At present time, I manage a site to share images from movies to use in the dvdprofiler images gallery feature. The site contains about 15000 images for about 1500 movies, with about 400 movies coming from other users.

It could be interesting to transfom the site to a wiki system, as suggested by Mithi :
Quoting Mithi:

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Quoting surfeur51:

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At present time, I have less time for my hobbies, and updating this site takes much time.

Share the burden. Instead of using a static website, why not try a wiki-system? With a bit of luck your webhoster already has some software-packet ready that you only have to activate. You could give those who contribute write-access so they do the work themself.

cya, Mithi

My site is hosted by Cyrille, another user, who could implement the software on his server, as long as it is php/mysql, but has no personal experience of using a wiki.

To go further, I need some advice or help from people who have experienced such a site, knowing that I have no experience in programming, and do not know php.

My questions are :

- is it reasonably possible to open such a site without special knowledge ?
- is it easy for a "normal user", to enter his data in such a site (if I spend time to create something that nobody will use, there is no interest...) ? (Users that contributed on present site could PM me to tell me what they are ready to do)
- is it possible to use all what has been done in present site (htm pages), without being obliged to rebuilt everything from scratch for 1500 existing movies ?
- does anybody know simple wiki system in php/mysql, with a multilanguage interface (specially "help" in french) that would allow to create such a site ?

Thanks for those who can help me to take a decision.

Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

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It's been a little while but I had set up a wiki site from scratch using php/mysql with very little effort.  If memory served, there's a config file that you set up and it otherwise runs out-of-the-box.  (based on the wiki software used by wikipedia)

Yup, that was my experience as well when I set up a wiki site a few years ago.

What you do need is a basic understanding of how MySQL is to be used on a webserver (usually via phpmyadmin) and how to edit a php file (it's plain text).

The Wikipedia software MediaWiki is relitively easy to install. You need a webspace that has MySQL as a database and PHP as a script engine. Every webspace from the lower middle class upwards has that.

See the install guide here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installation_guide

Quoting Muckl:

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You can try them out at OpenSourceCMS.com and check whether they meet your requirements. The installation process should be as easy as the one of MediaWiki etc.

Thanks for your post. I think you are right about the fact that those scripts are more adapted to my needs. 

One problem is the list of movies, which allows users to find images for their own collection. Most scripts seem to have a thumbnail page for most recents photos, and a search engine for older ones. Not sure it is the best to find specific images. And is it possible to download all photos from a movie in one operation, or have we to download each one by one ?

The second question is existing pages ? Do you think they can be used, or have to be rebuilt ? I want to save time, not spend a second time hundreds hours for 1500 movies.

WAMPP comes with an Control Center. You should find it in your Start Menu. Otherwise the xampp-control.exe in your install directory. With it you start both the MySQL and Apache service.

Once these services are running, you can open your browser and go to http://localhost

But why are you installing WAMPP (locally, I presume)? Unless you want to host your site on a local amchine in your home. But I'd advise against it, that would open a huge barn door from the internet to your computer if not properly configured...

I use the Gallery software which is designed for hosting images.  Click the VirtualCover link in my sig for one of my sites.

It is pretty powerful, handles the creation of thumbnails for you, has security features integrated, and is pretty damn easy to manage once installed.

With Gallery2, you can set set up the photos in a directory structure that you want to mirror in the app and import the whole thing in one go.

However, time constraints imposed by a shared web server may lead you to import in smaller chunks.

Gallery2 comes with a java app that you can run on your computer which uploads multiple files to multiple directories in a Gallery2 website or you can use a plugin inside the web app to upload multiple files into one directory.