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I rate this as "Good" only because the idea is good and I already am a developer and know how to fix the code. The extension is really helpful but not free and when you pay the extension and a pro version too, you expect not to run on such many bugs. NOTE: this is not for the user who doesn't know PHP and ajax/javascript as you will be forced to ask for extension developers help to adapt the extension for your site which will be, I presume, not for free as I can see on 'custom development' page on developers site. I suggest to contact the owner and ask for the prices he will charge for his work to adapt the extension to your site. This is of course if you like this idea so much.
This could be a very promising extension if this developer didn't stop on fixing the bugs. I see a lot of free extensions which developers provided a much better support and thus give you the opportunity to extend the extension by buying some extended versions but this one's not. You must pay for a base and pro version which are not ready to go after installing. You must track the bags and then be sure when everything is Ok to start using it live. One more thing I can't understand is why is this payed extension limited to one site only or 3 sites if payed more, if you must fix bugs by yourself or paying this developer extra for doing it for you.

I strongly recommend to this developer to test the extension on different templates and such, to be aware of bugs and fix them before continuing to sell this buggy extension for $80 + $50!

And when it worked it was excellent, unfortunately, it took me weeks to get it working, and the support that I received was very very poor (granted part of this may have been down to my rudeness) but I waited and then mailed mike direct with the issues and got no response that helped!! I then asked for a refund and was flatly refused, but he did offer to charge me for a custom install - saying it was down to errors on my site - however I did pay someone else to sort it out which they did in a couple of minues - I then paid for the pro-upgrade - As I know nothing about coding I was left having to pay more cash to get something to work that should have when I installed it. Once I got it working - Mike site was down (about a week ago or so) and no one could access the component, no view or uploads. I ended up having to reinstall (no fault of mikes or simm gallery) and again could not get it to work, So have now removed completely (would not even bother to ask for a refund) if you are into coding and know what your doing then buy this it will suit you. if not STAY WELL AWAY - as the support (even before my rudeness) was very very poor - have rated a component in its working form as excellent - support - very very very poor

This the best concept of a gallery system I have found. It integrates nicely with community builder and looks pretty much just like facebook.

Unfortunately, it has many issues. I purchased this about 2 months ago and it STILL doesn't work right and there has been 6 updates in that time and it still doesn't work right. The bugs I have reported only very slowly get fixed if even...

The other big issue is installation. It took me an entire evening to do to get it installed because the documentation is seriously lacking and its a pretty complicated procedure to begin with. The only reason I was even able to get it installed was because I stumbled across the solution in a totally unrelated forum.

It is also very expensive (especially when you want all the features so you have to get the "pro" addon) and considering it still doesn't work fully, I'm not overly happy. I think the developer should have waited longer and done more extensive beta testing before releasing this product and charging for it.

As I said, great concept but it still needs work. Check back in a few versions and hopefully it will be perfect. Current version i'm on is 2.2.8

First time I saw this, I just knew I needed this component to get more action on my site. I have been testing it on a Joomla 1.5 site test server, and it meets all my needs when it comes to a gallery. It contains good modules, tagging, rating and browsing in a way that no other gallery for Joomla today offers. It is user friendly, and if there is one thing that is more important then fancy look, it is the way thing works in a user friendly way.
But this gallery have both the "fancy" way of working, and is very user friendly. Some things could be improved, like make it more clear to upload, and the configuration panel is not easy to find. I've been setting up user cases to test this, and they miss that little tool button.

Then, I ran into problems with java script. Nothing worked the first time, (the solution suggested in the documentation does not work for me), I found a solution in the forums, then I upgraded the component and plugin, and the problem was there again. It is not possible to upload pictures, not to browse existing pictures. The forum is new, without the old content. My suggestion is when you are making a good component like this, is to make sure to have all the possibilities to make your customer happy (since this extension cost a bit) I'm not able to find the solution and is therefor stuck.

I give the extension a 4.5 and the support at the moment 3.

Mike has give us the posibility to integrate a really good gallery to our community web sites. The component works great and the support works really well. You can contact Mike anytime and he will get you back in the following 48 hours with some help and in some cases ( at least my case) he will visit your web site to see what is happening and to discover where the problem is located.
I would reccomend this product to everyone looking for a photo system !!!

When I first tried out this component I was upset that the component add-on prices seemed high, so I canceled my license and received a refund.

Weeks later, I realized how vital this extension is to my site and came crawling back to purchase it all over again.

This is such a smooth extension and is so well integrated with Community Builder that no matter how upset you are with prices or support, that once you try it out, you will realize you don't just need it, you require it.

The interface is simple and understandable to the end user. It's powerful, pretty, and clean.

If you are looking for a CB gallery plugin than this is exactly what you need.

This is definately one of the best written Gallery extensions out there. Looks extremley clean and professional straight out of the box but at the same time is very configurable. The tie in with CB is excellent and in my opinion is a must for any CB users.

