Possible bug?

[Johnny Doomo]

I have been trying to sort a problem I've been having with my host as I thought it was a timing issue with what my server was accepting, but I think it may actually be script related now.

To make sure it wasn't a setting that could be effected by the php.ini server file, they set these settings really high to make sure:

memory_limit 650M
upload_max_filesize 900M
max_execution_time 3500

The problem still persisted.

The problem that I've been having is when I do use bulkupload to process more than 10 images at a time.

What I do is I upload the images via FTP to the server and to my admin "1" directory in the upload directory of Photopost. Then I go to the script and tell it to upload 100 images at a time and I give the default title and description. Both are short as it's just for my funny image section so both the title and description are called "Funny and Cool Pictures". I click on process or upload button, and I get the in between page that notes the processing, and then the page just goes white. This has happened multiple times, using different images, using different browsers and computers and different ISPs.

The problem continues, but if I cut it back it to only process 10 images at a time it seems to (if I remember correctly) work all the time.

I am running 6.01 and I've had nothing but problems since my last upgrade to this version.

I have a theory, but am hoping for actual help as I have no idea how "sound" my theory is. I'm thinking that because I've already uploaded the images it has nothing to do with uploading and since I've used different images, it has nothing to do with images. I believe that it has something to do with the page where it shows the thumbnails that are going to be processed and their titles and descriptions. Well on this page it also has that dropdown list of all the categories you can upload to. My site has a large amount of categories and since I'm the admin I can upload to all of them so it lists ALL my categories (litterally 1000s). My theory is that because the page is listing all these categories in these dropdown menus and for EACH image, that the script can handle listing this dropdown 10 times, but anything more than that overloads the script / server.

All these categories have plagued me for along time. I can't just create a new user that only has the ability to upload to my funny section because my user database is on another server and I am still working with my host to get this problem fixed so that PP can use the database on another server. Despite setting it to allow to be connected to from this other server, but that is another problem completely.

Is there anything that either 1. can be done to fix this problem? 2. Be changed to temporarily test to see if I'm correct about this problem?

Please don't as me to upgrade again. I was a little upset with my last upgrade as I was forced into it, for ironically the same reason of the older version having difficulties with all my categories. Also I have customized wordings and layouts and really don't find a full blown upgrade the answer to my problem.

On a side note, with these bulkupload pages listing all my categories those pages take extremely long to load up simply to scroll down and click the process button. I've asked before, but I'll ask again. I don't need it to list all those categories in that dropdown menu. If I'm in my funny image section and I click the upload button, I simply want it to default to upload to the funny image section. There are so many categories on my site, it makes that dropdown completely useless.

I am completely willing to pay for that change if I need to as this problem has completely killed my ability to upload content to my site in any sort of decent bulk size. (I upload 500 to 1000 images at a time to my funny and babe sections so doing those by 10 really isn't an option.)

Can I please get some help on things I can try to either test/prove my theory to you so you can help me or can I get the code to remove these dropdown menus from the bulkupload page where it displays the thumbnails that are about to be processed?

Please help!

[Chuck S]

Thats a server PHP timeout issue most likely MEMORY. Your server error logs would verify PHP is shutting down on the server.

Either try less images or try switching your processor to maybe Imagemagick.

There really is nothing you can pay us to do to make things work like magick. Our software is always going to be limited by the servers php and image processors like GD2. For instance you will see tons of threads here on GD2 and memory issues with PHP since its part of PHP. Nothing we really can do about it but tell people to give PHP more memory, make images smaller or try processing less images at one time.

[Johnny Doomo]

1. Server has 8GB of memory and the php.ini setting of memory_limit 650M should be enough. The 100 images aren't even 1MB each which would only be 100MB.

2. "Imaging Integration (IM or GD)" in admincp is set to ImageMagick already.

Do you still think it's a problem with the server? I do not know how to check server logs. Can you tell me what I can have my host check for? They are also my server management company.

I don't want it to work like magic, but even after this problem with uploading is fixed, the bulkupload page when uploading 100 images with all my categories still makes the bulkupload page take 5 minutes or more to load. Your script is NOT designed to use unlimited categories as I believe it was originally advertised. That bulk upload page is listing 100 dropdown menus and each of those menus is listing a good 3000 categories and their links. THAT is designed for unlimited and 3000 is still a long way off from "unlimited".

