I am a newbie. I have uploaded PGV for the third time. I just assumed that something went wrong with the install. All files appear to have uploaded just fine. I have changed the file permissions as directed. I get the 500 Internal Server Error when I attempt to go to the url to do the configuration of the app.
Please note that you cannot access “Genealogy” by clicking the “link” on my homepage. I have to edit the html to get it to work properly (don’t know how yet, but will eventually figure it out).
Each time, I get the 500 Internal Server Error message. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for any guidance on this.
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Interesting that you get a different message than I do.
The server name (in MySQL) is my site, then the webhost name and mysql, if that is what you mean. I read in the 'readme' file something about what you describe regarding PDO. So I asked my webhost support about that, and about databases (I am clueless) since it says I need a database also. Their response was this:
"Unfortunately, we do not support pdo_mysql and PostgresQL 8.0+. Alternatively, we do support pdo_sqlite in PHP 5 and MySQL 5."
They did not address the database question.
I have a control panel that lists manage mysql. I have added a user name and pasword there. There are databases, but have a string of numbers, and I don't know what they are or how they got there.
I hope this gobbledegook will help you direct me.
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Hello Mark,
Thanks for directing me to those two FAQ's. The PHP version is set to 5. Unfortunately, the words "sessions" and "scripting" don't mean anything to me. Could you direct me to something that would help me learn? I would assume that a session would be the act of uploading files via ftp to the directory. I have to do something special other than just uploading them? Scripting is the code? I am lost.
Karen
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Nigel,
Thank you for your advice and input. I have avoided the genealogy hosts as you get a pseudo website that allows for nothing but your gedcom files. This would not be suitable for our family site. Since I am very low level, as you put it, I even tried to hire someone to install it for me. Unfortunately, I cannot afford $600 for one app. I do understand, though, that I have no way of knowing if my questions are legitimate, or just an exercise in wasting everyone's time. So I will just plug along and see what I can learn without indulging in the time wasting.
Apologies to fisharebest and Mark as well.
Karen
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What you could do is get your GEDCOM site hosted on a "friendly" server, and just link to it from your main site at iPage. It's only a case of putting in the right URL on your homepage to get people to click through to the site. I haven't checked out how much the sites previously mentioned charge, but it can't be anywhere near $600.
Without PDO/MySQL you're not going to get this to work at the moment on iPage.
Mark
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Anonymous
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2009-12-13
Karen, have a closer look at the ones I suggested. They don't all limit your site in the way you think.
Also you say "This would not be suitable for our family site.". Looking at your site you have, as well as the Family tree, photo galleries, news/mesages, upcoming events, etc. Perhaps you also want to add a forum. All of these exist either within PGV or its add-on modules, so do you really need more?
Going back to the PGV home page I mentioned, one of those ads offers PGV + Joomla. That combination will certainly get you everything you want.
On your current site, what Mark is alluding to in your web host's comments "we do not support pdomysql" and "they say that the current running php is 5.0" is that those two items do not meet the minimum requirements for PGV. So as it stands I don't believe you CAN use your existing host.
Regarding the term "sessions" : Sessions are the temporary storage of key items of information during your 'session' logged in to PGV. A little like 'cookies' that I'm sure you've heard of. They are an absolutely essential part of the way PGV functions. So you need to be able to use and store session information. That your web host's FAQ says "you need to add code to every page" means, again, that you cannot use that host. Adding code to every one of PGV's code pages is not practical.
Nigel
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The first is "sessions". These are the thing that lets you "log in" to a web site. The help page http://www.ipage.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=600 says that you need to add some custom code. Don't worry about this - you don't. In PhpGedView's config/installation page is a setting called "session save path". Just put the path value there, and PhpGedView will do the necessary work.
