SMF Media Gallery (SMG) - 2.0.5 is out! (December 2)

[Tiribulus]

Yesterday was a horrible day in terms of maintaining SMF1 support... I did my best but in the end I have absolutely no idea whether Aeva Media's early alphas will work on SMF1 at all. If it's too much of a hassle to support, I'll give up on it.
Basically, SMF1 users still have the SMG 2.0.x line and Aeva 7.0.x. I will release updates for these when needed.

So: currently, I'm planning to keep support for SMF1, but I'm not promising anything. That's all. SMF2 is way, way better and more stable than SMF1 as of now. I see absolutely no reason to keep supporting an old version of the software. I think that if someone stays with an old version of SMF, they're unlikely to update their mods as well...

I offer this only as food for thought. Again, there comes a point for everybody where too much is too much and only you can say when that is for you.

That said, and I am no cyber psychologist, I believe you may be underestimating the lifespan of SMF1. My site is just an educational toy, but I have months, literally, of work into it and a conversion to SMF2  is unthinkable for that site. The amount of work it would take to even approximate the functionality and appearance I have now after an upgrade to SMF2 would be prohibitive even if I were capable of it which I'm not even sure of.

I can't believe there aren't a fairly significant number of users with fairly busy sites that would forego the upgrade for as long as possible simply because of the daunting task of doing it. Every mod reinstalled with all the tweaks and editing that would mean, for some like me, dozens, maybe hundreds of theme tweaks and all this is in light of the code differences that they won't be familiar with for  a while.

If I just ran the upgrade right now my site would be an apocalyptic disaster. I'd have to work on it offline for weeks at least to get it ready.

Like I say, I'm just thinkin out loud and none of this of course obligates you to anything.

[Arantor]

I would point out that the core of 1.1 is over 3 years old and only receives security updates from the SMF team - no new features have been added to 1.1 since 2006, nor will there be any future development outside of security issues or major bugfixes.

2.0 is maturing, and speaking as a modder, it is a LOT easier to do many things with 2.0 than it is for 1.1.

How many support topics do you see for "how do I add the tab from [mod] to my theme in 1.1" for example? That issue alone prompted me not to develop a mod or two for 1.1, because it's a non issue in 2.0.

I do understand where you're coming from, but more and more people are moving to 2.0, and before long I suspect most mods will be 2.0 only - I have one or two more to come that are for both, but after that I'm going 2.0 only.

[Tiribulus]

Fair enough. I'm a newcomer to this game and you guys would certainly know better than I would about these things. I'm just picturing people like me whacking away through a jungle of code trying to get all their stuff working again and many of them taking quite a while to actually go live with the new product.

[Arantor]

I hear you Tiribulus, possibly better than you might realise - the number of requests I've seen in the last week for "I upgraded my forum to 2.0 RC2 and now my mods don't work" is actually kind of frightening.

The thing is, whether you move now to RC2, or wait for 2.0 final or not, the changes are not going to be small if you make the move to 2.0. Nearly every mod I've done had to be rewritten for 2.0.

2.0 is a lot cleaner in a lot of respects and has a number of features that 1.1 just doesn't have. But going the other way usually isn't as hard as it sounds like it might be.

Depending on the functionality you've added it may be possible to make it all work in 2.0 without too much work at all.

[Nao 尚]

@DirtRider> I think so. It won't erase anything anyway (except your existing SMG pics but I suppose it's the wanted behavior eh?), feel free to try.

@Tiribulus> Let's make it simple: if Aeva Media doesn't work on SMF1 out of the box, don't be surprised. I'm just not focusing on it right now. Of course, AM itself is still far from being ready, so...
(I'm not even giving a release month for the public... It's THAT far away )

[whitehaint]

Just curious if there are any other suggestions to get this mod working on RC2 for me.

[Nao 尚]

It's not a RC2 problem, it's your server I guess. Make sure your PHP install has sufficient rights to create new folders.

