The Perfect Mess

[dollman]

LOL Where do I begin?

I have PP Pro Version 7.1 with 1500 users and 375,000 pictures. (If the database statistics are accurate.) It was originally installed about 6 or 7 years ago. I don't remember the original version used when it was installed.

This poor album has been through a couple of server moves and a couple of programmers, and me. It was also subjected to Microsoft Front Page, a notorious HTML editor known for leaving folders with names like _vti_cnf all over the place.

Between me and the part time Scriptlance-type programmers, the upgrades were probably mishandled badly, so even though we appear to have Version 7.1 the actual Version is probably something like 4.2-7.11

Anyone thinking of buying a copy of this program should remember that this album has gone through technical torture and still works. It's almost like it thrived on abuse. You have no idea how many times I've messed something up to the point where almost any other program would have died.

Anyway, My problem now is that the data/500 folder is so full, I can't even list the contents of that directory on my ftp client or my Plesk control panel.. they both time out.

The album still runs, but it bogs down the server (dedicated) really bad. Just setting the boards to "Open" can send the server load from 0.5 to 12 or 15.

I do have ssh root access, but I'm not very good at it. At this point it's the only way I can think of to get into that data/500 directory and have a look around. Maybe some of those Microsoft Front-Page functions has been making copies. Maybe not.

Also, under Admin>Global Options, the first field is: "Title for your Photopost Application", and the data field is 1/2 the size of most of the other data fields, and just to the right of it is a color box, just like the color boxes which show the border colors you set under "Layout Options" or "Show Photo Options" A look at the source code shows:

<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td align="left">
<input type="text" size="15" value="TheDollPage.com Photo Album #1" name="1" class="bginput"></td><td><div align="center"><table width="75"
border="2" height="17" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td
bgcolor="TheDollPage.com Photo Album #1" align="left">&nbsp;</td></tr></table></td></tr></table></td></tr> <tr><td width="65%" class="alternatetable" align="left">Web site name<br />

That's some background color. I looked in the adm files and just couldn't find this. Has anyone seen this one before?

I'm looking for suggestions on what to do about a data/500 directory that seems much too big for the number of photos we have. What would cause the server to overload simply by 'opening' the boards? What could cause the style of a simple data field to be so bizarre?

In other words...what can I do? What should I do?

All sympathies are also gladly accepted

Thanks!

Steve

[Chuck S]

Steve your weird thing could be some coding mishap I would think if you have had people in there playing.

You should make sure you using clean unmodified files and then you can see if it is still there then look at the actual database field for that entry in the settings table and see what is there.

Your data directory you would need to look at for sure through cpanel or ftp.

maybe what you can do is if the application still works is go to admin and move some photos to other categories out of the members gallery. That way help yiou to be able to view things. I beleive no single directory can have via standards more than 65000 files or it is not viewable so moving some photos into other categories should help you then can move some then via ftp cleanup any unwanted stuff.