The second is PDO. PDO is a piece of software that lets PHP scripts (PhpGedView is written in PHP) communicate with databases. As well as the PDO library, your host needs to enable a separate driver for each database used. From your earlier post, it would appear that they have enabled PDO, enabled the PDO/sqlite library, but not the PDO/mysql library. This is purely a policy decision on their part. There is no technical reason why they couldn't. It is most likely that all they would need to do is un-comment one line in a configuration file.
But - that is their decision, and we'll have to live with it. They say that they DO support PDO/sqlite. sqlite is a different database. Assuming they are using a reasonably recent version, you should be able to use it instead.
The difference between the two is that MySQL is more of a "heavy duty" database, and SQLite is a "quick-and-dirty" database. From your point of view, the difference is one of performance. If you are likely to get thousands of people in your tree, then sqlite might struggle. If you are likely to get hundreds of people, then you may not notice any difference.
Also, MySQL has lots of nice management tools, whereas SQLite is a little more limited.
So, when you install (or re-install) PGV, there are two things you need to change in the config. The database type (from default MySQL to SQLite) and the session save path (from blank, to whatever path is appropriate - see the help page I referenced).
If you get stuck with anything else, just ask!
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Karen
I wouldn't leap to assumptions. In addition to the advertising PGV host sites Mark and Kiwi have mentioned - some which are not limited to hosting PGV - you may wish to contact Lew at linkuphosting, one of the admin/users who has recently posted here. He expressed his ability to host multi-faceted sites, using all kinds of current technologies and accessing resources in a personalized manner, as well as hosting PGV.
-Stephen
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Let me see if I can’t combine all the great information you all have supplied.
Perhaps if you knew my two main goals for the site, it would help.
1) Family photo sharing (private family member access only – uploads AND downloads, big ones).
2) Genealogy sharing (public access to non-sensitive files, family-only access to living person files) I am not interested in having anyone alter my files, but rather an exchange of information. I understood that PGV would allow for these options.
The other small items on the site are small and easily created and maintained.
I do understand that PGV allows for some sort of “gallery” where one could upload media files and documents. I have several hundred of those so far, just pertaining to the people in the tree. However, the main purpose of the photo sharing portion is to exchange whole photo albums (or photos therein) of high-resolution photos that cannot be simply emailed other than one-at-a-time. So I am currently in the process of testing out photo gallery apps. All seem to be limited by the upload size designated by the host, not the app.
Regardless, I am concerned about jumping to another webhost without a great deal of research first to find out if they can meet my PGV needs AND my photo gallery needs. For instance, if I find a host that will install, or help with the install of PVG for me (as part of a plan), then I will not have learned anything, and would not be able to install a photo app on my own. The two I have tried so far were installed by ipage as part of their hosting plan.
Please correct me if I am wrong. I do (at least somewhat) understand that PHP is code or language as is html. I also understand that SQL pertains to databases. I have not created a database there (don’t know how) and my support request from ipage went unanswered (due to the fact they don’t have PDO/MySQL?). And (after looking it up – again) realize that sessions have to do with information regarding users that are logged on to your site, and what they do whilst there – I would suppose this would include any admin that logged on? (Thank you Nigel, for explaining, I hope not to forget it again) I do not expect much traffic. I am not selling anything. I will have no users other than family. Anyone else visiting the site would be a visitor, not a user. That being said, I do not understand what sessions has to do with installing PGV. I would think that would have more to do with the configuring. But as Nigel points out, it is essential to PGV, and if I understand you all correctly, this is where PDO/MySQL comes in, so that each page does not have to be individually coded, and that this all needs to be done before the install can complete and you can get to the configuring part? I just assumed that the database part would be what would house the actual GEDCOM file itself.
So if ipage does not have PDO/MySQL, and PGV will not work there, then I have the option of paying for a second webhost (one that specifically hosts PGV), and just pointing my Genealogy page to that url as Mark suggests? I am not enamored of ipage in any way. I just picked it because it was listed in several sites as the “best” (live and learn). Further, that some of these other sites you all have mentioned are regular webhosts (just like any other) only they specialize in hosting PGV, but are not limited to that? How does one go about finding a “friendly” webhost?