[Tiribulus]

I hear you Tiribulus, possibly better than you might realise - the number of requests I've seen in the last week for "I upgraded my forum to 2.0 RC2 and now my mods don't work" is actually kind of frightening.

The thing is, whether you move now to RC2, or wait for 2.0 final or not, the changes are not going to be small  if you make the move to 2.0. Nearly every mod I've done had to be rewritten for 2.0.

2.0 is a lot cleaner in a lot of respects and has a number of features that 1.1 just doesn't have. But going the other way usually isn't as hard as it sounds like it might be.

Depending on the functionality you've added it may be possible to make it all work in 2.0 without too much work at all.

Emphasis mine.

This is really where it's at isn't it. Sooner or later everybody is going to have to go to the newer version and rightly so, I mean, that's how it is with any piece of web software. For some relatively standard sites it shouldn't be too big a deal. For others like myself, with countless lllooonnng hours on just the theme never mind over 70 mods now, some requiring major surgery at least for me, and numerous little tweaks under the hood gleaned from here and there it will be a cold sweaty nightmare

@Tiribulus> Let's make it simple: if Aeva Media doesn't work on SMF1 out of the box, don't be surprised. I'm just not focusing on it right now. Of course, AM itself is still far from being ready, so...
(I'm not even giving a release month for the public... It's THAT far away )

That's cool. There are only so many hours in the day and I've learned just enough to know that this mod is quite large and complex. The fact that we get SMF and any mods at all for free is a bonus. However it works out I'm sure will be fine in the long run.

[DirtRider]

@DirtRider> I think so. It won't erase anything anyway (except your existing SMG pics but I suppose it's the wanted behavior eh?), feel free to try.

Well in the unlikely case that it does not work would you be able to sort it out so it does  I am sort of in a bit of a situation where I want to change over to this and not continue with the old version I am using. If it does not work it means I will then have to purchase the new version of the other software. Now I would rather not have to do that if possible as you know I am still open to paying you to add the feature where your version will post to the forum when a new pic is uploaded.  I am still hoping that we will find a few more takers to offset the price of you doing this for us.

[Nao 尚]

Well in the unlikely case that it does not work would you be able to sort it out so it does 

I s'pose.
I only made a converter for SGP a year ago when some people requested it. I haven't been using SGP since the day I switched to SMG so I couldn't say whether the newer versions are incompatible with my converter.
At any rate, this is an awkward situation for me to handle because of my past working on SGP itself. Granted, it was short -- only two weeks, and I switched to SMG as soon as I heard about it. But it still could be seen as 'malpractice' I guess. It's clearly not my intention, but for instance it's vbgamer's choice not to make a SMG -> SGL/SGP converter. I would have no problem with that, of course.

I am sort of in a bit of a situation where I want to change over to this and not continue with the old version I am using. If it does not work it means I will then have to purchase the new version of the other software. Now I would rather not have to do that if possible as you know I am still open to paying you to add the feature where your version will post to the forum when a new pic is uploaded.  I am still hoping that we will find a few more takers to offset the price of you doing this for us.

I'm not very good at selling myself. Foxy! is not exactly a successful mod, it has sold a number of copies that can be counted on, ahem, two hands. I'm less open to making it cheaper, though. I mean, it's not cheap code, it's quality stuff. By now it represents about 3 months worth of fulltime work. I will probably reinstate a donation system for Aeva Media. If I get enough donations through it, I'll be more open to cut the price on Foxy!, while still adding new features to it.

[DirtRider]

Ok thanks on the converter once I am ready to do the upgrade I will let you know if it works or not. 

I know you mentioned Foxy before and you gave me a link but my French was not that great  Maybe I need to look at this again. I am a bit unclear as to what is different from this version and Foxy. However the huge block for me is not having the option of the gallery posting into a forum as my members are used to this and like it a lot.

