===================
VERSION UPDATE: 5.0
===================
This is a major update. If you are upgrading a prior version of PhotoPost, please read the upgrade section carefully as it contains important information about the changes to the data directory structure.
New Features for PhotoPost 5
----------------------------
- Moderator assignments by category
- Unlimited extra fields including definable types using text, dropdowns, checkboxes and radio buttons
- Hidden Photos photos which can be tagged "hidden" from appearing in the gallery itself, but can be viewed with a direct link (Approve Photos has a new "Hidden Photos" which can be used to view any hidden photos).
- Contest Mode - allows a category to be set to "contest" mode where users can only vote for one photo in the category (no ratings per image), Moderators/Admins can control voting and reset votes.
- Advanced Sorting on showgallery pages
- improved search conditions (all words, one word matching)
- Category "max images" setting - removes oldest images as new ones are added
- Quick nav dropdown selector
- "Image ## to ## of ####" indicator on showgallery page
- Recent Posts category specific when in category
- Thumbnails with Titles in showgallery page
- Switch to turn of embedded multimedia
- Report Post
- Password variable removed from URLs and set by cookie
- System closed indicator for Admin
- Zip 'n Download optional for any category/albums
- optional rotation for thumbnails (IM users only)
- "mini" thumbnails for non-rotated thumbnails (only if rotating thumbs)
- thumbnail sharpening (IM users only)
- option to disable URL image downloads in uploadphoto
- new graphics for default message buttons
- page generation times
- MySQL errors only displayed to admin
- new thumbnail handling to remove php code from thumbnail templates
and read the thumbnail file only once during e - ecution
- optional big image window popup (see e
- ample site)
- album titles clickable to album from album admin page
- removed userid from new file uploads - files retain original name unless same filename has been uploaded to same category (support for legacy filenames included)
- changed # of comments not to count votes if you are not displaying votes without comments
- Print View of just image to allow for easy printing of photo
- vB3 avatars improved to show file system avatars, db stored and site selected avatars
- Minimium image size setting (b5)
- DocType and Content-Type meta tag moved to language file (b5)
- vB3 Enhanced picks up censored words
- significantly improved vB3 integration removing the need for cookie and
license info for vB3 Enhanced installations (vB3 does all authentication).
Performance Updates- Category info cache query optimization (significant reduction in queries for showgallery page)
- Thumbnails and med images moved to own directories
- .threads Users count taken from cache table (saves time on larger sites)
- Photo Views caching table to improve performance by saving an UPDATE query (can be set in admin options on or off)
- query optimizations on inde
- , showgallery, showphoto (saves 6 queries on showphoto, 4 queries on inde
- , and on showgallery 6 standard queries + with 30 thumbnails being displayed saves 30 queries for a total of 36 saved queries on this page)
Script Consolidation- consolidation of multiple scripts into one multipurpose script (12 scipts into 1)
- consolidation of admin scripts (15 into 1)
- consolidation of all upgrade scripts into one upgrade script
- consolidation of language files into one sorted file - all strings moved to
language files
Layout Improvements- configurable index paging (see example site)
- News/Announcements Box for inde
- page (contents set in admin)
- Category Intro Boxes to display a custom bo
- of te
- t for a category (set in admin categories) (see example)
- new layout for Edit Usergroups to accomidate smaller browser windows
- 24-hour time format selection (in Admin Options/Global Options)
- 10 new styles provided by Toney (see
this thread)
- main gallery layout now an option (file copy not required - gallery or list options)
- edit header/footer/headtags file from Admin
- user selectible frames for albums
- user selectible styles for albums (when not using integrated forum styles)
- category specific thumbnail borders (can override site default)
- 7 new selectible thumbnail frames
- Admin Category list has collapse/expand selection removed for cats
with no children
- improved show photo page layout
Upgrades
========
Please read the following information carefully - don't skim it - as there is important information here that will save you alot of headaches later if you don't.
Every file in this upgrade has changed and will require a complete reupload before e[*]ecuting the upgrade.php script.
Backing up your database/files
------------------------------
I highly recommend you backup your photos table and make a copy of your data directory. This upgrade will move files around and if for some reason the script aborts, having a backup is the easiest way to start over.
*****************
Important changes
*****************
If you read the feature list, you'll see that there is alot of new stuff with PP5. One of the biggest changes is that we no longer rename a file with the userid as the prefi[*] to an uploaded file. This was a major obstacle to people trying to migrate from one forum to another. Once you are running PP5, migration will be much easier (although not automatic as we still need to map userids during an upgrade, but we wont need to change filenames).
The upgrade script will create directories in every category directory: thumbs, medium and mini. Then the upgrade will move and rename the -thumb and -med files from the category into their respective directories. When you are done your layout will look like:
data/500/filename.jpg
data/500/thumbs/filename.jpg
data/500/medium/filename.jpg
To ensure that all previously uploaded filenames are not "disconnected", the name of the file in the database is being updated to include the userid of the user.
Also, we have consolidated all the language files into one language file.
What does this mean and why should I care?
------------------------------------------
If you are running any scripts that pull information from the PhotoPost database, that script probably uses the -thumb and {userid}{filename}.jpg convention - those scripts would have to be modified to just use the {bigimage} filename and not use the userid at all.
What else is new?
-----------------
Alot! Once you have upgraded, you'll have plenty of new features to play with including Category Introductions, Inde[*] pagination, moderator assignments and a big boost in performance.
A note about photo printing - there is code in this release to support a "shopping cart" feature which will be used to send images to a printing service (or used in a purchase feature); however, at this time the printing service does not have their side completed. Rather than take the code out, we're leaving it in so that we can work with the community to develop viable alternatives uses while we work with the partner on a photo printing solution.
How do I upgrade?
-----------------
1) Backup your photos table and make a copy of your data directory (if possible). And remember, you can always rebuild your thumbnails and medium images should you need to - we don't touch the original images at all in this upgrade.
2) In your Admin Options, close your gallery.
3) Copy the files from the ZIP download in the main directory, e[*]cept config-inc.php/config.int.php, install.php and watermark.php. Upload the templates, forums, images, languages and stylesheets directory (careful not to over right any custom style you may have created/modified).
vB3 Enhanced Users: If you are running the vB3 Enhanced version, upload the files from the vb3enhanced directory into your templates directory.
4) Run the upgrade.php script and follow the upgrade instructions to upgrade from your current version.
Note that all the upgrade scripts have been combined into one easy-to-use upgrade script and you no longer have to upload individual scripts from the upgrades directory.
5) Once the upgrade is complete, delete the upgrade.php script and reopen your boards.
Moving of files can take some time depending on your server and the number of images. Give the upgrade script plenty of time to do its work and avoid prematurely terminating the script. Sites with over 10,000 images can take several minutes or longer.
New Installations
-----------------
Users who plan a new install of PhotoPost 5 will be glad to see a new install.php script. We'll walk you through every step of the installation and check your settings along the way. We'll also prompt you for everything we need to get started up front.
Linear Mode
