Hi lamama,
The installation of v1.4.5 went smoothly. I made sure this time that I had folders in both the "albums" inside the CPG as well as a pics outside.
I included below why things were not working before I figured out what the mistake was -- did a lot of trial and error. The key was quite simple -- two dots (..) before the forward slash (../) -- made the difference.
../pics/
[Note the difference of this presentation in comparison with how the Admin created folders are specified in the Config.] For directories outside of the program itself, without the "../", in specifying the route path; for example if just like this:
pics/
/pics/
the program would think that it is inside the "album" directory. So that it specifies the route of the outside folder "pics" as if it was inside the default "albums" directory. So that the route path shown for the two specifications above would be like this:
...//cpg/albums/pics/inner folders/
...//cpg/albums//pics/inner folders/
respectively. [Here, "...//cpg/" refers to the route path before the default "albums" directory, and "cpg" refers to the name of the directory where the Coppermine program was placed.]
In contrast to the above, with the two dots and the forward slash added, ie. ("/pics/"), the Coppermine program would now interpret it this way:
...//cpg/albums/../pics/inner folders/
It still looks odd, but the second time I tried it, I happen to have uploaded photos in folders found in both the inner default "albums" and in my outer album, i.e., "pics". In the second try, i.e., ("/pics/"), the program pick up the folders with photos, outside of the program itself.
Also, there must be some prior "Albums" created already. And, when I tried the "Batch add files", the program picked up the photos found in the folder outside of the program, created the thumbnails and intermediate -- and deposited them back to the original folder (outside of the program).
It was working, because I could view them in the main page. I loaded my next set of pics and everything worked, but when I hit "Home" again, I got an error message -- something about not being to resolve the request (forgot now). Devasting. I thought, my procedure corrupted the system. I checked an old photogallery in another website but using an older version of CPG, and it was working. I checked another more recent one in a subdomain, it was also working.
Undaunted, I decided to reinstall the program and started all over again -- install, upgrade, check version and configured. Then I setup the directories, albums and changed their permissions. etc., etc. Everything was working -- well until I FTP more pics (that worked), did the "Batch add files" (that worked), then I hit "Home":
Same problem. .... same error message again.
I was about to write a ticket to my webhosting service. But I found something odd, the general structure itself of the pic gallery was intact. This means that the database itself was working. The clue that there was nothing wrong with what I was doing was that when I tried the other photogallery in the same subdomain it was now not working also. On the other hand, the one in a different domain was still working.
OK, long story short, it was a server issue, most likely but just guessing -- for some reason my system malfunctioned while I was doing the trial and error. Maybe it got crazy with all the add and erase, as I was doing it by trial and error.
Thanks.
cgc0202
N.B.
All had the CHMOD changed to "777" I placed the route path of the outside /pics/ folders in the Config. Somehow the program treated them as if the one I enter was inside the "albums: folder and I got this message:
"There are no folders inside the "albums" folder yet. Make sure to create at least one custom folder within "albums" folder and ftp-upload your files there. You mustn't upload to the "userpics" nor "edit" folders, they are reserved for http uploads and internal purposes."
This was the message I got the other day when I tried the previous approach -- using (/pics/) without the two dots:
[I reverted to creating the folders inside the "albums: and of course that worked.]
I repeated the process today, and got the same error message. I was not that surprised actually, after re-reading your post. The clue was the "two dots", I remembered instantly how in another application I use, without the two dots (maybe it works with three dots), the program interprets the link as if the folder in question was inside rather than outside. I never encountered this before with a script using just basic html.
To test my hypothesis, I tried it with the "two dots", and what happened was as I explained above. What is contained here would be boring to most. However, I related this because there might be people here like me with no scripting background and experience.