quick and straightforward as my webhost has FTP functionality built in.
Both WordPress and Omeka offer free and premium plugins ”" I used only free plugins for this research.
My Gallery and Koken - I found they are as advertised, 'albums' for sharing your images, and geared toward showcasing personal image collections.
Features Reviewed:
” WordPress ”" Photo Gallery (1) ”" a free plug-in to create a gallery style image display. This plug-in supports drag and drop upload of images, automatically building camera metadata. However, the 'free' plug-in does not display photo tags. Actually, only about half of the available features are activated in the free plug-in.
You Tube videos are very easy to install and use by copying the URL into the 'insert from url' field. The video screen, start page, and the standard play 'arrow' are displayed.
The plugin documentation, and their marketing video, show that tags are displayed only with the full size image. (2)
Figure 1. Photo Gallery
” WordPress ”" Add Meta Tags (3) - a free plug-in used for adding metadata. While this feature works in conjunction with images from 'Image Gallery', PHP settings are needed to activate. Their documentation indicates that metadata is at the page level, not the image level. (4)
Using the WordPress plugin search feature, I found that WordPress does not have any free metadata plugins for pages, only posts. As I am storing my images on pages, I wasn't able to evaluate this plug-in.
I was disappointed to find that WordPress does not have a current plug-in for Dublin Core (or any other well-known metadata schema).
” WordPress ”"Document Gallery (5) plugin to embed documents on a page (rather than post). While this plug in is an easy to use feature, it is a very vanilla page ”" I uploaded pdf and word documents and used the settings option to define that thumbnails and document names would be assigned automatically by the plug-in. The pdf thumbnail is an unreadable size and the word document displays a generic RTF document icon, but you can choose to define your own thumbnails. Document names become the link to download the document. PDF files open automatically in the pdf viewer; for Word, a dialog box will ask if you want to open the document in Word.
Figure 2. Document Gallery Plugin
” Omeka ”" You Tube Import (6) - a plug-in for importing You Tube videos to exhibits. Much like all Omeka images, you must enter the video's metadata, even though the plugin documentation states that any existing metadata will be imported automatically. (7) I wasn't able to get the plug-to work. The video start page is imported from the You Tube site so Omeka is able to connect to the site. Doing some research I found that there are flash issues with this plug in. I will continue my research for this plugin at a later date. (8)
” Omeka ”" Docs Viewer (9)”" document display is native to Omeka, but this plug-in lets you create metadata and include the document item in an exhibit. The full size document can be launched from item display.
” Omeka ”" URL links ”" Hyperlinks are native file types in Omeka, however, an HTML change is needed to use this feature. Because this setup is fairly obscure, I am including the instructions as part of my research. (10) First: 'Add' a new Item; selecting 'Item Type Metadata' = hyperlink. Select HTML at the URL box. This opens a toolbar which contains a link symbol. Click on the link symbol and a new popup will open ”" Fill in the three fields with the following:
Figure 3. Inserting a link
Click 'Update' to create the link
” My Gallery (11) ”" a Gallery web application ”" installs easily ”" images are uploaded by drag and drop. Create an album, add in photos by drag and drop. Free and premium themes are available. Albums are displayed on the home page. Click on album image to display images in the album. The uploaded file name (example: jpg filename) is automatically displayed as the image caption. Images are initially displayed as thumbnails. Click on the thumbnail to display full size image.
”
The full size screen page shows visits to image, ratings, and date posted. My Gallery converts the image name to tags in the full size display. This is a nice image display application. It is not a robust gallery like Omeka or WordPress, however, a nice add-on I'll connect to my WordPress site as a 'page'. Visitors can navigate to the album from that page.
Figure 4. My Gallery
” Koken Gallery (12) ”" a Gallery web application ”" installs easily ”" images uploaded by drag and drop. The documentation says video can be uploaded by drag and drop, but neither You Tube nor a wmv video file type will upload.(13) The app does not offer 'old fashioned' upload by copy and paste. The app does not have metadata, but their documentations says tags can be added. (14)
You have the option of collections, albums and featured items; however, an image must be uploaded separately for each category. You can set CC license information as an admin, but it is not being displayed in the app. The copyright symbol is displayed. As with My Gallery, I think this gallery is a nice add-on I'd like to connect to my WordPress site.
