I am currently moving this software to Woodburner.com!!!

I have performed the first conversion on all of the Album data.  I am now converting all of the Gallery data.  Once this is complete, I can move the actual software.

DO NOT UPLOAD ANY NEW PICTURES TO WOODBURNER.COM, AS THEY WILL BE LOST!!

I expect this move to be completed tomorrow, 2 November 2008.

Send me an email if you have any questions.  Have a good day!

Ralph

I will be testing the Gallery conversion this weekend, starting tomorrow, 10/24/2008.

I wish to thank all of you who have created albums here.  This will give me a chance to test the conversion.  Those who have albums active here will be the first to have their albums activated when the site upgrade is complete.

If the Gallery conversion works well, the total website upgrade will start.  Until the testing is complete, I won't know when that will occur.  However, preliminary testing has revealed that my methodology to do the Gallery conversion does work   So it shouldn't take long to perform the full-scale test.

I'll keep you posted. 

I'll post a message on woodburner.com the day before I upgrade the site software.  It will take me at least one day to do the upgrade, and the site will only be partially available during that time.  I may shut down completely during the upgrade, I haven't decided yet.  The upgrade may go faster if I do shut down the site.  I'll let you know.

Have a good day!

Ralph

I think all of the gallery problems have been resolved.  Once I figured out that the Members needed to click on the 'Your Album' link to create their initial album, then most of the problems resolved themselves.

There is another problem that some of you may experience.  When you click on the Gallery link in the Main Menu, if you get a Security Violation message, it probably means that you need to clear your cookies for this site.  This should only need to be done once.  After that, you should not see that again.

I seen this myself while I was messing around with my various test users, and clearing the cookies for that user resolved that issue.

My task now is to determine how to place the data at woodburner.com into the database for the gallery at the test site.  Once I figure that out, I will be ready to move this software to be used at Woodburner.com.

I'm hoping to have figured that out in the next few days.

Things are moving along quite well.

Ralph

Nothing is ever easy!  And figuring out how to get all of the Gallery and Album data and files into the new Gallery, AND lose as little of the existing information as possible, was not easy either!

No two pieces of software ever work the same.  The former Gallery software (used for both the Gallery and Albums) was MyeGallery, and consisted of only 3 database files.  It was easy to use , which greatly limited it capabilities.  Luckily it was also easy to modify, which I had to do a lot of in order to make it work the way it does.  Since it's so easy to modify, it's also not very secure (that never affected user data, only my server).

Now, those 3 database files contained all of the information of where the picture was located on the disk, which album or gallery it was located in, and who owned the picture.

The new gallery is Gallery2, which is an extremely powerful piece of gallery software.  It can do anything that is needed of a gallery   However, it consists of about 60 database files - a huge number.  Trying to map the original 3-file database into this 60-file database was a huge effort.  I'll spare you the details, but the process takes about 4 different conversions of data.  However, I wanted to use Gallery2, because it is very, very secure (as is the main site software).

I'm about done with the testing.  All of the information that was available for the current gallery can now be successfully transferred to the new gallery.  This was absolutely a requirement for me, and I wouldn't have started the upgrade until I had this issue resolved.

Since I now know how to do the conversions, I am now ready to upgrade the site at woodburner.com   This effort will probably start this coming weekend (friday, 31 October).  It will take about 2 days to completely upgrade the website.  During these two or three days, access to the website will be intermittent.  I apologize in advance, but it cannot be helped.

I'll post a message on woodburner.com forum when I'm ready to start the upgrade (probably Friday, but things have been known to change).

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and have a good day!

Ralph

I am currently devising a method of transferring all the Album data to this gallery.

Because of this, there will not be any noticable changes in the test site until the data is transferred.  Once I get that done, this software will immediately move to the main woodburner.com server.

My guess is that this could take me between one and two weeks to finish.  So The Woodburner will be upgraded by the end of the first week in November, maybe up to a week earlier.

In the meantime, please continue to create your Album in here.  There are instructions above this post with a link to show you how to do it.  When the move occurs, with a few exceptions that I know about ahead of time, I will only be loading data/pics for the Member Albums that have been created here.  It will make the upgrade much easier on everyone if you can do this in advance.

I won't be visible much either here or at The Woodburner site much over the next two weeks; I'll be stopping in, but may not be there long.  My goal is to get this upgrade finished in the shortest possible time so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of having a much better website experience

Thank you for your patience and your comments.  It is very much appreciated!

Have a good day!

Ralph

OK, I know which gallery I'm using (as stated previously), however it is not yet working for everyone.

I need to set up people's username also in the gallery.  It's a somewhat easy thing to do, but it will still take time.  Unfortuneately, I won't be able to get to it until Friday.  So, the gallery cannot be viewed for a few more day!

Ralph

PS:  I have to ammend the above.  Some people have a login within the Gallery.  That means they have updated their profiles (settings) on this site, which automatically creates a login.  Those people can probably get into the gallery successfully.

I cleared out the database last night, so those are the ones who updated their profile today.  The gallery should be accessible once you have edited your profile - that's the way it's supposed to work, so maybe it does.

If anyone has a problem, please let me know.

Ralph

It looks as if the gallery is working.  Hopefully that will continue.  Everyone should read the READ THIS (Please) forum topic.

Thank you to all those who are stopping by - we will get through this - that's why I'm doing the testing first.