 | What is phpview ?
-----------------
Phpview is a php frontend to display conveniently a directory tree full
of
photos.
It currently only support jpeg display.
phpview is a fairly young software that provides already enough for my
needs
and is working well. But it can't be considered mature software. It must
be much more tested in different situation to gain stability.
Why do people want to use phpview ?
-----------------------------------
People often want to share via web pages their photos. Professional
shots,
familly album, your last holiday's photos, or your collection of
tolkien's
related arts... You've got the pictures, but don't have the time nor the
desire to create, AND update a HTML web site. PHPview manage dynamically
your
HTML frontend, and take care of huge work of creating thumbnails,
resizing
pictures without any configuration (except the installation part).
You'll need to have a linux-like http/php server with ImageMagick
installed,
and rights to compile a binary, and a http/php server.
What can phpview do ?
---------------------
Phpview will handle in an efficient way your picture gallery, by :
- creating thumbnails on demand.
- creating lower resolution pictures on the fly (= quicker to download).
- generating optional comments, stats, using easy file format.
- displaying gallery in a customizable fashion.
- subdirectories are shown as sub-galleries.
- displaying additionals comments you'll have written easily.
The main idea when phpview was written is that it only need to know
where is your picture's directory. You do not need to copy pictures and
maintain additionnal directories full of picture.
How phpview work ?
------------------
Phpview uses a special caching filesystem, which handles files by their
md5 checksum. This ensure that a thumbnail or a resized version of a
picture isn't produced twice even if picture is renamed of moved across
the gallery directory structure.
Phpview use ImageMagick C++ library and the command line "convert" from
ImageMagick to generate thumbnail and resized pictures which ensures
maximum speed for these operations.
HTML output uses CSS massively to ensure a customizable display. While
this
doesn't give you all latitude, it is quite open.
What are the Requirement for phpview to work ?
----------------------------------------------
Well, Phpview was only tested on Linux/Apache/Php with ImageMagick. It
should
work with any UNIX like systems with a http server supporting PHP, and a
fresh install of ImageMagick package.
PHP must have GD built in (--with-gd). (well, this requirement is worked
out
from phpview in 0.0.3+ ... but it may be some code relying on it... if
yes
mail me please !). So YOU SHOULDN'T NEED lib GD anymore in your PHP
install, if
you are using phpview version 0.0.3 or higher.
The requirement for ImageMagick could be removed in next versions...
This will normally make phpview work with only a http server and PHP
install.
If you have succeeded installing phpview, please let me know to update
these
documentations.
YOU'LL REQUIRE AUTOMAKE, AUTOCONF, AUTOTOOLS the most recent version.
Otherwise it'll fail to install !! (well it fails on my Ubuntu dapper)
How do I contribute ?
---------------------
You can download the latest-package code and begin coding. Please send me
your
modifications so I can merge them to the official code.
Phpview source code is on a subversion server which isn't publicly
available
for now.
How do I install this package ?
-------------------------------
There are 2 phases : install the source. And configure a gallery.
You must install the source before configuring any gallery.
Note : You can configure as many galleries as you want once you've
installed
the source.
Ok, so How do I install sources ?
---------------------------------
Download the source package. The file name should end with "tar.gz" or
"tar.bz2".
Unarchive the package accordingly to extension.
Then in package directory :
# ./configure --with-tmp-web=/home/robert/www/tmp/phpview \
--with-tmp-web-url=/~robert/tmp/phpview
Note : In version 0.0.2, you MUST specify the two options --with-tmp-web
AND
--with-tmp-path. It'll autoconfigure and set up directories for you.
Note : You might want to add a --prefix=/path/to/pkg to install files
in "/path/to/pkg". Or whatever "--option" you want (See INSTALL for more
info on 'configure' script)
then type :
# make
This will compile the C library, and generate php files.
Once this is done, you can run :
# make install
This will install files in proper directory. Set default values in
configuration files, and set up file permissions.
