Dansie Photo Album 1.0 ReadMe
By Dansie Website Design
Copyright  April 18, 2006
http://www.dansie.net


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DISCLAIMER AND LEGAL STUFF:
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# COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT
# This script may only be used under license from www.dansie.net. If you
# feel you may have received an unlicensed or pirated copy, please contact
# piracy@dansie.net. Use of the Dansie Photo Album software is subject to the
# terms of the license agreement. By using this software you signify that you
# have read the license agreement and accept its terms. Your purchase of a
# Dansie Photo Album software license entitles you to one (1) working copy of
# the script per license. You may NOT copy, reproduce, resell, or give away
# copies of the script in any way shape or form without first purchasing
# additional licenses. You may make one back up copy should something happen
# to the working copy on your host. You may not make any modifications to the
# Dansie Photo Album script except as instructed in the ReadMe. The text
# links, graphic links, logos and copyright credit to http://www.dansie.net
# must remain in the script free of modification and appear on the various
# pages of Dansie Photo Album script. Violation of this license agreement may
# void your right to technical support and subject you to legal action.

Do not modify the script except for the $vars variable near the top of the
script.

Modifying the script is a violation of the software license agreement and
copyrights and may subject you to legal action.

If you believe you may have received an unlicensed copy of this script or you
have information about someone conducting piracy, please contact us at:
http://www.dansie.net/question.html

Dansie Website Design will not be held responsible for any type of damage or
loss of time that may occur as a result of using this script. This includes but
is not limited to the corruption or loss of data on your server. (Not that we
intentionally put anything in it that will cause any problems on your server, we
just have to say this to cover ourselves.) Customer assumes full responsibility
for any damages or loss of time that may occur.

Refund Policy:

Make sure that your web host allows you to run CGI Perl scripts on your website
before you order. 30 day money back guarantee from the date of purchase if the
Dansie Photo Album does not run on your website as advertised. For any and all
other reasons, all software license sales are final and are non-refundable. If
necessary, we will FTP in and get it running for you. You can install the
photo_album_test.pl script before you purchase a license to confirm your server
has all the required Perl modules for this script to run on your website.
Download it here:
http://www.dansie.net/photo_album_test.zip

Please read all instructions carefully.


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CONTENTS OF ZIP FILE:
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photo_album.pl (The script)
ReadMe.txt     (Instructions)


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IMPORTANT RULES OF THUMB:
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You must be an expert at HTML and FTP to install this script. You don't have to
know anything about Perl, though a little experience wont hurt. Always upload
Perl scripts in ASCII format and chmod 755.


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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
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1. UPLOAD: Upload the photo_album.pl script in ASCII format (not binary) to your
cgi-bin and chmod it 755. What is chmod? See: http://wsftp.stormerhosting.com

2. SET ADMIN PASSWORD: Point your browser at it like so:
http://www.YourName.com/cgi-bin/photo_album.pl?login
and set your admin password! This is very important that you do it quickly
(before anyone else does). Bookmark this URL with the ?login query string. This
is how you access the Admin Control Panel.

3. SET VARIABLES: After you have set your password you will be in the Admin
Control Panel: Main Menu. Click on "Change Variable Settings". You will notice
many variables are already set for you. Set each variable according to the
instructions for each variable.

4 UPLOAD PHOTOS: If you already have lots of photos on your website, merely set
the "images" variable with the full system path to your images directory. If you
don't have any photos on your website yet, put some up there. From the Admin
Control Panel: Main Menu, click on "Upload Photos". Or you may upload photos via
FTP.

