Please help! My website will no longer update and I need a photo gallery.

[Naboo32]

I'm really stuck here! A year ago, I paid a web hosting service for some webspace and managed to create a simple, blog-style website for displaying my photos. All went well, until 2 weeks ago, when I found that I could no longer publish the updated version of my website (by updated, I simply mean that I'd added a few more pics).

My web-host (JustHost.com) have given me the run around since I reported the problem and are now blaming the third party software, which I used to create the actual website. They have also told me that my 'project' (website) was too "image heavy" and that by posting 1000 pixel images directly onto each page within the 7 or 8 sections that my website had, I was probably over-loading something somewhere. Quite simply, I have been using the WYSIWYG method of editing and have just posted my images directly onto the web pages.

The biggest issue here is that I don't really understand all of this web publishing terminology - I'm just a guy with a camera who wants to display his pictures, not Bill Gates :shrug:! I only managed to create the website in the first place with the help of some very easy-to-follow templates (from RV Sitebuilder).

What I need to do now, so I am told, is to use third party 'gallery' software within my website's pages to show my photographs, without making the pages too full of large files. But, I really don't have a clue how to do this and nothing that I've read online is pitched at my level - it's mostly too full of jargon that I don't understand, or it just speaks in general terms about what can be done, without saying how :bang:.

What I'm looking for here is for some kind volunteer to take a look at the remains of my website (linked in my sig) and try to explain to me how I go about adding an image gallery (such as Gallery, Word Press, Coppermine etc.) to work as part of one of my web pages. I sort of found a way to add a link to either open a new window or display the Gallery pages as a full window, but what I want is to make it look like part of my website. I don't see the point in paying for a website, if I'm just going to add links to extarnal web pages which have the same sort of ugly functionality as Flickr, Photobucket etc. As far as I can work out, that's what my web hosts are telling me to do .

Thanks to anyone who's read this far into my post and double thanks to anyone who can give me some plain English pointers about how to tackle this problem .

 

[Harvey_nikon]

The only thing that having the images directly on the pages at that size will do is slow load times.

It sounds like they are talking out of their ass to me.

Even wordpress will simply upload the images to an image file and then link them directly in to the page.

At work at the moment so limited to what I can do but if I get chance before I go away I will have a look at it

 

[Naboo32]

The only thing that having the images directly on the pages at that size will do is slow load times.

It sounds like they are talking out of their ass to me.

Even wordpress will simply upload the images to an image file and then link them directly in to the page.

At work at the moment so limited to what I can do but if I get chance before I go away I will have a look at it

Thanks for that, Harvey !

Yes, it does slow down upload times, that's true. It seems that I've reached the limit of what my current site building tool (RV Sitebuilder) can do and now it's erroring out after a certain amount of time when I try to publish the project. Even going back and deleting content and trying to re-publish doesn't work any more :shrug:. In fact, this issue seems to be known about by the software company, as their new (non-free) version specifically mentions "No Time-Out Issues" amongst it's features (http://www.rvsitebuilder.com/).

There is another site builder tool, provided by Just Host, which is much less fancy. The problem with that is that I can't find any options in the interface to change the page layout to look anything like my current site. In fact, I can't seem to find any of the menu options that I need to do much of anything!

If you do look at my website, click on the "Published Images" tab, as this is one of the few pages with any content on at the moment and shows how I used to use the other pages (images pasted durectly inbetween text).

Cheers!

Andy

 

[Harvey_nikon]

I've had a quick scan over the site, and I think that you could easily replace it with Wordpress.

It also doesn't need gallery software installed, you can post directly on the pages but you can, if you want at a later date, install a gallery. Plus there are 100's of plug ins for it that you may find useful.

I would suggest you pop to 000webhost and create an account. You can then start a free website + free domain just to test things out on.

Create an SQL database, upload the wordpress files and have a play with it. Look at downloading a custom template for it from within the admin panel. If you want one like yours you would be looking for a 2 column variable width template. then it's just a case of playing with the colours and adding your header

 

[Naboo32]

I've had a quick scan over the site, and I think that you could easily replace it with Wordpress.

It also doesn't need gallery software installed, you can post directly on the pages but you can, if you want at a later date, install a gallery. Plus there are 100's of plug ins for it that you may find useful.

I would suggest you pop to 000webhost and create an account. You can then start a free website + free domain just to test things out on.

Create an SQL database, upload the wordpress files and have a play with it. Look at downloading a custom template for it from within the admin panel. If you want one like yours you would be looking for a 2 column variable width template. then it's just a case of playing with the colours and adding your header

This is very encouraging, thanks for taking the time to do that Harvey .

The part which still confuses me is: How do I 'transfer' a website made with another domain name (e.g. AHPfreebieweb.net) to the domain which I am currently paying for (e.g. AHPhotography.com) ?

I really wish that I had an 11 year old cousin to explain all of this stuff to me .

