SiteGround Tutorials
Coppermine Tutorial
Coppermine photo gallery is an easy-to-use gallery script. It supports multiple languages and is suitable for any kind of online albums. You can find many free to use Coppermine themes and thus customize the outlook of your gallery.
Coppermine stores the images in albums, which can be grouped in separate categories. It also supports multiple users and the administrator of the gallery can determine the access level to the script features for each one of them. The administrator can also define the allowed actions for the unregistered users.
Coppermine can be installed through our automatic script installer - Fantastico, or you can use its own web based installer which is very user friendly.
Coppermine tutorial covers the following topics:
- How to install Coppermine;
- How to administer your gallery;
- How to change Coppermine themes;
- How to integrate Coppermine and Forums: Coppermine with phpBB and Coppermine with SMF;
- Integration of Coppermine and Joomla / Mambo;
- Integration of Coppermine and WordPress;
Coppermine photo gallery requires PHP, MySQL and either GD Library or ImageMagick in order to operate. SiteGround hosting package has all of these features, which ensures that your gallery will run flawlessly if hosted on the SiteGround Coppermine hosting account.
Coppermine Installation
Copermine is included in the Fantastico auto-installation tool and if you have a hosting account with SiteGround you will be able to install CPG with 3-4 clicks. In order to install Coppermine using Fantastico you will have to log in to your cPanel. Click here to see how to access your CPanel.
Once you have logged in, scroll down to the bottom where you will see the Fantastico icon and click on it.
Copermine Installation Detailed Tutorial
In the Fantastico application list locate Coppermine Photo Gallery, which is under the Image Gallery section.
A short description of the Coppermine Photo Gallery will appear. Click on the New Installation button to proceed with the install.
In the next few steps you will have to fill in some details regarding your installation:
- The first option is selecting the domain or subdomain name under which you will be installing your Coppermine Photo Gallery. This is used only if you have more than one domain name for your account or wish to install Coppermine under a subdomain.
- The second option is the folder where you wish to install Coppermine. If you wish to install it in the root folder of your domain so it will be accessible when you type http://yourdomainname.com you should leave that field blank. If you want to install Coppermine in a folder called gallery, it will be accessible at http://yourdomainname.com/gallery.
- These two fields are the administrator username and password you are going to use for your gallery.
- You can input the name of your site here, a slogan and the e-mail address used for administration purposes of your gallery.
Once you have finished filling the details, press the Install Coppermine Gallery button.
After that, you should see a summary of the installation details made by Fantastico.
Bookmark the address provided in the summary and click on the Finish Installation button.
Well done! You have successfully installed your Coppermine gallery!
Coppermine Installation
Get a FREE Coppermine installation with SiteGround Coppermine hosting Package!
In order to install Coppermine manually you will have to download the application files. You can download Coppermine from here.
Once you have downloaded the zip file to your local hard drive, please, go to your cPanel -> FileManager and upload the file to your public_html folder. After you have finished uploading the file, extract it using FileManager. You should end up with a folder called cpg14x (where x is a number). You can rename the folder according your personal preference. For example you can set the folder name to "gallery". In this way your Coppermine gallery will be accessible through http://yourdomainname.com/gallery.
Next you need to create a database for your Coppermine Gallery. Click here to learn how to create a MySQL database and then come back on this page to continue with the installation.
Once you are ready with the database, you can proceed to the Coppermine web installer and enter the corresponding details. You can access it at http://yourdomainname.com (assuming you have decided to install the script in the main directory for the web site content, otherwise add the gallery folder in the above URL).
Click on the Let's Continue button, that will automatically log you in to your freshly installed Coppermine Photo Gallery. Congratulations!
Coppermine Configuration and Administration
We are going to cover only the basic administration/configuration in this tutorial. If you wish to know more about Coppermine functionality you can check the full guide at the Coppermine developers' web site.
In order to start managing your Coppermine gallery, please log in as administrator in it and select the [Config] button:
This will bring up the Coppermine configuration menu, which is nicely divided in sections. Expand the General Settings tab.
Here is basically all the information that you entered when installing your gallery. You should leave these settings as is, unless you feel you have not entered the correct information when you did the installation.
Coppermine Themes
Changing a theme/template with Coppermine is quite an easy task. Generally, you just have to download the theme archive, extract it to your local computer and upload it to your Coppermine themes directory. A good source of free Coppermine themes is the Coppermine themes gallery at SiteGround.com. Now let us try to upload a new theme.
First, we will need to find a theme archive to use. For the purpose of this tutorial, please, choose any of the templates available at Coppermine themes gallery. Please, download the .zip file of any theme on your local computer and extract it. This will create a new directory named after the theme's name.
To make the new theme available for your Coppermine application however, we will have to upload it first. Please, open an FTP connection using your favorite FTP client and navigate to the directory, where your Coppermine gallery is uploaded (if you access your gallery from your domain name, e.g. http://yourdomainname.com, the Coppermine directory is the public_html folder). From there, please enter the themes directory and upload the whole extracted new theme directory there. This will create a new directory with the theme's name, which will have the following full path: /public_html/themes/theme_name
Changing the Theme of your Coppermine Gallery
This can be done through the Theme Settings tab. Expand it to see all the features:
Theme configuration options
- Display Theme list - If enabled, this option will allow your users to choose a template to use.
- Display "reset" in theme selection - this option applies only if the Display Theme list is enabled. It will display a default list, which will allow your users to go back to the default template of your Coppermine gallery.
