cpg1.5.1 alpha: how to become a tester

[Joachim Müller]

Recently, a first release of the cpg1.5.x series has been packaged: cpg1.5.1 has been released to a closed group of privileged users here on this forum.

No support
The cpg1.5.x series is currently still in alpha stage (not ready for production use at all) and goes completely, utterly unsupported (that's why there is no button on the cpg1.5.x support board that enables you to start a new thread - only the support forum has been created in advance to have a structure to refer to from within the documentation). Unsupported means: you're not allowed to ask a question about cpg1.5.x at all.
You wouldn't want to use cpg1.5.x on a production site, as many unexpected things may happen when using alpha software. We understand that there will be users who always want the latest and greatest version of an application, but you have to understand that we can not encourage you to use cpg1.5.x at this stage.

Testers wanted
This being said, we're looking for people who are ready to test cpg1.5.x thoroughly and report potential bugs in the application. This test is suppossed to take place on your testbed, which can be a local machine as well as a webhosted platform. As suggested above, you won't get any support for this, i.e. we will not help you how to set the testbed up in the first place. To become a tester, you need to be ready to do some reading first (as there is a lot of documentation that is mandatory to read) and you should have good computer skills, preferably coupled with a lot of experience with Coppermine.
Therefore, this thread exists where you can apply to become a tester - you need to reply to this thread and tell us why you should be promoted to become a member of the tester group. But wait, don't click on the "reply"-button yet: please read first what you should post in your request:
Do not just post silly things like "please let me become a tester, I want it badly". The amount of the letter "E" in the word "please" doesn't matter neither. Instead, we want to hear about your qualification: what will make you a good tester? Illustrate your request with data to back up your posting: it helps to prove that you're experienced in setting up and maintaining coppermine-driven galleries, so it's a good idea to post links to the galleries you maintain (remember to post a warning with the link if they are not safe for work). A method to make dead sure that you will not be picked as a tester is if you are running an outdated version of Coppermine on your webspace and you're posting a link to it on this thread. Another not-so-bright idea would be posting a link to a gallery with a custom theme that is totally invalid in terms of HTML or CSS well-formedness and validity.
As there currently are very few translations of the documentation available you will need appropriate language skills in English as well, so please back up your request by writing in plain English. You don't need to post a thesis with thousands of words, but we'd certainly here you talk about yourself and your skills as well as your testbed: it might be a good idea to prove your skills to post a test report by posting some details as suggested in the testing docs.

Things that you should not do
Replies to this thread with flames or support requests will result in the posting getting deleted and your account will be banned instantly without further notifications.

How to find out if I have been picked as tester?
There will be no notification - just take a look at at your profile summary at the left side of your posting: if your status changes to a group with green, red, purple or orange squares underneath the group names. It doesn't make sense to bump your request - if you're not acknowledged as a tester, there will be no posting or message that says that your request was turned down. Please don't turn this thread into an argument: we'll delete all postings that have that kind of confrontational character.
After having been picked as a tester you can go to the actual announcement thread for cpg1.5.1 alpha for details and to find the download link.

Why do you release an alpha version only for a closed group? Isn't that against the principles of open source?
No, it's not against those principles: everybody is welcome to perform a SVN checkout to get the source code of cpg1.5.x, so we're not keeping you from getting your copy of cpg1.5.x even if your request for membership in the tester group should be turned down. It's our decision who we're giving support to and for what level of development that support is given. Please do not argue about that: don't lecture us about our policies unless you're Richard Stallman or Linus Torvalds.

Joachim Müller
- project manager Coppermine Photo Gallery -

[Joe Carver]

I would be happy to be considered as a cpg1.5.1 alpha tester based on the following.

- Maintaining 2 public Coppermine installations
  - http://i-imagine.net/artists/index.php
  - http://gallery.josephcarver.com/natural/
   

- Although I am not an experienced programmer my skills include:
 - observation and perception
 - patience for experimentation and failure
 - an ability to make errors/mistakes not normally seen and being able to repeat and confirm conditions

- Experience testing machine control software (alpha, beta) in a manufacturing/business environment

- Proven track record as a contributor and as a "non-needy" poster to the support forum

Best Regards
Joe Carver  aka 'i-imagine'

[Joachim Müller]

It's not necessary to ask for membership of the tester group in your case, as you already have the needed privileges. You already have those little green squares underneath the group name, see? And you can click on the announcement thread link from above and actually see the announcement thread.

