You will soon realize that there are plenty of Web applications for you to build a Web site. Actually, there are so many that it is difficult to chose the right ones. This post is related to the Web applications chosen to build the blupark.net Web site, however other Web sites, depending on the purpose, type, size, complexity may chose a totally different set of apps.

It was clear to have the following functions available on the site:

• Articles, discussions, blogs, and so on
• Photo album management and organizer
• Hosting various applications and projects in the future

The hosting environment provides install scripts for most of the Web applications one may need. The installation is very easy thorugh the control panel, filling out a few forms in Fantastico.

The first application I was trying to sort out was the Photo album organizer. The current Fantastico environment only supports 4Images Gallery. Installation went quick and smooth, but the application just did not cut it. There is nothing particularly wrong with the application, it just feels more like an administrative client or dashboard rather than a nice Web based gallery.

The next option was to install something from scratch (without Fantastico). Next in line was Gallery2.
Gallery2′s installation is more than just impressive. It goes very smooth, it provides plenty of help, test (database connection) and validation. It is actually pretty amazing how far Web application installation evolved in the Open Source world. Things that I was used to in the enterprise, J2EE environment were simply overtaken in some instances of OSS.

So I got Gallery2 installed, configured and running perfectly fine on the site. My next task was to customize the theme, but that seems to be a royal pain in the neck. I am not happy with the lack of (incomplete) documentation, and the complexity that is exposed to the Web designer – that’s right, themes should not require the developer role. I guess the (low) number of available themes on the Web is a good indicator.

Chosing a blogging application is coming…