Fisharebest posts that SQLite would be slower with a larger database. My file contains 2500 people and is not yet finished (I guess they never are), so that doesn’t sound like the right option for me. Unless you refer to how many users, then it would not be an issue.
I appreciate Stephen’s tip on Lew, and will be sure to look into that. Sure-fire evidence that there is a Santa Clause!
Thanks to all…
Karen
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Anonymous
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2009-12-14
Karen, you are getting closer with your understanding.
With 2500 people on your database and growing I would definitely advise against SQLite.
To go to the other major requirement - a picture gallery. PGV has two. It has its own 'internal' media system. This is actually for any type of media (pictures, videos, sound clips, etc etc). It is designed for media directly connected to the people on your family tree, as you have already seen. I'm sure you will find that useful, but it is not the right solution for your "exchange whole photo albums (or photos therein) of high-resolution photos that cannot be simply emailed other than one-at-a-time"
The second is an "add-on module". It allows you to also have the software called "Gallery2" on your PGV site, and linked to PGV. When I say linked I mean two things:
1 - It appears as a menu choice in PGV, and
2 - Users only need to login once to access both it and PGV Thats a very important consideration, as otherwise your users might need to login separately to each, with different user names and passwords!
Gallery2 is a sophisticated, powerful purpose-designed image management and display software. Very well known and respected. Its web site is http://gallery.menalto.com/ I would be amazed if it did not more than satisfy your requirements.
Nigel
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Nigel -
Gosh, you are being so kind. I have tried Gallery2 (it is one of the one's ipage supports), but gave up on it (without knowing enough or giving it a chance) simply because the uploads are limited to 8M. Most of my brother's single photos are larger than that. He would never bother with that kind of limitation. His are the photos we all want! And yes, I didn't know that could be an add-on module, but knew vaguely about the one user/one login thing which is very appealing. I will do more reading on that (there has to be a way around the limit) and to make certain they support other types of media files as well (video and audio).
I am shopping for a new webhost. I didn't realize they could all be so different.
Thanks again, Karen
.
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Karen
We operate just such a site, so if you care to view the examples:
We do not use a CRM or even a family homepage, although that is certainly possible and could be set to point to the genealogy and gallery sites, as you have begun with your URL.
I think any of the PGV hosts listed here and many others as well, will offer you better service than your current host, and at a comparable or even cheaper rate. Remember that PGV can be an occasional resource hog and those ISPs who are inexperienced in its operation may flag the account for abuse. Better to find someone who doesn't do this. There are perhaps a dozen or so threads you can search here and on the Open Discussion forum that discuss success and failure with various ISPs. BTW, I sell toys, have a stomach like a bowl full of jelly and look like Santa - so speaking as a 'somewhat authority' - there is traditionally no "e" on Claus, unlike the 'clause' of a contract.
-Stephen
Karen
Again, I would recommend against making assumptions. The default setting for Gallery is 8mb as that will accommodate the quality reprinting of most photos in 8x10, but it can easily be reconfigured to accept much larger uploads. You should consider why you wish larger files online and the bandwidth demands that uploading and downloading such big files places on both the users' and provider's systems. Usually, they are unnecessary and if larger files are needed, its better to use CD/DVD transfers and archiving.
-Stephen
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Anonymous
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2009-12-14
> I am shopping for a new webhost.
I think thats a wise decision :-)
Regarding that 8m upload limitation - you won't get far comparing software on that basis, because its not generally a feature of the software itself. Its actually a web-server or PHP limitation. Very often its set by web hosts to a default of 2MB, so 8 is pretty good. Your web host controls this, but, I think, anywhere you go will always be limited to a maximum of 8mb. It is technically possible to go higher, and I have seen a couple of explanations on getting it to 16mb, but very few web hosts will allow it.
