::0. Introduction

pView is a PHP Script that provides an easy way to manage an online picture gallery. The idea is simple: just put the images into a new directory and a new gallery is created. Each gallery can also contain subgalleries. The pictures may be commented. There is an access control mechanism to limit access to folders.

Here is a demo.

::1. Screenshots

This first screenshot shows a gallery containing just sub-galleries, shown as folders.

pview_folders_sma.jpg

The following screenshot shows a gallery containing pictures, where they are shown as thumbnails.

pview_folders_sma.jpg

This last screenshot shows the detail of an image.

pview_folders_sma.jpg

There are also administration pages, for which there are no screenshots here.

::2. Features

Features of pView:

  • Extremely easy to use: The image content of a folder is dynamically shown as an HTML page
  • Comments may be added for each picture through the galleries’ management page (protected with a login)
  • Possibility to navigate through the galleries/folder
  • Each picture is supported in 3 sizes: original size (i.e. 2272×1704), full screen (i.e. 800×600) and thumbnail (i.e. 320×240), so pView can also be used for digital picture archiving.
  • Browsing between the pages inside a gallery (the number of pictures per page can be changed in the config)
  • Access control of the folder: possible to define a login/password for selected galleries
  • Users’ management page: create, delete users and change their passwords
  • The design of the galleries is done through a generic html template that can be changed. In addition, if an html template is present in a particular folder, it will be used instead of the default template (customization of particular galleries)
  • For those who have access to a bash shell: automatic generation of the thumbnails through a shell script

::3. Important Files

Inside the pView folder:

  • index.php: default browsing page
  • admin.php: galleries’ administration page, password protected, with link to the users’ administration page

::4. Requirements

The PHP pView script requires:

  • PHP version 4 or 5 (latest stable recommended).
    At the present time, the gd library for php is not needed.

The automatic thumbnails generation script (bash) requires:

  • net-pbm (tested with version 9.12-r4, gentoo linux)
  • libjpeg (tested with version 6b-r3, called just jpeg on gentoo linux)

::5. Installation

  • 5a. For those without shell access on the server
    (if you don’t know what is a shell then this section is for you)
    • Download the source (http://pview.extrabright.com), in zip or tar.gz format
    • Unpack it using your favorite unpack utilitie (i.e. on Windows Winzip, on Mac OS X Stuffit, on Unix/Linux tar or unzip)
    • Change the administrator password in the configuration page conf.php using a text editor
    • Upload the pview folder per ftp on the web server
    • Make sure from your ftp client that the folder albums/_comments has write permissions for all (user, group and other)

    You are done. In order to create a new gallery take a look at section 6. Skip point 5b.

  • 5b. For those who have a shell access
    You can proceed as for 5a or take advantage of the shell. In that case you have to:
    • Download the source as for 5a. (http://pview.extrabright.com)
    • Unpack it inside your web folder
      $ cd /to/web/folder
      $ tar xvzf /path/to/pview-*.tgz
    • Change the administrator password
      $ cd pview
      $ nano conf.php
    • Check that there is a write permission for all on the albums/_comments directory:
      $ cd albums
      $ chmod 777 _comments

      You are done. You can create a new gallery as in point 6. In addition you can use a bash script in order to create automatically the medium and thumbnail-sized image (optionally change the sizes inside the script to fit your needs):

      $ cd /path/to/picview
      $ ./createthumb_camera path/to/your/new/gallery/foler

      or for phone pictures (original about 640×480):

      $ ./createthumb_phone path/to/your/new/gallery/foler

      Don’t hesitate to write me an e-mail for bug reports: Pajai

::6. Creation of a New Gallery

Extremely easy:

  • Simply create a new folder somewhere inside the album tree
  • Upload your pictures: _sma.jpg for the thumbnail, _med.jpg for the full screen version and (optionnaly if you want to store the original hi-resolution format with pView) .jpg for the original size

You are done.

  • If you want, you can later add comments, change the title of the gallery or restrict the access using the admin page.

::7. Download