So I came across this little roadblock earlier today. I have an unpublished album that I upload content to via FTP from my phone.

After the dynamic album fix went in (works like a champ), I created a dynamic album.

Most of the images that were added to the dynamic album were from an unpublished album. But, I was unaware of this cause there was no flag for unpublished (on the dynamic). When I opened in my test browser and saw the default image I was a bit shocked then realized what it was.

So, the question, is it possible to display content from an unpublished album in a dynamic album? In the end I just moved the unpublished album to the bottom of my album list to keep it out of the way and published it.

I kind of like the idea of having my unpublished folder for my phone uploads.

Generally you can have an unpublished album with published albums that those can see who know the link. If the images are unpublished too there is nothing to see unless you are loggedin wiht appropriate rights. Unless you visit an image by url directly.

Good question. I guess I have to try it. But offhand: Given that dynamic albums are saved searches and searches only return published items for non logged in visitors they should not list those items.

Please try the latest build as I did find an issue with search to return un-published items.

Also be sure that you have checked the Return unpublished items check box when you create your album.

Works like a dream now!

Ok, so one thing I noticed with this current setup, when I upload to my unpublished album, the new image is found right away under the unpublished album. However it can take a matter of minutes or even up to an hour for it to be shown under the published dynamic album.

Is there a way to force a refresh (not browser based as that hasn't affected it) of the dynamic album without deleting it and recreating it?

This really does sound like a caching issue. Dynamic albums are encapsulated searches. Each time the PHP script for the album runs the search is executed. So if the page is actually being re-rendered rather than served from a cache somewhere it must be current.

I also noticed that the unpublished album doesn't grab the latest image for thumbnail for a bit either even though I can see the image in the gallery itself.

I've used all the "purge cache" buttons, as well as removed cache from my browser and still same effects. I also have the no-cache meta in my theme... so not sure where else to look for caching.

Edit:
Also for sanity sake, I installed a new browser and checked in that and it showed the same effects. No new image yet.

There is also a search cache on the search options. You probably see its effect. You can also try the "database refresh" button to align database and file system on request.

How about search caching? That can do the same thing.

[edit] acrylian beat me to it

Nope, search cache was already set to 0, did a database refresh and got no changes.

When I go into the unpublished album, I can see the image there. However, it's not being selected as the thumbnail for the album (my thumbnail is latest image, images sorted by filemtime descending), and it's not showing up in the dynamic album.

Any other suggestions?

Probably you have not enabled unpublished items in your dynamic album.

No, they are enabled, and it shows the rest of the unpublished items.

Edit:
Well I'm not sure if it was an error in an image's metadata or not. There was an image that kept getting selected as the thumbnail and put at top of album sort, even though the filemtime was older... deleted the image and it works now. Weirdness.