Use of folders in Albums directory following upgrade to 1.4.3

[gmc]

Splitting out from post http://forum.coppermine-gallery.net/index.php?topic=27508.0
as this appears to be a different issue...

From my original post:
Then I tried to batch add new photos...
First it would not allow me to batch add from the albums/pictures directory - where all my photos where placed in the past (subdirectories there).  I now see a note not to ftp to that directory - so created a new folder under albums... and uploaded there...

and from Joachim's reply:
P.S. You were never meant to FTP-upload into the userpics folder, in no coppermine version ever. We're just enforcing this policy by hiding the userpics folder when batch-adding

After further review of the doc - I do see the restriction listed to not FTP to USERPICS and EDIT... but not for PICTURES - which is what I was using...  The Batch Add dialog still lets me select USERPICS - it does not display or allow PICTURES to be selected....
Where is the restriction on PICTURES folder documented?  or is this an unexpected 'feature'?

[Joachim Müller]

Post a deep link to a file that resides in the "pictures" folder.

[gmc]

Not sure what you mean by a 'deep link'

A link to one of the photos via cpg is:    http://gallery.gmcdesign.com/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=20
and direct link to file showing path is:     http://gallery.gmcdesign.com/albums/pictures/animals/tiger.jpg
From cpg database:
"SELECT * FROM `gmc_cpg_pictures`WHERE `filename` = 'tiger.jpg';" :
  pid   aid       filepath          filename     filesize   
   20     5  pictures/animals/  tiger.jpg   101264     

When going through batch add - with browsable interface either ON or OFF - the 'pictures' directory and all subdirectories are not visible.

Let me know if you need something different...
Greg

[Joachim Müller]

OK, this is indeed strange. Have you modified the config settings for "The directory for user files"?

[gmc]

hmmmm... I didn't think so - but I did that install almost 2 years ago...
Looks like 2 of my 3 galleries (including this one) do have the config altered to put user pictures in /pictures...
So that would explain what I am seeing...

That field is also listed in config as "don't change once pictures are in album"...
Since I do NOT have any true user pictures (except for one testing pic for another open issue that I can delete...), can that setting be changed??  I am hoping the impact would be inability to find previously loaded user pictures - which is ok in this case...
But don't know if there will be any 'side effects'...

Thanks!
Greg

[gmc]

I created a test copy of my cpg setup - and tried changing this setting... It appears to have worked - as I can now see the pictures/ directory and not the userpics/... Again I had NO userpics in my gallery...
Please confirm if you feel this is an acceptable change to make in my live copy...
Thanks!
Greg

[Joachim Müller]

if you change it, you'll lose all existing pics in your gallery...

[gmc]

Well... that is obviously not true...  if you read my post - I did make the change on a test copy - and it appears to work fine - allowing all pics to be vieed and new pics to be batch added from the pictures/ directory that was previously designated as the home of user pictures...

I did say I have NO user pictures in the gallery - I expect those would be the ones lost...  All pics are uploaded by admin and batch added to albums.   (and I'd expect even userpics could be restored with some well placed SQL to update the picture locations...)

I was inquiring about other "side effects" or areas I should test... since I don't see anyway to easily move the existing pictures to a new folder name...

Greg

[Joachim Müller]

ok, I should have chosen my wording more carefully: the userpics folder (or whatever you renamed it to) doesn't necessarily hold pics uploaded by users only, but all uploads done by the http uploads method (made by admin or "regular" users) - using the "upload files" link from the coppermine menu. If you have uploaded only using FTP-upload plus batch-add in the past, then it's save to rename the userpics folder. If you have uploaded pics using the http upload method in the past, changing the userpics folder's location will break things.
If you have tested thoroughly, I guess it's save to rename.

[gmc]

Thank you for the explanation!  Based on that information (I have never done http based uploads), and my testing - I made the change to the config to point it back to userpics in my 'live' gallery - and all looks good...
You can mark this one as solved too!  ;-)

Greg