It is important to think about WHY you feel a need to transfer such large files. There's certainly no point trying to view anything that large on the web. You'd be forever scrolling around to see even small parts of the image!. And the level of detail is way past what your browser can really display. Then there's the download time whenever you or any visitor to your site wants to view the image. On all bar the fastest cable or broadband systems it would be far too long.
If all you need is to literally transfer the pic, then better that each of you have FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software, and access to a common folder on your web site. He uploads it, emails or calls you to say its there; and you download it!. No need for any fancy stuff there. :-)
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Stephen - The "e" was a slip. Fingers working faster than brain. Will check out your site. Boy, lots of new stuff to consider.
Will have to answer other two posts after food and sleep. I am fried!
Thanks all! Karen
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Yes, good point both of you about the large uploads. And there is absolutely no reason any of us would need that resolution (except for him). Our normal method of sharing is to carry flash drives and laptops and transfer to and fro. We don’t get together that often, and nobody has time to burn DVDs and mail them out for everyone (big family). Could be two years before you get those sib-trip photos you have been wanting. You may not even want the photos, just want to look at them. This way, you could have them if you wanted. I am prone to assumptions (I know, I know) so I thought software would auto resize before/during upload. He (especially) would not resize all of his photos just so I could see them sooner.
I obviously have a lot more reading to do.
Karen
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You have gotten a lot of good advice and thanks to Stephen for the plug.
You seem to have two issues, both of which have been addressed, but I will re-iterate a little.
1. As mentioned, it seems the host you are working with won't support PGV, so if you wish to have an online family tree you can choose one of the sites that allow free tree hosting or get your own hosting service that you can control so that you can host your tree and the photos you were referring to. To run PGV you will need PDO support as mentioned.
2. Seems the photo requirement is unrelated to the family tree use. You can use free online storage for uploading and downloading the files or you can upload and download them through which service you host with.
There are no single click solutions for uploading pix. You will need to launch the software to upload the pix, you will need to identify the pix, you will have to launch the upload process, etc. Since I am a photographer, I deal a LOT with photos and have found many simple programs for re-sizing images which I also use to watermark pictures before I upload them. If these are for just family use, he may not care about watermarking them, but there are a couple reasons for resizing them. The biggest one is they will upload quicker if they are resized. I use a pay for program called Arles. I shoot in RAW and convert to JPG in Lightroom where I also tweak the color, exposure, sharpness, etc. I then use ARLES to take the output from Lightroom to re-size the images and create web pages. I then FTP the web pages and images to one of my domains for viewing. The web pages can be individualized by project/trip, their own banners, etc. Whatever I want to do to personalize them. You can do the least or the most that you wish in that respect.
It seems that if a family member is a "photographer" and wants to share their pictures, they should not have a problem running a few automated programs to make the pictures of a reasonable size to view online and manage. If the person is a photographer, they will be shooting RAW and will have to at least change them from RAW to JPG, and since no pictures come out of the camera in their best condition, it is almost always necessary to modify them.
If in fact the person isn't a "photographer", but is simply a family member taking snapshots, (probably in JPG format) and if they don't want to take two minutes to resize them, then they can do as others have suggested and simply FTP them to a directory where others can grab some or all of them.
It seems you don't care about using the web to view the images, but simply as a means to get them from one person to another. That is what FTP is for.
Seems you have gotten all the advice you need on how to manage the photos, but you still need a host that supports PDO.
Best wishes!
Lew
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I am a newbie. I have uploaded PGV for the third time. I just assumed that something went wrong with the install. All files appear to have uploaded just fine. I have changed the file permissions as directed. I get the 500 Internal Server Error when I attempt to go to the url to do the configuration of the app.
I use IE8. My website is http://blackoliver.com/ . I installed PGV in my “Genealogy” folder in my directory. Thus, I should be able to go to http://blackoliver.com/Genealogy/ to get to the configuration step. No?
