This should actually fit better in the CB 1.2 RC2 section, but there isn't any Usability section there nor is there a section in the 3rd Party Component section. In fact, there should be a dedicated section for the Menalto Gallery 2 component since it seems a pretty hot favourite for users of the Joomla/CB combo. There is a fairly extensive discussion on the Joomla forums, but you can get frustrated there because many posters there aren't using CB in the first place and don't face the kind of problems CB users do. Such users add to the frustration because they can't get why the others are frustrated. IMHO, the G2 bridge component clearly belongs here on JP! Are you listening Beat, Nick, DJTrail and JoomlaJoe?

Anyway,here's my story:

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my site, and in doing so, I find that the issue of installing the bridge to Menalto’s Gallery 2 is still as problematic as it was two years ago. Since I’ve tinkered with this for a while now, and since it still is causing a lot of frustration for so may other others, I thought it might be helpful to post my diary on this, with the hope that this will be helpful to others like me:

1) First of all, this is what I had working on my site two years ago:

Joomla 1.0.7/11 and CB 1/CB 1.0.2
Gallery 2 Bridge Component: v. 2.0.13 Beta and related CB plugin; Image Block Module: mod_gallery2_image_fixed_2.1.zip (v. 2.5); Image Sidebar Module: mod_gallery2_side.zip (v. 2.5)
Menalto Gallery v. 2.1.1
Apache version 1.3.37 (Unix)
PERL version 5.8.5
PHP version 5.0.5
MySQL version 4.1.21-standard-log
This combination has worked well for me.

2) Now, two years later, I’ve had to face up to the reality of many upgrades, and this is what I finally have, which keeps my site humming as far as image galleries go:

Joomla 1.0.15 and CB 1.2 RC2
Gallery 2 Bridge v. 2.0.14 Beta (Filename: com_gallery2_v2.0.14_beta.zip available at: joomlacode.org/gf/project/gallery2_bridge/frs/) and G2 plugin (Filename: plug_g2bridge_v2.zip available at: forum.4theweb.nl/showthread.php?s=8a895f866b2dd4b456f8eec2e1838170&t=1296 )
Image Block Module (same as above): mod_gallery2_image_fixed_2.1.zip (v. 2.5); Image Sidebar Module (same as above): mod_gallery2_side.zip (v. 2.5)
Menalto Gallery 2 v. 2.1.1
Apache/Perl/PHP/MySQL combo the same as before.

In order to keep this combo working, I had to install com_joomlalib as well (Filename com_joomlalib_1_3_2.zip available at: joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomlalib/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=2319). Without this, the G2 Bridge does not work at all (the usual blank screen appears when accessing any user profile in CB ). It was a pain that this requirement is not mentioned together with the G2 Component documentation.

Of course, to get the site to work at both stages, A LOT of tinkering and experimentation was required (short of hacking the code). And it didn’t help that there wasn’t - and still isn’t much in terms of documentation. In this sense, a lot of the frustration vented on the G2 component and bridge for CB is quite understandable.

However, at the end of the effort, the stuff still works pretty darn well! In fact I had half a mind to switch to Nant’s CB Gallery but didn’t because I had so many user images on the site (I have close to 8,000 registered users) that made the task of migrating rather daunting. Also, having installed the CB Gallery for testing, I found there was a perceptible lag in the loading of user profiles (sorry Nant!, but in all fairness to him and the excellent CB crew here, I didn’t really run any benchmarks on this, it just seemed that way to me). Edit: Looking again, the G2 plugin seems to have the same lag, so I take back this comment on the CB Gallery.

The bottom line is the G2 bridge component is good stuff, it works and enhances the Joomla/CB combination. It’s author, Michiel Bijland, deserves credit for his effort ( www.4theweb.nl ) and I sincerely hope he keeps working on it. I would be a happy donor for that effort.

I also hope the links I’ve provided here are comprehensive for those considering G2 and that it helps you set it up with less pain.

I am currently in the process of testing and upgrading to Menalto Gallery 2.2.6 and J1.5.x. I will post the results of that experience here. Till then, ciao!

Keywords: Menalto, Gallery 2, G2 Bridge Component, G2 Component for CB, G2 Plugin for CB.

Post edited by: junkers, at: 2008/09/24 05:13

Following my last post, I've been working on this upgrade quite a bit. I settled for CB1.1 for my production site rather than 1.2 RC2 which I mentioned in my last post, just to err on the side of caution. 1.2 is nice, but I will wait for stable version which apparently will be out soon.