On installation I had a few problems but was contacted directly by Mike, the developer within 12 hours who sorted these out. Its rare I do reviews on Joomla.org because I use so many components / modules that are "OK" or just fit the purpose - This component stands out from those and in turn is more that worth the review. 10/10

Dave

Ok, I still use like version 1.13 of this but as of this review version 2.0.1 (something like that) is out with even MORE great features. Anyway, I can't say too many great things about this component or it's developer. This gallery looks frickin good! I love how it works with Shadowbox on the CB profile pages, especially. After adding this gallery I actually had to start upgrading the look of the profiles because the gallery out-shined everything else. Now, the one time I an issue with an updated version the developer personally emailed me a copy of the older version I preferred and stated, though he could not support every version of this component released, that he would include the feature I requested in a future update. THAT'S support! It's not the first time he's done that either. He actually LISTENS to his customers.

Like a lot of people, when I first saw Sim Gallery, I thought WOW! It looks very slick, thats a fact. With CB integration and all the features and modules you could want, I purchased a copy.

Version 2 has since come out and seems to have ironed out a lot the issues with version 1. It installed on my site with no issues.

Had some minor functionality problems, Mike replied to all my emails within a day and resolved all issues.

This is a great gallery and is quickly becoming a central part of my site!

Highly recommended.

We have tried and there is just a big WOW !

Anything necessary to run a community. Anything looks nice and professional.

But: You need ioncube, because the code is encrypted. And who will know, if a company will still exist tomorrow ? And then you can't upgrade etc. because you can't modify the code.

I have found this component to be quite excelent. I did have a few 'niggles' on install, however the support I recieved has been excelent (despite a significant time zone difference).

I would recomend checking out the demonstration on the creators site, I have all functions working on my site.

The gallery component itself it very user friendly with an intuitive interface and the full range of options for the user (with no administration required once installed, just what I wanted!). The modules that come with it allow for displaying the uploaded/rated/commented items in a variety of ways (as well as, of course, the individuals gallery).

I am very glad I have this product on my site :)

When I saw first this component, I was quite excited and said to myself "Finally !". All the gallery components have some flaws. Expose is very good but doesn't have good modules, voting, commenting etc. RSGallery has too many bugs, template problems etc.

SIMGallery has everthing you can expect from a gallery: CB integration, commenting, voting and modules for displaying best rated albums, comments, votes etc. But only in theory.

It requires mootools1.2. Since J1.5 comes with mootools1.1 you have to install mootools and shadoxbox as well. If you are not experienced like me, you have rummage through internet just to find a way for installing this or you have to pay the guy some extras.

When I first installed it, literally nothing worked. Frontend publishing doesn't allow uploading because of mootools issue. If you are not logged in, it takes you to the registration page.

Worst of all, when I send an e-mail to the guy asking for e-mail with a little harsh tone as I was extremely frustrated, he just refunded my money back and called me uncivilized. Even though I apologized, and told him I want to pay if I can get a littler support, he didn't even reply . I have waited at least 2-3 weeks but no response.

If you are on a business, you have to accept customer complaints, you can't just ignore.

I guess we will have to continue waiting for a good gallery. This one is NOT it.

If you want to give your Comunity site users something to talk about, this component is simply the best, I have been working for 8 years in comunity sites and this component just has everything to make your users share their pictures easily.

Realy nice job with this component Mike, and looking forward for more components.

Please note, the above review of Simgallery does not reflect the software or quality of service.

The webhosting provider was unavailable for 10 hours due to a Large Ddos attack on the network. This has been rectified now and security measures have been put in place to stop this issue from happening again.

We hope you enjoy this joomla extension.

I just purchased this component and the first time my customer tried to use it, they couldn't. The reason is this product communicates with the IONO licensing server (which I suspected) and if the authors site is down (which it is right now), your gallery is offline.

Until this licensing server tie-in is removed, this product has a lot of risks for production servers. I know this author is fearful his software is going to be compromised but, putting legitimate customers site at risk of not working is a poor business decision. I would look at another solution if this is unacceptable to you.

I will have to start looking for another solution again and that's too bad since this plugin integrates so well with CB and has some good modules. Another upside to this product is the uploader, which is first class! I will also check on refunds.

What led me to figure this out is my customers site started getting the dreaded IE7 Cannot open site XXX errors. When I went into the component in the admin, I thought it was a corrupted key.php error so I deleted the key.php from the server as the instructions on the site says to do.

"Everytime you update your license key, or update your domain/IP, you may have to delete the key.php file to continue. key.php located in /components/com_simgallery/"

This is what I did and not I get the error:
SIMGallery License Error: Unable to communicate with iono (i.e. http://www.ionolicensing.com/). I verified this by digging into the server logs.

As of this writing, the authors server is still offline and so is my customers gallery.