Gallery 2

Gallery 2.4.0 "Phoenix"

Contents

Introduction

Welcome

Welcome to the community release of Gallery 2.4. It is codenamed Phoenix to reflect Gallery 2's rise from ashes.

Please read through this document carefully before installing Gallery 2 and before asking for help. We have taken care to try to answer as many of your questions here as possible. If you do not read this and have problems, you may be referred back to this document as a first resource.

Quick Start

If you are impatient like us, you just want to get going. The odds are that your system is all set to handle Gallery 2 so just skip right to the installer and start clicking. It should walk you through everything you need to get going. If you hit a snag, please come back here and read more before asking questions! Enjoy.

Gallery 2 is a web based software product that lets you manage your photos on your own website. You must have your own website with PHP and database support in order to install and use it.

With Gallery 2, you can easily create and maintain albums of photos via an intuitive interface. Photo management includes automatic thumbnail creation, image resizing, rotation, ordering, captioning, searching and more.

Albums and photos can have view, edit, delete and other permissions per individual authenticated user for an additional level of privacy. It is great for communities - give accounts to your friends and family and let them upload and manage their own photos on your website!

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System Requirements

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Security

Audits of previous releases were done by the following origanzations:
Gallery 2.3
Gotham Digital Science.
Gallery 2.2 Release Candidate
Gulftech Research and Development.
Gallery 2.1 Release Candidate
Intershot Limited.

Note

The Gallery project treats security issues very seriously. If you find a security flaw, please contact us at:


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What is New in this Release?

Several years of design and development have gone into making Gallery 2 the best online photo management product available. We have made it easy to add new features while keeping them in separate modules so that you can customize it to only have the ones that you want. It is a powerful application and you are in the driver's seat.
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Highlight of changes in Gallery 2.4 (Phoenix) -

  1. Updates to provide compatibility up to PHP 7.3
  2. Updates to Smarty 2 to maintain PHP 7 compatibility
  3. Updates to AdoDB to maintain PHP 7 compatibility
  4. Incorpration of the Symfony PHP Polyfill to allow support for older PHP installations when using new PHP functions.
  5. Many bug fixes.

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2.3 (Skidoo) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2.2 (Double Double) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2.1 (Blackjack) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2.0 (Unpossible!) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 RC 2 (kthxbye) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 RC 1 (+5 Insightful) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Beta 4 (Flippin' Sweet!) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Beta 3 (Bingo!) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Beta 2 (Holy Hand Grenade) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Beta 1 (Dark Fibre) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Alpha 4 (Nice Commits) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Alpha 3 (Farva) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Alpha 2 (Grand Theft Photo) +

Highlight of changes in Gallery 2 Alpha 1 (Cowbell) +

Installation

Choosing a Package

You can choose from four different packages:
Minimal
The base application, 2 themes and 3 graphics toolkits and only English installed. Everything you need to publish photos, and nothing more.
Typical
The base application, 8 themes and a selection of popular modules. Enough to satisfy the demands of most Gallery users.
Typical-en
Same as Typical except the only language included is English.
Full
The base application, 9 themes and 68 modules. Every cool feature we have got.
Full-en
Same as Full except the only language installed is English.
Developer
Same as Full, except it includes all the developer tools so that you can work on improving the code.

You get to pick and choose which modules you activate, so even if you download a package that has more modules than you need you can always choose not to activate the ones you do not want. You can also activate a module and test it out for a while, then later deactivate and uninstall it. You can also delete any modules/themes that you are not using if you want to save space.

All of our modules and themes are available separately so if you install a smaller package you can still add more functionality later on, either by downloading yourself or using the Downloadable Plugins feature in the Site Admin section.

Download Gallery packages, modules and themes from the Gallery Download Page.
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Preparing to Install

  1. Codebase - There are four ways to get the code.
    - Pre-Installer
    The easiest way is to use the Gallery 2 Pre-Installer. It transfers the archive directly to your webserver and extracts it for you and is particularly useful if you only have FTP access to your webserver and do not have the option to extract zip or tar files directly on the server.
    - Released Package
    You can download a prepackaged release as a tarball or a zip file from Github.
    - Current Snapshot
    You can download an archive file with a snapshot of the most recent code. The link to this is: https://github.com/dakanji/G2Project-main/archive/dev.zip.
    - Git Clone
    This is a better way to get the latest code, but it is for advanced users. Clone the Github Repository at https://github.com/dakanji/G2Project-main.git. It is easier to stay up to date with this method since you can run one command and get the latest code at any time.
  2. Storage - Create a directory for gallery to store photos. This must be writeable by the web server, but for security reasons we suggest that you do not put it in the web root. If you put it in the web root, then anybody can get directly to your images with their web browser which circumvents Gallery 2's security.

