Deleting files in the FTP upload directory

[dakk]

This is probably a stupid questionI was wondering, once I have moved the photos, that I had uploaded via FTP, into the albums I want to keep them in, is it ok to clean out my FTP folder? I read in the documentation not to delete from the FTP program, but to do it within Coppermine - but if I do that it will be erased from the data base, and I don't want to do that. the folder is just getting a bit full. LOL

Thanks
Dakk

[kegobeer]

No.

[Joachim Müller]

You're suppossed to ftp-upload pics into a sub-folder of your albums dir and then use coppermine's batch-add function. All this function does is create the intermediate size pics and thumbnails and creates records with pointers to those files in the database. The file initially uploaded by ftp doesn't get moved around, it stays where you uploaded it to. That's why it is recommended to mimick the structure of your categories and albums in your albums folder - the files in it are meant to stay.
There's no waste of space here, the full-size pics only exist once on your webserver. If you delete them, they're gone both on your webserver and in coppermine, leading to broken links inside coppermine.
Don't get paranoid with cleaning up your webspace. If you're concerned about webspace usage, resize the pics on your client before ftp-uploading them - that's the best hint I can give. Don't touch the files with ftp once they're in coppermine's database - as suggested in the docs.

Joachim

[dakk]

Thank you again for your quick response and easy to understand answer. :-) I will set up additional folders today. I was not really concerned about webspace as I already resize my photos. The folder was just looking a bit messy with lots of files.

Two questions down and one to go! I posted the last question on an existing thread.

Thanks again! You are definitely appreciated!

Dakk

[lamama]

There is a quite simple way to re-arrange the files in your upload folder, if you can handle your database with phpMyAdmin manually.
Inside the *_pictures table of the coppermine database you can UPDATE the "filepath" values of the related pictures to the new path where you moved your files to.

But be careful with what you do. Make a backup of that table before changing anything.