[Gene-2008]

I'd like to become an alpha test. I have been running a Coppermine based site for maybe two years.

I have created my own theme and contributed it to the forum...igames_widescreen.

I have created scripts to realtime create albums from Coppermine albums for viewing with SimpleViewer and AutoViewer.

I understand HTML, php and MySql.

I have my own server that's running Fedora, Apache, Php and Mysql. I can create private development sites that I can run 1.5.1 on that will not be production.
Note it is offline the week of 7/24-8/1.

One of my sites is http://photo-server.genefyoung.com.

I have been looking for a good way to contribute to the forum via maybe creating some kind of pluggin but haven't come up with anything interesting so maybe doing some alpha testing would allow me to contribute.

Gene

[ninjai]

Hello!
Use CPG to 5 years, I do have some experience with the system so I offer
to perform the tests in one of my servers.

Some of the galleries:

www.clickitatiba.com.br/fotos  ( 5 years on line )

www.clickmorungaba.com.br/galeria  ( 4 years on line )

www.itatibaec.com.br/galeria  (4 years on line )

www.clickmorungaba.com.br/cpg1-5-alfa  (Only for testing)

Not usually participate much of the forum, because I alone solving problems that arise. If I accept collaboration
be the entire provision. (Sorry for English, im a Brazilian)

[Joachim Müller]

@Gene: the same answer I posted as a reply to i-imagine's posting applies for you as well: you already are in a privileged group and you already can access the resources needed, so you don't have to apply for membership in the tester group.

@all who are in a privileged group already: please don't clutter this thread with your requests. Try wether you can access the announcement thread for cpg1.5.1 alpha. If you can, there's no need to reply to this thread. Only reply if you can't access that posting.

@ninjai: you're a nice example for the group of people who will definitely not be chosen as testers

A method to make dead sure that you will not be picked as a tester is if you are running an outdated version of Coppermine on your webspace and you're posting a link to it on this thread. Another not-so-bright idea would be posting a link to a gallery with a custom theme that is totally invalid in terms of HTML or CSS well-formedness and validity.

Posting a link to a cpg1.3.3-driven gallery (itatibaec) and reference to pages that make the W3C validator nearly explode is in my eyes rather a parody of an invalid posting, so I'm giving you 10 points for comedy, but zero for validity.

@others: don't be afraid to post - I am not keen to comment on everybody's reply here and I certainly won't. Let's see serious testing candidates. We don't need Superman. A regular gallery that works as expected, i.e. one that shows you're capable to maintain your site is all it needs.

Joachim

[brr]

Hello.

Maybe I could become a tester? I am not a programmer, but I like to test new products and solutions. I like to hunt for bugs and errors.

My gallery: http://web.brr.no/cpg-galleri/

(Standard installation, version 1.4.25, without any code changes, theme Water drop without modifications as standard theme, installed plugins: Light Box v1.2 and BrainFeeder RSS.)

My 1.5.1 alpha test gallery: http://web.brr.no/cpg15x/

I run my galleries at my home computer. I use Vista as OS and XAMPP (latest stable version) as WAMP - solution. I have done the installation and configuration of XAMMP and Coppermine myself without help.

Maybe I also can participate in translating from English to Norwegian (bokmål).

Bjørn Roger Rasmussen, Norway - http://www.brr.no/

[imasonaz]

I would love to help. I have lots of networking experience, *nix, BSD, Windows server, and a VB, java, HTML, and PHP understanding. I enjoy using coppermine as an easy alternative to a full opensource forum, and find that coppermine is easy to setup, use, and maintain. I would really enjoy playing around with a beta version of this gallery.

Currently, I maintain http://paulmasonphoto.net (1.4.19 A little out of date, I know, but I am about to archive all of the pictures before I do an update, and I'm fighting spam bots here, give me a break!)


Hope I can be of assistance!