 

[Harvey_nikon]

I can't advise on transferring sites, I usually just start from scratch. If the website is staying on the same server and you just want to transfer domains I think you need to look at nameservers. I am sure someone can help that knows more

I've set up a test wordpress for you:

http://testwordpress.herobo.com

If you make changes it can remove the admin log ing link so that is here:

http://testwordpress.herobo.com/wp-admin/

Login: admin
Password: testing

Go in and have a play, check out the different areas and themes, see if there is anything you like

Lots of people on here use wordpress so lots of people to answer questions too

 

[Naboo32]

I can't advise on transferring sites, I usually just start from scratch. If the website is staying on the same server and you just want to transfer domains I think you need to look at nameservers. I am sure someone can help that knows more

I've set up a test wordpress for you:

http://testwordpress.herobo.com

If you make changes it can remove the admin log ing link so that is here:

http://testwordpress.herobo.com/wp-admin/

Login: admin
Password: testing

Go in and have a play, check out the different areas and themes, see if there is anything you like

Lots of people on here use wordpress so lots of people to answer questions too

You're a star, Harvey - I'll have a look at that when I get home tonight .

Cheers!

 

[evilonion]

+1 for wordpress from me.
It's evolved into a very easy to use cms (content management system) for building decent websites.

Your host is giving you the run around, if anything is causing drain on the servers then they have massively over populated the server.

With wordpress the easiest way would be to use whats called FTP
Download a program called filezilla... This program lets you access the server (your hosting account) directly and makes it much quicker for adding galleries etc to your wordpress site.

You can instal a gallery plugin into wordpress called nextgen gallery... create folders to use as photography albums on the site, and then just upload all your images in one go using the ftp program.

It sounds complicated but it really is quite easy, and once you do it once its like riding a bike

If you need any step by step help either send me a pm if needed or post ina thread here and im sure myself and others can help

 

[Naboo32]

+1 for wordpress from me.
It's evolved into a very easy to use cms (content management system) for building decent websites.

Your host is giving you the run around, if anything is causing drain on the servers then they have massively over populated the server.

With wordpress the easiest way would be to use whats called FTP
Download a program called filezilla... This program lets you access the server (your hosting account) directly and makes it much quicker for adding galleries etc to your wordpress site.

You can instal a gallery plugin into wordpress called nextgen gallery... create folders to use as photography albums on the site, and then just upload all your images in one go using the ftp program.

It sounds complicated but it really is quite easy, and once you do it once its like riding a bike

If you need any step by step help either send me a pm if needed or post ina thread here and im sure myself and others can help

This is a very kind offer, Mr. Onion , thanks!

At the moment, my head is just swimming with all of this and I really don't have a clue what I'm doing any more - it's really quite pathetic !

I (somehow) installed Word Press, Gallery and Joomla into the directories of the files in the "public_html" folder of my website, but I still can't seem to understand how any other the programs work and how the results are then 'connected' to pages on my website :shrug:.

I'll try downloading Filezilla, whilst I'm at it , and see if can understand what good that might do.

It's actually embarrassing for me to post this stuff, as I'm normally fairly technically-minded, but this whole website hosting lark is a complete unknown to me :shrug:.

 

[clicker123]

i'd get yourself over to wordpress.org and have a good read. Like previous posts mention - once you get your head around the install and setup it is the simplest thing to use.

It's just getting to that point

I used to use Dreamweaver/Frontpage etc for my site. But to jsut host photos etc, Wordpress has saved me so much time and effort.

good luck

 

[Naboo32]

i'd get yourself over to wordpress.org and have a good read. Like previous posts mention - once you get your head around the install and setup it is the simplest thing to use.

It's just getting to that point

I used to use Dreamweaver/Frontpage etc for my site. But to jsut host photos etc, Wordpress has saved me so much time and effort.

good luck

Thanks for the support !

The real problem here is that the product that I used to create the whole website in the first place (RV Sitebuilder) was actually intergrated into the Control Panel on my web hosting service's (Just Host) website. So, all I had to do was follow the idiot-proof templates and I created a website just the way that I wanted it . So, when the version of RV Sitebuilder that was incorporated in my web host's package started to play up, I was suddenly confronted with the prospect of dealing with other, external software to do the same job and I still can't see how the two come together to affect the contents of my existing website . In other words, I don't really want to be confronted with the complexities of Word Press, Joomla, Gallery, Coppermine, Spanglygonads and all of the other wierd and wonderful web publishing software (written by experts, for experts).

In fact, I've just rebuilt my website (using the RV Sitebuilder software) to about 80% of what it was before (click on the link if you want to see it) and I really like this simple format :shrug:. If it was up to me, I'd just carry on using that tool, but I can't.

Anyway, I'm just moaning here, so I'll stop (and go and drink yet another beer ).

I'll try looking at this problem again, in a couple of days time, once I've had time to empty my head :bonk:.

Or maybe I'll just go and try to take some decent photographs and forget about sharing them with anyone else .

 

[Harvey_nikon]

OK, I have had a play around with the test site I posted earlier to try and make something similar. spent 20 mins on it, found a similar template to yours but it would still need tweaking.

