Joomla-Coppermine Bridge (Main Page)

Last times explanations updated :28 januay 2009
Last times files updated: 23 april 2009, fixed visual integ issues with sh404SEF (or similar).

Bridge between Joomla and Coppermine. Last versions tested: Joomla 1.0.15 or Joomla 1.5.9 and Coppermine 1.4.21 . (Probably will work with future versions too: don't ask me each time there's a minor update of Coppermine or Joomla)

Get the files right now; but make sure you read instructions after the link.

Javascript, Please!

Important Note:

I didn't want to write twice instructions for Joomla 1.0x and Joomla 1.5 , or provide two separate zip files.
So basically, all files highlighted in green this way are by default for Joomla 1.0.x and are available in the folder "Joomla! 1.0.x only" of your zip file. However each of these files (except quickmerge.php) have equivalent for Joomla 1.5 version, and they are in the folder "Joomla! 1.5 only" of your zip file.

Instructions:

First install com_coppermine.zip inside Joomla. Important: Add a direct link to your Coppermine install in your Joomla website menu (example: http://www.mysite.com/cpg/) . Do not link the Coppermine Component! Remark: the component is required by the bridge even if you don't link to it.

Copy both files joomla.inc.php and joomla.integ.php to the bridge folder of your gallery. Then you'll have to hack two files inside Coppermine folder: bridgemgr.php and functions.inc.php (the second file is inside the include/ subfolder). If your Coppermine version is 1.4.21 then the work is already done; just use files provided in the folder "cpg 14.21/hacked files" of your zip file. Otherwise these hacks are described here.

Warnings: Concerning OpenSef, and Community Builder : please click here to show / hide text.

Now, enable the bridge from Coppermine. Go to Admin Tools, choose Bridge Manager and then just follow the Bridge Wizard. Option Joomla! has been added by the previous hack, so choose it. You may hesitate for the option " Use post-based groups?". Answering "yes" means you'll have to manage 9 user groups ( Joomla's user types + Guests); whereas answering "no" means you'll have to manage only 5 groups (default Coppermine's group). I chose "no" for the simplicity of use. Notice that the bridge provide admin rights only for two kind of Joomla's users : "Administrator"and "Super Administrator" . If you wish to change this, you'll need to edit the script joomla.inc.php.

You may wish to keep all user you had on your Coppermine gallery and merge them with those registered to your Joomla website. This is the purpose of the provided quickmerge.php script. This script needs a copy of your "cpg145_users" table to be in your Joomla database in order to work properly. If you are using two separate database (for Joomla and Coppermine) you can always perform a copy of this table and then delete it afterward. Then edit first lines of quickmerge.php, and modify settings $myTable and $encryptedPasswords (unless you upgraded your Coppermine gallery from an old version; the second setting should be set to true) . Then run the "quickmerge.php" script, from the root of your Joomla website. The script won't affect users already registered in your Joomla website. All users added by the script belong to the "Registered" group.

You can easily disable integration of your gallery inside the Joomla's Template (while keeping main bridge features) : you just have to rename the file joomla.integ.php to whatever name you'd like.

After integration of Coppermine inside your Joomla's Template, you may have noticed some CSS related problems. If you put a second stylesheet named style2.css , inside the folder of your current Coppermine's theme, the bridge will detect the new css stylesheet and use it instead of the default one i.e style.css. Thus, better use a second style2.css to perform all necessary modifications; this way the original file style.css will remain intact and available if you unbridge. The CSS Integrator page allows to perform automatically all essential CSS fix. Just browse and indicate your style.css file, submit, rename the processed file into style2.css, and then put it in your theme folder. Note: style2.css for the Classic theme already provided.

Template Integration, "require" that you use the same encoding for your Joomla's installation and Coppermine's one (otherwise your browser may display weird characters). By default Joomla 1.0.x use "iso-8859-1" and Coppermine 1.4.x use "utf-8". Unless your website is english only (standard ascii characters), I advise that you convert your Joomla 1.0x install to support utf8 : see instructions here.

Troubleshooting: Any troubles, questions ? Don't miss the FAQ.