Download JAlbum 8.3.0 Beta

JAlbum is developing version 8.3.0 of the program of the same name and has released a beta release. This program makes it easy to generate and edit professional looking HTML photo albums. In a well-arranged user interface, photos can be easily edited, the order can be changed and the appearance of the web page can be determined. Once everything is to your liking, the result can be placed on a web page via the built-in ftp client. Because the software is developed in Java, JAlbum is available for a wide range of operating systems. Below is what we can expect in version 8.3.0:

New in Jalbum 8.3 beta:

• Smooth image scaling is now twice as fast. Please verify that the quality is the same
• Tight publishing: Jalbum now compares what needs to be published in a fraction of the earlier time. This comparison doesn’t suffer from any time difference issues like the previous scheme did. Also, files that have been deleted locally are now safely deleted on the server before publishing new and changed files. Finally this version is pretty good at estimating if the album to be published will fit or not. If it won’t fit, the “ok” button is greyed out. Tight publishing works on any web host. Jalbum implements the tight publishing feature by putting a manifest file called manifest.jmf. This file lists all files of the album together with modification date and size.
• Even without the manifest file, this version is better at calculating time differences between the local computer and the server. This should make it less likely that the classic “smart upload” reverts to an “upload all”
• Introducing zipstream publishing! On servers that supports this (our hosting soon will), Jalbum now zips an album as it publishes it and the server unzips at the same time. Apart from the size reduction, this significantly cuts publishing time for albums containing many small files as all files are passed in one “zip stream” instead of being negotiated one by one between Jalbum and the server. The longer the “ping time” between Jalbum and the server, the more the benefit. We’ve seen between 2 and 10 times faster uploads!
• Instant album deletes: On servers that support this (our hosting soon will), published albums can now be deleted in a fraction of a second, no matter their size.
• Instant preview. With this release I’ve also added a plugin that does a “quick and dirty” preview of albums. Try pressing F3 after making any change to an album (skin change, style change etc). Jalbum will now make a quick “Make changes” up to 25 images – max, followed by launching the browser for preview.
• Jalbum’s File menu now has an “Import album settings” feature that makes it easy to make a new album using the settings from a previously created album project
• Jalbum’s system console window and text editor JTextPad are no longer blocked from input during album generation
• Jalbum’s “Skin developer” plugin – JTextPad now also packs skins to .jaskin files for easy sharing with the Jalbum community
• Image tool API cleaned up (the image tools are still in beta though)
• New Text image tool (beta)
• Jalbum’s classic text filter (and subclasses thereof, like Watermark filter) now supports angles so text can be rotated
• Album images can now be printed on the local printer along with captions and file names (JPrint plugin)
• Jalbum’s slide show now supports multiple screens – opens the slide show on the same screen as the Jalbum window currently resides on
• Better looking text area font on Windows Vista (from Courier to Arial)
• Jalbum preferences now broken up into sections to improve overview
• Skins should no longer have to supply a folder.gif file
• Updated Boxer and Simplicity skins
• Bug fix: Keyboard navigation glitchy in Jalbum’s edit mode
• Various bug fixes