    Unix Example

    $ cd $HOME
    $ mkdir g2data
    $ chmod 777 g2data

    Windows Example

    C:\> mkdir g2data

    In the Unix example, you may note that modes of 777 on your g2data directory are not very secure. However, making it more secure depends on how your system is configured. Talk with your system administrator about ways to change the permissions on that directory to make it so that Gallery 2 can write to the files but that others not. Refer to the Gallery 2 Security Guide for more information.
  3. Database - Right now we only support MySQL or equivalent.

    You may also be able to use PostgreSQL, Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server and SQLite but as from Gallery 2.4, these are only kept as legacy code and not activly developed. Third party developers are free to contribute updates as required.

    In our example below, we will be creating a database called gallery2. You can use any database name you wish.
    • Grant all required privileges to your database user.
      This includes but is not confined to: CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE, DROP TABLE in the gallery2 database; SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE on all (gallery2) tables in the gallery2 database; CREATE INDEX and some other privileges that are specific to the different database management systems. CREATE/DROP DATABASE and the ability to GRANT privileges to other database users are not required.

    MySQL

    $ mysqladmin -uroot create gallery2
    $ mysql gallery2 -uroot -e"GRANT ALL ON gallery2.* TO
      username@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password'"

    • Choose your own username and password
    • If MySQL denies you access, try adding -p right after -uroot in each command
  4. Graphics Toolkits - Gallery 2 works with many different toolkits (NetPBM, ImageMagick, GD or GraphicsMagick).
    You need to activate at least one or you would not get any thumbnails, but there is no limit on how many you can have. In fact, more is better because they can work together.
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Installing Gallery 2

Gallery 2 is a web application and must be installed on your web server in order for you to use it. If you have unpacked it on your desktop, you will have to upload it to your server as part of the install process. Then you can configure it using your web browser.
As an alternative to the lengthy upload via FTP, take a look at the Gallery 2 Pre-Installer.

  1. Upload - Copy the Gallery 2 files to a directory on your webserver. There are several alternatives for this step:
    • Fastest way: Upload the gallery package to your web server archive via FTP or another method, then unpack it using an interactive shell session (e.g. ssh or telnet). Example unpacking commands (choose the appropriate one):

      For .tar.gz archives

      $ tar xzf gallery2.tar.gz

      For zip archives

      $ unzip gallery2.zip

      If you do not have shell access, you can ask your provider to do it for you, or you can make a miniature PHP script containing one of the above commands. Some webhosting companies offer a control panel with a web file-browser which is capable of extracting / unarchiving archive files. It is worth a try to check if this option is available.
    • Easiest (but slowest) way: If you do not have shell access, you can upload the complete contents of the Gallery 2 archive to the webserver with an FTP program. This may take a lot of time and be error-prone. In this case, pay special attention to the ’System Checks’ step of the installer and make sure that there are no missing or modified files. Consider using a smart FTP program like FileZilla to make sure that your transfer goes smoothly.
    • Advanced way: The best way to install Gallery and stay up to date if you have shell access to your webserver is to use Github.
    Note: After uploading, you should close this version of the README and browse to the version that you just uploaded. That way all the links in this document will point to the right places in your Gallery 2 install.
  2. Begin Installing - Open up your web browser and browse to the install directory. Gallery 2 will walk you through the process of validating that your system is properly configured and will set everything up for you.
  3. Authenticate - You will be asked to create and save a small text file in order to authenticate. You may not proceed until you do this. That is how Gallery 2 knows that you are authorized to use the installer.
  4. System Checks - The installer checks your system to make sure that it will support Gallery 2. Make sure that all checks are successful!
  5. Installation Type - Gallery can support multiple independent sites with a single installation of the code. Here you will select a standard single install or the location of a new multisite install. There is more information about multisite in the Gallery Codex.
  6. Storage Setup - Read the instructions on the installer to set up a storage location for Gallery 2. This is where Gallery 2 will store all of your images, as well as other cache information.
  7. Database Setup - Select your database type and enter your database authentication information. If this is not your first Gallery 2 installation and there are still some remains of the old installation, it will check the state of the installed version and offer a clean install option which will delete all your data in the storage directory and in the database. If the installed version seems to be fine, it will also offer to reuse the existing database tables. Select this option if you did not start the installer with the intent to start from scratch.
  8. Admin User Setup - You are prompted for an administrator username and password. Type in a password and type it again to validate it. The full name and the email address are optional. But entering an email address is highly recommended. Once you are finished, click ’Create’ to create the admin user for this installation of Gallery 2.
  9. Create Config File - Gallery 2 will create the config.php file in your Gallery 2 directory. This contains all the answers you have provided in the installer and is necessary for Gallery 2 to function properly. At this point, there is also a sanity check to prevent you from damaging your Gallery install by running the installer when you should rather have started the upgrader.
  10. Install the Core module - Here is where we create all the database tables and initial users and albums to get you started. Unless something goes wrong, there is nothing for you to do here.
  11. Install other modules - Gallery 2 has lots of different modules that provide useful functionality. Choose which ones you want to use. You can always go to the Site Admin Page later on to install, activate, deactivate or uninstall modules. Therefore, it is ok to experiment here.
  12. Check Security - Gallery 2 walks you through the process of locking down your new config.php file.
  13. Finished! - Congratulations! You have successfully installed Gallery 2!
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Using Gallery 2

