As we know only too well Koken as almost ceased working. My website http://photographie.patricia-cardet.net is still working, but the question is for how long. That is why I would like to replace Koken with Zenphoto for this website.

Has somebody experience with doing this change? Do you think I could keep the appearance, structure and layout of my site? Could I keep the same url?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

> Has somebody experience with doing this change?

No, as Koken was/is a closed source commercial tool we never used. An import/export of the content would probably be a lot of work (and costly) if possible at all.

An alternative would be to freshly upload all contents to Zenphoto.

> Do you think I could keep the appearance, structure and layout of my site?

Well, depends. Similar site designs (called themes over here) would be possible with Zenphoto but it would have to be developed specifially by someone as no theme like this exists.

You find all known (sadly mostly older) themes here:
https://www.zenphoto.org/theme/

> Could I keep the same url?

Yes, if you install Zenphoto in the same place.

Thank you very much, acrylian, for your detailed answer.

I hope I will find the courage to do this transfer. It is for sure not a simple enterprise and I will certainly have some more questions.

Hello Soleil, if you manage your pictures in lightroom, you can export them and Zenphoto will import titles, descriptions, tags, exif... Moreover, with plugins like http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/folder-publisher you can keep your folder' structure from your disk.

The biggest thing is about the template. Like said acrylian, many of them aren't up to date.

So despite the look of your website, you can move quickly your pictures if you manage your pictures'data in lightroom (or any alt. software).

I feel you.
I'm also looking for smth to replace koken - and was testing zenphoto as a potential candidate.

Yes, you can keep your url if you install zenphoto in the same directory on your server.
Template for your website - depends on what you're looking for...

For me though the greatest challenge is lack of lightroom 5 integration.
Lightroom 5 export plugin is no longer maintained and i was unable to contact it's developer, so no switch to zenphoto for me as lightroom integration is essential.

Lightroom 5 is from 2013, isn't it? So no real wonder that is not maintained anymore.

I neiher have nor ever used Lightroom so I have no idea how it stores its images. But Zenphoto is file system based so a folder with images (or more folders) becomes an album if you upload it via FTP to the albums folder. Zenphoto will also read EXIF and other meta data if embedded.

If lightroom support is that essential I suggest to take action yourself by either updating the plugin or alternatively hiring someone to do so.

Hi,

As @Roland mentioned, personally I use latest LR version for my master photo library in RAW and then use the Jeffrey plugin to export/update files and folders structure to zenphoto album. It works fine this way and it is easy to manage/update publications from LR to zen.

The only missing brick for me is that zenphoto do not update its database itself from new or updated files/folders automatically with metadata: you need to crawl manually the albums to make it happen (or I did not find the way to automate the auto discovering of new resources).
Maybe it could be done via a cron task?

> The only missing brick for me is that zenphoto do not update its database itself from new or updated files/folders automatically with metadata: you need to crawl manually the albums to make it happen (or I did not find the way to automate the auto discovering of new resources).

Not exactly true. Zenphoto will do this if you upload on the backend. But if you upload via FTP directly you bypass everything. Zenphoto will do this on request/on the fly, meaning on the first visit either on the backend or frontend (theme) of an album/image.
https://www.zenphoto.org/news/caching/

You can manually trigger album/image discovery by using the "Refresh gallery" utility button on the overview page. That tool matches the database with the file system. If it would do this automatically you would see a huge performance downfall especially on larger sites.

Thanks @acrylian for giving some clue.

Q1/ What is the difference between these 2 actions buttons /zp-core/admin-refresh-metadata.php?prune and zp-core/admin-refresh-metadata.php?

Q2/ Is it possible to trigger album/image discovery using a cron/ssh script on the server (every night for instance)?

> Q1/ What is the difference between these 2 actions buttons /zp-core/admin-refresh-metadata.php?prune and zp-core/admin-refresh-metadata.php?

1. Refreshes the database so it matches the file system.
2. Only re-imports metadata from the (known) images. Usefull if you disabled some fields and now want them as well (caution may overwrite values). (there are also buttons on each album for that album only)

> Q2/ Is it possible to trigger album/image discovery using a cron/ssh script on the server (every night for instance)?

Although there is a core class function for this as well, there is nothing ready made at the moment but generally it would be possible I guess. I seriously have to investigate about this as at some time.

For Q2, it would be great indeed that ZP would have its own trigger php cron. Many users are looking for this feature I guess when you use direct FTP.

Btw the other advantage would be to update RSS feed too as consequence and then send automatic RSS based email campaign with mailchimp ;-)

You could investigate and reuse from discussion on same topic + existing python script from @benklop
https://forum.zenphoto.org/discussion/comment/1979740
https://github.com/benklop/zenphoto-precache

I will give his plugin a chance if I find some time too, it looks efficient...

> ZP would have its own trigger php cron

Actually Zenphoto does have its own PHP cron facility (cronhandler9, there is just nothing ready made for this usage ;-) See the database backup plugin which uses it.

Yes and good news!

One more reason to develop this new feature even faster, I guess you could reuse/migrate the existing python code to php, it could be faster... Would it be more like a new plugin or just a php file to execute via cron?

> One more reason to develop this new feature even faster,

If it would be a plugin. But sorry to disappoint you that this is not a priority for me right now… But it is on the list.

That is fine and understandable. At least it is on your list ;-)

Thanks for understanding, it's a long list

I guess... Any news about the mysterious next major release? When will we have a chance to have a sneak preview?
https://www.zenphoto.org/news/developer-note-the-mysterious-next-major-release/

> Any news about the mysterious next major release? When will we have a chance to have a sneak preview?

No news, too many stuff (the list above) unfinished and not yet ready for anything and not enough time for everything. We'll let you know. We will have 1.5.8 coming sometime the next weeks though.

Hi, short update. I made progress moving my website from KOKEN to ZENPHOTO (https://zen.ein68er.de). Big info for everyone who is on the same way and holding back, because of the missing Lightroom Plugin. I've found a nice LR Plugin (PhotoUpload by NewpProducts) which does the needed things very well.

Thanks, that will surely be useful info for Lightroom users.