Joomla Image Gallery

[_Bat_]

Are there any recommends? I have been searching all weekend for an image gallery which does the job and actually works.

 

The best looking and feature rich one seemed to be 'zoom'... yet i've had nightmares getting this darn thing to work. No matter what I do, I cannot upload pictures... it keeps freezing. I've tried some older versions but came across different bugs trying to do the same thing. Makes me wonder why the thing was released with such major bugs.

 

So.. I need help you joomla experts. Which one do I choose that works? Most of all I just want a basic image gallery that has as little bugs as possible, but any cool features (I liked the 'zoom' feature on the zoom gallery) would be appreciated (as the kids love stuff like that).

 

Cheers.

[MkII]

I put Gallery2 on my Joomla install after researching the options - works realy well - fully integrates (components and modules) and authenticates users beween the two systems.

 

Not as comprehensive as Coppermine but for what I wanted - perfect. Install is very easy, not worth looking at the minor galleries IMHO.

[webman]

I recommend Gallery2 as well, it's feature set and community is quite impressive, and with a little work you can integrate it into just about anything.

[_Bat_]

I tried this. Every time I try and upload I get:

 

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

 

Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

 

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

 

(I feel like yelling "I am the server administrator but I STILL don't know what the problem is!")

 

I will try an earlier version and see if that makes any difference. I'm guessing it won't.

[webman]

Have you checked the apache error logs?

[_Bat_]

Nope - but with any luck I have found a version that works. So i'll have a mess around with gallery2 and see what happens. It's a terrible shame that the 'zoom' gallery had so many bugs, it has great potential.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

[_Bat_]

Have you checked the apache error logs?

 

Okay I had a mess around with the gallery yesterday and it seems it still doesn't work. The first pic uploaded and processed fine, but anything afterwards came up with said error. The pics actually appear to upload (they are in the upload folder) but just don't process afterwards. This is thr trouble I was having with zoom gallery. Very occasionally it actually works though.

 

I suspect looking at the apache error logs may be a way forward. Do you know how to do this? I cannot seem to find them anywhere. Bearing in mind that this is not our server.

 

I may contact the provider (plugsocket) if necessary.

[Geoff]

Apache logs live in:

 

/var/log/apache2/sitename-errors.log

 

here. Should be something similar.

[_Bat_]

Apache logs live in:

 

/var/log/apache2/sitename-errors.log

 

here. Should be something similar.

 

The closest I get is var/log/httpd/

[_Bat_]

I e-mailed the host and they increased the default memory allocation from 8mb to 16mb. Now smaller images get through but larger ones (200-300kb) come up with an error such as the following: "Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 16777216 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 600 bytes) in /var/www/html/components/com_zoom/lib/toolbox.class.php on line 622".

 

Am I expecting too much for them to increase it again? I get the impression that most people cope with 8mb.

[Geoff]

Our VLE (Moodle) runs with 64mb. They may ask you to move on to a more featureful/expensive hosting package. Or they may just say no.

[_Bat_]

We actually have a package with them that allows for five websites (but only use two of them). I'm not sure whether the default memory allocation applies for all five or just per website but if it is per website I may ask them to double it and remove one or two allowances for websites.

 

We only bought the five website package deal because it was cheaper then having two separate one site packages.

[Geoff]

Also check cPanel (or whatever the hosts site control panel software is) you can sometimes alter PHP settings yourself.

[Guest]

_Bat_ have you tried shutting down the "Read EXIF-data" function in zoom?

[Geoff]

Wikipedia to the rescue.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXIF

[Guest]

Glad to help

[mungo2k]

I tried Gallery2 in the past, but it seemed to hog the resources of the server too much so I abandoned it.

 

I'm using qDig at the moment which is simple, but I've had to set up a website for another school and I could do with a system that was easier for non-techy people to quickly upload new pictures.

 

The Zoom gallery looks interesting, but does it have to run on Joomla?

 

Any other suggestions? I tried Coppermine too but I don't think it was any good for easy uplaoding either. Maybe I should just set up a Flickr account for the school!

[Guest]

Take alook at

 

http://support.phanfare.com/doc/Phanfare_Schools_Program

 

Use it for my own online ablum. Awsome online Gallery software.

[_Bat_]

Zoom gallery doesn't have to run on joomla from what I remember reading, it is actually based on another separate project, though I can't remember where I got that information from.

 

The zoom gallery has some bugs. The zoom (obviously the feature they are most proud of) doesn't work correctly in IE7 and there are some minor problems such as if I rotate an image clockwise, it rotates it anti clockwise for some strange reason (and vice versa).

 

I haven't really tried any other galleries, so can't recommend any others. I just use zoom gallery because i'm used to it now.

[mungo2k]

Thanks, I'll give Phanfare a go.

 

I recommend qDig to anyone who is managing the gallery themselves, as all you have to do is upload your files via FTP and it auto-creates thumbnails etc. It's very easy to install, and can integrate into your website easily enough. It's free too.

 

The only reason I'm looking at other solutions is so that I don't have to give FTP access to members of staff.

[GeeDee]

gallery2 should be the only choice really. It's brilliant software. Not only does it integrate with a lot of CMSs 'out of the box' (and has a world of docs for integrating with it something yourself) but it's the best gallery i've seen that "just works".

 

Can literally throw a zip file of 3000 images at if if you want and it'll extract, create thumbnails, create midsize version, add to a gallery. You can then edit, comment, rename, rotate (although it'll auto rotate if the camera supplied the appropiate exif data) and you can set as granular permissions as you want on the gallery, albums (,photos, comments).

 

There's also various plugins that integrate into a Windows shell for quick n easy publishing without even needing to open a web browser if you want.

 

[mungo2k]

gallery2 killed my website though, so it didn't "just work" for me!

 

i think it just put too much demand on my web server (a supanames package).

[_Bat_]

I didn't actually ever try gallery2... not sure why. I think I prefer zoom gallery for my site though as it is a primary school site and the kids love the zoom feature. I don't think many people use IE7 yet, so the bugs in it can wait for a later version I guess.

 

Their support forum is terrible... most bug reports never get replied to. General questions of how to do things (a few of them I wanted to do myself such a where the PHP include code is for the navigation as I wanted to remove it) didn't get replied to either. It's not an unpopular gallery though.