Media Gallery Plugin for Geeklog - Installation

Media Gallery follows the standard Geeklog plugins procedure, which has not been well documented. Below we will document two methods to install the Media Gallery files, via FTP and via standard shell access to the server.

FTP Installation

If you do not have shell access to your server and can only use an FTP client to access your server, follow these instructions. If you have shell access to your server, you may want to jump down to the Shell Access Installation instructions below.

To install Media Gallery, or any Geeklog plugin, you will need to un-archive the plugin on your local computer. The Media Gallery distribution will automatically create all the proper directories when it is un-archived.

To un-archive a .gz file, you can use later copies of WinZIP or WinRAR.

  1. Create a temporary directory on your local hard drive to hold the Media Gallery files (let’s use C:\tmp for our example).
  2. Open the mediagallery_1.7.0_2.0.0.tar.gz file with WinRAR.
  3. Select Extract All Files and point to the C:\tmp directory as the destination.

Now we should have a local copy of the Media Gallery Plugin in C:\tmp

The directory should look like this:

+tmp\
    + mediagallery\
                  + admin\
                  + docs\
                  + include\
                  + language\
                  + public_html\
                  + sql\
                  + templates\
                  + tmp\
                  + uploads\
                  + autoinstall.php
                  +

Now that you have a copy on your local hard drive, it is time to FTP up to your server.

Start your FTP program, I recommend FileZilla if you do not have a program you use already. FileZilla is free and supports many different operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc.).

Connect to your web server with your FTP program. 

Our first FTP will be the entire Media Gallery distribution to your server. You will want to use the diagrams below to find the proper directory on your server and move the entire c:\tmp\mediagallery\ directory to the path-to-geeklog/plugins/ directory.

path-to-geeklog directory is the directory db-configphp exists.

SPECIAL NOTE: For the initial FTP of the Media Gallery distribution, you will want to actually drag the mediagallery folder from your local computer to the plugins directory on your server.  The remaining FTP’s below you will actually drag the files, not the parent directory.

tmp\                path-to-geeklog/
   |                               |
   + mediagallery\--+              + backups/
                    |              + data/
                    |              + language/
                    |              + logs/
                    +------------->+ plugins/
                                   + public_html/
                                   + sql/
                                   + system/
                                   + db-config.php

Next, you will need to make a sub-directory under the public_html directory on your server called mediagallery. For most FTP programs you can create directories by highlighting the parent directory, public_html in this case, then right click the mouse, select New Folder and name it mediagallery. This procedure may be a little different depending on which FTP program you are using, check their documentation. 

  path-to-geeklog/
                 |
                 + backups/
                 + data/
                 + language/
                 + logs/
                 + plugins/
                 + public_html/
                              |
                              + mediagallery <--- Make this subdirectory
                 + sql/
                 + system/
                 + db-config.php

Next you will need to FTP all the files from the c:\tmp\mediagallery\public_html\* directory to your server. Here you will want to select all the files and sub-directories in the public_html\ directory, not just the public_html\ folder. Follow the diagram below:

tmp\                 path-to-geeklog/
   |                                |
   + mediagallery\                  + backups/
                 |                  + data/
                 + public_html\*-+  + language/
                                 |  + logs/
                                 |  + plugins/
                                 |  + public_html/
                                 |               |
                                 +-------------->+ mediagallery/
                                    + sql/
                                    + system/
                                    + db-config.php

Next, you will need to make a sub-directory under the admin/plugins/ directory on your server called mediagallery. 

path-to-geeklog/
               |
               + backups/
               + data/
               + language/
               + logs/
               + plugins/
               + public_html/
               |    |
               |    + admin/
               |           |
               |           + plugins/
               |                    |
               |                    + mediagallery <--- Make this subdirectory
               + sql/
               + system/
               + db-config.php

Next you will need to FTP all the files from the c:\tmp\mediagallery\admin\* directory to your server. Here you will want to select all the files and sub-directories in the admin\ directory, not just the public_html\ folder. Follow the map below: 

tmp\            path-to-geeklog/
   |                           |
   + mediagallery\             + backups/
                 |             + data/
                 + admin\---+  + language/
                            |  + logs/
                            |  + plugins/
                            |  + public_html/
                            |         |
                            |         + admin/
                            |                |
                            |                + plugins/
                            |                         |
                            +-----------------------> + mediagallery/
                               + sql/
                               + system/
                               + db-config.php

Congratulations! You should now have all the files uploaded to your server and you are ready to skin to the Online Installation step below.

Standard Shell Access Installation

  1. Backup your Geeklog database because the Media Gallery plugin adds tables. You can do this with the built in database backup facility in the Admin menu.
  2. Uncompress the Media Gallery plugin archive while in the path-to-geeklog/plugins directory. The archive will create a directory called mediagallery.
  3. In your public_html directory, create a directory called mediagallery.
  4. Under public_html/admin/plugins/ directory, create a directory called mediagallery.
  5. Change to your path-to-geeklog/plugins/mediagallery directory.
  6. Copy the files in the admin directory to the admin/plugins/mediagallery directory you created in step 4.
  7. Copy the files in the public_html directory to the public_html/mediagallery directory you created in step 3.

Online Installation

Now that you have the files loaded on your server, it is time to actually perform the Media Gallery installation into Geeklog.

  1. Go to the plugin administration page. The Media Gallery plugin should show up with a link to install it. Click this link. The install page will tell you if it was successful or not. If not, examine the Geeklog error.log in path-to-geeklog/logs/ to see what the problem was. Fix the problem and re-install.
  2. The install page will offer you a link to the configuration page of Media Gallery. You should select this link and make the necessary changes to Media Gallery configuration to suit your environment.

Setting Permissions

The following directory permissions must be set 757 (or 777).

Standard Upgrade Process

  1. BACK UP YOUR EXISTING ENVIRONMENT!
  2. SAVE YOUR TEMPLATES IF YOU HAVE MADE MODIFICATIONS! You will need to re-apply your customizations to the templates after the upgrade.
  3. Refer to the installation instructions for New Installations for detailed instructions on uploading the new Media Gallery distribution to your server If you are prompted to overwrite existing files, be sure to answer Yes.
  4. Go to the Geeklog Plugins Menu (from the Geeklog Administrator’s menu).
  5. Select mediagallery plugin.
  6. You should have an UPDATE button, select it.
  7. If all goes well, the upgrade should be complete. If there were errors, please review your logs/error.log and correct any issues and try the UPDATE again.

Post Upgrade Checks