FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

General questions

Getting started

Using

Widgets

If this FAQ didn't help you, please ask your question at the Jalbum forum, but search through the forum first using the forum search tool.

General questions

Question: What is Jalbum?

Answer: Jalbum is a free tool that produces web based photo albums with index pages and slide shows from image folders

Question: What makes it different to others?

Answer: A couple of main things:

  • Ease of use. Just drag and drop an image folder and press "Make album".
  • Flexibility. While many competitors offer some degree of customisation through user interface controls or simple templates, Jalbum allows you to generate virtually any imaginable album look as it allows the album designer to use any HTML mixed with Jalbum variables and interpreted java to define the album look.
  • Works anywhere. With Jalbum you generate static HTML web albums so there is no need for extra software to view albums, not on the server side either (just a plain web server). You can put an album on a CD-ROM too if you wish.
  • Runs anywhere. Jalbum is made in the Java programming language so it runs not only on Windows machines, but also on Macintosh OS X and Unix systems like Linux (That's the "J" in "Jalbum"). Being a Java program it needs a VM (Virtual Machine) that adopts its code for each machine. I recommend Java 1.5 (or "Java5") from www.java.com

Question: Do I need Java to view albums?

Answer: No, only to generate them. Jalbum usually generates plain html web albums so any modern browser will do for viewing albums.

Question: How do I check if I have the right version of the Java VM already installed?

Answer: Open a command window and issue java -version The output should at least read 1.5

Getting started

Question: I downloaded the version without the Java runtime (because I already have a Java VM installed on my machine.) When I run the program I get the following error:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/swing/UIManager at se/datadosen/jalbum/JAlbum.main at java/lang/reflect/Method.invoke at com/zerog/lax/LAX.launch at com/zerog/lax/LAX.main

Answer: Jalbum requires at least v1.5 of the installed Java VM. This message shows if you run Jalbum on top of a too old Java VM. When downloading, select the install option that includes a "Java VM" or download a Java VM from Sun

Question: I have a previously installed Jalbum that included a Java VM. Can I use that VM when I update Jalbum?

Answer: Yes. When you are asked to select a Java VM. Manually point the installer to [Jalbum install dir]/jre/bin/javaw.exe

Question: I get errors when running the installer

Answer: Some people have had difficulties getting the installers to run. If that applies to you, you can download Jalbum without an installer Assuming you at least have Java 1.5 installed, start Jalbum by double clicking the Jalbum.jar file or issue java -jar -Xmx400M JAlbum.jar at a command prompt.

And here is an answer from ZeroG, the makers of the Installer I use (InstallAnywhere):

There are a few things that might cause this type of error. The first thing you'll need to check it that you have enough disk space for the install. Next, make sure that you do not have any anti virus software or pcanywhere running as this is known to cause problems with InstallAnywhere installers. The last thing would be to try turning your hardware acceleration display setting to off.

There are known issue with certain versions of Java running against certain video cards.

Also, if you are transferring this file from one machine to another, make sure that the file size is valid and you are transferring the file in binary mode. Also, this might be a Java only problem. Try running any of the Swing demos that come with the Java runtime in 1.5.X and see if it just hangs in all of these Windows 2000 machines. Use dxdiag to find directX version. Other searches on the web seem to indicate that DirectX needs to be updated to at least 8.1 to correct the problem. Most machines that have problems with this have DirectX 7.0 installed.

Using

Question: The final album is ok but I would like to adjust/add/remove [your modification here]

Answer: A lot of things can be set in the Jalbum user interface and on the skin specific tab (see album settings), but if you don't find a user interface control for what you'd like to adjust, add or change in the final album (font sizes, alignment etc), edit the skin template files instead, there is even a tutorial for this if you find it hard. The skin template files are basically html files stuffed with some Jalbum specific tags and variables. They form the base for all generated album pages. Use a plain text editor like Notepad to edit or an html editor like Frontpage. If you are adjusting a size, font or colour, edit the style files of the skin instead (see the styles directory of the skin you are using). NEVER modify the generated html pages, or you will find yourself having to re-modify them every time you generate an album.

