Can I upload photos to a separate directory

[rvblog]

I tried searching for an answer but was not successful so I'll ask in here ...


I installed coppermine into a folder called "../photos"

Now when it comes time to upload all my photos to the server, can I upload them to a separate folder called  " ../uploads"  and then have coppermine access and process the photos right from the separate "../uploads" folder ??

Or, do the photos need to be uploaded to a folder that is inside of the main coppermine folder, ie:   "../photos/uploads"   for coppermine to be able to access them 


In other words, can my directory structure on the server look like this:

../photos
../uploads

Or does it have to be like this:

../photos/uploads

Thanks

[kegobeer]

From the documentation:

It's recommended that the coppermine admin uses ftp to upload many pics in one go. Use your ftp software to create sub-folders within your_coppermine_directory/albums/, where your ftp uploads can go to. It's a good idea to have a folder structure within the albums folder that reflects your coppermine categories and albums, but it's not mandatory.
Important: do not create folders or upload to the userpics- nor the edit-folder by ftp: these folders are used by coppermine internally and mustn't be used for any other purpose! Folder names mustn't contain dots and it's even recommended not to use any special chars - only use a-z, numbers and maybe - or _. Make sure to upload in binary or auto-mode.

So, if you want to ftp pictures to your Coppermine gallery, you must create a subdirectory in /albums and place your files there.

[rvblog]

Thanks for the quick reply ...

So you say that I "must" create a subdirectory in ../albums and place my files there - ok

The quote that you provide however, suggests that you create the sub-folders in the ../albums directory - but goes on to say that its a recommendation but that it's not mandatory - so I take it that I can have a separate ../uploads directory after all.

Now I just need to figure out how to access the photos in the separate ../uploads directory so that coppermine can process the photos from there --- Does anyone have any suggestions ?? Is there a path somewhere that has to be changed ??

Thanks

[kegobeer]

No, the quote I posted does not "say that its a recommendation but that it's not mandatory".  Let me break it down for you.

It's recommended that the coppermine admin uses ftp to upload many pics in one go.

As the admin, you should FTP your files instead of uploading them via the web interface.

Use your ftp software to create sub-folders within your_coppermine_directory/albums/, where your ftp uploads can go to.

Create your subdirectories inside /albums, like I said in my previous post.

It's a good idea to have a folder structure within the albums folder that reflects your coppermine categories and albums, but it's not mandatory.

This is where you are mistaken: it's recommended you have your directories mirror the way you have your albums laid out in Coppermine, but it isn't mandatory.  I FTP all of my files into one directory; I don't bother having multiple directories to attempt to match my album layout in Coppermine.

Important: do not create folders or upload to the userpics- nor the edit-folder by ftp: these folders are used by coppermine internally and mustn't be used for any other purpose! Folder names mustn't contain dots and it's even recommended not to use any special chars - only use a-z, numbers and maybe - or _. Make sure to upload in binary or auto-mode.

Self explanatory.

You can't put files anywhere else other than inside the /albums directory.  A search of the forums will also tell you that.

[rvblog]

I did a search but couldn't find the answer that I was looking for - but now you've made it a lot clearer - and I really appreciate your help.

Unfortunately, it's not what I wanted to hear though - I was hoping that coppermine was different than all the other gallery programs that I've checked out - but it seems that it handles files in the same way as all the others that I know of.

I would have liked the separate folder capability, like an ../uploads directory,  so that the photos that I upload are available to other applications as well - to avoid having to upload photos twice - and to avoid having to use more space on the server - but still no luck.

Maybe someone is aware of a gallery program that can access files in a directory outside of the main install directory ?? - If so. please let me know.

Thanks

[Tranz]

It's possible for you to still access the photo files from other apps. You would need to use absolute path, or relative path and account for the different path. So src="/gallery/albums/blahblah.jpg" Or whatever. It's not like coppermine hoards the files.

