VStar PhotoAlbum

The consistency checking method was improved to reduce thumbnail regeneration time. Info files now contain detailed information about the sizes of each picture/thumbnail, which allows regenerating only for selected thumbnails within a folder. Old info files get automatically converted into a new format. CSS style definition and an example of a CSS file were added. Free-of-charge Bitstream Vera TTF Fonts were added into the package. A bug with lock file generation for nonexistent thumbnail folders was fixed. A few typos in a language definition file were fixed.

Web page editing for folder descriptions has been implemented. You no longer need to edit descriptions manually; everything can be done through the Web browser. All words/phrases have been moved into a separate language file, which allows you to customize album appearance and messages. A locking mechanism to prevent simultaneous thumbnail generation for the same folder has been added. "alt=" HTML tags have been changed to "title=", which is more appropriate for image descriptions.

This release adds the ability to add/change picture descriptions through Web interface. The name of the authenticated user or IP address should match the allowed list. A better bit-decoding method for EXIF information about flash has been implemented; it is correct and informative now. A problem with filenames with non-standard characters (~!@#$^*&%, etc.) has been fixed.

If the Magickwand extension is installed, it now
gets a functional precedence in JPEG resampling,
which is much faster than the GD library. The
possibility to choose a method of image conversion
in the GD library was added: resampling gives
better image quality, but is much slower than
resizing. The possibility to disable "client" mode
was added. The error message, "Illegal IFD
Pointer," appearing on some files was fixed.
Writing text on top of an image using _system
font_ is now deprecated. Only TrueType font
support is left.

Code cleanup. A few minor problems were fixed.