Add photo error message: "could not open the URL"

bgrantland
bgrantland's picture

Joined: 2012-02-15
Posts: 27
Posted: Fri, 2012-02-24 03:57

The following information is required to get an answer:
Get this information from the PHP diagnostic (in the configuration wizard).
Gallery URL (optional but very useful): http://brendagrantland.com/gallery
Gallery version: 1.5.2-pl2
Apache version: don't know
PHP version (don't just say PHP 4, please): phpMyAdmin 2.11.10
Graphics Toolkit: Photoshop
Operating system: Unix server (my computer is Windows Vista)
Web browser/version (if applicable): Mozilla Firefox

I left this message in the Gallery 1 forum last week, but apparently no one is manning that forum. I plan to upgrade to Gallery 3 as soon as my web host (Verio) adds it to their library of Add Ons.

I built a very large gallery using version 1.5.2-p12. It was working fine, and still is, except now it won't let me add more photos.

Last week I uploaded some photos to my website. They were the same size, and made from the same camera as all the others. I put them in the same directory where I usually put them. When I went into the sub-directory where I wanted to add them and clicked Add photos, I got the error message "could not open the URL." I checked the URL using my browser and the pdf images work just fine. I tried adding photos that were in directories I had already added to the gallery previously, and got the same error message.

Is there some limit on the number of images, or space limit that I may have hit? I have plenty of space left on my Verio account. Do you have any idea what I can do to get this working while I'm waiting for Verio to upgrade to Gallery 3?

Brenda

 
floridave
floridave's picture

Joined: 2003-12-22
Posts: 27300
Posted: Fri, 2012-02-24 05:06

I would not trust any 3rd party host 'one click installer' most of them don't work and G3 is easy to install.

Dave
_____________________________________________
Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team

 
bgrantland
bgrantland's picture

Joined: 2012-02-15
Posts: 27
Posted: Fri, 2012-02-24 06:21

Hi Floridave -

Thank you so much for responding.

I don't have any choice about using the installer. Verio's Shared Hosting plan, which I am on, doesn't allow me to access the directory where database.php resides. I don't have the type of website plan that allows me to install Gallery 3 on my own, according to Verio tech support. They say I would have to upgrade to a dedicated server in order to have the ability to install it myself, and my business can't afford that at this time.

Verio currently offers version 1.5 and version 2. I am running version 1.5, and have successfully built a fairly large and complex photo gallery which I really want to preserve. It is still working fine except now it won't accept new photos. I don't know if the problem is caused by a limitation in Gallery 1.5 or something Verio did, such as update or change some helper application.

Has anyone had the problem before of the gallery Add Photos function no longer recognizing the URLs when given a correct URL to a directory of jpgs that are just like the other jpgs already in the gallery? I even tried adding a directory of photos that had already been imported into the gallery and again got the same error message that it couldn't read the URL.

What I really need to know is, have I hit some kind of limit for Gallery 1.5 that upgrading to Gallery 2 or 3 would cure, or that changing the config file would cure, or is this some problem Verio has caused in the part of the server that is out of my control? I do have access to the config file, I just can't figure out what to do from the info I've found in the forum. Verio tech support has not been very helpful.

Thanks for your help.

Brenda

 
floridave
floridave's picture

Joined: 2003-12-22
Posts: 27300
Posted: Fri, 2012-02-24 13:29
Quote:
What I really need to know is, have I hit some kind of limit for Gallery 1.5 that upgrading to Gallery 2 or 3 would cure

Not a limitation my the Gallery software perhaps a host limitation.

I have not been using G1 is so long I do't recall how to debug. Perhaps posting in the G1 section will help.FAQ: How do I put my Gallery into debug mode?
would be a good start.

As for not installing G3 yourself because of your host, I would doubt that very much. That is some restrictive host, it must be close to free if that is the case. I don't want to go down that road, I'm just saying.

Dave
_____________________________________________
Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team

 
bgrantland
bgrantland's picture

Joined: 2012-02-15
Posts: 27
Posted: Fri, 2012-02-24 18:44

Thanks for responding. I posted last week in the Gallery 1 forum, but I don't think anyone is manning that forum, because no one ever responded.

I don't really want to continue using an obsolete program, so I'm going to try installing Gallery 3 myself and see what happens.

One of the tech support people at Verio led me to believe that I would not have the permissions required to install Gallery 3, and would have to upgrade to a far more expensive plan in order to install it, but he may not have known what he was talking about or maybe he just wanted to make a sale.

