• Registered: 2015-01-24
  • Posts: 23

Topic: Duplicate folders

How can I make showcase able to use a gallery created by juicebox (lightroom plugin) instead of having to create a duplicate on the server. Having to delete galleries is a waste of time and bandwidth and storage space (for those that didn't know). I can imagine some people getting very upset if they hit/exceeded their "hosting package" limits because of the duplicates.

Also, how can I stop the creation of the "galleries-1", 2 etc. I got 22 of them in my server. I'm not even sure how/why I'm getting those but I am leaning towards having deleted the wrong folder on my server and then trying to edit the page in showkase.

I also get new folders, with all the images in them, whenever I edit the 'Nav Name' of a page.

Please help.

  • Registered: 2012-12-16
  • Posts: 938

Re: Duplicate folders

When Showkase imports a gallery, it creates its own copy of the gallery folder within the Showkase directory.
As you have discovered, it does not delete the original gallery. Showkase leaves it up to the user to delete the original gallery folder if necessary. (The gallery may be embedded in another web page elsewhere and the user may not want it to be deleted.)

You could certainly embed a Juicebox gallery manually in a 'Basic' Showkase page (using the baseUrl method of embedding documented here) but the gallery would not become a true Showkase Gallery Page and you would not be able to edit the gallery within the Showkase interface. (It would also not be possible to list the gallery in a 'Gallery Index Page'.)

A new folder will be created in the root Showkase directory for each page in a Showkase site.
The names of the folders correspond to the 'Nav Name' entries.
If you create a page with a 'Nav Name' of 'gallery', then a folder with the name 'gallery' will be created.
If you then create another page with the same 'Nav Name' ('gallery'), then a folder with the name 'gallery-2' will be created (to avoid a name clash with the original folder).
If you change the 'Nav Name' of a page, then the name of the original folder corresponding to the page will be changed. A new folder should not be created. This seems to be working OK for myself in a test site (with Showkase-Pro v1.3.5).

If you want to delete a page, I would recommend using Showkase's 'Trash' functionality on the 'Pages' tab rather than manually deleting the page's folder from the root Showkase directory. This will ensure that Showkase knows the page has been deleted (and should not be listed on the 'Pages' tab).
If you like, you should then be able to safely delete the contents of the '_trash' folder.

Essentially, Showkase does not delete imported galleries or trashed pages from a web server. If it much safer to leave original galleries as they are (or to move Showkase pages into the '_trash' folder) than to automatically delete them. Some users may not expect files to be deleted with no method of recovery.

I hope this helps to clarify things.

  • Registered: 2015-01-24
  • Posts: 23

Re: Duplicate folders

Hi Steven,

Thanks for such a prompt and detailed response. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the offering the work around and detailing what wouldn't work if implemented. I pretty much have things the way I want now. I deleted everything and started again because it was too time consuming to try to figure out which folder was the correct one. Lucky this happened with only the 6 galleries uploaded.

Anyways, while waiting for everything to get wiped off the server, I devised a naming convention so I wouldn't have to edit any names once imported and will operate out of a temp folder. I'll just have Showkase scan the temp folder instead of root for importing. If you can foresee any future difficulties I may run into, please let me know.

I need to go get the update now, thanks for the tip!

  • Registered: 2012-12-16
  • Posts: 938

Re: Duplicate folders

Anyways, while waiting for everything to get wiped off the server...

It can certainly take a long while to delete an entire folder structure via FTP (especially if the folder contains many subfolders and files). If you log into your web hosting account's CPanel and open their online File Manager, you might find that you are able to instantly delete a complete (non-empty) folder without having to wait for each and every file to be deleted individually (as would be done via FTP).

I'll just have Showkase scan the temp folder instead of root for importing.

It doers not really matter where you store your galleries for importing (although I would recommend a location outside your Showkase folder). However, setting up a 'temp' folder (where you know the contents can safely be deleted after importing) sounds like a good idea.

I need to go get the update now.

For others reading this post and wondering how to update Showkase, please see the Upgrading Showkase support page for details.

  • From: Orlando, FL
  • Registered: 2015-02-06
  • Posts: 46

Re: Duplicate folders

Thanks for the idea of the temp folder, Webitect. That's a great idea! Basically, if Showkase is going to copy a gallery into its own folder on import, might as well have a temp folder for the Lightroom upload. What do you suppose is the correct procedure if I use Lightroom to UPDATE a gallery. Should I then delete the gallery from within Showkase and then reimport it?


Bob


Webitect wrote:

Hi Steven,

Thanks for such a prompt and detailed response. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the offering the work around and detailing what wouldn't work if implemented. I pretty much have things the way I want now. I deleted everything and started again because it was too time consuming to try to figure out which folder was the correct one. Lucky this happened with only the 6 galleries uploaded.

Anyways, while waiting for everything to get wiped off the server, I devised a naming convention so I wouldn't have to edit any names once imported and will operate out of a temp folder. I'll just have Showkase scan the temp folder instead of root for importing. If you can foresee any future difficulties I may run into, please let me know.

I need to go get the update now, thanks for the tip!

bobkatz's Website

  • From: Orlando, FL
  • Registered: 2015-02-06
  • Posts: 46

Re: Duplicate folders

Deleting folders by FTP is very slow and inefficient. I use Cyberduck and you also have to refresh frequently. If you can SSH to your site from a terminal then the rm -rf command can do the job. But make sure you are really comfortable with terminal use. If you are, it can save tons and tons of time.

bobkatz's Website

  • Registered: 2015-01-24
  • Posts: 23

Re: Duplicate folders

Hi bobkatz,
Sorry for the late reply. In regards to uploading from lightroom, it never occurred to me to set that up. I've just been exporting to juicebox gallery, checking the photos exported ok then ftp'ing to my server. Thanks for the idea! That being said, I have no idea what the best way to update would be. I just re-published and re-uploaded.

As for deleting files via ftp, yeah, its painfully slow. But i'm ok with that I just leave it running in the background while I do something else.

Please advise if you have a solution for updating via lightroom. Thanks in advance.