After spending too much time figuring out how to install and configure My Photo Gallery (http://fuzzymonkey.net/software/photogallery/) on my CentOS 5 web server, only to realize it's completely inadequate for the task we have in mind, I thought I'd turn to the group for help before wasting a lot more time. Do any of you have experience with good photo gallery software for Linux?
I want something web based, which would make it reasonably easy to invite select individuals to upload photos for various events (seminars & symposia) we hold. Ideally, we would set up a gallery for each event, then e-mail attendees access info (username & password) which would give them access to that gallery to upload photos taken at the event. After a time, we'd close off access for uploads, e.g. by changing the password, but keep the gallery up for public viewing from our site. It would have to be something really easy to use, simple and reliable, so that invitees don't have to spend a lot of time leaning or fighting with the site to upload a half-dozen pictures. It would be really nice if it allowed them to add comments to the photos too.
I was thinking of trying Gallery 2 next, which is apparently available from EPEL for CentOS 5. But it looks like something pretty big and complicated with lots of packages, and it needs an SQL database on the back end, so I don't know how much of an effort it will be to install, configure and learn. So, I thought I'd ask before investing a whole lot more time on this. Any experience with this or other gallery software? What's good out there that would fit the bill for our needs? Or should we just give up on this idea and get everyone to upload to Flickr?
Thanks! Gilles