The Net of Inter - Best Free Stuff The Internet Has to Offer

Pixelpost is an open source photoblog software platform. But of course, if you’re here, you might already know that. After realizing that Wordpress and other content management systems didn’t cut it as far as photo publication goes, I somehow found Pixelpost. Unfortunately, I tried to find a good list of addons that would help me get started posting my photography and design images but none existed as far as i knew. This list is the culmination of my efforts to find the best Pixelpost addons: administrator addons to help with spam and SEO, visitor features that encourage returns and commenting, and just plain visual performances design to make things a little prettier. Through much research and experimentation, this list was born. If you found any of these useful (or not), please let me know. While I tried to find good responses from the public, I couldn’t test all of these myself. If you’re reading this, you’re probably as excited as I was. Get what you want from here and get to posting those digital masterpieces! Enjoy.

all addons are compatible with Pixelpost 1.7 and some with lower versions. follow links for further information on compatibility and installation.

Administrator Addons:

Custom Pixelpost Admin : First, off let me just say that while I am loving Pixelpost, it’s admin backend page has a design that is almost unbearable to look at. Custom Pixelpost admin is just a .css file that makes the backend a lot more beautiful and easier to navigate.

Defensio for Pixelpost : There’s a lot of talk about which one is better; Defensio or Askimet? I honestly can’t tell you with statistics. What I can tell you is that I’ve heard and read that the amount of unfiltered spam drops when switching to Defensio. Defensio has options like sorting by spaminess as well. This helps to find the obvious spam and maybe some false positives. I’ve also read that the statistics are more detailed than Askimet. You’ll need to sign up at Defensio to obtain an API key in order for it to work. If you have any success or disaster stories, please comment.

zWatermark Admin Addon (alpha build) : Alright, this one’s big for those of you who are either looking to brand your images or worried about people stealing them and calling them their own. You can add a watermark with either text or an image and put it pretty much anywhere on every image automatically. Make a backup of your database before you use this addon because it changes a lot behind the scenes. It is in an early stage so some people have had issues while others found no problems. If any of you use it, please give me some feedback on how it worked (or didn’t).

Page Title for Home Page : Good for SEO (search engine optimization). Helps search engines see a more prominent site by changing certain code in order to better define individual image pages from your home page.

Clean URLs : Not exactly sure of the size of the impact for SEO but it seems that it would work wonders for getting all content on your site to the search engines. Makes all URLs within your site SEO friendly almost like static URLs. On the demo page, hover over the next and previous for a portion of the effect of this addon and what the URL would look like. (demo)

Google Sitemap last modification : Another SEO friendly plugin. Changes your sitemap entry for each page to the last modified time and date because, according to the author, this feature isn’t automatic in Pixelpost.

Code Generator for Robots : Yet another SEO addon for administrator control. Adds extra page code in order for search engine robots like Google to find attributes of your site that viewers can’t see. All options are available in the backend.

Admin Google Sitemap Ping Service : Automatically updates and submits your site map to Google. Good to show Google you update your site frequently. Good for SEO.

Update to EXIF Date/Time : Changes post dates to the EXIF date written inside most digital images. Most, if not all cameras attach the date that the photo was taken inside the image file. This is helpful if you happen to be away on photo taking adventures and you want posts to be sequential. This addon changes your database so be sure to make a backup before you make any changes.

Advanced Pixelpost Comment Statistics : A superb addon that gives you a lot of information and control over comments. Go to the following link for more in-depth information on it’s features. (description of statistics)

Image Statistics : Displays statistics for which images where viewed for each month and you can even insert some code in your post to share the information with your visitors.

Tag Organizer : Makes organizing and renaming your tags throughout your site a simple task instead of going through each image one by one. A simple but very time efficient addon.

Pixelpost Promote : Once installed, a simple code addition to any website displays either your last couple pictures or some random ones from your Pixelpost blog. Just copy and paste the code to a web page and it will be automatically updated as your blog is. (demo)

Feature Addons for Visitors:

Multiphoto : Shows more than one image on your main page. One image on the front page isn’t sufficient for some. It’s especially good for you post all the time and don’t want your steady readers to "miss" a post. (demo 1) (demo 2)

Random Front Page Image : As the name suggests, this addon displays a random image for your viewers when they visit your home page. It basically redirects you to an individual image page, so keep in mind that no one will actually see your home page. (demo)

Album View : A great addon that shows only one image for each category. You can have it display your last posted image or just a random one within the category. (demo)

Text Archive Addon : Adds an archive page listed by date. Haven’t felt a need for it myself but it might be useful to some. (demo)

Tag Menu : Inserts a drop down menu for tags selection next to the drop down menu for categories on your browse page. (demo)

Tag Browser Addon : Similar to Tag Manu except with a smooth drop down list effect. (demo)

Top Commenters (advanced) : Displays your top commenters in a javascript box with an option to link to their own website if provided. Great for motivation to comment on your photo blog.

Browse by Category : Just what it says. Allows a viewer to see sections separated by category in the browse page.

Weighted Archive Generator : Adds a tag cloud to your Pixelpost site. Fonts of certain name tags get larger if used more often. (demo)

Search Addon : It does what it says. Adds a search plugin to your browse page. (demo)

Slideshow Addon : Adds a play button along with others to automatically slideshow your images. It just follows links so it basically loads a new page for each image instead of staying on the same page and rolling through. Maybe there will be an update but this is what they have so far. (demo)

Custom Fields : Enables you to add custom fields in the descriptions for your image posts. Especially useful if you have more information about each picture that doesn’t quite fit in any of the default fields.

Comments CAPTCHA : Displays a CAPTCHA box below in your comment section to prevent bots from entering spam on your page.

Visual Effect Addons:

Coverflow Standalone : This is basically a copy of the iTunes coverflow effect. It’s obviously not as graphically enhanced but it does the job. There’s one fixable problem with this addon, however. If you follow the demo link, you’ll see that the coverflow images are pixelated. If you set cropping to ‘no’ and your thumbnail resizing to 400×400m, it will fix the problem. Originally it started as a piece of an individual template, but according to the author this standalone version should work with any of template design. (demo)

Hoverbox for Pixelpost : A nice little plugin that shows a bigger image when the mouse is over the thumbnail. It’s great for people to preview a cleaner and larger image instead of relying on the not-so-satisfying default 100×100 pixel thumbnail to show the true beauty of your images. (demo)

Photoblink Thumbnails : When your mouse is over a thumbnail, a larger image shows and follows your cursor. It’s not necessarily my favorite style of display box but an effect worthy to be on the list. (demo)

EasyMap Simple Google Maps Addon for Pixelpost : A wonderful addition to the addon list especially if you are a traveler and want people to see where you took the picture. To see it in on the demo page, click ‘comments’, then click ’show this photo on a map’. You’ll need to get an API key at the Google Maps API sign up page in order for this plugin to work. (demo)

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