Windows users, now available the Photo Cart Uploader! Click here for details and download.

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Upload images with FTP

FTP is a way to transfer file from your computer to your website. There are many programs FTP programs out there. WS_FTP, CuteFTP, Filezilla, SmartFTP are some.

Reduce / Resize your images
First thing you will want to do before uploading your images is to reduce / resize them. Reducing them will not only be faster to upload but also will be faster to process.

You will want to resize them to the size of what your zoom image will be (the zoom image is the size that the customer can click to enlarge). I suggest around 700 pixels on the longest side (either 700 in width or height).

Click here for a tutorial I put together for using Picasa (free from google) to do a batch resize. Very easy and quick.

Uploading the images
After you have prepared your images to upload you will want to upload them to the folder indicated on the FTP upload page for that gallery in the admin.

Sometimes when you first log into your website via FTP you will see folder you don’t recognize. Generally there will be something like a public_html or web folder. Then navigate to your Photo Cart location.

The folder path indicated in the gallery are folders separated by a “/”. So once you are in your Photo Cart folder, find the photos folder. Then find the other folder indicated.

Go into that folder, this is where you will want to upload your images. Find and select all the images in your FTP and upload them to that folder. Once they are done uploading return to the FTP page for that gallery and refresh it.

You will now see a list of images to process and a process button. Click that and when it is done processing it will return you to the gallery.

Tutorial using Filezilla
Click here for a tutorial with screen shots I put together for using filezilla to FTP your images.

Batch subgallery creation and process
Photo Cart also allows you to upload folders of images into a gallery to create subgalleries automatically. To do this:

1) Create your main gallery in the Photo Cart admin.

2) Have your images in folders on your coomputer named what you want the subgalleries to be called with underscores and no spaces. For example: my_subgallery_name
Important! Only use letters, numbers and underscores in your folder names. Things like $, &, # may cause problems.

3) Upload those folders of image into the main gallery folder created by Photo Cart.

4) Go to the FTP Process Upload page for that gallery. You will see them listed there.

5) Click the process button. This will make each folder a subgallery and process the images.

### If you see an error message that the folders are not writable, you will need to set the permission to writable on the folders you uploaded. Generally you will right click on the folders and change permission to 777.



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If you have any questions about this section please post them below.

using v4.1

- uploaded image using WS_FTP as shown below:
Byers Wedding > Bridal Session > Process FTP uploaded images
Upload images to folder: photos/100-weddings/1025-byers_wedding/bridal_session

- images are all listed on the admin page
- click "--Process Images--" button
- system whirls around for a second and replies:
images processed in 1 seconds and have been added to the gallery

- BUT, page then shows:
Images: 0 in this gallery
0 total images in 6 subgalleries
Gallery folder: photos/100-weddings/1025-byers_wedding

- how do I debug this? pgm seems to think it worked correctly, but the images are not registered.


BTW, images do not register if I use the individual Upload Images feature either...

I'm having the same problem Byron. I hope a solution is found.

Byron,

Because you are not using the standard PHOTOCART directory, did you make the appropriate change in the setup.php file?

Shelleye, my problems are solved.
Harforsports, yes.

I am running a Beta version of Tim's next release. I got a file from him which solved my FTP problem registering images in subdirectories of the main gallery.

The problem of uploaing single images was mine. I recently brought a new sever online and the version of Apache I was running was not built with GD Lib installed -- I rebuilt Apache and fixed that.

Tim has the fastest response time to issues that I have seen in many years. Kudos to the great job he is doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you unable to process images? any error messages?

Tim is there an easy way to upload a batch of images from a local file since the server is hosted on my personal machine??
\

Ok I figured it out, I have to actually have the ftp server on the same machine to be able to do it. Thanks for your help this afternoon, I am loving the program so far. it is just what I was wanting.

Hi, new here.

I just installed the Photo Cart Uploader and I'm having problems with the settings.

I keep getting error messages such as:
“Unable to connect to ftp server, please check that the address is correct.”

I try a few different ftp addresses – ftp.mysite.com, mysite.com, mysite.com//public_ftp – and nothing helps.

Sometimes, I’ll even get a long error message – “Unable to key ‘action’ and value ‘galleries’ and a lot of “stuff” about menu’s and the like”.

With this error message, I have to hit “ctrl – alt – delete” to close the program. Otherwise, the message just keeps popping up without letting me get back to the Uploader.

I also get the error message:
“Unable to find remote folder, please check that the remote folder is correct.”

I did create a folder in the Photo Cart area on my site. And I believe I entered the correct remote folder in the Uploader settings - public_html/myPhotoCartName/photos/myfoldername

What I am doing wrong? This is driving me crazy! Thanks a bunch for any help.

Donna

Is there a limit to the number of images in a Gallery?

I spent a great deal of time uploading galleries over the weekend and it seems that although the cart recognises the right number of images, it is not showing all of them. It gets to about page 8 and there are no more thumbnails.

