Configuring File Galleries
Like the previous features, the file gallery is fully customizable. You can have as many different galleries (and sub-galleries) on your site as you want, and restrict access to each gallery based on user group. You can store any type of file in a file gallery, such as PDF, MP3, or AVI.
From the Control panel page:
- Click File Galleries.
Tip
You can also access the Administration: File Galleries page by typing http://www.yourdomain.com/tiki-admin.php?page=fgal in your web browser. - The File Galleries page contains all the options to customize your Tiki galleries. These options apply to all file galleries on your Tiki. Later you will customize the options that are specific to each gallery.
Note
Tiki requires a PHP image library in order to correctly process images that you upload to an image library. Tiki supports two popular libraries: GD and Imagick. Check with your web host to verify that either (or both) is installed.
The Tiki Installer can check this requirement automatically, during the installation process.
Tip
Database or Directory?
Tiki can store your gallery files either in the database or directly on your web server.
The database may be more secure, since web surfers would not be able to edit or change the file unless they had access to your database. The directory option may be better for performance, since Tiki would not have to issue a database query each time a file was displayed.
If you use a directory, you must make the directory writable. See Set Directory Permissions for more information. You also need to protect the directory and ensure that users cannot directly access the files. You can accomplish this by using a directory outside your Tiki root (make sure your PHP script can access the directory) or by using an .htaccess file to prevent users from listing the directory's contents.
Warning
If you store files in the Directory, do not change the directory location after you have updated files to the gallery. If you do, you must manually move the files to the new location — Tiki does not store the directory location at the time of the upload. Therefore, if you change the directory location after uploading several files, Tiki will be unable to locate the older files. - Use the Listing tab to specify the information that displays when visitors browse and list the files in each gallery.
Note
Use the Admin Listing tab to specify which information displays when a gallery administrator browses the gallery. - Use the Search Indexing tab to specify if the content of the files in the galleries is "searchable" by the Tiki search feature.
Configuring the 'searchability' of files on the File Galleries page.
Note
Additional PHP libraries and handlers may be required to search all file (MIME) types. Check with your web host to verify that the necessary items are available.
For now, let's leave all options as their defaults. Let's create a new file gallery.