[jmcurtusan]

I would like to test this new Coppermine gallery 1.5.x.  on the account of the following:

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science: Computer Information Systems:  March 2010                     
Concentration: Database Management            
DeVry University- Federal Way, WA

Associate of Applied Science: Computer Maintenance Technology: December 2003
Texas State Technical College-Waco, Texas

C-TECH Certified Network Cabling Specialist: August 2003
            
   
SKILLS

Software: DOS; Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, ME; Office 97, 2000, 2003, 2007; MS Project; Visual Studios 2005 / 2008; MS SQL 2005; Oracle; MySQL

Hardware: Setup; Install; Maintain; Troubleshoot; Repair

Networking: Cat-3; Cat-5; Cat-6; Coax RG6; Coax RG6 Quad; Distribution Block; Routers / Switches; Wireless

Programming Languages: C++; C#; PHP; ASP.NET; XHTML; Java; SQL

[Fabricio Ferrero]

@imasonaz: The people who is aiming this thread would read it before reply. This say it all.

[imasonaz]

@imasonaz: The people who is aiming this thread would read it before reply. This say it all.

What? If you are talking about my coppermine version being 1.4.19? I completely read the original post if that is what you are suggesting. I am not completely sure what you mean. Could you please explain what you are saying?

[Αndré]

If you are talking about my coppermine version being 1.4.19?

A method to make dead sure that you will not be picked as a tester is if you are running an outdated version of Coppermine on your webspace and you're posting a link to it on this thread.

Coppermine 1.4.20 was released on 2009-02-04 (almost 6 months ago!).

[thischick]

I would love to become a beta tester. I know I have never posted here before ( I follow the rules and search so I have never needed to post for help because I always find what I am looking for in the search )

My first language is English.
I have been using coppermine for about 5 years, here are some examples of my work with coppermine.

http://heart-miley.com/gallery
http://britneyspearsmedia.com/gallery/
http://ashley-fans.org/gallery/
http://gallery.kimkardashianfans.com/

All galleries are using version 1.4.23, I always keep my galleries up to date.

I also have coppermine installed on my local machine. I have a lot of experience with CSS (advanced), HTML and PHP.

[kxp]

Hi!

I'd like to become a tester. I know I haven't been very active on the board but I've managed to solve my problems by fixing them myself or searching the board. I started to use coppermine about 3 or 4 years ago. English is my second language but I have no problems in expressing myself or urderstanding others.

I'm experienced in hunting down bugs and giving adequate information on them. I've worked a lot with HTML and CSS. Also I have experimented with PHP and MySQL for some time now.

http://galerii.blue.pri.ee/

And yes, I'm actually running a CPG 1.5.x build I got from the CPG trunk. I usually update it once a week. The reason for using an alpha release was a trial to resolve an anomaly where my usergroups table often got flushed.

[ninjai]

@ninjai: you're a nice example for the group of people who will definitely not be chosen as testersPosting a link to a cpg1.3.3-driven gallery (itatibaec) and reference to pages that make the W3C validator nearly explode is in my eyes rather a parody of an invalid posting, so I'm giving you 10 points for comedy, but zero for validity.

Joachim

Humiliation ... but at least I tried, I can die in peace.
[]'s Ninjai

[ballermann09]

Ich wäre auch gerne Alphatester ;-)

Meine Projekte: fotos.airfans.de , www.event-fotos-online.de  und www.rhein-sieg-galerie.de

Gruß

Bodo

[Αndré]

Ich wäre auch gerne Alphatester ;-)

Meine Projekte: fotos.airfans.de , www.event-fotos-online.de  und www.rhein-sieg-galerie.de

Gruß

Bodo

As you replied in German, I think your English isn't sufficient to read the English docs and report bugs in English.

Note: The main language in this board is English. You mustn't speak other languages, expect in the language specific boards.

[ballermann09]

I would be an Alpha Tester, too ;-)

My projects are foto.airfans.de , www.rehin-sieg-galerie.de und www.event-fotos-online.de .


Regards

Bodo

[François Keller]

hum, the first two link's are dead 

[Αndré]

Typos. Here are the actual links:

fotos.airfans.de
www.event-fotos-online.de
www.rhein-sieg-galerie.de