Feature Requests, Bugs, Patches and Troubleshooting

ITEM: Feature Requests

If there's something you want added to album, first make sure
it doesn't already exist!  Check the man page or the usage:

<code>% man album</code>
<code>% album -h</code>

Also see -more and -usage options.

If you don't see it there, consider writing a patch or a plugin.

ITEM: Bug reports

Before you submit a bug, please make sure you have the most current release of album!

When submitting a bug, I need to know <b>at least</b>:

1) Your operating system
2) The exact problem and the exact error messages

I'd also like to know, if possible:
1) The exact album command you ran
2) The output from the command

And I generally also need the debug output of album:

<code>% album -d</code>

Finally, make sure that you've got the most current
version of album, and the most current themes as well.

ITEM: Writing Patches, Modifying album

If you want to modify album, you might want to check with me
first to make sure it's not already on my development plate.

If not, then consider writing it as a plugin instead of patching
the album source.  This avoids adding complexity to album for
features that may not be globally used.

If it needs to go into album (for example, if it's a bug), then
please make sure to first download the most <a href='http://MarginalHacks.com/bin/album'>recent copy of album</a>
first, then patch that and send me either a diff, a patch, or the
full script.  If you comment off the changes you make that'd be great too.

ITEM: Known Bugs

v3.11:  -clear_* and -no_* doesn't clear out parent directory options.
v3.10:  Burning CDs doesn't quite work with theme absolute paths.
v3.00:  Array and code options are saved backwards, for example:
        "album -lang aa .. ; album -lang bb .." will still use language 'aa'
        Also, in some cases array/code options in sub-albums will not
        be ordered right the first time album adds them and you may
        need to rerun album.  For example:
        "album -exif A photos/ ; album -exif B photos/sub"
        Will have "B A" for the sub album, but "A B" after: "album photos/sub"

ITEM: PROBLEM: My index pages are too large!

I get many requests to break up the index pages after reaching a certain
threshold of images.

The problem is that this is hard to manage - unless the index pages are
treated just like sub-albums, then you now have three major components
on a page, more indexes, more albums, and thumbnails.  And not only is
that cumbersome, but it would require updating all the themes.

Hopefully the next major release of album will do this, but until then
there is another, easier solution - just break the images up into
subdirectories before running album.

I have a tool that will move new images into subdirectories for you and
then runs album:
  <a href='http://MarginalHacks.com/Hacks/album/tools/in_album'>in_album</a>

ITEM: <b>ERROR:</b> no delegate for this image format (./album)

You have the album script in your photo directory and it can't make
a thumbnail of itself!  Either:
1) Move album out of the photo directory (suggested)
2) Run album with -known_images

ITEM: <b>ERROR:</b> no delegate for this image format (some_non_image_file)

Don't put non-images in your photo directory, or else run with -known_images.

ITEM: <b>ERROR:</b> no delegate for this image format (some.jpg)
ITEM: <b>ERROR:</b> identify: JPEG library is not available (some.jpg)

Your ImageMagick installation isn't complete and doesn't know how
to handle the given image type.

ITEM: <b>ERROR:</b> Can't get [some_image] size from -verbose output.

ImageMagick doesn't know the size of the image specified.  Either:
1) Your ImageMagick installation isn't complete and can't handle the image type.
2) You are running album on a directory with non-images in it without
   using the -known_images option.

If you're a <a href='http://MarginalHacks.com/redir.cgi?Gentoo.org/'>gentoo linux</a> user and you see this error, then run this command
as root (thanks Alex Pientka):

  USE="avi gif jpeg mpeg png quicktime tiff" emerge imagemagick


