I need a script to run a site that has graphics available for download. The regular type of image gallery is not really suitable. I need to categorise the images, some in multiple categories. I want a left and right hand sidebar, with the categories in the left sidebar. The site may have the potential to become fairly high traffic as well. I considered using a html editor, but I think it will become to time intensive as the site grows. WordPress is also not suitable, as I need the information to be presented as pages rather than several blog posts. I don't know if any of the CMS's would handle the possible traffic volume I am anticipating over time(perhaps in the several thousands per day), but I am certainly open to ideas. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am not a coder at all and only have basic html abilities. Thanks in anticipation.
Several thousand hits per day is not a lot for a script to handle as you certainly will be using at most a dedicated server and more likely VPS or shared hosting. The issue with these types of site is bandwidth due to the images not the programming aspects - assuming this isnt a site for users to upload their own images that are resized by the site. Our suggestion would of cause be to hire a developer but for the script people on here it would most likely be helpful if you gave the requirements of the site in more detail... eg is downloading free or paid for? is there user contributed elements?
It is a free site with images made by myself and a few friends. Most of the images will be in JPG format, but perhaps the odd GIF or PNG. The images are mostly fairly small with 200x200 being the largest and all optimised to between 10-12 kb maximum. There will be no facility for user uploads at this stage, but maybe a possibility in the distant future. I am considering hosting the images with an image storage site to minimise the bandwith usage and prevent people from hotlinking to my images. Not sure if this is the best way to go. It just seems that it would be easier to do this rather than having to explain a million times to copy and save to their own computer and then etc, etc, etc. Yes I know I was a newbie once too and I think the easier for them the better. My hosting plan has 3500 gig transfer per month, so I'm thinking this external image hosting may be unnecessary unless I start getting mega hits(which of course I wouldn't mind LOL), but I don't like the idea of allowing hotlinking to images on my host.
It would be a relatively straightforward thing for someone to script if there is no user upload or payments involved on the pages. Even more so if you are happy to have a relatively "manual" process for adding extra images rather than needing a full admin section for it (eg adding the fullsize and thumbnailed image yourself etc - though with .Net thumbnailing is very simple to do)