Please note that you cannot access “Genealogy” by clicking the “link” on my homepage. I have to edit the html to get it to work properly (don’t know how yet, but will eventually figure it out).
Each time, I get the 500 Internal Server Error message. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for any guidance on this.
Visiting http://blackoliver.com/Genealogy/ displays the error "ERROR 256: PDO/mysql is not installed."
On most servers, this library *IS* installed, but is simply not enabled.
Enabling it is normally straightforward - just a couple of entries in a config file.
Is this your own server?
Starting at iPage
http://www.ipage.com/knowledgebase/faqs.bml
I notice that they say that the current running php is 5.0
http://www.ipage.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=345
and that if you want sessions then you need to add code to every page
http://www.ipage.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=600
Mark
Thank you for helping me.
Interesting that you get a different message than I do.
The server name (in MySQL) is my site, then the webhost name and mysql, if that is what you mean. I read in the 'readme' file something about what you describe regarding PDO. So I asked my webhost support about that, and about databases (I am clueless) since it says I need a database also. Their response was this:
"Unfortunately, we do not support pdo_mysql and PostgresQL 8.0+. Alternatively, we do support pdo_sqlite in PHP 5 and MySQL 5."
They did not address the database question.
I have a control panel that lists manage mysql. I have added a user name and pasword there. There are databases, but have a string of numbers, and I don't know what they are or how they got there.
I hope this gobbledegook will help you direct me.
Hello Mark,
Thanks for directing me to those two FAQ's. The PHP version is set to 5. Unfortunately, the words "sessions" and "scripting" don't mean anything to me. Could you direct me to something that would help me learn? I would assume that a session would be the act of uploading files via ftp to the directory. I have to do something special other than just uploading them? Scripting is the code? I am lost.
Karen
Nigel,
Thank you for your advice and input. I have avoided the genealogy hosts as you get a pseudo website that allows for nothing but your gedcom files. This would not be suitable for our family site. Since I am very low level, as you put it, I even tried to hire someone to install it for me. Unfortunately, I cannot afford $600 for one app. I do understand, though, that I have no way of knowing if my questions are legitimate, or just an exercise in wasting everyone's time. So I will just plug along and see what I can learn without indulging in the time wasting.
Apologies to fisharebest and Mark as well.
Karen
Don't worry … they're legit questions. It's better they're asked.
What you could do is get your GEDCOM site hosted on a "friendly" server, and just link to it from your main site at iPage. It's only a case of putting in the right URL on your homepage to get people to click through to the site. I haven't checked out how much the sites previously mentioned charge, but it can't be anywhere near $600.
Without PDO/MySQL you're not going to get this to work at the moment on iPage.
Mark
Karen, have a closer look at the ones I suggested. They don't all limit your site in the way you think.
Also you say "This would not be suitable for our family site.". Looking at your site you have, as well as the Family tree, photo galleries, news/mesages, upcoming events, etc. Perhaps you also want to add a forum. All of these exist either within PGV or its add-on modules, so do you really need more?
Going back to the PGV home page I mentioned, one of those ads offers PGV + Joomla. That combination will certainly get you everything you want.
On your current site, what Mark is alluding to in your web host's comments "we do not support pdomysql" and "they say that the current running php is 5.0" is that those two items do not meet the minimum requirements for PGV. So as it stands I don't believe you CAN use your existing host.
Regarding the term "sessions" : Sessions are the temporary storage of key items of information during your 'session' logged in to PGV. A little like 'cookies' that I'm sure you've heard of. They are an absolutely essential part of the way PGV functions. So you need to be able to use and store session information. That your web host's FAQ says "you need to add code to every page" means, again, that you cannot use that host. Adding code to every one of PGV's code pages is not practical.
Nigel
Karen, so far you seem to have two issues.
