One of my more notable achievements during spring break was finally finalizing an XML format for Lightbox7.com files. Each account basically gets an XML file for a general overview of public albums (*HMYA*) and an XML file per album with image information (*HMYA*).

So what? ... who cares? You've published tons of XML files, Roy.

OH HO HO! THAT'S NOT ALL!

I actually GOT a proof-of-concept up that demonstrates what can be done and what I wanted to do from day one: allow users to install a lightweight script on their own servers to display their Lightbox7.com gallery.

Although this script (~5KB) was written in about two hours, it does show what can be done ... check out its implementation here. The gallery on roykim.net is now syncronized with my Lightbox7.com account; anytime I update my Lightbox7.com account ... it automatically updates my website's gallery. Even better is I have 100% control over the formatting; one HTML file controls the output of all three "pages" within the gallery setting (main listing, per album listing, image page). Right now the display is somewhat barebones because I just want to prove it works; I can easily tidy it up and make it pretty.

Even better, the images are still being served off the main Lightbox7.com server so I don't have to worry about wasted bandwidth! And I now do not need to worry about installing weird libraries like ImageMagick and GD or having to mess with server permissions to get a gallery script to work (which is a big problem for people on shared servers).

And you can now see the value of the reason I placed such an emphasis on the allow certain sites access to my images; you can essentially "block" all websites from hotlinking to the images except your own site.

I may get a lot of flak from Borst for this, but check out a non-working version (you cannot login and you really can't upload files yet) of the new Lightbox7.com uploader (Oh a note on the Lb7 uploader; you need Microsoft's .NET framework) that's in the works; this program will let you drag and drop images from your Windows folders into the program to upload to your Lightbox7 account; this lets you avoid the nasty web interface for uploading (forms were not meant to handle serious file uploads).

Conclusion
You can quickly see where I'm going here... users with personal websites can:
1.) Register a Lightbox7.com
2.) Install the lightweight script on their server that access their Lightbox7 accounts
3.) Upload tons of images using the program.. and have the images autoresize (as they always do)
4.) Have a full-fledged gallery script on their site, without wasting bandwidth or having to figure out how to install weird libraries to get the uploading to work properly.

Running a gallery was never easier ... I know a few years ago I was kicking myself because of how hard it was to make and maintain a photogallery online ... I'm hoping Lightbox7.com closes that gap and lets EVERYBODY run a photogallery online (while netting me some money too...).

I'm so excited about what the future brings for Lightbox7.com ... this is just a simple glimpse at the "larger picture" I have planned for Lightbox7.