Uploading images to your library

Table of Contents Upload methods supported by Pixaria Gallery What kinds of images can be uploaded? Image sizes and dimensions Filesizes Image dimensions Uploading images using your web browser Uploading compressed archives of images Uploading images by FTP Uploading individual images by FTP Uploading a directory of images by FTP

Upload methods supported by Pixaria Gallery

There are three ways in which you can add new images to your website - by uploading them, one at a time, using your web browser, uploading a zip, tar or gzip archive of images or by uploading in bulk using FTP.

If you wish to upload a large number of images at a time, you can do so by uploading a zip archive or for even larger numbers of files, an FTP program.

What kinds of images can be uploaded?

Pixaria Gallery will allow you to upload any JPEG image in almost any aspect ratio but there are some important restrictions to bear in mind before you start adding images to your site:

Image sizes and dimensions

Pixaria Gallery uses up to five different versions of every image you want to show on your site. There are three different sized thumbnail images for use in galleries and search result lists, a comping image which is what visitors will see when they view an image at full size whilst browsing your site and an optional high-resolution file which can be offered for download.

These images are stored in the server in individual directories:

High Resolution images	/dirname/original/	No maximum size
Comping images	/dirname/630x630/	Maximum 630 x 630 pixels
Thumbnail images	/dirname/160x160/	Maximum 160 x 160 pixels
Small thumbnail images	/dirname/80x80	Maximum 80 x 80 pixels
Icon images	/dirname/32x32	Maximum 32 x 32 pixels

In this example, 'dirname' is the name of the directory in 'resources/library/' where image files are stored. This could be a directory of images uploaded by FTP or one created automatically by Pixaria from individual images uploaded by FTP.
The image below shows an example of a complete Pixaria directory with files available for each size of thumbnail and large image used by the script.

Filesizes

Because of restrictions imposed by PHP, it is generally only possible to upload images or zip archives under 2 megabytes in size if you're using your web browser. You can check the allowed upload limit in the software environment page of the admin control panel of your website.

If you wish to upload images bigger than this, you will need to either edit the PHP.ini configuration file for your PHP software or upload the files by FTP where there is no restriction on filesize.

Image dimensions

To comply with the layout limitations of the Pixaria scripts, it's recommended that comping images (those that you view at screen resolutions) are no larger than 630 x 630 pixels in size.

You can upload a high-res or comping image and Pixaria will automatically scale your image to the correct sizes for use as a comping and/or thumbnails and icons, as appropriate.

Uploading images using your web browser

You can upload images to your Pixaria website using a web browser in which case, the software will automatically create thumbnail and/or comping (standard size) images from higher resolution graphics. To do this resizing, PHP requires that the GD graphics library (version 2.0.1 or higher) is installed on your server which shouldn't be a problem for most users as GD has been bundled with PHP since version 4.3.0.

To upload an image in this way, click on the link to 'upload an image' which can be found in the admin control panel. Follow the instructions to add the image to your library filling in required information where prompted to do so.

If you wish, you can add images uploaded in this way to existing galleries by choosing a gallery from the drop down list in the image details form. If you don't add the image to a gallery, it will still be added to the image library but in this case it will only be visible if you search for it using the image search forms or from the admin pages by looking for orphaned images (images not assigned to a gallery).

Uploading compressed archives of images

If you wish to upload multiple JPEG files at once, you can do so easily by using the option to upload zip, tar or gzip archives of images. The upload file size limit still applies to compressed archives but it's quicker than uploading individual files.
To begin with, it's important to be aware that compressing JPEG images doesn't usually result in smaller file sizes. This is because JPEG files are already compressed and it's difficult to compress them further.
Pixaria supports uploading and extracting of zip, tar, tgz and gz archives and when you upload any of these types of archives containing images, the files will automatically be placed into the incoming directory ready for import.

Uploading images by FTP

Uploading large numbers of images using your web browser can be very time consuming and because of this Pixaria makes it easy to upload images using FTP instead.
There are two ways of uploading images to your site by FTP. The simplest method is to upload individual images to the directory 'resources/incoming/' where Pixaria can find them and allow you to import them into your library.

The second method is to upload a directory of images containing high-resolution and comping images. If you choose to use the second method, Pixaria will automatically create thumbnails and icon images for you if you don't do it yourself.

Uploading individual images by FTP

This is the simplest method of getting large groups of images onto your website as quickly as possible. You can upload any JPEG images (whose filenames end in .jpg) into the directory 'resources/incoming/' on your server and Pixaria will automatically find them for you to import.

Once the files are uploaded, you must ensure that they are writable by PHP so you may need to set the permissions on the files (using CHMOD) to 777. Once the files have been uploaded into the 'incoming' directory, you can import them into the Pixaria library by going to the 'Import images from FTP' option in the admin navigation.

Images uploaded this way are organised by Pixaria at the time of import into the library and are placed in a directory named according to the date and time of import. In this way, individual image imports can be identified and sorted by the time they were imported.

Uploading a directory of images by FTP

If you wish to upload a large number of images at one time, you can also create a directory on your computer and upload the files direct to the server by FTP. Remember that if you're uploading a directory, only comping images are required. Thumbnails and icons can be generated automatically and high-resolution images are optional.

This method is useful if you want to specify what directory names are used or if you want to create your own thumbnail or icon images bypassing Pixaria's built in thumbnail generator.
Rules for FTP uploading directories

Because Pixaria does NOT store photos in the database, your images must be named and stored on the webserver according to a few basic rules:

1. Full size images should ideally be no wider or taller than 630 pixels.
2. Large thumbnail images MUST NOT be taller OR wider than 160 pixels (these will be generated automatically if you don't include them yourself).
3. Small thumbnail images MUST NOT be taller or wider than 80 pixels (these can be generated automatically if you don't include them yourself).
4. Icon images MUST NOT be taler or wider than 32 pixels (these will be generated automatically if you don't include them yourself).
5. The name of a standard size photo should be the same as the name of the corresponding thumbnail, icon and high-resolution images.
6. If you're using them, high-resolution images must be placed in a directory called 'original'
7. Standard size photos must be in a folder called '630x630'.
8. Large thumbnails must be placed in a folder called '160x160'.
9. Small thumbnails must be placed in a folder called '80x80'.
10. Icons must be placed in a folder called '32x32'.
11. The above directories should all be placed inside a directory named so that you will be able to identify it from other directories e.g. /myalbum/ (The name should not contain blank spaces or punctuation)
12. The folder containing your thumbnail and image folders should then be uploaded into the 'resources/incoming/' folder on your web server.

If you're not interested in enabling instant download of images purchased from your site, you can leave out the folder of high-resolution images.
Pixaria expects folders of photos and thumbnails to be organised in this way so if you don't follow the guidelines, you will not be able to import the images you upload.

Where to upload the files

Once you've created the required image files and any optional thumbnails, you will need to upload the entire directory of image folders into the '-/resources/incoming/' folder of your Pixaria installation.

The new directory and its contents need to be writable by PHP so you must chmod the directory so its permissions are 777 or 666. Most good FTP programs will allow you to set permissions on multiple files and directories.

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Created: Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Last edited: Sunday, June 1, 2008