JV2 Folder Gallery Forum

Getting Started

Download the gallery as ZIP file.
Extract the files - preserving the folder structure.
Rename the root galleryfolder "foldergallery" according to your preference if you wish...

Copy or FTP to your web root.
If you are using the default settings, you must allow write permissions (chmod 777) to folder "thumbcache".
It is also advisable that you do this to the subfolder called "images".


You can then drop all the image folders into "gallery/images"
(you can change the name of this folder in the options if you wish)



Please read the latest README , which will help you with some new configs and show you how to do things...


To see what can be done... have a look at:
"http://demo.jv2.net"
which demonstrates some of the features of the gallery.



Setting up the gallery

By default, the gallery will:

    * have username "admin" and password "password"
    * display the page standalone mode - generates html header and footer
    * have english labels
    * cache the thumbnails in jpeg quality 75
    * USE SESSION VARIABLE TO SAVE THE MENU (if you update the folder
       stucture in your images, then you should restart the session by closing browser
       - or turn of this option in the setup)



- "gallerysetup.php"
You may change the setup by editing the files or by logging in to your gallery using
username "admin" and password "password"
If you are editing the file manually, do not change the layout, quotes, or comments positioning...
changing these will render the file non-editable through the online edit preferences.

in this file you should change the username and password.
Select if you are using the gallery in standalone mode or as an include. (See: using gallery as an include )
Set the name for the gallery and path to image name for the header if you want ot use one.
$galleryfolder is the location of all the image folders. by default it uses "gallery" if you do not want to change this... you can just drop your image folder in to the subfolder "gallery".

You may change the labels to your own language if you wish.

$cachethumbs - this option allows you to set whether the generated thumbnails are cached.
these cached images are stored in the folder set in $cachefolder.
This cach folder's write permission must be set for the script to display images, if you are using the cachethumbs option.
You may change the $cachequality setting to your preference.





- "galleryconfig.php"
You may change the config by editing the files or by logging in to your gallery using the username and password set above.
If you are editing the file manually, do not change the layout, quotes, or comments positioning...
changing these will render the file non-editable through the online edit preferences.

This file includes all setting that can be set individually for each gallery. To change settings for another folder copy the default galleryconfig.php to the folder in question and edit that file. Alternatively, login and do this online.

By default, the gallery config will:

    * use vertical css menu
    * display the breadcrumbs menu
    * display large images witrhing the gallery page (allows popup from this to full size)
    * not show image (file) names
    * set the thumb max width to 140px and height to 105px
    * restrict the size of large images to 600px
    * show 4 columns and 3 rows of images per page


You may change the galleryconfig options as you wish.
Please observe comments for instructions.

If you use the maxlargewidth and maxlargeheight options, this will cache the generated large images.
This will increase the size of your cache thumbs folder dramatically.
But will decrease your bandwidth requirements if you are storing large images in the gallery - as these will then only be served if the user opens the popup window.







Setting default images for folders

By default the gallery will read the directory, and display the first image as the thumbnail for the folder.
If you create a directory that has no images, but only subfolders of images, the gallery will display  the image "folder.gif" by default.

You may change this behaviour by loggin in and selecting default images from the options.

Alternatively, you may do this by creating a file called "defaultimg.txt" in the folder where you want that to be used.
In that file, you should only enter the name (or path) to the image you want to use as the default.
If the image is in the folder you are doing it for... only enter the image_name.jpg
If you are setting it to a folder that has no images... select one of the images from one of the subfolders and enter
subfolder/image_name.jpg