5. VIEW PHOTO ALBUM: To view your album, simply go to:
http://www.YourName.com/cgi-bin/photo_album.pl
Or make a link on your website to this URL. Example:
<A HREF="http://www.YourName.com/cgi-bin/photo_album.pl">My Photo Album</A>


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TROUBLE SHOOTING INSTALLATION:
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Possible reasons it may not work:
1. You didn't upload the script in ASCII format.
2. You didn't chmod the script 755.
3. Your host doesn't have your site properly configured to run Perl scripts.
4. Your server may not have all the required Perl modules required for this
script to run. Install the photo_album_test.pl script to confirm your server has
all the required Perl modules for this script to run on your website. Download
it here:
http://www.dansie.net/photo_album_test.zip
5. If the script executes, but you can't get it to set your password, you will
need to download the "photo_album_vars.txt" file from the same directory the
script is in and set the "url" variable with the full URL to the script. On some
web servers, the environment variables don't yield the URL to the script, so you
may need to set it manually. Then the script will be able to post to itself and
record your admin password.

If you still can't get it working, send us your FTP address, login name and
password. We will be happy to go in and get it running for you. Send it to us
securely here:
https://secure.stormer.us/~dansie/ftp_secure.html


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TROUBLE SHOOTING OTHER COMMON PROBLEMS:
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1. If you can't see the text on the photo album's pages, check your "font_color"
and "bgcolor" variables. Make sure they contrast.
2. If your large images are incredibly huge, make sure you set the
"max_large_image_width" variable. Recommended setting is between 800 and 1200.
3. Very important, make sure your "thumbnails" and "images" system paths
variables are set correctly. If they are not, it can cause problems.
4. If you don't see the feature to rename captions in your admin control panel,
be sure to enable it with the "captions_SELECT" variable.
5. If some of your thumbnails appear to have the wrong captions under them after
you have just renamed them, click the Refresh or Reload button at the top of
your browser while holding down the SHIFT key on your keyboard.
6. If you password protected your photo album with htaccess, be careful not to
remove your own htaccess user name and password from your photo album directory.
You would essentially lock yourself out. Hopefully you might remember the
password of another user name and be able to get back in. If you can't get back
in, you would need to FTP into your website to fix it. Chmod your images and
thumbnails directory so they aren't viewable to the internet, remove the
.htaccess file from your photo albums directory, then, being able to access
photo_album.pl with your web browser, go back in and reestablish password
protection on your photo album's directory.

If a problem persists, send us an email with the URL to the photo album and a
description of the problem. We'd be happy to help.
http://www.dansie.net/question.html


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PASSWORD MANAGEMENT:
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Perhaps you only want your closest family and friends to view your photo album.
Dansie Photo Album can easily password protect directories for you. Consider
placing photo_album.pl AND all your photos behind the same directory. For
example:
http://www.YourName.com/photos/photo_album.pl
http://www.YourName.com/photos/images (for your large images)
http://www.YourName.com/photos/thumbnails (for your thumbnails)
Then, click on "Password Management" in the Admin Control Panel, select a
directory (photos) and assign user names and passwords for the people you want
to grant access to. In Password Management you can add users, remove users,
change passwords, make directories and remove password protection on directories
anywhere on your website.

You may also allow some of your password assigned users permission to upload
photos. In your variable settings, locate
"allow_vistors_to_upload_photos_SELECT" and set it as instructed.


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TELL A FRIEND AND RECEIVE A FREE UPGRADE
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We are always upgrading our scripts to make them easier to install, easier for
your customers to use, and to give you more customizing abilities. If you refer
someone else who purchases the Dansie Photo Album, we will send you an upgrade -
free. To receive the upgrade, have the person you referred send us an email
after they purchase telling us it was you that referred them to us. Your free
upgrade can be collected anytime within one year of the referral. So tell a
fellow webmaster about the Dansie Photo Album.


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UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS
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You can purchase an upgrade here:
http://www.dansie.net/upgrade_payment.html

1. Upload the new photo_album.pl script in ASCII format to your website
replacing the old one.
2. Login to your Admin Control Panel and click on "Change Variable Settings".
http://www.YourName.com/cgi-bin/photo_album.pl?login
You may customize the settings of any new variables you find.
