Before You Install: Coppermine Photo Gallery – Themes and Integration

Apr 11, 2008 | Scripting, Web Design

Coppermine Photo Gallery is a web picture gallery script written in PHP using GD or ImageMagick with a MySQL backend. If you are new to an online photo gallery, Coppermine is a good place to start. It is easy to set-up, easy to manage and feature-rich. Features include template and user management, password-protected albums, automatic thumbnail creation, film strip, e-card feature, full multimedia support, integration with other forum and content management systems, multi-lingual, and more.

However, if you simply want a fast way to show off a handful of photos you took on your last vacation, you might find Coppermine a little over-kill. Some users also find it difficult to customize the gallery layout.

Doteasy Demo: http://softaculousdemo.doteasy.com/index.php?act=27
Official Website: http://coppermine-gallery.net/

Install the script

You can follow the Doteasy installation tutorial: Doteasy Scripts Library

Themes

Coppermine comes with several pre-made themes and changing a theme is quite easy.

  1. Login to Coppermine as admin and click on the Themes Settings tab.
  2. From the Theme drop-down menu, select the theme you want to use.

You can also download themes from the SiteGround Design Team.

To add a new theme:

  1. Download the theme files.
  2. Unzip the files and then using a FTP client, upload them to the themes directory in your Coppermine.
  3. Login to Coppermine as admin and click on the Themes Settings tab.
  4. From the Theme drop-down menu, select the theme you want to use.

Integration using the Bridge Manager:

Coppermine can be integrated with other applications in terms of user management. This is called “bridging”. It creates a more seamless end user experience, as your users will only have to register once and their login information will work on both Coppermine as well as the application you bridge with, ie. phpBB.

The Bridge Manager is a new feature in Coppermine version 1.4, it is not available in older versions.

You can use the Bridge Manager to integrate Coppermine with InvisionBoard, MyBB, Phorum, phpBB, Punbb, Simple Machines Forum, vBulletin and Xoops.

Demo: Integrating Coppermine with phpBB

For more information Integration instructions from Coppermine

Note:

  1. You must have the application you want to bridge Coppermine with already installed on your webserver, it has to be properly configured and must be up-and-running.
  2. Bridging does not integrate your gallery and the application you bridge in terms of visual appearance. This means, if you want a seamless visual integration, you will need to create a custom theme for your gallery that matches the look of the bridge application.

Creating a custom theme
Theme Upgrade documentation

Integrate Coppermine with WordPress and Joomla/Mambo

There are currently no bridge files for integrating Coppermine with WordPress or with Joomla/Mambo. However, there are a few WordPress plugins that allow you to “fetch” pictures from your Coppermine, and there is a way to work around the Joomla/Mambo integration.

WordPress

Joomla/Mambo

Workaround: Integrate Simple Machines with Joomla/Mambo and then integrate Coppermine with Simple Machines.

For more information: Tutorial from Siteground.com

Additional Resources:

FAQ
Documentation
Tutorials
Forum

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