Once you have successfully got Gallery 2 installed, you should take a look at the Gallery 2 Quick Start Guide. It will help you get started with Gallery and will walk you through the steps from zero to managing your first photo album in your freshly installed Gallery. Below are some links to your gallery that will make it easier for you to follow the Quick Start Guide. Note: You may need to activate certain modules to be able to use some of these links.

Take a look at the list of User Contributions to find even more modules, themes, utilities, mods and more.
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Updating Gallery 2

Updating is quick and easy and should not lose any of your data.

Warning When Upgrading from Gallery 2.0!

Third party modules and themes designed for Gallery 2.0 will not work with Gallery 2.4. During the upgrade process, these modules and themes will be automatically deactivated for you. You can find updated versions for most of these modules and themes here: http://codex.gallery2.org/Gallery2:User_Contributions

  1. If you have a busy site, consider putting your Gallery in maintenance mode before updating the code and performing the upgrade. This gives visitors a message that the site is temporarily offline, rather than showing everybody the upgrade page. Edit your config.php file to activate maintenance mode. This feature is new starting in 2.1, so it is not available in an upgrade from 2.0.x.
  2. Download the latest code for any active third party modules that you are using, or deactivate them. If in doubt, deactivating is safe.
  3. Get the latest code and unpack it over your existing copy of Gallery 2. Keep your existing config.php in place, and do not touch your (g2data) data folder or the database. If you are using Git, you can just do "git update" at any time. Alternatively, you can use the Gallery 2 Pre-Installer to get the latest codebase.
  4. If you use a PHP accelerator / cache (e.g. Turk mmCache, Ioncube PHPA, eaccelerator, Zend Studio, etc.), flush (clear) the cache of the accelerator. Omitting this step can sometimes lead to errors during and after the upgrade process.
  5. Browse to the upgrader and follow the instructions there. Make a backup of your data (g2data folder and especially the database) when it tells you to! Should you lose your data due to a bug in the upgrader, the first thing we are going to tell you to do is to restore from your backups! (Then we will probably ask you to help reproduce the bug.)
  6. Enjoy your new version of Gallery 2.
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Help

Getting Help

There are many resources available if you are having problems with Gallery 2:

Remember – reporting bugs is good. Even if you think it is silly, go ahead and report it. We can always close the bug or refile it (please do not be offended in this case) but it is harder to find bugs than it is to fix them so we are counting on you to help us with the finding part.

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Known Issues / Bugs

Check our Known Issues list and Bug Tracker for information and some workarounds for known problems.

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Advanced Topics

Unit Tests - Gallery 2 was designed using Extreme Programming methodologies. This means that we have over 2,000 unit tests that ensure code quality. If you want to help out, you can run the unit tests and report back to us if any of them fail.

Note - these tests should not change your Gallery 2 settings at all, but if they fail, they may leave things in a weird state. Be warned that there is a slim chance that you might have to ditch your Gallery 2 data and start over if something catastrophic happens.

For Themers - There is now some theme documentation that you should read if you want to change the look of your Gallery 2 by customizing an existing theme and its templates or by creating your own theme.

Localization - If you are interested in translating Gallery 2 into another language, you can review the current state of localization and then read the localization how-to and get started. Submit your localizations early and often - no need to wait until you are entirely done.

For Developers - We have gotten started on some developer documentation that you should read if you want to start hacking on Gallery 2. Some of the information is a little bit out of date or in early drafts, but it is a start.

Embedding - To learn more about embedding Gallery 2 into your website and about existing integrations in content management systems, portals, blogs etc. please see Gallery 2 Embedding.

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Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Bharat Mediratta       $Id: README.html 20993 2012-04-01 20:25:12Z bharat $