For info, trying to put about 300-350 images per gallery.

i have the same prob, when uploading images, i get an blank screen after selecting process. i have uploaded like 900 pics.

I am having a similar problem. When I upload 400 images via ftp into the folder at first I dont get any thumbnails. I know to create them I need to click on the ftp upload process but when I tell it to create the thumbnails with all the other options allowed it goes crazy and produces 3000 copies of the images. Is this to do with the amount of pictues I am trying to upload?

Generally when you have problems after clicking the process button it is because the images are too large for the server to process.

Sol, I added error reporting to yours yesterday and still waiting to hear which gallery you are working on.

Dream, I would really need to see this in action. Can you email me a link to your admin with user & pass?

info@picturespro.com

I am trying to upload about 350 images. I have tried fillezilla and cuteftp... when I go back into photocart I get the following error message and the photos do not show.

Warning: imagecreatefromjpeg() [function.imagecreatefromjpeg]: gd-jpeg: JPEG library reports unrecoverable error: in /home/kbennett/public_html/clients/ftp_process.php on line 281

Warning: imagecreatefromjpeg() [function.imagecreatefromjpeg]: '/home/kbennett/public_html/clients/photos/1012-klemon/1411wb.jpg' is not a valid JPEG file in /home/kbennett/public_html/clients/ftp_process.php on line 281

Warning: images): supplied argument is not a valid Image resource in /home/kbennett/public_html/clients/ftp_process.php on line 282

Warning: imagesy(): supplied argument is not a valid Image resource in /home/kbennett/public_html/clients/ftp_process.php on line 283

Warning: imagejpeg(): supplied argument is not a valid Image resource in /home/kbennett/public_html/clients/ftp_process

any idea what I am doing wrong? Thanks!

Sounds like the image file you are trying to upload may be corrupt. Can you try uploading a different image, something maybe you have uploaded before?

I generaly resize to 900x900 with BreezeBrowser Pro v1.7 at 35% quality settings, Upload the 40-60kb files with Cute FTP, and process with PhotoCart. This is tedious but usually takes only about 10 hours for 7,000 images in 250 sub-folders.

Last weekend I used a beta of Dave's Uploader. It should be released very soon as v1.5.

Starting with sorted full size images it processed the same number of pictures in about 20 hours. But the set up was very easy, the entire process can be done with one program (you can even access your admin and add the main Gallery), and it recursively processes all sub-galleries.
I already had the progam set up so it took less than 15 minutes of my time to make the Gallery on PhotoCart and add my sub-galleries from my PC, and once started UpLoader runs by itself unattended.
At 50% Quality settings, the website files were twice as big as BB/Cute/PhotCart but created quite a bit better images.

I thought this would be more user friendly. I am frustrated and confused and keep getting the error message "Unable to find remote folder, please check that the remote folder is correct." -- I'm using public_html/photocart/photos (what I was given in my email from Tim)

I haven't even been able to attempt to upload my resized files for download. I checked for similar problems in the forum, read the help topics and I downloaded the current version today.

Please assist me as soon as possible as I have a gallery to put up for clients this evening (I know I shouldn't have waited this long, but I seriously thought it would be easy!). Thanks.

I forgot to change the default in the email. Your remote folder will be:

public_html/clients/photos

Phew! I was totally intimidated by all this computer lingo and thought I was doing something wrong. Thanks for your quick email and for solving the problem.

I'm having an issue processing my photos. I have the images FTP'd but when I click the Process Images / Add to DB button, it goes to the next page, and says Processing Images at the top of the page but nothing is happening and the images aren't loading.

Thanks,
Melissa

Did you downsize the images before uploading them? You don't want to upload 3+ MB images to be processed on the server as it requires too much memory and is VERY slow.

Do you see ANY progress at all or does it just sit there forever? Do you eventually get any error messages?

Have you considered one of the Uploaders? They do the downsizing, uploading, thumbnailing and cataloging for you. You can read about the Uploaders at:

Photo Cart Uploader (for Windows)
Dave's Uploader (for Windows and Macintosh)

Thanks for replying Dave. The images have been resized, none are 3+mg. I never receive an error msg. It goes to the page that says processing images at the top but nothing happens. I hear a click and it seems like the page refreshes about every 10 seconds like it used to do, but no images are displayed and no images are added to the database. It will stay like this for hours.

Thanks again,
Melissa

Any of the images have characters other than letters , numbers or underscores? (# $ &*, etc)

If you look in the actual folder where you did the FTP upload, do you see any images starting with "di_", "th_di_" or "zm_di_"? If you see any of those it means that SOME processing has been done.

As the images are processed, "image.jpg" is loaded and processed to create "di_image.jpg", "th_di_image.jpg" and "zm_di_image.php" then "image.jpg" is deleted.

Are your folder permissions OK? The "photos" folder and EVERY folder below it should be 777 ("world" writable).

