Integrating Coppermine with a complex website ...

[Hirsch]

Greetings --

I am about to start working with our web administrator for a non-profit organization to add Coppermine and photo galleries to an existing website.

This website has been around for awhile, and photos have been manually managed by myself for all of that time, and I felt it was time to make it easier for folk to contribute photos. I have a couple of questions that I didn't see answers to in digging into the docs and the FAQs, so thought I'd try asking them here:

• Can I set up a link for an event (our organization holds many individual events a year, sometimes multiples on a weekend, in different places, and I have individual web pages for these events) on a "standard" website page, where I specify the name of the gallery to be created (if it doesn't exist), so when someone clicks the link, it passes the gallery name to Coppermine, so that the gallery is created at that time (or if it exists, the user can add photos to it)?
• On a similar note, if a gallery exists, can another user add photos to it?
• Once I have various galleries, in an ideal world, I would like to be able to create links to specific galleries for both a "What's New" page, and also for the individual event pages mentioned above.
• I assume that Coppermine can be set up so that galleries (and if needed, individual photos) can be deleted by the administrator, and that Coppermine can require admin approval for a gallery to be "live" (viewable by others)?

Thanks in advance for answers and help with these questions. I realize some of this may not be possible, I am hoping ...

Hirsch/Ken

[phill104]

If I understand what you are asking correctly then yes, it can all be done. All the information can be found in the docs as to how, or it can be found in the forums if you search.

[Hirsch]

Thanks for the rather curt response. I have looked through the documentation, and I have tried searching the forums, and cannot find any information that describes what I am looking for items 1 and 3 in my original question:

1. Can I set up a link for an event (our organization holds many individual events a year, sometimes multiples on a weekend, in different places, and I have individual web pages for these events) on a "standard" website page, where I specify the name of the gallery to be created (if it doesn't exist), so when someone clicks the link, it passes the gallery name to Coppermine, so that the gallery is created at that time (or if it exists, the user can add photos to it)?

3. Once I have various galleries, in an ideal world, I would like to be able to create links to specific galleries for both a "What's New" page, and also for the individual event pages mentioned above.

If someone can even just point me to where these are covered, I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance ...

[sharpo]

To answer question 3:-

I link to my gallery from my blog each time new photos are added. Once an album is created in the gallery, copy the url for that album and use it as a link.

http://www.sharpos-world.co.uk/blog/

The above is the link to the blog, every posting has a "link to photos" which will take you to the appropriate album in the gallery.

If I understand your question 1 correctly, you would have to set up the gallery (or maybe you mean album?) first, before you can link to it.

Not an expert, just a user. Hope the answer helps.

[Hirsch]

Sharpo --

Thanks. The difficulty is that I am trying to set things up so I have a bit of control over how things are done. We're talking about a site where potentially 20 or 30 people might have photos for a single event. I'd rather not have 20 or 30 different galleries, it makes more sense to have just one. That's the point of the first item. The links are also to make it easier to go straight to a gallery. I don't have a lot of galleries just yet (am not converting the many thousands of photos already set up to galleries at this time), I only have one, so it's hard to see exactly what I need.

Ken

[sharpo]

Are you confusing galleries & albums?

You only need 1 gallery, but within that gallery will be as many albums as you want.

I'm not an expert on multi user galleries, but did set up one with about 6 users. Each user uploaded their photos to their individual gallery section, then allocated appropriate keywords to their images - which would then be linked to albums which I had already set up in advance. I would obviously tell people what the keyword would be for any albums I had set.

[Hirsch]

Well, I will admit to being new to the software, and while it is possible I am confusing terms, the basic idea is that for each event I would like to create a link to create/add to a specific gallery (or album), with a link that uses standard HTML/CGI/whatever to pass information, such as:

href="../Coppermine/AddAnAlbum.php"?AlbumName="2012_JuneCrown"&Category="Events"

Or something along those lines. That way the users are not creating albums willy-nilly with bizarre names and ...

Then I would like to be able to link to those directly, rather than pointing folk at the index page with all the albumns ...

Ken

[phill104]

Thanks for the rather curt response.

Was there really any need for that comment? Being polite gets you a long way on here but being rude just mees supporters are more reluctant to help. My response was short mainly because it was typed on a crappy mobile phone. However, then information was correct in that everything you are wanting can be done and is detailed in the extensive docs or on the forums. Setup a gallery then ask and you may get more concise advice.

I also suggest you read the forum rules. There are quite a few such as being polit, one question per thread etc. We insist on these because we are a small team and following multiple questions on one thread makes it very hard for us. We are here to help as volunteers in our spare time so really appreciate as much help from users as we can.

[Hirsch]

My apologies for being rude, but it sure felt like you were being rude to me in the first place. I have spent many years supporting software as a volunteer (since the early 90s), and feel that it doesn't take that much effort to at least point someone in the right direction, even if the question has been answered in the forums.

I have indeed tried to find my answers in the documentation and in the forums. I have not come up with what I needed. This is why I came here.

[phill104]

We do have some strict rules here I must admit. Reading those rules when you sign up is important. The one question per thread one especially so. We are here to help but please help us by doing as requested. As previously stated one of the big reasons I did not post direct links was because I was uing a mobile phone to try and help you.

I will lock this thread, please try and find your answers or at the very least install a copy of the gallery and try to find the features you are after. Once you have your gallery installed please create new threads with your individual questions (as you have already started to do).