Note : you need to have write permissions to where you wanted to install
the sources. (location to install sources is changed with '--prefix'
while
in configure stage : see INSTALL for more information on GNU installation
process).
Ok, and now that I've installed the source,
How do I configure a gallery ?
------------------------------
You must copy some starting files in a browsable directory. By
"browsable", we
mean that this directory must be accessible via a browser. You might have
to look at your http server config to know were is your web directory.
You must choose a location within the browsable directory to copy the
starting
files. You might want to create a fresh directory.
Where are the starting files ? the default files are located in
"/usr/local/share/phpview/samples" (or "${prefix}/share/phpview/sample"
if you have installed the package with the '--prefix' options)
You must copy *ALL* the files located in this directory to your web
browsable
directory of your choice. So you could use for example :
# mkdir -p /home/robert/www/photos
# cp /usr/local/share/phpview/samples/* /home/robert/www/photos
Once this is done, you can edit "config.inc" which is with the file
you've
juste copied in. Read description of options in the file. This is php
code,
so don't write anywhere, it should be straitforward to edit without
messing
with the code.
Once 'config.inc' is edited accordingly to your needs. Phpview should be
accessible via the web, with the URL that correspond to the directory
where
you have copied the files.
If you have any problem installing this software, please mail to
<vaab@free.fr>. I can help you, and I need to know what's going
wrong for you,
to correct in next versions.
Just in case, where are the important config files ?
----------------------------------------------------
There's only 2 config files. The gallery one is the "config.inc" that you
can edit as you wish except for the "$sysconf" value.
In fact the "$sysconf" value shows the location of the second
configuration
file. Normally located in "${prefix}/share/phpview/sysconf.inc". This
file
has wider purpose, and mainly contains locations of the cache directory,
the temporary web directory (to store thumbnail pictures, or resized
pictures
you might want to access via your web browser).
If you feel confident enough, or you think your problem as a solution in
this
configuration file, you can edit it. But be aware that informations
holded
in it are computed at "make install" time, and should be correct.
Okay, all works fine, how do I comment my photos ?
--------------------------------------------------
Phpview can show cool informations with your photo and you can edit
comments
for galleries and photos.
As you don't want to touch anymore weird config files, phpview implement
a
simple way to comment your gallerie and your photos. All you have to do
is to create a file with the same name as the photo you want to add
comment,
but with the ".txt" postfix.
You can create this file with any text editor (this support DOS/Win32 and
UNIX
text files). Be aware that :
1. The first line is the new title of the picture
2. The second line is a date for the picture
3+ The remaining lines are the description lines.
Leave blank line if you do not want to edit one or the other field.
For galleries, same idea. The text file is located IN the directory. And
is
named "desc.nfo".
1. The first line is the new title of the gallery
2. The second line is a Date for the gallery
3. Third is the location (as dir/to/file.jpg) to a photo that will be
used
to make the gallery thumbnail. Gallery thumbnail are seen in parent
gallery.
4+ The remaining lines are the description lines.
Aargs, thumbs are not displayed !?
----------------------------------
If no thumb at all is displayed, then you might have a problem : PHP
complains
about it's error in the image code, and scrambles it. Most browser won't
display such an image.
If PHP complains about an error, this mean something is wrong, and to see
what
try this :
# wget <URL-of-thumb>
with <URL-of-thumb> the URL you get when viewing one image at a
time. It can
be like this :
http://www.tharbad.ath.cx/~vaab/demo/phpview/?gallery=Alsace&img=P6081352.JPG&res=low
simply append to this URL the string : "&action=thumb" to get the
<URL-of-thumb> : This is exactly how thumbs are called in phpview.
If you type this location in a browser, it might complain about the fact
that
the image is not correct or contains error (as i explained), this is why
I
use "wget" : once saved, you can :
# cat <FILE-outputed>
to see the error.
If you have problem, send me a mail !
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