- Display FAQ - The Display FAQ option adds an "FAQ" (Frequently Asked Questions) link on the frontpage of your gallery. This will allow your gallery users to get familiar on how Coppermine works. If you wish to change the contents of the FAQ section, you will need to edit /your_coppermine_folder/lang/yourlanguage.php (where yourlanguage.php is the language your gallery is using - e.g. english.php) Edit the contents after the following line:
//
------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
// File faq.php
//
------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
- Name of your custom link - this option will allow you to create a custom link on the frontpage of your Coppermine Gallery. Note that this option is only for setting the name of the link that will be displayed (e.g. if you want to set a link for your forum you can name the link Forum)
- URL of your custom link - this is where the actual URL for your "Name of your custom link" should be. If we take the forum example again it would be something like http://yourdomainname.com/forum.
- Path to custom header include/Path to custom footer include - both of these options allow you to add custom headers and footers to the template of your gallery. Note that you should put the relative path to the header/footer files for these options.
Integration of Coppermine with Bulletin Boards
Coppermine can be integrated with the following applications (meaning Coppermine will share the same username/password database with the application it is being integrated with).
- Invision Power Board
- phpBB
- PunBB
- Simple Machines (SMF)
- vBulletin
- Woltlab Burning Board
- MyBB Release Candidate
- XMB
- Xoops
- Phorum
We strongly recommend creating a backup of both applications before proceeding with the integration.
You can also use our advanced support services in the scripts integration by posting a ticket in Exclusive Professional Services -> Application Integration.
The 1.4x version of Coppermine has a built-in Integration Manager which is pretty straight forward and easy to use. To access it, log in as administrator to your Coppermine Gallery and click on the [Admin Tools] button.
The Bridge Manager section is at the bottom of the page:
We will cover only a few of the integrations here, since all of them are done in the same way.
Coppermine with Bulletin Boards
The Coppermine Bridging (integration) Manager lets you integrate the gallery with both the latest version of phpBB and ones prior to it. Please note that the integration process is different for versions 2.0.18 or better and the ones prior to it. With that being said, let us proceed with the actual integration. Log in as an administrator and navigate your way to the Bridging Manager. We have done several test integration with phpBB while writing this tutorial and noticed that if you are running a phpBB which was initially installed with a version prior to 2.0.18 and then upgraded to the latest version, you will have to select phpBB versions prior to 2.0.18 for the integration. The integration process is the same for both version 2.0.18 and the ones prior to it.
Note that before proceeding with the integration process you will have to install the application you are going to bridge with Coppermine, in this case phpBB. You can refer to our phpBB tutorial for further instructions.
Once both the applications are ready, open your Bridge Manager and select the correct phpBB version.
Then you should verify the path used by the forum:
At this point you can enable the forum specific settings:
Now you can enable the phpBB2 integration:
Select enable when you are prompted whether to enable the phpBB integration, click Finish and you are done. Your phpBB forum and your Coppermine gallery now share the same username database and once logged in one of the applications you are automatically being logged in the other one as well.
Coppermine with Bulletin Boards
The integration process with SMF is absolutely the same as the one for phpBB.(See Coppermine with phpBB for reference).
Select the Simple Machines (SMF) component from the bridging manager and click next.
Verify the SMF path.
Click Next and finish the bridge, your Coppermine gallery and SMF forum now share the same username/password.
Coppermine with SMF and Joomla (Mambo)
We have made several integrations of Coppermine and Mambo using the Bridge Manager of Coppermine, but the results were not really satisfactory, since there were cases when the integration just crashed the Gallery.
So, we now offer an ever better option - Integrating Coppermine with SMF and Mambo / Joomla. In this way you will have one of the most powerful CMS, one of the most popular discussion boards and one of the best picture galleries all working together, sharing one username and database, so you don't have to log into each application one by one!
Step 1: Integrating Coppermine with SMF
You can download SMF here.
It is OBLIGATORY that you install SMF in the Mambo/Joomla database otherwise the Mambo/Joomla-SMF bridge would not work.
If Mambo/Joomla is already installed, you can collect the MySQL database information from its configuration file. It is located in the Mambo/Joomla root folder and is named configuration.php. After you have installed SMF, proceed with bridging it with the Coppermine Gallery as described earlier in this tutorial.
Step 2: Integrating SMF with Mambo/Joomla
For this purpose you are going to need a SMF-Mambo/Joomla component which you can download here.
Then you can follow the detailed instructions about the Joomla-SMF integration here . The Mambo-SMF integration can be completed in the exact same way as the above one.
The SMF bridge Component automatically adds a Forum link on your frontpage, so we can add a Gallery link as well. Log in as administrator on your Mambo/Joomla, click on Menu -> mainmenu.
Once inside the mainmenu, please select New - Wrapper and click Next. Select a name for the link (e.g. Gallery) and input the URL that has to be wrapped by Mambo/Joomla. When you are done click Save. Now you have a link for your Forum and your Gallery on your Mambo/Joomla's frontpage.
You can check the SiteGround Mambo and Joomla tutorials for further reference.
Integrating Coppermine with WordPress
Currently there are no bridge files for integrating Coppermine with WordPress. However there is a WordPress plugin that allows you to "fetch" pictures from your Coppermine Gallery and post them on your WordPress web site. Since this is a module for WordPress and not for Coppermine we will not cover it in this tutorial. You can preview the documentation of the WordPress module here.
You can check the SiteGround WordPress tutorial for a further reference.
Please, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations about this tutorial at: tutorials 'at' siteground.com