- Editor Rating: 3 out of 5
- Download Link: Post Videos and Photo Galleries
- Plugin version: 1.75
- We tested with: WordPress 3.0.1, BuddyPress 1.2.5.2
- Author: Cincopa
- Price: Free
First off, I would say that I was pretty excited about this plugin. The ability to add videos, photo galleries, music, and podcasts to posts and pages is great. Sure, this is nothing really new, and I am sure that other plugins can do the exact same thing, but I was excited to see what this particular plugin can do. Post Videos and Photo Galleries claims to handle all your multimedia needs for free.
So, I went ahead and installed the plugin on our site. It was very easy to do and you don’t have to do anything else prior to the installation. All you need to do after installing the plugin is to activate it. That’s it.
After activating the plugin, you will see a “c” icon whenever you post content onto your blog. It then struck me that this plugin is purely for posts and pages. My first impression was that I would be able to add media files on member profiles as well. I was wrong. This plugin is to add media to your posts and pages only. Even though it’s listed as a BuddyPress plugin it’s really just a WordPress plugin.
Anyways, it was still a welcome addition so I went ahead and tested it.
When you click on the “c” icon, a window pops up that asks you what kind of media file you’d want to add to your post.
After choosing one, you are then asked to choose a skin/theme for how you’d want the media to look like. I chose to upload photos and chose a flash photo gallery with the simple viewer theme. Uploading photos was very easy and it uploaded quickly. After I clicked “save and continue”, I was brought to a log in page and was prompted to create an account. It then struck me that the files I uploaded will be hosted at the Cincopa server. I was uncomfortable with this and to be honest, was a bit put off. I thought the files will be uploaded on my server. Ok, so I went ahead and created an account and the process was quick and hassle-free. For those of you who don’t mind uploading files to Cincopa’s server, then this will not be an issue.
After creating an account, you are then asked under which method you’d want to embed your gallery, which is a choice of different blog platforms. For BuddyPress/WordPress, there is an automatic embed button which says “embed it for me” which effectively copies the given code on to your text editor.
I saved my post as a draft and previewed it and it looked really good. Here’s a screenshot:
Overall, the plugin is not bad, but could have a few points to improve on. First, there is no back button on the pop-up/upload window. If you make a mistake or change your mind on the theme you’d wish to use, you’d have to close the window and start all over. A back button would be a worthy addition. Another thing that bothers me, which I have mentioned earlier, is that the files are uploaded on a different server, whose terms and conditions we are subject of. As I said, if this doesn’t bother you, then it won’t be an issue.
In conclusion, if you want to include photo galleries, videos, and other media in your blog posts and pages which have a different look and feel from the traditional media uploader included in your text editor, then Post Videos and Photo Galleries is a plugin that you should consider.
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