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Looking for overview and some advice, please

chrisjx Member
in General support

I'm looking for any documentation or a 25 words or less overview about how the application works. From what I gather it uses php and mysql. What I don't know it where are the images stored. Are they stored IN the database or are the referenced from disk and the database tables are used for indexing, etc.

My goal is to have an archival site for my family photos. There are thousands of photos. I am a scanning and organizing fool.

Storing the images in a database would be counter to long term storage because at some point someone's going to have to learn the database to retrieve photos. Also, I'd like to store the "info" associated with each photo in a simple text file, perhaps xml or yaml. For each image in a folder there would be an associated file, named the same, but with a different extension. That would also supports the concept of making it easy to retrieve images and associated info decades out.

Perhaps I could create plugins to support this approach.

Any advice, appreciated.

Thanks, Chris.

Comments

  • acrylian Administrator, Developer

    From what I gather it uses php and mysql.

    Yes, obviously.

    What I don't know it where are the images stored. Are they stored IN the database or are the referenced from disk and the database tables are used for indexing, etc.

    Images are of course not stored in the database. They are stored on the file system as Zenphoto's gallery part is file system based.

    Also, I'd like to store the "info" associated with each photo in a simple text file, perhaps xml or yaml. For each image in a folder there would be an associated file, named the same, but with a different extension. That would also supports the concept of making it easy to retrieve images and associated info decades out.

    Far too complicated. Just embed the info as EXIF/IPTC meta data to the images themselves which is the usual way to couple info with images. Zenphoto will read that info and that data is stored in the database. There is also a plugin to support external XMP meta data files.

    You find lots of general info here. Please take the time to read around:
    https://www.zenphoto.org/news/category/user-guide/
    Also recommended to just install and try it to see if it fits your purpose.

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