[Joachim Müller]

There's even another method (not recommended though): you could create a folder anywhere on your webserver where coppermine can access it (and label it "uploads") - remember to chmod as suggested in the docs. Then go to coppermine config and change "The album directory" in the section "Files and thumbnails advanced settings" to a relative path (seen from the coppermine directory) that points to your uploads directory (in your case "../uploads").

Caveats:

• once pics exist in your coppermine database, you mustn't change the setting in coppermine config
  
• cpg1.3.2 contains some bugs where the albums dir has been hard-coded (instead of respecting the above mentioned settings). You have to download all coppermine files from the stable branch of the cvs to iron out those bugs.

Again: it's not recommended to do what I was just explaining - you should always have the uploads section within your coppermine directory, preferably in the albums sub-folder. I was just pointing out that there is a workaround if you must have the uploads folder located somewhere else (theoretically at least, although I can't see no point in this).

Joachim

[rvblog]

Thanks for all the answers - I appreciate the help

This is the reason for asking about a separate ../uploads directory:

My wife and I are retired and we travel around in an RV - currently we are down south for the winter - most of the time we only have access to dial-up and that sucks - makes it hard to upload our photos (our old site had over 800 photos on it)

Because I'm new to the WordPress blogging program, I'm still trying to determine which photo gallery software I will use with WordPress on our new site

Where I agree that other applications can use absolute paths, or relative paths to access the photos in any directory, coppermine (as does all other gallery applications that i have looked at so far) does in fact "hoard the files" from other "gallery type" applications because of the need to have dedicated folders within their own install directory (subject to GauGau's work around response)

First of all, in order to use and test two gallery programs at the same time, until I decide which one is suitable for my needs, requires that I upload photos twice - because of the dedicated directory issue - I was looking to avoid that due to the problem of having to use dial-up most of the time (at least until WiFi or other similar types of technology become more commonplace).

Secondly, I was looking to alleviate a lot of work down the road - say I decide to use coppermine or any other program for that matter, and then later on, a new gallery program comes on the scene with all the bells and whistles that I've been looking for in a program  - having to re-upload all of our photos or move all of them to yet another dedicated directory on the server would be extremely time consuming - even for a retired guy - LOL

Anyways, that was my reason for asking the question.

[Tranz]

Well, you failed to mention you wanted to share it with another gallery. Who would have thought you'd be talking about using 2 galleries. You really should have described what you wanted in more details so people don't take time addressing something that doesn't apply to your situation.

[rvblog]

That's the very reason why most newbies are afraid to ask questions in these types of forums - for fear catching hell for not asking a question properly or with sufficient detail.

And also, whether some believe it or not, for fear of wasting other people's time.

But, on occasion, newbies tend to take a chance, and venture outside of their confort zone and into the unknown in search of a little knowledge, even though they realize they will never reach the level of the gods.

And fortunately for us, there are those special people who go out of their way to share their knowledge without hesitation and, most important of all, without criticism.

So, I leave this topic now, a having gotten spanked, but a little smarter than when I first ventured in.

Thanks everyone.

[Tranz]

That's the very reason why most newbies are afraid to ask questions in these types of forums - for fear catching hell for not asking a question properly or with sufficient detail.

And also, whether some believe it or not, for fear of wasting other people's time.

But, on occasion, newbies tend to take a chance, and venture outside of their confort zone and into the unknown in search of a little knowledge, even though they realize they will never reach the level of the gods.

And fortunately for us, there are those special people who go out of their way to share their knowledge without hesitation and, most important of all, without criticism.

So, I leave this topic now, a having gotten spanked, but a little smarter than when I first ventured in.

Thanks everyone.

I answer hundreds of questions voluntarily because I like to help people. I don't need to waste time criticising people unnecessarily. I also hate wasting time period. I don't appreciate your type of attitude from someone I tried to help.

You would rather I not point out your error so that you can repeat it so that we waste our time again and resent you more? OK, we won't criticise you and let you make mistakes until it gets to the point where things get really ugly.

Maybe if you tried helping hundreds of people you can empathise with the frustration of taking the time to compose a reply to someone who didn't give enough information.