So you see my point on that? I've offered to pay someone at PP to fix this problem, but for some strange reason you guys are unwilling to fix it even with a money offer. Why is that? All I want is that part of my site working again. On older versions I was able to strip out that dropdown menu and it still uploaded fine, but on later versions I tried the same thing with my very limited knowledge of poking around the php and it didn't upload the images any more.

It just seems fishy to me that everytime I ask to try to get the secondary problem fixed that I'm reporting in this thread, that every time I'm shot down and told that it's not a problem or slightly insulted like I don't know what I'm talking about or you can't support it. I'm not asking you to support it, I'm asking you to fix it, whether as an employee of PP or as an individual freelancer coder that knows php and just happens to know the underbelly of how Photopost works and could fix the problem with a few lines of code.

Like I said, right now this is secondary. If from what I mentioned about the primary problem you still believe it's a server issue, what exactly should I ask my host to check for in the error logs?

Thanks for your help. I hope we can get both of these problems resolved eventually.

[Chuck S]

Well a white page means an error your PHP is shutting down on the server. No doubt your server's PHP stopping.

It is one of those things your server is going to allow what it allows. We can not control this. If say you can process 10,25,50 images at a time no problem thats good but if your having issues trying to process 100 at a time its not really a script issue as we are going to process what you tell us to. If you get a white page that is coming from the server timing out.

Your server's error logs should have some indication of what is timing out on the page once you know this you will know what action might help resolve your issue.

You can throw money all you want but the core issue here there is nothing special we can code for you. We cant code around your server's PHP setup instead we are limited by it. If your having a server issue all I can tell you is process less images at a time.

If say for instance you only want to show categories on the cat dropdown box you can say find this twice in bulkupload.php

Content visible to verified customers only.

change to say this

Content visible to verified customers only.

That will prevent personal albums from showing in the dropdown as well but there is only so much we can do there as you still are going to show the categories and if you choose to have 3000 categories we need to query that and there is no way to get around that.

[Johnny Doomo]

Originally Posted by Chuck S

if you choose to have 3000 categories we need to query that and there is no way to get around that.

I guess I am having a hard time understand why you can't get around it?

When you upload images, if you click the upload images link in photopost when you are ALREADY inside a category, PP by default chooses that category to upload your photos to on the first upload screen.

I do not have a problem with this page.

The problem is that I then move my images to my admin image folder via FTP so it can be 30 or it can be 1000s. Then I click the upload/submit button on that first upload screen. It is the next page that shows the thumbnails, the title, the description, and I believe the keywords field on your images. If you are doing so many it will only show 100 thumbs and fields maximum, but for each of those thumbnails it shows the dropdown menu of what category that thumbnail is going to be placed in.

I don't need it to show these dropdown menus here. I already selected it on the first page before I hit submit. These are the dropdown menus I need removed. Surely there is a way to remove them, because PP already knows what category I want to upload them into, because it's the defaulted category that all 100 thumbnails are saying they will be uploaded in.

I simply don't want it to show with all these thumbnails. Because of so many categories in my gallery it takes longer to load this page than the time it takes to actually process the 100 images.

So PP already knows what category I want them in.

I hope that this has perhaps clarified my problem. Can you help me with this problem or give me the amount that you want to fix this problem of removing the dropdown menus on the 2nd bulk upload page.

[Chuck S]

The way Photopost is designed works fine. I can tell you how to raise PHP memory so you dont get a timeout. Yes we have a category highlighted in a dropdown so yes we know what cat your on thats it but we are not hear to code up custom solutions for people to the code. The beauty of PHP code is your only limited by your server resources and like I said if you choose to have 3000 categories that would be your option but you would also have to have the resources to operate the functions of the program with that vast number of categories. It gets to be that simple. I dont know of anyone who has 3000 categories even SteveSteve who runs that starwars site has about only 1000-1500 or so.

Your combating server restrictions if you get white page etc. You can also try removing this from bulkupload.php to remove the cat box.

Content visible to verified customers only.

You also have the option if your not entering anything but processing pictures to check the bypass upload process box and bypass the bulk page all together just processing images with info from uploadphoto.