Question: What is the preferred way to add images to my existing Jalbum album?

Answer: Make sure you always keep a copy of your original images in a folder on your hard disk. Generate the album from that folder and publish the album, but always keep that original folder. Now, if you wish to add more images to your album, add them to that original folder, fire up Jalbum, select the previously saved project (it helps at least), set the make setting to "Changes" and press "Make album" again. Jalbum will now go through all images in that image folder, but actually only rescale the newly added ones, so the process of updating your album isn't very time consuming. Jalbum finally spits out the newly added, and now scaled images to the album directory, and usually a bunch of updated html files too. Now to update the remote album in a simple way, use the Jalbum publish function and it's "Smart upload" feature, which is smart enough to only upload new and changed files.

Question: How do I easily maintain multiple albums?

Answer: This is similar to the recommended way of adding images to an existing album (see above). Keep all your images in separate directories under one "master" directory on your hard disk. One directory for each album (The "My Images" directory in Windows is a good such "master" directory by the way). As you want to publish new albums, first add the new image directory to the "master" directory, then start Jalbum and drop the "master" directory onto Jalbum. Finally make the album. To speed things up you can instruct Jalbum to ignore already processed directories by setting that switch on the Advanced settings. Now use the Jalbum publish function and it's "Smart upload" feature to upload new and changed files. The result will be a "master index" page with one thumbnail or folder for each album. If you don't want certain image directories published as albums, just exclude them (See the "editing" docs).

Question: Jalbum doesn't show in my language. How do I change this?

Answer: Jalbum picks the language you have set as system default (see the Control Panel on Windows for instance), but if you don't want to change language there, open the Jalbum Preferences window and change language there. If your language doesn't show in the language list, you may want to translate Jalbum to your language. To do that, open the "texts" subdirectory of the Jalbum install directory and read the instructions in the "texts.properties" file.

Question: What file formats are supported?

Answer: Jalbum supports JPEG, GIF and PNG image files. More formats, like TIFF, BMP and JPEG2000 can be added through the Java Advanced Imaging Image I/O Tools plugin from Sun. Other file types are supported as linked icons (edit the filetypes.xml file to support more file types).

Question: I cannot see thumbnails on published albums. Local viewing works fine.

Answer: This is caused by Norton Antivirus or Norton AdBlocker. That software has a bug that makes the browser ignore images with certain sizes. Change the thumbnail size and/or call Norton for a fix.

Question: How do I make Jalbum add a link back to my site?

Answer: Some skins (like Chameleon) have their own settings for this, but here is the general solution: Usually one puts a Jalbum album in a subdirectory of a web site. Jalbum will automatically add a "parent/up" link on the thumbnail/index page(s), but only if it senses index web pages in the parent directory of the output directory during page generation. You can force Jalbum to generate a custom link by defining the variable parentIndexPage to ../index.html or whatever that points users back to your site in the "User variables" settings of Jalbum.

Question: I'm getting an "java.net.UnknownHostException" error when trying to publish an album

Answer: This error shows when Jalbum is unable to access the Internet. Make sure you have a working Internet connection and that the "javaw.exe" process isn't blocked from accessing the Internet in your software firewall (Windows XP comes with a software firewall built in. Users of Norton Security are also likely to have accidently blocked "javaw.exe" from accessing the Internet.)

Question: How can I password protect my albums?

Answer: Jalbum usually produces static html pages. To password protect such pages you need to configure the web server to protect a certain directory for instance. If you host your album on an Apache web server you can put a .htaccess file in the directory to protect. If you're using a Jalbum hosting account, just connect to your account using Jalbum, select the album you wish to protect and press the button with the padlock icon.

Question: How can I add watermarks to my photos?

