Documentation

Table Of Contents -

Before you install

Installation

Workarounds / Problems

Upgrading

How to use Moa

Before You Install -

Moa needs the following to be able to install and run correctly -

MySQL 5.0.1 or higher
Apache 2.0 or higher
PHP 5.2 or higher
PHP extension - gd2
PHP extension - mbstring

A database and user set up in MySQL. The user needs basic privileges such as SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, etc. For the install the user also needs CREATE TABLE and ALTER privs.

Installation -

Upload the Moa files to the server you want to use, or copy it into the web server path for a local install. If using a Unix-based OS make sure your web-server user has read/write permissions in the moa directory and sub-directories.

Open install.php in a browser. It should guide you though the installation.
If it all goes ok, make sure you delete or rename the install.php afterwards. Moa will warn you if it is still there.
Moa should now work by opening the index.php file in a browser.
Feel free to send feedback if you think we need to include more or less info here (or about Moa in general).

Workarounds / Problems -

Thumbnails are not created. The gd2 PHP extension can come in several versions. The one we have confirmed works has 'bundled (2.0.34 compatible)' in it's description using phpinfo(). The 2.0.34 version as supplied by some Linux distributions doesn't usually work and they refuse to add the additional features.

Upgrading

Upload the new Moa files over the top of the old ones. It is OK to overwrite the old versions. There is no need to upload/copy install.php as it is not required and will only need to be deleted again to stop the reminders.
Open Moa in a browser and login. A message at the top will prompt you to complete the upgrade. Click it to continue.
Click the button to test any changes. You may need to set permissions to do some tasks but it will tell what it can or can't do.
Hit the 'Complete upgrade' button to finish the process. Depending on the version this stage will add new configuration variables, delete outdated Moa files and/or make database changes.

How To Use Moa -

The key (and only, really) thing for getting to grips with Moa is to understand that it is tag (keyword) based. Every image should have tags attached to identify what it is an image of. Every gallery needs tags to tell it what it should contain. How complex you make your tag system is up to you. Images are not directly associated with galleries and can appear in multiple ones. Images without any tags will not be displayed in any gallery.

For example a gallery with tags of 'holiday' and 'Hawaii' will contain any image that has at least those two tags as well, even if they have others as well. This lets you tag images in lots of ways to appear in more than one gallery. An image in that example gallery could have tags of 'holiday', 'Hawaii', '2005', 'beach', 'dad' and 'family'. The same image can appear in more than one gallery.

Holding the mouse over the edit tag box will show you all available and used tags. By default, comma (",") is used to separate the tags, this can be changed in config.php by changing the $STR_DELIMITER variable. A suggested alternative is semi-colon (";") as it is unlikely to be used in normal phrases.

Galleries can have sub-galleries inside them as well. These do not have to inherit the tags of it's parent although they will be filled-in automatically when you create one. By default any gallery with sub-galleries will not show any images inside, just the list of sub-galleries. This can be changed by editing the config.php file and changing $DISPLAY_PLAIN_SUBGALLERIES to true.

Bulk uploading images can be done by using an archive program to create a .zip file. This can be added to a gallery just like an image and will add any images it finds inside using the description, tags and parent gallery you have set. Another way to bulk upload is to use an FTP client to upload images into the <moa>/incoming/ directory and choosing 'FTP images' on the admin screen.

To add, edit or delete galleries and images use the links just below the header. You need to be logged in to do this. Galleries and images can be added from the front page or inside another gallery. Edit and delete can be done on any gallery or image. Deleting a gallery with sub-galleries will move those sub-galleries to where the parent was.

The admin button will let you do several things once you log in. You can create extra users or change your name/password. Extra users will all have access to the same galleries as you. The 'admin' tickbox against a user is whether to let them add/edit other users. You can add, edit and delete tags on the tag admin page. There is a page for changing moa settings. The last two pages are for finding any problems or lost images (not tagged).

This manual is a work in progress and we will be working on a more detailed version during the 1.2.x releases. Please check back later.

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