System Requirements

System Requirements Summary

The list below is a summary of the system requirements for Pixaria Gallery. For more detailed explanations of each item, see the detailed system requirements discussion further down the page.

Requirements:

  1. PHP 5 * ‡
  2. MySQL 4.1 or above
  3. GD 2.0.1

* PHP Safe mode is not supported
‡ PHP-CGI mode is not currently recommended for some shared hosting platforms e.g. Dreamhost. Full support for PHP-CGI mode is currently in development and will be added in a forthcoming update.

Recommended options:

  1. FreeType linkage from GD for postcards
  2. Apache Mod_Rewrite or equivalent for search engine friendly URL support

Detailed System Requirements

Server Operating System

Pixaria Gallery has been tested and runs successfully on Mac OS X and Linux and should work without modification on any Unix based operating system running Apache, PHP and MySQL.

Pixaria Gallery is not supported on Windows at this time though it is fairly easy to install and get it working. The main reason it's not supported is simply that I don't have the development resources to test on the Windows platform.

PHP Version

Pixaria Gallery is a collection of scripts that run on the server and are processed by a scripting engine called PHP. If you're not familiar with PHP, I recommend looking at the PHP homepage for an introduction.

PHP 5 is recommended for the best performance when using Pixaria however, the software will work correctly with older versions of PHP from 4.1 and above.

Support for PHP 4 will be completely dropped from Pixaria at version 3.0.

Pixaria Gallery will NOT operate correctly on systems operating in PHP safe mode. This is due to problems working with files and manipulating images on the server.

Pixaria Gallery has been known to have issues operating correctly on systems where PHP is running in CGI mode (as opposed to Apache mod_php) and when the hosting company imposes strict resource limitations on scripts. Dreamhost only allow PHP in CGI mode and is not recommended for hosting Pixaria websites.

MySQL Database

You will need access to a MySQL database in order to use Pixaria Gallery . For best results, it is recommended that you look for a hosting provider who offers MySQL version 4 or above.

I also recommended that you use the excellent PHPMyAdmin to administer your database as the user manual does not go into command line database adminitration techniques. Most hosting providers offer access to a pre-installed, web based MySQL administration system through an online control panel.

GD Graphics Library (required)

The GD Graphics Library is a software library that can be used by other programs - in this case PHP - to manipulate image files. This library is required to use Pixaria Gallery as Pixaria performs image manipulation functions like resizing on the web server.

Pixaria Gallery requires that PHP on your server has built in support for the GD graphics library version 2.0.0 or above.

GD version 2.0.1 with Freetype support and Freetype linkage is required to use the built in e-cards functions. Users of earlier versions of GD will not be able to use live image uploading through the web browser or e-cards.

FreeType Library (required for e-cards)

Freetype support and Freetype linkage from PHP and GD are required by Pixaria Gallery in order to use the e-mail postcard functions.


Last edited on Saturday March 13 2010 at 23:55:57