Getting Started

The following information will help you set up your IDS site:

• To create new picture albums, create new directories in the "albums" directory. Just place pictures in these directories to have them displayed. You can use IDS' administrative interface or any other method to place images in the "albums" directory. IDS can create thumbnails for JPEG, PNG, and GIF images and recognize and display links for whatever other filetypes you choose via the administrative interface.
  
  
• To access the administrative interface, use a web browser to connect to http://yourserver/ids-0.71/admin/. You will be prompted to enter the username and password you specified when you set up IDS.
  
  
• Use the "preferences" panel in the administrative interface to change settings for your IDS site.
  
  
• Comments embedded in graphics files (some digital cameras do this) will be displayed (both JPEG "comments" and EXIF data are supported). You can filter these comments if you desire.
  
  
• Underscores ("_") in the names of albums and images will be replaced with spaces on pages generated by IDS. For example, the album "Spring_Break' would be displayed as "Spring Break." Note that capitalization is unaffected.
  
  
• You can use spaces, ampersands, apostrophes, and other "odd" characters in both album and image names.
  
  
• You can rearrange the order in which items are displayed by prepending "#x_" (where "x" is a number) to an album or image name. The "#x_" won't be displayed.
  
  
• Resized images are cached in the "image-cache" directory. This directory's size will increase over time, so you may wish to delete its contents periodically using the administrative interface. (Resized images will be regenerated automatically.)
  
  
• IDS can be configured to ban users (by IP address) if they use what you deem to be inappropriate language in their comments. You can enable this feature in the administrative interface's preference panel. Add inappropriate words to the "words.txt" file in the "postcomment" directory (one per line). If a user is banned, his IP address will appear in the "banned_ip.txt" file. To allow that user to post again, remove his IP address from that file.
  
  
• IDS will display custom icons for albums. These icons include one of the pictures in that album. By default, IDS will use a random picture from the album, but you can specify a different picture using the administrative interface. Navigate to the page for the image you wish to use and click "Use image for album icon." Custom album icons are stored in files called "xxxxx.album_icon.jpg" in each album's directory within the "album-data' directory. If an album contains no supported images, a generic album icon will be used.
  
  
• To prevent some pictures in an album from being displayed, create a file named "exclude.txt" in the album's directory within the "album-data" directory. Put the names of the files that you do do not wish to be displayed in this file, one per line.
  
  
• Normally preview images and album icons will be generated the firxt time a user accesses an album. Because these images take some time to generate (1s/image on a K6/550), you may wish to generate them in advance. You can do this using the script "previewmaker.pl". Some IDS users configure their systems to run "previewmaker.pl" periodically.