So here's my present configuration:
Joomla 1.0.15 and CB 1.1
Gallery 2 Bridge Component: com_gallery2_v2.0.14_beta.zip
Image Block Module: mod_g2bridge_image_v2.7.zip
Image Sidebar Module: mod_g2bridge_side_v2.6.zip
Image Album Module: mod_g2bridge_album_v2.0.zip
(The component and modules above were downloaded from joomlacode.org/gf/project/gallery2_bridge/frs/ )
CB plugin: plug_g2bridge_v2.zip (Downloaded from forum.4theweb.nl/showthread.php?t=1296 )
Joomlib: com_joomlalib_1_3_2.zip (Downloaded from joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomlalib/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=2319 )
Menalto Gallery v. 2.2.6 (had to do full upgrade from G2.1.1)
Apache version 1.3.37 (Unix)
PERL version 5.8.5
PHP version 5.0.5
MySQL version 4.1.21-standard-log

Well, to start with, I had lots of trouble upgrading to G2.2.6. The root of the problem was how tar.gz files get unpacked using a shell program (in my case, WinSCP). Depending on whether you add the last / or not, and depending on the target directory, the files kept getting unpacked one level deeper than desired. Bottom line, a lot of time went figuring this one out. Lesson for me: note the file sizes of key files in the public_html/gallery2 root folder - if the file sizes don't change, your files have been unpacked incorrectly. : (

Any way, after that the install went fine. No problem what so ever with G2.2.6. However, the earlier versions of the G2 Bridge component mostly broke down. All profiles also only show a blank screen on account of the CB plugin being used. After upgrading to the newer versions listed on this post, profiles were back, etc. except for the image block which gave errors consistently. After much searching for solutions, I found the simple enough fix at gallery.menalto.com/node/71754 in a post by the great serbanc, to whom I remain extremely grateful. Basically, you need to "go into administrative section of Gallery (not joomla, not g2bridge) and install/enable imageblock plugin". Ha ha, no bugs here, just a setting, and I imagined the need for another hack as I didn't find any other solution for quite a while!

Bottom line: the G2 Bridge component and supporting modules work great. The only problem is that the answers to very basic questions are strewn all over the internet, and you gotta go and find 'em. I hope I've been of some help to others who face the same problems, at least with the versions of the programs/components that I've used so far.

Next stop Joomla 1.5.x and the alpha versions of the G2 Bridge. Hmm, if it's in alpha, it's gotta be more problematic right? I sure hope not!

Junkers

Update: Since posting, I have changed the G2 Bridge and mods/plug from the ones from joomla.org (listed above) to Serbanc's version (available at gallery.menalto.com/node/71754 )as it works better (CB/G2 user sync works, as well as direct linking to user albums, to name a few. Now I'm working to get links from the albums/pictures in G2 to point straight back to the CB profile of the owner, as well as horizontal layout versions of the image and album blocks. More on this later. J15x upgrades and tests will follow this.

Post edited by: junkers, at: 2008/10/03 07:54

I've left testing on J1.5x for now, as I have a pretty stable J1.0.15 integration of G2.2.6 and CB1.1. Plus I'm pretty tired!

What's notable since my last post is that I wrote up a custom mod for G2/Bridge which combines the earlier g2bridge image and album mods. It's called FlexMatrix (mod_g2bridge_flexmatrix.zip), which, besides combining the ability to choose between image or album; random, recent or most viewed - also allows you to pick multiple rows and columns. Basically an 8x8 matrix of albums or images from your G2 installation, on Joomla!

Also, I put together G2.2.x template hacks (I call them the CB Hotlink Hacks) which have links pointing directly from albums/images to the CB user profile. Pretty neat stuff that I gleaned from the forums of forum.4theweb.nl and which truly helps to integrate G2, CB and Joomla!

I've posted all of these at forum.4theweb.nl/showthread.php?t=1592 where I welcome all feedback (here too).

OK, I guess I'm done as far as this thread goes. Oh, actually there's one more thing: I have a request for Beat, Nant and others on this forum: Could you please add another dedicated thread (under 3PD maybe) where we can track G2/G2 Bridge developments? If you do agree to this, then perhaps this thread could be moved there?

Thanks, all!

Update: I just realized JP also allows uploads - so I've added the mod here. install the mod as we always do, and install ItemInfo.tpl in /gallery2/modules/core/templates/blocks/local folder
ImageBlock.tpl in /gallery2/modules/imageblock/templates/local (go to forum.4theweb.nl for these)

Post edited by: junkers, at: 2008/10/15 16:23

I've begun a project for FlexMatrix on joomlacode.org. All files are now available, with elaborated readme notes, over here: joomlacode.org/gf/project/flexmatrix/frs/

I will now be maintaining a wiki (sometime soon), along with comments on improvements made from time to time, at the same location.

Ciao, this is my last post on this subject on JP.

Junkers.