Needing help with files from previous version

[steveken]

Hi,

I'm hoping I don't get flamed for this, but there are just so many posts here that I couldn't find what I wanted to know.

Here's my issue, a LONG LONG time ago (I don't even remember what version it was), I had Coppermine installed for use on my website. I had uploaded a small handful of files to it and was using it. Something happened along the way and I couldn't use it anymore, but I left all the files as they were. Today I migrated my web hosting to a new setup that required me to save all my files off FTP and reload them onto the new server. And this new hosting was something that had Coppermine as an option, so I chose to try it again. I went through and set up everything as I think I was supposed to and now I can see a few test files I put up.

Problem is that I don't know how to get all my old photos into this new install. At first, I thought I could just install Coppermine on top of the folder that I had used previously, but I kept getting installation errors. So, I just figured I would do a clean install into a directory called photos. I've tried simply copying images over from the old directory to the new one, but that didn't work, of course. I didn't really think it would. I've done some searching around on google about this, but most of the time it is talking about restoring backups complete with databases. Well, from what I can tell, I didn't save the db, so I can't just do a restore. It's been a super long time since I have done any website work or any database type work, so most of what I knew is either gone or changed.....honestly, most of it is gone.

So, with that said, is there any easy way to just copy the image files to the new install directory and have Coppermine scan and rebuild the thumbnails and all of that? Or do I just need to re-upload all the files one-by-one to get them back up? Again, sorry if this is something basic. I hope you don't rip me a new one too bad. I do appreciate any help you can give.

Thanks,
Steve

[phill104]

Hi Steve and welcome back to Coppermine.

You can quite quickly add all your files to your new install but any image counts etc would be lost. To do this you would use the batch add feature, full details of which can be found in the documentation.

Why would you loose the hit counts etc? These are stored in the database along with various other things. As you have a new install and do not have a copy of this database these details obviously cannot be recovered. So as suggested above, simply using the batch add interface will be your best option.

One thing that does worry me is that it sounds like you have used your hosts installer. For various reasons these are often out of date, or contains modified files that we do need t know about which makes support very difficult. All is not lost however, to get yourself a genuine version of Coppermine simple follow the upgrade procedure as outlined in the docs. That way we can be sure you have the latest version of the software and are as best protected as you can be.

If you need any advice please read the aforementioned sections of the docs And you if you have any queries fell free to ask.

[steveken]

Before I try to do this, there's one thing I'd like to ask. There are a bunch of the files that are prefaced with "normal". They appear to be the thumbnails of the originals as they are smaller dimensions and file sizes. I am guessing I should NOT move those over to the folder to do the batch add. Is that right?

[steveken]

Ok, apparently can't edit the post, so I'll make a new one. LOL

I am also seeing files prefaced by "thumb", so maybe THOSE are the thumbnails. I think that I should leave those and the "normal" prefaced files out when moving the files to the new directory within Album. Correct? Thanks again.

[phill104]

You are correct. The _normal files and the _ thumb files will be recreated during the batch add process depending on your settings. So those files should not be copied.

[steveken]

Ok, yeah, I figured that out. I went ahead and did it.

Also, I went ahead and downloaded the newest package from the website. I already had the newest one from what GoDaddy installs with the "Installatron" thing, but it never hurts to make sure. So far this looks like the same Coppermine I had used before. I'll have to do some more digging into it to find more settings to adjust.

Thanks for your help, Phill. I really appreciate it.

[Αndré]

You are correct. The _normal files and the _ thumb files will be recreated during the batch add process depending on your settings. So those files should not be copied.

If I remember correctly Coppermine checks for existing thumb_ and normal_ files during batch-add. But I don't know if it checks if (e.g.) the picture dimensions match the current setup. However, it won't hurt to not copy that files, as Coppermine re-creates that files if they don't exist.