Thanks again for the quick replies, I got it working now. There was an issue with the php configuration.

Melissa

I'm in the same boat and have the same problem, I'm using public_html/photocart/photos as well and that is the correct address. I couldn't find a response to this previous community members post which fixes the problem for me.

No idea what to do from here, any help greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Russ

I assume you are using FTP to upload (rather than one of the Uploaders). When you create a gallery in Photo Cart, it will show you a directory name into which you are to upload your images. For example, if Photo Cart tells you the folder is 1001-my-gallery (and you are not using a category), the folder into which you are to upload your images is /photocart/photos/1001-my-gallery. You will never upload directly into /photocart/photos, that is the "base" folder IN WHICH galleries and categories are created.

Now, when you login with FTP you will likely be someplace ABOVE /photocart/photos so you will need to change folders until you are in the 1001-my-gallery folder. Once you are there, you can then upload your downsized photos. Once uploaded, you go to Photo Cart and run the FTP Process action to create the thumbnails, display images and enlarged view images.

OR, you can use one of the uploaders and just upload your images because the uploaders handle all the folder management, resizing, uploading and database cataloging for you.

Thanks Dave, i'm so greatful for the quick response as i'm sitting here keen as mustartd trying to sort this out without much luck.

Thanks for the lesson on folders, I get it now!

I was actually trying to use the "photocart uploader" to upload the pics because i love the idea that it resizes for you.

I drilled down through photocart/photos and have added a destination folder on the end of that ("karate") yet the photocart uploader still cannont find the folder?

I will attempt to resize the pics manually and try the ftp upload in the godaddy control panel.

Thanks heaps Dave!
Russ

If you are using the Photo Cart Uploader, the Windows .NET application which is a separate download (NOT the HTML upload form on the Photo Cart gallery page), it wants the gallery NUMBER, not the folder name. In the example I gave you, it would want the 1001.

My uploader, Dave's Uploader, shows you a "tree" of Galleries which are defined in Photo Cart and you click on the gallery to which you want to upload.

Also, you would not want to upload using your webhost's Control Panel; it's much to slow. You want to use a graphical FTP client program like SmartFTP, FileZilla. CuteFTP and many more...

thanks Dave, trying that.

still scratching my head over the photocart uploader. I did however seems to successfully upload a dozen trial photos using the Godaddy hosting control panel "upload" button.

The pics were actually in a zip format and when they uploaded it gave me the option to unarchive which i've done. It looks as though it's working using this method ao now I'll have a play and see how far i can get now!

Really appreciate your help mate. New toy and all, want to get it up and running right away!

Cheers
Russ

You will never "add your own" folder to a photocart gallery -- you must create a NEW GALLERY using Photocart and place your images in the folder Photocart creates for you.

Hi Dave,

thanks very much for the tip. Over the past few hours fumbling my way through I have managed to figure that out. I do still have trouble with the photocart uploader not recognising the destination folder so I've been using the upload feature on my godaddy control panel. It works well but I can only upload 7 meg at a time.

I am interested to know if you can point me in the right direction in regards to placing an image (my logo) in the header of the cart. Can't seem to figure out how the image needs to be formatted to comply with HTML requirements.

Thanks!
Russ.

p.s. If it's 5.30ish AM in your part of the world- you're dead keen!

Unable to find remote folder is getting a bit repetitive now

I've tried so many different folder names i just can't get the Photocart uploader to work. I have been able to upload about 50 images using the control panels upload function but with hundreds more images to go I'll be an old man before they all load!

Can find any answers in previous posts.

Didn't I install Photo Cart for you? If so, the remote folder is in the email I sent you after I installed it, in the uploader settings section.

HI, I have been using photocart for over a year now and am just experiencing my first problem. unfortunately I am on a deadline for two clients.

I have uploaded 143 images as I usually do, they have already been resized, and are fairly small.

When I hit process images, it goes to a blank page that says processing images and then nothing happens.

Usually I get the thumbnails flashing across the screen, I am unaware if I have changed anything from my normal routine.

Let me know what I can do to fix the problem.

Tara

When you are on the FTP upload process page where you click the button to process them, see what the size / dimensions of the first image listed is, maybe you accidentally uploaded something too large.

Sorry...it's working now. May have been a server problem. Thanks for your help, and that was good thinking about the first image being large, it wasn't this time but I have done that before, maybe it will help someone else!

Thank you for your quick reply!
Tara

I need to offer up my originals as downloads. I'm a little dissappointed that photocart can't handle this due to 'size' limitations and server processing constraints. Some of my images are 10+MB. I have other gallery software on the server which has no issue processing these images and providing multipul resized versions.

What do I need to do to fix this? re-sizing to 900x900 is unacceptable.

Attempting the ftp process just yields unlimited temp duplicates of the first file it tries to process.

Thanks

You CAN offer your originals if you use one of the uploaders. Since they upload using FTP, the server-side size limitations do not come into play.