Future of the gallery

[Ian]

It seems I have both good news and bad news.

The good news is that I have invested in a more up to date photo gallery system from an alternative company. It integrates fully with the forum, although we will have to update to the next version of vBulletin (we're on version 3 and the new gallery requires version 4).

The bad news is that I am worried that not only will our planned server OS updates render the old gallery unusable, but there is a danger that images already posted via the old gallery could be lost from the forum. The latter is the worst case scenario.

If you recall, the old PhotoPost Pro gallery software is no longer supported and the company behind it seems to have ceased trading.

I am still trying to work out if some of the problems above can be avoided; it's not for certain just yet, but I need to let everyone know it's a possibility.

The images won't be lost - they are in a database on the server, however maintaining their visibility in the gallery framework and in forum posts is now in some doubt.

Ian

[Wee man]

Re: Future of the gallery

Here here.

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk

[Ian]

Re: Future of the gallery

Been doing more research and I'm slightly less pessimistic. I didn't think I had a more up to date version of PhotoPost, but I do so once the server move is done I will install the newer version of Photopost. This should be compatible with the later version of the OS. It's still likely we'll switch to the PhotoPost alternative but I am hoping they can run in tandem, with the old system simply for reference, with no further images added.

Ian

[Zuiko]

Re: Future of the gallery

If anyone can do it, Ian, you can!

[Phill D]

Re: Future of the gallery

I'm sure John is right and you can do it Ian. Best of luck.

Actually you commented that you had invested in a more up to date system for the forum. Is this a time to be asking for donations from members? Maybe a small sum from anyone who feels its worth it to support an upgraded forum. Something along the lines of Camera Labs Gordon Laing's suggestion to buy him a coffee for example - just a thought!

If you feel it's an inappropriate suggestion Ian feel free to delete my post.

[Ian]

Re: Future of the gallery

I'm sure John is right and you can do it Ian. Best of luck.

Actually you commented that you had invested in a more up to date system for the forum. Is this a time to be asking for donations from members? Maybe a small sum from anyone who feels its worth it to support an upgraded forum. Something along the lines of Camera Labs Gordon Laing's suggestion to buy him a coffee for example - just a thought!

If you feel it's an inappropriate suggestion Ian feel free to delete my post.

Thanks for the vote of confidence

Yes I will look at these options but we need to get everything working better first

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Future of the gallery

We're on the new server and apart from the possibility of minor bugs being found I think the move is now done and dusted.

We have more disk space and more flexibility for developing the server and the websites we host. But as of yet, those sites have not yet changed.

So what's next?

As previously discussed our gallery software, PhotoPost Pro, is no longer supported or developed. This means it is a security risk and also, though most of you are used to it, its user interface is pretty old hat. So we need to replace it with something that is more modern and supported and I have chosen DragonByte vBulletin Gallery. To be honest, there wasn't a lot of choice available!

Before I install this, I will be making one more version update to PhotoPost and this will be done this evening. The forum will have to be closed for a few minutes while this is done.

Do bookmark https://twitter.com/write_tech for updates if you can't access the site.

It may well be that we have to run the old gallery in tandem with the new one as I have learned that it may not be possible to maintain images from the old gallery that have been posted in forum posts if we close down the old gallery.

The suitability of the PhotoPost update is critical so fingers crossed for tonight's update!

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Future of the gallery

If you would like to see a DragonByte Gallery example, here is one I found:

http://primogrillforum.com/forums/dbtgallery.php?gal=gallery

Not really a photo site. I will provide links to any better examples if I find any.

Ian