Answer: Watermarks can be added to the generated images by using Jalbum filters. Some skins (BluPlusPlus and ShowOff for instance) also have special fields for entering watermarks in their user interfaces, but you get the best flexibility out of manipulating Jalbum filters right away.

Question: Can I have another title on the album than the folder name?

Answer: Yes. Right click on the folder for the album or directory you wish to set a custom title for. A popup menu will show. Select "Properties". Edit the title field in the popup window that shows. Finally regenerate the album by pressing "Make album".

Question: How do I get rid of copyright notices that appear below images?

Answer: Some image packages (not Jalbum) stores copyright notices ("LEAD Technologies" etc) in the comment area of JPEG images. Jalbum extracts and displays these comments believing they are user comments, but you can suppress this by going to the advanced metadata settings and simply deselecting the "JPEG" comment source.

Question: What's the difference between the "All" and "Changes" make options?

Answer: First a rule of thumb: Use "All" only after changing image sizes to an existing album. Use "Changes" for everything else. Rescaling images is the most time consuming part of album generation, therefore Jalbum tries to avoid image rescaling for already generated images (thumbnails and closeups) if you use "Changes". "Changes" can be used for initial album generation, when adding new images, when experimenting with different skins and image sizes, but to get good quality on the final album when image sizes has changed, "All" is neccessary.

Question: I have increased the thumbnail size but now the quality looks poor. Why?

Answer: use the "All" make setting and press "Make album" after changing image sizes. Jalbum will then rescale all images to their new size. The "Changes" make setting never physically rescales already generated images in order to gain speed on subsequent album generations using the same image size when images are being added or different skins are being tried out.

Question: The generated date and time is in US format and I live in (enter country here)

Answer: Download the international version of Suns Java runtime in order to have Jalbum make the right guess right away or set a date pattern manually in the advanced tab.

Question: Vertical (portrait) images appear smaller than the horizontal ones. How do I get the same size: 640x480 and 480x640 respectively?

Answer: Just set the "Max image size" on the Image settings tab to 640x640 and you'll have that effect. The "Max image size" specifies a "bounding box" and never changes the width/height ratio of an image.

Question: How can I have all thumbnails in the same height? Now portrait thumbnails are higher

Answer: Set the thumbnail size to something extreme like 140x80 instead of 120x120 and you will have this effect.

Question: Some generated albums do not look perfect on <add old browser here>

Answer: Adjust the skin templates that made the failing album so they work for this browser too and mail me the corrected skin for inclusion. Adjustments should be "clean" and tested for current browsers.

Question: Can Jalbum display the 35 mm equivalent focal length instead?

Answer: Yes, refer to the scripting examples for instructions on how to do this.

Question: I get an error code returned in the status row when trying to upload an album through FTP. What's wrong?

Answer: Check out the meaning of the code at some site that lists FTP error codes. A common cause is "Invalid file name" where the remote server is more picky about some special characters in the file name than your own system. Renaming some files is then the recommended solution.

Question: I want Jalbum to open [enter browser here] instead of Firefox when I select "View album". I am using Linux.

Answer: Linux users can specify other browsers to be launched than Firefox by running Jalbum like this:

java -Dbrowser.cmd="[enter browser here]" -Dbrowser.arg0="@url" -jar JAlbum.jar

Widgets

Question: What are widgets?

Answer: Widgets are little tools that can enhance the functionality of an album. Each album can have its own set of widgets. The widgets are visible in a discreet little toolbar in the bottom of your album page. You activate the widgets on your albums page.

Question: How does widgets work?

Answer: Widgets are inserted via a Javascript code that is visible in the bottom of each album HTML-file. The Javascript loads the widgets from the Jalbum widget server and populates the album when someone is viewing it.

Question: Which widgets can I chose from?

Answer: All available widgets are visible on this page: http://jalbum.net/widgets


If this FAQ didn't help you, please ask your question at the Jalbum forum, but search through the forum first using the forum search tool.

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