Thanks,

Brenda

 
bgrantland
bgrantland's picture

Joined: 2012-02-15
Posts: 27
Posted: Sat, 2012-02-25 18:12

I called Verio tech support again yesterday and found someone really willing to help, and he tried everything but we kept getting the same error message. I now believe the problem was caused by some change Verio made, because we discovered that all of my permissions had been reset to "nobody." I certainly didn't do that. but even after changing them back to "admin" we got the same error message. Verio has moved my website to a new server in the last month, and I believe that is when the problem happened. I think this problem has something to do with ImageMajick because that is the program that resizes the thumbnails, and it is precisely at the point of having to read the big jpgs to resize them that the program fails. Unfortunately ImageMajick is in the part of the server I don't have access to.

This new tech support guy said to try installing Gallery 3 on my website and see what happens. He wasn't sure that the other tech support rep was right when he said I wouldn't be able to with my current plan. So last night I began trying to install it. I got as far as step six in the installation instructions before getting an error message "Gallery requires short_open-Tag to be on." Now I will search the forums to see how to do that.

I am going to muddle through this until I determine for certain that it is something I can't do on my plan. I told the tech support rep last night that Verio should offer Gallery 3 in its Add On library, and that I would move my website to Go Daddy (which has installed it already) before I would pay three times as much to upgrade my plan. The tech support rep said he was putting in another request that they add it. I also told him that they are probably leading people astray by even offering Gallery 1 because it is so old it may be incompatible with the upgrades to the server and other associated programs (i.e. ImageMagick) that Gallery 1 needs to work.

Thank you for your help.

 
floridave
floridave's picture

Joined: 2003-12-22
Posts: 27300
Posted: Sun, 2012-02-26 01:43
Quote:
message "Gallery requires short_open-Tag to be on." Now I will search the forums to see how to do that.

Your host will have to address that as well.
FAQ: Why do you use PHP's short open tags?

Dave
_____________________________________________
Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team

 
bgrantland
bgrantland's picture

Joined: 2012-02-15
Posts: 27
Posted: Tue, 2012-02-28 22:09

I have spent yet another hour on the phone to tech support at Verio and they either don't know how to fix it or can't be bothered. And they are saying I can't upgrade to Gallery 3 without purchasing a more expensive plan.

I'm ready to move to another web host. I know a friend installed Gallery 3 on GoDaddy. Do you recommend GoDaddy? Any other recommendations?

 
floridave
floridave's picture

Joined: 2003-12-22
Posts: 27300
Posted: Wed, 2012-02-29 00:41

I can't recommend GoDaddy for hosting. Domain registration sure.
http://gallery.menalto.com/node/88391#comment-310594

_____________________________________________
Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team

 
bgrantland
bgrantland's picture

Joined: 2012-02-15
Posts: 27
Posted: Wed, 2012-02-29 01:12

Hi Floridave -

Thanks for your prompt response. I googled Verio and saw that their reviews have tanked completely in the last year or so. They get one star and "poor" ratings in recent reviews.
I've been with them on my other website for over 10 years and didn't realize that they were on such a decline.

Thanks for warning me about Godaddy. A friend is on it and recommended it to me, but I wasn't impressed when checking out their website and reviews. I found a web-hosting review site and saw that In Motion Hosting gets good reviews. I used them a few years ago for web storage and transfer (not web hosting) and was very happy with their customer service so I gave them a call. They have Gallery 3 installed already.

I told Verio tech support today that I am ready to move to another host and asked them to put on a supervisor who could talk to me about getting the balance of my prepaid plan refunded when I move to another host. They put me on hold and 15 minutes later no one had come back so I hung up. A few minutes ago I got an email from them saying they are scrambling to get Gallery 1 working right again. But they have no plans to upgrade to Gallery 3, and refuse to change the short_open_tag settings to allow me to install Gallery 3 myself. Even if I were to install Gallery 2, which they offer in their add-on library, I believe the problem with ImageMagick would keep Gallery 2 from working as well. They seem to have hired a bunch of unqualified people to man tech support. I even sent them your FAQ and pointed to the solution, but he don't seem to understand it.

I got your link to the other web hosts that were running Gallery 2 and will check those out to see what the current reviews say. At this point I want to make sure that the host I migrate to has the current version of Gallery 3 loaded and working. In Motion Hosting confirmed that they have Gallery 3. Migrating is going to be a lot of work, so this time I want to make sure I'm not relying on some host's past laurels, as I did when setting up my new website with Verio.

Thanks for your help.