source: trunk/language/en_UK/help/photos_add_ftp.html @ 8703

<fieldset>
  <legend>Quick Start</legend>

<ol>
  <li>Create a directory on your computer.</li>  

  <li>Copy some photos inside this directory, resize them for web display. <em>Warning</em>: the name of directories and files must contain only letters, figures, "-", "_" or ".". No blank space, nor accentuated characters.</li>

  <li>With a FTP client, copy your directory in the "galleries" directory of your Piwigo installation.</li>

  <li>Logon your gallery and go to <span class="pwgScreen">Administration &raquo; Tools &raquo; Thumbnails</span> to create missing thumbnails.</li>

  <li>Go to <span class="pwgScreen">Administration</span> and click on the big Synchronization button.</li>
</ol>

Congratulations! You have successfully created the first album of your photo gallery.
</fieldset>

<fieldset>
  <legend>Directories and files organization</legend>

<ul>

  <li>

    <p>Album directories are in the Piwigo directory
    "galleries". Here follows the directory tree of a very small gallery (but
    using many features):</p>

    <pre>
.
|-- admin
|-- doc
|-- galleries
|   |-- category-1
|   |   |-- category-1.1
|   |   |   |-- category-1.1.1
|   |   |   |   |-- category-1.1.1.1
|   |   |   |   |   |-- pwg_high
|   |   |   |   |   |   +-- wedding.jpg
|   |   |   |   |   |-- thumbnail
|   |   |   |   |   |   +-- TN-wedding.jpg
|   |   |   |   |   +-- wedding.jpg
|   |   |   |   +-- category-1.1.1.2
|   |   |   +-- category-1.1.2
|   |   |-- category-1.2
|   |   |   |-- pookie.jpg
|   |   |   +-- thumbnail
|   |   |       +-- TN-pookie.jpg
|   |   +-- category-1.3
|   +-- category-2
|       |-- piglet.gif
|       |-- pwg_representative
|       |   +-- video.jpg
|       |-- thumbnail
|       |   +-- TN-piglet.jpg
|       +-- video.avi
|-- include
|-- install
|-- language
|-- template
+-- tool</pre>

  </li>

  <li>Except for those named "thumbnail", "pwg-high" or "pwg_representative" (see explanations below), each directory under "galleries" produces a album. There is no limit on deepness.</li>

  <li>Basically, an element is represented by a file. A file can be a
  Piwigo element if its extension is among <code>file_ext</code>
  configuration parameter possibilities (see <span
  class="filename">include/config_default.inc.php</span> file). A file can
  be a picture if its extension is among <code>picture_ext</code>
  configuration parameter possibilities.</li>

  <li>Photo elements must have an associated thumbnail (see section below
  about thumbnails)</li>

  <li>Photo elements can have a high quality file associated. As for
  wedding.jpg in the example above. No prefix on the high quality picture.</li>

  <li>No photo elements (video, sounds, file texts, whatever you want...) are represented by default by an icon corresponding to the filename
  extension. Optionally, you can associate a thumbnail and a representative
  file (see video.avi in the example above).</li>

  <li><em>Warning</em>: the name of directories and files must contain only letters, figures, "-", "_" or ".". No blank space, nor accentuated characters.</li>

  <li>Once files, thumbnails and representatives are correctly placed in the
  directories, go to: <span class="pwgScreen">Administration &raquo; Tools &raquo;
  Synchronize</span></li>

</ul>
</fieldset>

<fieldset>
  <legend>Thumbnails</legend>
<ul>

  <li>Each photo must have its thumbnail.</li>

  <li>Thumbnails are stored in the "thumbnail" sub-directory of the album
  directory. The thumbnail has the same filename as the corresponding photo, with configuration parameter <code>prefix_thumbnail</code> as prefix (see <span class="filename">include/config.inc.php</span>).</li>

  <li>Thumbnails files have not necessary the same extension as the associated image (eg a ".jpg" image may have a ".GIF" extension).</li>

  <li>It is recommended to use an external module for thumbnails creation.</li>

  <li>The usage of the thumbnails creation tool integrated in Piwigo is not advisable, because the resulting quality might be disappointing and this will lie heavily on the server ressources (and that could be a serious problem on a shared server).

  <li>If you choose to use the webserver to generate thumbnails, you must allow write access on all albums directories.</li>

</ul>
</fieldset>