Porta

Porta is a simple program that turns a directory with JPEG/TIFF images into a neatly formatted web photo album. Refer to the program homepage for further details, updates, history, et cetera.

Support
Porta is written and maintained by Mikkel B. Stegmann. Please, post comments, support questions and bug reports to the online support forum. Emails are also welcome but the forum should be the primary communication channel (in order to aid other Porta users); .

Contents

Help
Tips and tricks
Frequently asked questions
Legal matters

Help

Album generation

Making a Porta photo album is done in two simple steps.

Locate a directory containing JPEG/TIFF images either by
- starting Porta and browse for folder, or by
- right-clicking a folder in the windows explorer and selecting Make/Edit Porta Album
  (requires that Right-click to Porta was selected during installation).
Add album details such as title, captions etc. (pressing enter can skip this step).

That's it. A browser will then show the generated photo album upon completion.

The Porta album directory can now be uploaded to a website using an ftp/ssh client, frontpage, or any other file transfer tool. Another possibility is to burn the album to a CDROM, e.g. as a present.

Album editing

Porta albums can be edited at a later stage, if you for example would like to modify the captions etc. Edit albums by locating the album folder rather than the image folder, or right-click the album folder.

Updating albums with new images

To add more images to an existing album, simply copy the new images to the directory the album was generated from. Then start editing the album. Porta will now detect the new images and ask if they should be added to the album.

Tips and tricks

This section contains a few tips and tricks that might come in handy for more advanced users.

Album navigation
Auto-start of CD-based Porta albums
Automatic album generation
Default footer
Default link

Album navigation

Notice that the arrow keys in your browser can be used to move to the next and previous image.

Auto-start of CD-based Porta albums

Porta albums copied to a CD (or an USB memory stick) will automatically start, if all files and folders inside the Porta album directory is copied to the root folder. If your CD-drive is named D:, this will then result in the album file autorun.inf having the path D:\autorun.inf.

Automatic album generation

Porta can be scripted to generate albums without user interaction by calling:

porta.exe <image directory> /Automation

E.g. put the following line into the text file "porta_batch.cmd":

"C:\Program Files\Porta\porta.exe" "D:\Mies van der Rohe" /Automation

Remember to change the above example to reflect the location of your porta.exe (or add the Porta installation directory to your system path). Omitting "/Automation" will just start Porta in normal interactive mode using the specified image directory.

The appearance of automatically generated albums will be dictated by whatever settings Porta had the last time it was used in interactive mode. Thus, to chose the same appearance for a set of scripted albums, just omit "/Automation" in the first line of your script.

Default footer

Use the environment variables PORTA_FOOTER or PORTA_FOOTER_NAME to provide a standard footer every time you start Porta.

PORTA_FOOTER	Footer will be "PORTA_FOOTER"
PORTA_FOOTER_NAME	Footer will be "© PORTA_FOOTER_NAME CURRENT_YEAR"

Environment variables can be set by choosing (Windows XP English):
Start->Settings->Control Panel->System->Advanced->Environment Variables

Examples:
PORTA_FOOTER_NAME = "M. B. Stegmann" PORTA_FOOTER = "© M. B. Stegmann 2006. All rights reserved." PORTA_FOOTER = "© <a href="http://www.stegmann.dk/">Stegmann.dk</a> 2006."

Default link

Use the environment variables PORTA_LINK_TXT and PORTA_LINK_URL to provide a standard album link every time you start Porta, rather than adding one by hand using the Intro/link... button.

Environment variables can be set by choosing (Windows XP English):
Start->Settings->Control Panel->System->Advanced->Environment Variables

Examples:
PORTA_LINK_TXT = "Album list" PORTA_LINK_URL = "../index.html"

Frequently asked questions

Q: How do I publish my album to the web so that other can see it?

A: Porta is not an image hosting system. It will make albums on your local hard drive that need to be transferred to you user account or webdomain at you Internet Service Provider. The actual transfer methods differ between ISPs but may include ftp, ssh, scp, frontpage, a web-based system or something entirely different. Have a look at the ISP FAQ.

Q: Can I provide a link back to my website?

A: Yes. Click the "Introduction and Album Link" button in the Album Editor.

Q: Can I edit the album after I have generated it?

A: Yes. See above.

Q: Why do I see security warning when I click a link in the album?

A: This will happen if you view a SimpleViewer album stored on your harddrive and click e.g. the album link. This is ok. The warning will disappear when the album is uploaded to a webserver.

Q: Why do my captions disappear when I try to edit an album?

A: You have probably chosen to open the directory containing the original source images, rather than the Porta album directory.

Q: Can Porta make an index page with links to all my albums?

A: No.

Q: How can I password protect my Porta albums?

A: It depends on your ISP and at the end of the day; your webserver. However, it is fairly likely that the simple htaccess mechanism is supported in your setup.

Q: Is it possible to use the input images directly without modifications?

A: Yes. Just make sure that the width on landscape-sized and the height on portrait-sized images are equal to the size chosen in Options. Porta will now raw-copy the images to the album. Notice that this will include all metadata as well such as Exif, IPTC et cetera.

Q: Why are image changes not reflected when I edit my album?

A: You must press the "Rebuild Album Images" in the Album Editor if you have made any changes to the images (e.g. a contrast adjustment) after the last time you generated your album.

Q: Why are my images rotated in the album?

A: If images are rotated incorrectly, chances are that you have a problem with the Exif orientation tag in those images. As default, Porta orients images automatically according to this tag. This means that images taken upright with a camera with an orientation sensor (as e.g. Canon 20D) also will be shown upright in Porta. Try to turn off this feature under Options if you're seeing incorrectly oriented images.

Legal matters

License
The program Porta is placed in the public domain. Copy and redistribute to your hearts content. Redistribution of modified versions is not permitted.

Disclaimer
Porta is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Acknowledgements
Porta contains code portions kindly provided by the Independent JPEG group, the Libtiff project, the XML parser toolkit, the Jhead project, and the FreeType project. The SimpleViewer is written, and kindly licensed for use in Porta, by Felix Turner, Airtight Interactive.