I want to use a single album for a small number of users (<20)

[pigman]

I think coppermine will do what I want it to do but I want a small number of users to be able to upload images which I then download to my own machine for DTP purposes.
Looking at the structure it would be useful if all the images were stored under 'userpics' directly.  This can be achieved using 'silly safe mode' but only if the server in safe mode which I cannot afford to do because of the other sites on the server.
So I looked at a way of simply getting rid of the USER_ID element when storing and retrieving images.
Looking at the source code I used grep to search for the string "USER_ID + FIRST_USER_CAT" and that should have been OK but....
Sometimes the same code can be found as "FIRST_USER_CAT + USER_ID"
Sometimes it can be found as "FIRST_USER_CAT + $user['user_id']"
Sometimes found as "$user_id + FIRST_USER_CAT"
This lack of consistency means that if I start to change things I cannot be sure I have got every instance.
Two things flow from this.
1)  Is there an easier way of doing what I want it to do, and
2)  Maybe there should be a coding standard that gives consistency to the process of adding the user number to the first user category.
If anyone knows a fix for this I would be grateful.
Steve

[ron4mac]

Is there a problem with having the small group of users just share a single login? That way, for your convenience, all their uploaded files will be in one directory.

[pigman]

No of course there isn't a problem with this but most people like to have a login they feel they have ownership of.
My main point is that as implemented there is a lack of consistency in the way that the images folder is addressed and what ought to be a simple thing to change should I wish to is complicated by this lack of consistency.  I just have no way of knowing if I have captured all instances of the code which means at sometime in the future something could come back and bite my in the butt.
Steve
ps.  It probably also means I shall look around to see if there is a solution that suits my needs better than coppermine.

[ron4mac]

Here are a few you could try:

http://www.zenphoto.org
http://piwigo.org
http://www.tinywebgallery.com/en/main.php

[gmc]

My main point is that as implemented there is a lack of consistency in the way that the images folder is addressed and what ought to be a simple thing to change should I wish to is complicated by this lack of consistency.

While nice to have, with many developers contributing over the years, hard to have that kind of consistency... Many areas more important than this do have the consistency/standards - surrounding database calls, etc...

I just have no way of knowing if I have captured all instances of the code which means at sometime in the future something could come back and bite my in the butt.

It would seem a simple search on 'FIRST_USER_CAT' would capture all occurrences - as that exists in each example.  However when changing core code, you will have to reverify/reapply changes for each Coppermine release.

A possibly better solution might be a php script than can generate a list of files for you to download based on a list of userids, and perhaps the last date you downloaded... Not difficult SQL against the pictures table and not likely to be impacted by releases often. Could be done as a plugin for integration and to take advantage of Coppermine functions.

(just noticed this is in the 1.4 (older/other versions) board and should be moved...)

[pigman]

gmc, sorry if I posted to the wrong board.  Only just signed up and was finding my way.
I appreciate that consistency can be an issue with the time line of development but if I were to extend my thoughts to saying there could be a configurable option to say "Store everything in one great big folder" or "Use individual folders for each user" - not in itself an unreasonable idea - then the implementation of such a configuration option would be much easier if those parts of the code were coded consistently.
ron4mac.  I have looked at Piwigo and at first it seems to be OK but I cannot find where it stores the original upload (if indeed it does) and a search of their forum says this is an issues others have also found.  I have looked at Plogger but this is single user only.  I have been working through this page on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_photo_gallery_software so I will have a look at the others you suggest.
May I thank everyone for their comments.  You might see me again!
Steve

[ron4mac]

steve, part of the reason I quickly pointed you at some other online gallery offerings was to afford you the opportunity to see that there is likely nothing available that fits your needs/desires perfectly. Your best bet in the end will be to find something that is close enough and work on it yourself or in conjunction with others until you're reasonably happy with it. In the working with others scenario, I would say it's not always best to start off by criticizing the work that a lot of others have done.

Given your description of the functionality that you want, you might also consider looking for an online file repository/manager that happens to be image friendly.

[pigman]

ron4mac,
Thank you for your useful tip.
I have now set up ZenPhoto.  It seems to do what it needs to do.
It is multi user, it stores photos in directories by album name, different users can upload to any allowed album thus placing all photos in the same location as other users, it is configurable, it can be kept private, I can download the original image straight from the site by right clicking on the displayed image.  Ok it doesn't store zip files but then it doesn't try to download the zip file image rather then the zip file itself.
We are now undertaking further evaluation trials.
Thank you for the information.
Thanks also to the Coppermine team.  It is not that your product is in any way a poor product.  It simply does not do what I need it to do in the way I would like it to do it.  I do appreciate the efforts of all of you who work for community projects like coppermine so that lazy b....rs like me don't have to write our own.

[pigman]

ron4mac
I have just re-read your last post.
I am used to having to tweak packages to make them do what I would like, I have tweaked Wordpress (several times), OSCommerce, Opencart, Drupal and it looked to me as if Coppermine was getting very close to my needs.  The only issue I had was that of putting images into user related locations.  I saw that using 'silly safe mode' would cover my needs providing I changed server wide settings.  I cannot afford to do this as some sites I have developed create files on the fly - that makes it a no go.
We are trying to find a way whereby a small group (about 20 people) can contribute to a photo library that is for common use which ultimately will result in the images being used for printing leaflets. So we want to shut out the outside world but look to a common aim internally.
As a developer (albeit a better development programmer than a maintenance programmer) I spent a number of years working for IBM and I find myself still applying my training from those days into today's work.
Thus I grepped for what looked to be the relevant code and having identified what to me appeared as an issue I sought to share it with the Dev Team, not as a criticism as such, but to give an opportunity for the Team to look at the issue and correct it if they felt it right.
I am well aware of the time that people in Dev Teams spend in developing their product and I have the greatest respect for you all.  I gave up full time developing over 20 years ago and whilst I now do some website development I do not have the time to give 24 hours a day to do it (although sometimes it feels like it).
I therefore try to be as helpful as I can short of doing the coding itself inside a development team.  I hope that is the spirit in which my remarks are taken.
I am sorry that Zenphoto seems to be closer to my needs than Coppermine, particularly as you put me on to it!
Once again Team, many thanks for your efforts.
Steve