The first is "sessions". These are the thing that lets you "log in" to a web site. The help page http://www.ipage.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=600 says that you need to add some custom code. Don't worry about this - you don't. In PhpGedView's config/installation page is a setting called "session save path". Just put the path value there, and PhpGedView will do the necessary work.
The second is PDO. PDO is a piece of software that lets PHP scripts (PhpGedView is written in PHP) communicate with databases. As well as the PDO library, your host needs to enable a separate driver for each database used. From your earlier post, it would appear that they have enabled PDO, enabled the PDO/sqlite library, but not the PDO/mysql library. This is purely a policy decision on their part. There is no technical reason why they couldn't. It is most likely that all they would need to do is un-comment one line in a configuration file.
But - that is their decision, and we'll have to live with it. They say that they DO support PDO/sqlite. sqlite is a different database. Assuming they are using a reasonably recent version, you should be able to use it instead.
The difference between the two is that MySQL is more of a "heavy duty" database, and SQLite is a "quick-and-dirty" database. From your point of view, the difference is one of performance. If you are likely to get thousands of people in your tree, then sqlite might struggle. If you are likely to get hundreds of people, then you may not notice any difference.
Also, MySQL has lots of nice management tools, whereas SQLite is a little more limited.
So, when you install (or re-install) PGV, there are two things you need to change in the config. The database type (from default MySQL to SQLite) and the session save path (from blank, to whatever path is appropriate - see the help page I referenced).
If you get stuck with anything else, just ask!
Karen
I wouldn't leap to assumptions. In addition to the advertising PGV host sites Mark and Kiwi have mentioned - some which are not limited to hosting PGV - you may wish to contact Lew at linkuphosting, one of the admin/users who has recently posted here. He expressed his ability to host multi-faceted sites, using all kinds of current technologies and accessing resources in a personalized manner, as well as hosting PGV.
-Stephen
Let me see if I can’t combine all the great information you all have supplied.
Perhaps if you knew my two main goals for the site, it would help.
1) Family photo sharing (private family member access only – uploads AND downloads, big ones).
2) Genealogy sharing (public access to non-sensitive files, family-only access to living person files) I am not interested in having anyone alter my files, but rather an exchange of information. I understood that PGV would allow for these options.
The other small items on the site are small and easily created and maintained.
I do understand that PGV allows for some sort of “gallery” where one could upload media files and documents. I have several hundred of those so far, just pertaining to the people in the tree. However, the main purpose of the photo sharing portion is to exchange whole photo albums (or photos therein) of high-resolution photos that cannot be simply emailed other than one-at-a-time. So I am currently in the process of testing out photo gallery apps. All seem to be limited by the upload size designated by the host, not the app.
Regardless, I am concerned about jumping to another webhost without a great deal of research first to find out if they can meet my PGV needs AND my photo gallery needs. For instance, if I find a host that will install, or help with the install of PVG for me (as part of a plan), then I will not have learned anything, and would not be able to install a photo app on my own. The two I have tried so far were installed by ipage as part of their hosting plan.
Please correct me if I am wrong. I do (at least somewhat) understand that PHP is code or language as is html. I also understand that SQL pertains to databases. I have not created a database there (don’t know how) and my support request from ipage went unanswered (due to the fact they don’t have PDO/MySQL?). And (after looking it up – again) realize that sessions have to do with information regarding users that are logged on to your site, and what they do whilst there – I would suppose this would include any admin that logged on? (Thank you Nigel, for explaining, I hope not to forget it again) I do not expect much traffic. I am not selling anything. I will have no users other than family. Anyone else visiting the site would be a visitor, not a user. That being said, I do not understand what sessions has to do with installing PGV. I would think that would have more to do with the configuring. But as Nigel points out, it is essential to PGV, and if I understand you all correctly, this is where PDO/MySQL comes in, so that each page does not have to be individually coded, and that this all needs to be done before the install can complete and you can get to the configuring part? I just assumed that the database part would be what would house the actual GEDCOM file itself.
