Content managed gallery/slideshow?

fig said:

The implementation of that itself isn't tough, but the client brought up the idea of something that would be content managed so that they could upload a new project themselves. Any thoughts on the most straightforward way to create this? I'm not opposed to a commercial solution if that's the best option and am open to developing something in any CMS, just trying to see what the possibilities might be. Thanks!

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NOTE:
This response is in context to your being open to a CMS solution, meaning a friendly, GUI based input form on the back end which populated the gallery content as well as generates the dynamic gallery on the front end:

In general this involves a module or plugin created/adapted to do as you described, including defining a custom content type which allows a content person to upload the main images and type in the various fields. The CMS should automatically create the thumbs and seamlessly store it all in the CMS database just like any other content. For the front end you'd create templates using the proper API's for that CMS to retrieve the content type data, apply styling and display accordingly. Someone who knows the CMS and module/plugin development, of course, following the CMS standards for seamless integration (no code hacking of core/distro source).

If you want a robust solution like that I informally recommend Drupal which has API's for all of the above, 100% free open source, plus excellent module developer support. On a side note Drupal also has a contributed module called Views which is an ad-hoc query tool to access the gallery content type and fields and format output via templates per page or block level. It can also be used for region blocks such as "Most Recent Galleries" or Top 10's etc. with ease. Numerous Drupal gallery modules exist which use Views already, but it's very easy to learn as it's GUI based.

Yes, this can also all be done with Wordpress - but many of the advanced features such as custom image upload, server side validation, image resize/thumb creation, custom content type and fields are not necessarily built in to core nor is the API as robust or choice of plugins as great. The downside of Drupal is a steep learning curve for DIY's or novices, of course.

Please wait for other replies before you make any decision, if possible, as we all have different ways to skin a cat and my advice is just one opinion.

http://www.koken.me maybe?