I have also installed the gallery mentioned by evilonion and posted one of my old shots in the animals gallery.

I've never used it but it seems easy enough, probably requires a few tweaks. Images can be shown as thumbnails and fullsize on the page.

This really would be the easiest way for you, and there is lots of help here if you struggle with any aspect of it

 

[ziggy©]

If you have access to FTP (Have a look at your account spec for your provider) you can simply create your album on your local pc at home and just transfer the files to your web-host.

There are several album creation tools. I use jAlbum which is very easy to use. All you have to do is tell it where the images are, which template to use and it will create the album for you. All you then need to do is transfer the files that jAlbum creates to your webhost using FTP.

Have a look at this link for examples on the kind of albums you can create using jAlbum
http://jalbum.net/browse/landing/album/566326/

Clicking on "Next featured Album" on the top left of the screen will reload using a different template. By the way jAlbum is open source (i.e. free).

All you need to do is

- Find out if your web host provides FTP (This page http://www.justhost.com/hosting-features suggest that they do)
- download jalbum from http://jalbum.net/
- Create your album using the tutorial on this page http://jalbum.net/help/tutorials (First link)
- Backup your current site.
- Verify that your backup worked
- double check and test that your backup worked
- Logon to your FTP account - The email that you recieved from your webhost should include your ftp username and password.
- Transfer the files created by jalbum to your folder.

With this option you still have your original gallery on your pc so you can always update them as your wish and just re-transfer.

Please please make sure that you backup your current gallery.

I would suggest that you start of by downloading jalbum and try it on your pc before you even start thinking about updating your site.

 

[Naboo32]

OK, I have had a play around with the test site I posted earlier to try and make something similar. spent 20 mins on it, found a similar template to yours but it would still need tweaking.

I have also installed the gallery mentioned by evilonion and posted one of my old shots in the animals gallery.

I've never used it but it seems easy enough, probably requires a few tweaks. Images can be shown as thumbnails and fullsize on the page.

This really would be the easiest way for you, and there is lots of help here if you struggle with any aspect of it

Again, many thanks for your help Harvey - it's much appreciated . I'm going to have another look at the site after I've posted this.

After some further consideration, I've decided that I want to keep the format of my (new) website just the same as the old one, i.e. full size pictures are displayed directly on each page, with free text in between and users simply scroll down the pages of each category to view the content. This is rather unsophisticated, but then a few of my visitors are family members who don't use the Internet a great deal and I think that they would appreciate as few menus and as few clicks as possible.

So, Wordpress may well be a good option for this 'blog style' - it's simply a matter of whether I can figure out to modify the layout to look as 'personalised' as my current homepage :shrug:!?

Then, there is the matter of managing the publishing side of things - which is where my real problem lies, currently :|.

If you have access to FTP (Have a look at your account spec for your provider) you can simply create your album on your local pc at home and just transfer the files to your web-host.

There are several album creation tools. I use jAlbum which is very easy to use. All you have to do is tell it where the images are, which template to use and it will create the album for you. All you then need to do is transfer the files that jAlbum creates to your webhost using FTP.

Have a look at this link for examples on the kind of albums you can create using jAlbum
http://jalbum.net/browse/landing/album/566326/

Clicking on "Next featured Album" on the top left of the screen will reload using a different template. By the way jAlbum is open source (i.e. free).

All you need to do is

- Find out if your web host provides FTP (This page http://www.justhost.com/hosting-features suggest that they do)
- download jalbum from http://jalbum.net/
- Create your album using the tutorial on this page http://jalbum.net/help/tutorials (First link)
- Backup your current site.
- Verify that your backup worked
- double check and test that your backup worked
- Logon to your FTP account - The email that you recieved from your webhost should include your ftp username and password.
- Transfer the files created by jalbum to your folder.

With this option you still have your original gallery on your pc so you can always update them as your wish and just re-transfer.

Please please make sure that you backup your current gallery.

I would suggest that you start of by downloading jalbum and try it on your pc before you even start thinking about updating your site.

Hi Dini !

It was very kind of you to take the time to make this post - and to explain it so clearly (very neccessary) .

I really like the look of some of those albums. They are very slick and a lot more 'professional' than my current 'slap it straight on the page' approach. My two main concerns with these kind of albums is that (as mentioned above) they may be a little complicated for some of my site's visitors to use and the main issue is that the maximum size of the images is smaller than the current 1000 pixel limit, which I use on my website.

I will take some more time later to look at more of the templates, to see if there are any that get around these issues.

As for having access to the FTP files, I do ! I think that I may still need another piece of software to actually be able to transfer them (someone mentioned "Filezilla" earlier), but that shouldn't be a problem.

So, slowly, the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place .



I will be on holiday for a week, from tomorrow, so I may not be around to respond to any more posts in this thread and then I will need some time to try out all of the things, which have been suggested so far. So, please don't anyone think that I've lost interest in this topic, as I really have to do something about fixing my current website - it's just a question of when :shrug:!?

Thanks again everyone .