So if ipage does not have PDO/MySQL, and PGV will not work there, then I have the option of paying for a second webhost (one that specifically hosts PGV), and just pointing my Genealogy page to that url as Mark suggests? I am not enamored of ipage in any way. I just picked it because it was listed in several sites as the “best” (live and learn). Further, that some of these other sites you all have mentioned are regular webhosts (just like any other) only they specialize in hosting PGV, but are not limited to that? How does one go about finding a “friendly” webhost?
Fisharebest posts that SQLite would be slower with a larger database. My file contains 2500 people and is not yet finished (I guess they never are), so that doesn’t sound like the right option for me. Unless you refer to how many users, then it would not be an issue.
I appreciate Stephen’s tip on Lew, and will be sure to look into that. Sure-fire evidence that there is a Santa Clause!
Thanks to all…
Karen
Karen, you are getting closer with your understanding.
With 2500 people on your database and growing I would definitely advise against SQLite.
To go to the other major requirement - a picture gallery. PGV has two. It has its own 'internal' media system. This is actually for any type of media (pictures, videos, sound clips, etc etc). It is designed for media directly connected to the people on your family tree, as you have already seen. I'm sure you will find that useful, but it is not the right solution for your "exchange whole photo albums (or photos therein) of high-resolution photos that cannot be simply emailed other than one-at-a-time"
The second is an "add-on module". It allows you to also have the software called "Gallery2" on your PGV site, and linked to PGV. When I say linked I mean two things:
1 - It appears as a menu choice in PGV, and
2 - Users only need to login once to access both it and PGV Thats a very important consideration, as otherwise your users might need to login separately to each, with different user names and passwords!
Gallery2 is a sophisticated, powerful purpose-designed image management and display software. Very well known and respected. Its web site is http://gallery.menalto.com/ I would be amazed if it did not more than satisfy your requirements.
Nigel
Nigel -
Gosh, you are being so kind. I have tried Gallery2 (it is one of the one's ipage supports), but gave up on it (without knowing enough or giving it a chance) simply because the uploads are limited to 8M. Most of my brother's single photos are larger than that. He would never bother with that kind of limitation. His are the photos we all want! And yes, I didn't know that could be an add-on module, but knew vaguely about the one user/one login thing which is very appealing. I will do more reading on that (there has to be a way around the limit) and to make certain they support other types of media files as well (video and audio).
I am shopping for a new webhost. I didn't realize they could all be so different.
Thanks again, Karen
.
Karen
We operate just such a site, so if you care to view the examples:
We do not use a CRM or even a family homepage, although that is certainly possible and could be set to point to the genealogy and gallery sites, as you have begun with your URL.
I think any of the PGV hosts listed here and many others as well, will offer you better service than your current host, and at a comparable or even cheaper rate. Remember that PGV can be an occasional resource hog and those ISPs who are inexperienced in its operation may flag the account for abuse. Better to find someone who doesn't do this. There are perhaps a dozen or so threads you can search here and on the Open Discussion forum that discuss success and failure with various ISPs. BTW, I sell toys, have a stomach like a bowl full of jelly and look like Santa - so speaking as a 'somewhat authority' - there is traditionally no "e" on Claus, unlike the 'clause' of a contract.
-Stephen
: http://www.myarnolds.com
: http://photos.myarnolds.com
Karen
Again, I would recommend against making assumptions. The default setting for Gallery is 8mb as that will accommodate the quality reprinting of most photos in 8x10, but it can easily be reconfigured to accept much larger uploads. You should consider why you wish larger files online and the bandwidth demands that uploading and downloading such big files places on both the users' and provider's systems. Usually, they are unnecessary and if larger files are needed, its better to use CD/DVD transfers and archiving.
-Stephen
> I am shopping for a new webhost.
