How to get started? [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

thaths

26th of October 2003 (Sun), 14:20

Hi,

I saw the various demos of Exhibit Engine and liked all the features. I think this is exactly what I am looking for. I downloaded 1.5b4 (with fix 1) from the beta page. Unzipped as directory 'photos' under my DocRoot just fine. Run install.php and it works fine. My DocRoot is /foo/. EE is installed under /foo/photos/

Now I am just confused. I don't know how to proceed.

Under graphics module I can see Imagemagick as being active.

What should I set up under FTP server settings? I presume I set up a directory where uploaded images will get stored, correct? What is the difference between FTP servers and EE Home FTP server?

What should I do under path setup? I set this up as the directory where the photos of my first exhibition (and their generated thumbs and minithumbs) will be saved.

When I go through the workflow for uploading photos into an exhibit I see the following happening:

1. Files get uploaded OK to input/UPLOAD. (Step 1)
2. When I select one or more files in Step 2 and select a destination in Step 3, and an Exhibition in Step 4 and click 'Upload', the files don't get transferred from input/UPLOAD to the apropriate place. I also assumed that this is where the thumb and minithumb get created. That doesn't happen either.

Any help?

Thanks.

Thaths

Pekka

26th of October 2003 (Sun), 15:24

thaths wrote:
Hi,

I saw the various demos of Exhibit Engine and liked all the features. I think this is exactly what I am looking for. I downloaded 1.5b4 (with fix 1) from the beta page. Unzipped as directory 'photos' under my DocRoot just fine. Run install.php and it works fine. My DocRoot is /foo/. EE is installed under /foo/photos/

Now I am just confused. I don't know how to proceed.

Sorry for having such scattered documentation...

Under graphics module I can see Imagemagick as being active.

Do the graphics module test and check if it works. It being "active" means that test is "approved to work" by user, nothing more.

What should I set up under FTP server settings? I presume I set up a directory where uploaded images will get stored, correct?

Yes. But remember that you do not need to create directories - EE will do them during upload.

What is the difference between FTP servers and EE Home FTP server?

Explained in http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18783

What should I do under path setup? I set this up as the directory where the photos of my first exhibition (and their generated thumbs and minithumbs) will be saved.

EE works from ground up.

Below is the order of setting up: after these steps are ok you can concentrate on using EE (no need to set them up daily).

Step 1.
You must have a working ftp server. If ftp server test does not work neither will upload. Ftp paths are set up and tested in ftp server editor and explained in http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18783

Step 2.
You must have working resize methods. This involves doing graphics engine tests and marking them ok, if you have imagemagick installed there are two paths and one profile setting to be set before it (and test) will work. Resizemethods (and upload) will not work if you do not have GD or IM in working condition.

Step 3.
Create and test resizemethods. Resizemethods use graphics engines. Paths use resizemethods. So, after resizemethods for the graphics engine you have activated work ok, go to next step:

Step 4.
Create paths. Size paths hold the big sizes, thumb path thumbs and microthumb path microthumbs. EE will create paths on upload if they do not exists.

- MENU TEXT this is what visitors see when they choose different sizes. Use something descriptive. This setting is multilingual.
- URL www address to your image size folder. Like http://www.myserver.com/mygallery/images/large/ . Trailing slash is required. This address is simply a http address to the ftp path (below).
- VARIABLE this is a short name for PHP to know what size we are talking about, this is editable only because variable default has a special meaning for EE
- FTP SERVER here you select ftp server where this size path is stored. OFF means that this size is not listed in automated upload system.
- FTP FOLDER here you enter ftp path to folder which holds images of this size. When you log into this ftp server using standard ftp program, the first level you are in after login is called 'ftp root'. Ftp root is in other words the home directory in your ftp account. FTP FOLDER is a path from that ftp root to folder which holds images for this size. NOTE: This path does NOT have a trailing slash. If you are unsure what this path is, you can use any ftp program to log in, browse to this folder and give command 'pwd' which outputs the current 'working directory': this is the path you need to enter here.
- RESIZE METHOD here you choose a method to resize for this path.

Step 5.
Set up exhibition. An exhibition has one "fixed" thumb path and one "fixed" microthumb path. They take the settings from path editor, and so the whole thing needs working ftp server which is assigned to those paths and working resizemethods which are assigned to those paths and working ftp path which is assigned to those paths.

That is the basic setup. Now you are ready to use upload page. After above is set you have no need to touch those settings again, only when adding new exhibitions or adding new resize methods to new exhibitions.

When I go through the workflow for uploading photos into an exhibit I see the following happening:

1. Files get uploaded OK to input/UPLOAD. (Step 1)

Good. This is done with http and only setup you need is to make INPUT folder "777".

2. When I select one or more files in Step 2 and select a destination in Step 3, and an Exhibition in Step 4 and click 'Upload', the files don't get transferred from input/UPLOAD to the apropriate place. I also assumed that this is where the thumb and minithumb get created. That doesn't happen either.

This is because above setting up is not complete and functional.

Hope this helps.