Figure 5. Koken Gallery
Conclusion
My analysis confirms that purpose matters. If I want a web app to bundle my images into an album for on-line display only, My Gallery and Koken are good choices. However, if I want a more robust site with 'one stop shopping' for images, videos, text/instructional documents, along with metadata, CC license and copyright information, I would choose to use WordPress or Omeka.
I do feel Omeka's metadata display can be cumbersome and not terribly 'slick'. However, with further practice, I think I can make an Omeka site more interesting for a visitor.
After I discovered that I can have the best of all worlds on my WordPress site ”" connecting Omeka and one of the gallery sites by URL link, I have decided that WordPress is my first choice for my 'current work' gallery, instructional guides and videos. I will look at using Omeka to substitute for the lack of WordPress metadata for site pages. I will also use one of the gallery apps to create albums of my earlier works, and use Omeka to showcase exhibits of seasonal work.
Following is a comparison of features I looked at across all of the web apps I reviewed.
”
Side by Side Comparison ”" WordPress, Omeka.net, Omeka.org, My Gallery, Koken Gallery
Feature WordPress Omeka.org My Gallery Koken Gallery
Purpose of App Primary: blog; second: website Bridges the gap between appropriately rigorous digital storage and displaying collections of material (15) online image gallery online image gallery
Collect information from visitors comments There are plugins that allow visitors to upload stories, images and other files. I didn't test this feature. comments no
Plug-Ins Free and Premium Free & Premium Free and Premium Free and Premium
Has metadata Dublin Core or other well-known schema:
No for pages
Yes for posts Native feature ”" Dublin Core + custom 'Add Item'; Extended Dublin Core; Getty vocabulary by 'Getty Suggest' plugin; export to METS by 'METS Export' plugin; controlled vocabulary by 'Simple Vocab' and 'Simple Vocab Plus' plugins No No
Has tags Yes Yes Yes yes
Has themes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Upload/embed video Yes ”" by plugin Yes ”" plug-in No Yes
URL links to external video Native in text editor Yes (16) No No
URL Link to external site Yes Yes No No
Upload eBooks/Guides/ documents Document Gallery plugin Yes ”" 'text' type allows at least PDF and Word No No
Display CC license Yes No ”" enter information manually in 'Rights' DC metadata No Yes
Display copyright information Yes No No Yes
Exhibit Builder No ”" closest will be 'Photo Gallery' plugin + text Yes No ”" albums only No ”" albums only
Citations:
# Site Name Access Date html
01 Word Press Photo Gallery Plug-In 11/27/15 https://wordpress.org/plugins/gallery-images/
02 Photo Gallery Plug-in Documentation 11/27/15 https://web-dorado.com/wordpress-gallery/creating-editing-tag.html
03 WordPress Add Meta Tags Plug-In 11/27/15 https://wordpress.org/plugins/add-meta-tags/
04 Add Meta Tags Documentation 11/27/15 https://wordpress.org/plugins/add-meta-tags/
05 Word Press Document Gallery Plug-In 11/27/15 https://wordpress.org/plugins/document-gallery/
06 Omeka You Tube Import Plug-In 11/27/15 http://omeka.org/add-ons/plugins/youtube-import/
07 You Tube Import Documentation 12/05/15 https://github.com/UCSCLibrary/YouTubeImport/wiki
08 You Tube Import flash issues 12/05/15 http://omeka.org/forums/topic/omeka-and-video-playback
09 Omeka Docs Viewer Plug-In 11/27/15 https://omeka.org/codex/Plugins/DocsViewer
10 Omeka ”" Add URL Links 12/05/15 http://omeka.org/forums/topic/hyperlinks-dont-work-in-omeka-20
11 My Gallery Documentation 12/01/15 http://piwigo.org/forum/
12 Koken Gallery Documentation 12/01/15 http://help.koken.me/customer/portal/topics/290729-discussions/questions
13 Koken Gallery video upload documentation 12/01/15 http://help.koken.me/customer/portal/questions/1518856-video-upload
14 Koken Gallery tags documentation 12/01/15 http://help.koken.me/customer/portal/questions/8414357-tag-property
15 Omeka.org web app purpose 11/27/15 https://orlaegan.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/omeka-vs-wordpress/
16 Omeka.org link to external video 12/05/15 http://omeka.org/codex/Plugins/Contribution_2.0
General WordPress Codex 11/27/15 http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page
General Omeka Codex 11/27/15 http://omeka.org/codex/Documentation
General Omeka Plug-Ins 11/27/15 http://omeka.org/codex/Plugins