[Nao 尚]

Ok thanks on the converter once I am ready to do the upgrade I will let you know if it works or not. 

Again, if you have an empty SMG install, you can upgrade whenever you like, permissions are denied by default so nobody will see the gallery until you enable it. And SMG doesn't erase anything from other gallery installs, so if the upgrade fails, nothing is deleted anyway.

I know you mentioned Foxy before and you gave me a link but my French was not that great 

?
The link is in English... Check out my signature.

Maybe I need to look at this again. I am a bit unclear as to what is different from this version and Foxy. However the huge block for me is not having the option of the gallery posting into a forum as my members are used to this and like it a lot.

Is this something that SGP does? I never used it to the fullest so I wouldn't know.
What Foxy! does is very specific -- you can see an example over at http://fox.noisen.com
All of these blog posts were created automatically by Foxy! when creating the album. The first post is entirely populated automatically from the album description and album items. Whenever a new item is added, a new post is made to the topic to point out the exact item (if using mass upload, a single post is made with all new items). You can freely remove these new posts manually, as they're only made to save you the hassle of 'bumping' your topic.

[Afro]

i am getting this error in my error log after clicking on the gallery.
it started happening after moving to a new server.

i dont understand the /tmp file request.

whats the correct path ?

http://www.afrowall.com/index.php?action=mgallery;sa=media;id=112;thumb
Apply Filter: Only show the errors with the same message
2: file_exists() [<a href='function.file-exists'>function.file-exists</a>]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/home/xxxxxxx/public_html/mgal_data/albums/GOSPEL_SONGS/Dir_1/126_thumb_oAssOfn5cAI_jpg1ad973c6efa7375bf8c5db6e4020560c_extjpg) is not within the allowed path(s): (/var/www/vhosts/afrowall.com/httpdocs:/tmp)
Apply Filter: Only show the errors from this file
File: /var/www/xxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/httpdocs/Sources/Subs-MGallery.php
Line: 388

[Tiribulus]

<<<  open_basedir restriction in effect. >>>

I'm betting this is a clue.

@NAO:

As usual this is no emergency, but after upgrading to the latest PHP RC, I'm getting line 61 and following of the getid3.php file:

Code Select Expand

// Check memory
$memory_limit = ini_get('memory_limit');
if (eregi('([0-9]+)M', $memory_limit, $matches)) {
// could be stored as "16M" rather than 16777216 for example
$memory_limit = $matches[1] * 1048576;
contains the now deprecated EREGI function. Yes I did look it up I'm reasonably sure you already saw stuff like this comin, but thought I'd throw it out there.

[Afro]

<<<  open_basedir restriction in effect. >>>

I'm betting this is a clue.

SO WHATS TO BE DONE ?
cos its populating my error log

[Tiribulus]

<<<  open_basedir restriction in effect. >>>

I'm betting this is a clue.

SO WHATS TO BE DONE ?
cos its populating my error log

I am no expert, I was just pointing it out. If it were me I would start by checking paths and permissions with repair.php.

[Arantor]

Afro: You get the error because of how PHP is configured on the new server. There are limits to where PHP is allowed to go, by default it is only allowed to go into directories and files that live in /var/www/vhosts/afrowall.com/httpdocs OR in /tmp. /tmp is a system level temporary area.

You need to ask your host about whether that can be changed.

[Afro]

Afro: You get the error because of how PHP is configured on the new server. There are limits to where PHP is allowed to go, by default it is only allowed to go into directories and files that live in /var/www/vhosts/afrowall.com/httpdocs OR in /tmp. /tmp is a system level temporary area.

You need to ask your host about whether that can be changed.

Thanks man for the insight, meanwhile.

what exactly do i have to ask them ?

[Arantor]

Ask them to expand the folders in open_basedir or to turn it off entirely.

[Afro]

i have sent them a mail. i just hope they will do something about it cos this error is populating my logs at an alarming rate.