On-line image stock library

Hi,
I am relatively new to web design and my interest is pricipally in photography.

I have Dreamweaver 8 and iview on my PC. I want to create an on-line library with a search facility and have spent considerable hours trying to find out how it is done. There MUST be a book/website that describes the process in layman's terms.

I have been told to use MYSQL and PHP ....and?

I am thinking of creating a single web gallery with iview but what would be the code to put into the form and should I create tables? So many questions and so many blind alleys - could someone please point me in the right direction? I don't want to create a monster ..just a smple
site.

Thanks and Regds

Brian

I know there is a few open source gallerys / photo albums floating around...

http://coppermine-gallery.net/
http://gallery.menalto.com/
http://www.minigal.dk/

Heres a few demos I setup for you

http://www.rossleemedia.co.uk/demo (Coppermine - Has a search function)
http://www.rossleemedia.co.uk/demo2 (Gallery - Has a search function)
http://www.rossleemedia.co.uk/demo3 (MG2)

Hope this helps.

Thanks for that. Is it that you have to already have a web-site to use gallery as reading the README it seems you can't develop off-line?

Regds

Brian

Well ... you wanted an "on-line" photo gallery no? So ... Ross provided you with a few pre-made options.

Correct but there will be far more work in creating the gallery than the web site - no? So it would be better I feel to do it off-line. Point taken though.

What do you mean tho ... "doing it off-line"? You need PHP ... so you need to do this online? unless you have a Wamp server setup on your box.

With iview (see their website) you can create catalogues and the from that web galleries which are html pages as you can in Photoshop and then link those pages to Dreamweaver. Bearing in mind I really am a novice at all this I still have an idea of what I want to produce and enjoy learning how to do it in the process. Basically I want to achieve a searchable stock library but I will have to tinker with the HTML iview template as it isn't currently how I want it to look.

Folks have said use a MYSQL database but then I prefer a front end appearance like Access so may need to search for that.

Basically I don't want to put a lot of time in going down a certain path for some one to say " You should have done it like this .."

Regds

Brian

Working online from the get go would be much less of a hassle.

Yep agree, and it is really cheap...it is not like you are paying loads for it. But if you insist on working offline, and are going to be using MySQL and PHP, you can download Xampp...which is a free server for your computer.

Something I actually know a little about. It is interesting to learn how to use it and it helps if you do your website work offline. Give you an idea how things will work.

I've got a server on my computer (I've actually got one installed on all of them), but I read something about there being a server already installed on some os's anyone know anything about this? Don't you just have to activate them or something?

Pete.

Yeah, on OS X, a server and PHP are already installed. You just have to tick a checkbox in System Preferences and it enables it. Just open up any browser and type localhost. You have to go into the Terminal to turn on PHP, but it only takes a second.

That's it, I knew there was something. And besides it's yet another reason to buy a mac.

Pete.

Oh my gosh, and from what I heard from Ryan, the speed is unbelievable when running PHP scripts and Databases...which I find xampp tends to drag some...but only when I am doing something important!

Haha, yeah, I've never used a server program on Windows. I didn't even know they tended to slow down computers. I've run a ton of intensive PHP/MySQL scripts on my computer and the only time I noticed a slowdown was when I told PHP to count to a million and print it out on the page... Haha, what one does when you're board.

hehehe...I have done that...was mad at my old hosting company...trying to waste bandwidth...I am so mean.

Haha, I think I remember you talking about that. I still have 8 months on my contract left for the disgusting hosting company which shall go unnamed (Okay, it's websitesource.com and if you want to blow their offices up, go for it). I really want to try something that will null my contract with them. Like count to a billion on 5 websites that I've been to lazy to switch over to my lovely http://site5.com hosting servers. Or a never ending loop moving data in and out of a MySQL database and just let it run overnight.

Ahhhhh, sounds like such fun. Just make sure they don't charge you for going over on your bandwidth...but if you want to play mean...try using all o the server resources and crashing it...so much more fun!

That's what I want to do. I could make 10 duplicates of an intensive script and set up a cron job to run them all once a minute.

Hi Ross,
Had a look at Coppermine and seems very good. I understand that you load it up to your site and I have had a scan through the documentation - there is a question to which the answer is no doubt blindingly obvious - how do I link my home page generated in Dreamweaver to Coppermine? Is it a question of creating a hyperlink/flash button with a target index.php and the whole thing links? I am bound to have missed something but would be glad of your advice.

Signing off for a while - been painting a fence all day and need a beer!

Best Regds

Brian