I think thats a wise decision :-)
Regarding that 8m upload limitation - you won't get far comparing software on that basis, because its not generally a feature of the software itself. Its actually a web-server or PHP limitation. Very often its set by web hosts to a default of 2MB, so 8 is pretty good. Your web host controls this, but, I think, anywhere you go will always be limited to a maximum of 8mb. It is technically possible to go higher, and I have seen a couple of explanations on getting it to 16mb, but very few web hosts will allow it.
It is important to think about WHY you feel a need to transfer such large files. There's certainly no point trying to view anything that large on the web. You'd be forever scrolling around to see even small parts of the image!. And the level of detail is way past what your browser can really display. Then there's the download time whenever you or any visitor to your site wants to view the image. On all bar the fastest cable or broadband systems it would be far too long.
If all you need is to literally transfer the pic, then better that each of you have FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software, and access to a common folder on your web site. He uploads it, emails or calls you to say its there; and you download it!. No need for any fancy stuff there. :-)
Stephen - The "e" was a slip. Fingers working faster than brain. Will check out your site. Boy, lots of new stuff to consider.
Will have to answer other two posts after food and sleep. I am fried!
Thanks all! Karen
Stephen and Kiwi – Soup is heating.
Yes, good point both of you about the large uploads. And there is absolutely no reason any of us would need that resolution (except for him). Our normal method of sharing is to carry flash drives and laptops and transfer to and fro. We don’t get together that often, and nobody has time to burn DVDs and mail them out for everyone (big family). Could be two years before you get those sib-trip photos you have been wanting. You may not even want the photos, just want to look at them. This way, you could have them if you wanted. I am prone to assumptions (I know, I know) so I thought software would auto resize before/during upload. He (especially) would not resize all of his photos just so I could see them sooner.
I obviously have a lot more reading to do.
Karen
Hello Karen, et al,
You have gotten a lot of good advice and thanks to Stephen for the plug.
You seem to have two issues, both of which have been addressed, but I will re-iterate a little.
1. As mentioned, it seems the host you are working with won't support PGV, so if you wish to have an online family tree you can choose one of the sites that allow free tree hosting or get your own hosting service that you can control so that you can host your tree and the photos you were referring to. To run PGV you will need PDO support as mentioned.
2. Seems the photo requirement is unrelated to the family tree use. You can use free online storage for uploading and downloading the files or you can upload and download them through which service you host with.
There are no single click solutions for uploading pix. You will need to launch the software to upload the pix, you will need to identify the pix, you will have to launch the upload process, etc. Since I am a photographer, I deal a LOT with photos and have found many simple programs for re-sizing images which I also use to watermark pictures before I upload them. If these are for just family use, he may not care about watermarking them, but there are a couple reasons for resizing them. The biggest one is they will upload quicker if they are resized. I use a pay for program called Arles. I shoot in RAW and convert to JPG in Lightroom where I also tweak the color, exposure, sharpness, etc. I then use ARLES to take the output from Lightroom to re-size the images and create web pages. I then FTP the web pages and images to one of my domains for viewing. The web pages can be individualized by project/trip, their own banners, etc. Whatever I want to do to personalize them. You can do the least or the most that you wish in that respect.
It seems that if a family member is a "photographer" and wants to share their pictures, they should not have a problem running a few automated programs to make the pictures of a reasonable size to view online and manage. If the person is a photographer, they will be shooting RAW and will have to at least change them from RAW to JPG, and since no pictures come out of the camera in their best condition, it is almost always necessary to modify them.
If in fact the person isn't a "photographer", but is simply a family member taking snapshots, (probably in JPG format) and if they don't want to take two minutes to resize them, then they can do as others have suggested and simply FTP them to a directory where others can grab some or all of them.
It seems you don't care about using the web to view the images, but simply as a means to get them from one person to another. That is what FTP is for.
Seems you have gotten all the advice you need on how to manage the photos, but you still need a host that supports PDO.
Best wishes!
Lew