Using Joomla

Photo Gallery: Set Up an Online Photo Gallery Using Phoca

• Extension: Phoca Galleries

• Website: http://www.phoca.cz

• Cost: Free

• License: GNU/GPL

• Minimum requirements: Joomla 1.5, PHP 4.4.1+, GD Library (http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.image.php) for thumbnail creation

When it comes to photo galleries in Joomla, Phoca Gallery is one of the best. Packed full of features and the ability to customize nearly every little detail, this gallery is the flagship component for Phoca.

If you think of a category as an album, the process of creating a gallery is simple. After the category is created, you can add as many images as you want to it. Categories can be nested into other categories as well to give you any sort of hierarchy you wish.

We can see that Helen has decided to create two galleries, one for Dogs and one for Cats. She has posted some fan photos that she received of people with their pets. When Phoca Gallery is loaded, the main area on the screen looks something like Figure 18-20.

Figure 18-20. Phoca Gallery: Top-Level Category

If you click on Dogs, you will be taken into that category to see other categories and images located inside. In our case, we have only one level of categories, so you will not see any subcategories when you click Dogs. Figure 18-21 shows the user-submitted photos of fans with their dogs.

Figure 18-21. Phoca Gallery: Dogs category

Each category has a back button ...