I could write this in any of the web apps forums I have ever used, from Php-Nuke, via Coppermine to Menalto Gallery and Piwigo, to focus on the ones I have used as base for my online galleries, big or small.

Signing up for web space, mostly on a linux derivative with mysql and php, getting the files, running the setup on said web host.. That was, and still is, the basic concept. Some kind of control panel, like cpanel or directadmin (I mostly use the latter recent years) on the web host to handle mysq and php settings and limits. You could make it work on IIS with PHP and MySQL as well, but a bit more tricky. Some basic PHP functions enabled, like imagemagick and gd. Thats it. Gallery ready.

But now, the hosting is just about anything. Still, the basic engine is mostly Linux (LAMP) but the derivatives are many kinds of virtualization and container engines that demand a prepped package to "install" for the web app to work.

At first glance I am lost and many with me. I imagine that the situation for developers is difficult, because suddenly you start getting questions about how to deploy Piwigo to platfom Z in a virtual Y in container Q. I don't see how you will ever be able to support that. Sure, maybe a Docker image and something else but the variants are too many, the support questions are too little about Piwigo and more about how you configure it to work on hardware and software that emulates servers that are far from the basic concept.

Do you have a plan on how to deal with this? I don't expect you do. I fear you will eventually drown in questions that are less about Piwigo's functionality and more about how to set it up in a huge number of different environments, very few with any enforced standards.

I already see some web apps drowning in this, dying, lack of time, lack of support, lack of knowledge and a horde of users demanding answers you were never supposed to provide in the first place?

You may need to draw a line.

Last edited by homdax (2021-02-22 21:17:32)