My experience so far with Pixel Post

[Box Brownie]

Hi All

I uploaded and setup a test of Pixel Post and have yet to try out other templates or add ons but the ease of installation was impressive.

However, it would appear that I misinterpreted the instructions a little in one aspect and changed the chmod for the images and thumbnails directories to 755 because of my (unfounded?) concerns over security.

Where the instructions say:-
Directory structure of Pixelpost:

/* <= that is the "root-directory" of Pixelpost
/addons/* <= directory for addons
/admin/* <= the "heart of PixelPost", administration
/doc/* <= documentation
/includes/* <= necessary files
/language/* <= language files go here
/templates/pixelpost-dark/* <= templates go here
/templates/pixelpost-light/*
/templates/pixelpost-light-archivepaged/*
/templates/utf-rtl/*
/images/* <= create this directory, CHMOD to 777
/thumbnails/* <= create this directory,CHMOD to 777

And go onto say in Part 2
2. Upload the files into some directory of your liking, but keep
the directory structure as it is

So I called my main directory 'images' - so all the paths listed above are prefixed thus /images/addons/
/images/admin/
etc
I ran the install.php and the page that came up reported all OK with no errors - including if I recall the way it phrased it "try writing to images folder - OK" the same was said of the thumbnails folder. But as I said above I had set the chmod to 755.

Then on to the admin login - very nice interface to work through.

But in admin - 'General Info' I get this reported (NOTE I have changed my site access to 'username'.

Paths
Guessed imagepath: /home/username/public_html/images/images/
Configured Imagepath /home/username/public_html/images/images/

Image Directory: OK - Thumbnails folder not writable!
You must set correct permissions on this folder or you will not be able to create any thumbnails.
Set the folder to chmod 777 (read, write and execute permissions for owner, group and world).

Thumbnails Directory: Does Not Exist (should be /home/username/public_html/thumbnails) -

Language Directory: Does Not Exist (should be /home/username/public_html/language)

Addons Directory: Does Not Exist (should be /home/username/public_html/addons)

Includes Directory: Does Not Exist (should be /home/username/public_html/includes)

Templates Directory: Does Not Exist (should be /home/username/public_html/templates)

-----------------------------------------------------

I tried uploading a couple of test images and they went AOK including the thumbnail generation.

url www.1stdesignit.co.uk/images

So, the install went well but the Admin interface reports some issues that do not seem to be affecting the running of the program. Or am I missing something obvious that will give me problems?

Next, I need to add a few more templates to see which one I like best!

Then I want to install it on my other main site where I need to embed it into my table structure - any ideas or 'how to' to do that would be very welcome.

:)

[raminia]

- use ../images/ as the image path (it works but it's not fully ok)
- chmod 777 thumbnails and images folders. IT IS NECESSARY! We are not joking.
You must set correct permissions on this folder or you will not be able to create any thumbnails.

[Box Brownie]

Hi Raminia

Thanks for the prompt feedback.

OK, re: chmod - I do not want to give myself any headaches and usage problems!

Re: the path - it does seem to be working! However, is it possible to alter the code such that I can use the directory structure /name_of_pixelpost_folder/.....

I thought I had understood the instruction correctly ~ part 2 & part 6. I would prefer not to place it in the site root as it is good to keep things in their own home, so to speak.

Lastly, do you have a 'how to' for integrating/embedding pixelpost into a table structure as that is an absolute must to keep the look of my other site? And I will be adding more templates but is there one (or what bit of code can I rem out) that does not have the comments section?

TIA :)

PS Just chmod'ed to 777 as needed but I still get the same 'errors' reported - I surmise this down to the paths!

[Box Brownie]

Phew!

I took an educated stab (?) that it was the index.php that dictated the paths.

I found and amended the appropriate lines in the index.php in the Admin to show the images/ path and the config report shows all OK.

But (and honest I am not a tinkerer ~ I just like to try to understand) I reset the chmod to 755 for both the folders. The config still reports OK to write. And I could (as before) upload an image and the thumbnail was created OK.

All OK? I hope so!

Any feedback and help welcome on my other questions please :D

[jeremycherfas]

I thought I had understood the instruction correctly ~ part 2 & part 6. I would prefer not to place it in the site root as it is good to keep things in their own home, so to speak.

I certainly do this. My PP installation is in a folder called Photos and everything works as advertised. I'm wodering where the repeated folder names could be an issue, but I don't see why.

Can't help with the other stuff, I'm afraid.

[Joe[y]]

what ammendments specifically did you make? just so i can check this out.


thanks. glad everything is working now.

[Box Brownie]

Hi Joe(y)

Copied and pasted the sectio of the Admin index.php:-
//NOTE CHANGE TO PATH ADDED ROOT FOLDER NAME IMAGES
if(!is_writable($work_path."images/thumbnails")) {
$chmod_message = "<b>Thumbnails folder not writable!</b><br />You must set correct permissions on this folder or you will not be able to create any thumbnails.<br /> Set the folder to chmod 777 (read, write and execute permissions for owner, group and world).";
} else {
$chmod_messagethumb = "Can we write to the directory? YES.";
}

echo "<b>Image Directory:</b> ";
if(file_exists($work_path."images")) {
echo "OK - $chmod_message<p />";
} else {
echo "Does Not Exist (should be ".$work_path."images) - $chmod_message<p />";
}
//NOTE CHANGE TO PATH ADDED ROOT FOLDER NAME IMAGES
echo "<b>Thumbnails Directory:</b> ";
if(file_exists($work_path."images/thumbnails")) {
echo "OK - $chmod_messagethumb<p />";
} else {
echo "Does Not Exist (should be ".$work_path."thumbnails) - $chmod_messagethumb<p />";
}
//NOTE CHANGE TO PATH ADDED ROOT FOLDER NAME IMAGES
echo "<b>Language Directory:</b> ";
if(file_exists($work_path."images/language")) {
echo "OK<p />";
} else {
echo "Does Not Exist (should be ".$work_path."language)<p />";
}
//NOTE CHANGE TO PATH ADDED ROOT FOLDER NAME IMAGES
echo "<b>Addons Directory:</b> ";
if(file_exists($work_path."images/addons")) {
echo "OK<p />";
} else {
echo "Does Not Exist (should be ".$work_path."addons)<p />";
}
//NOTE CHANGE TO PATH ADDED ROOT FOLDER NAME IMAGES
echo "<b>Includes Directory:</b> ";
if(file_exists($work_path."images/includes")) {
echo "OK<p />";
} else {
echo "Does Not Exist (should be ".$work_path."includes)<p />";
}
//NOTE CHANGE TO PATH ADDED ROOT FOLDER NAME IMAGES
echo "<b>Templates Directory:</b> ";
if(file_exists($work_path."images/templates")) {
echo "OK<p />";

As you can see I just added my folder name of 'images'. With a rem reminder to myself of what I had done.

Even with the chmod 755 of the folders instead 777 it does seem to be funtioning properly.

:)

PS Taking account of both Ramina and Connie's comments in my threads PP may be wrong for my main site (embedded Image Gallery required), for which I am still researching the best (for me) album/gallery/blog script or program. But PP is very good and the speed at which I could setup my test site I was impressed. So, I will likely keep it there but with the suitable anti-spam/referrer measures in place. I suspect Connie's revised index.php may be best for me because I do not want to continually have to update the banned list. Lunarpages have a very good website analyser, so a referer list IMHO is not required.

[Connie]

hey, this sounds all good!

Enjoy it and show us good photos! 8)