I just spent an hour and a half attempting to install and configure Zenphoto. I have used several php photo, blogging and CMS systems. I run several websites. I'm not a programmer, but I can usually install wordpress, Gallery2, phpwebsite, pixelpost and numerous other programs in 15 minutes flat. After a friggin hour and a half wasted with this "simple" program, I realized simple was a code word for incomplete or retarded.

I just ftp'ed to my site and deleted the entire directory, loged onto mysql and deleted the database and by golly, I'm going to go find some difficult php software to use, as this "simple" program sucks rocks.

It was a total waste of my time.
Seeya.

As you can see...no one else agrees with you. Setup for me has never taken more than 3 minutes. Simple was an overstatement in my situation.

Humeston-

We're sorry to see you had so much trouble during your Zenphoto installation. We're here to help though. Please let us know what you had trouble with, and we'd like to help you troubleshoot your installation.

Yeah, not sure what went wrong there buddy it's never been a problem for me. Maybe we can help.

Sorry to hear that. Geez, and I thought, If I can do it, anyone can do it. Believe me, I've been to other places like, ahem... Folderblog and people in the forums don't even help you out. This is by far one of the best support forums I've been on. It actually took me a while to install but it was a problem with MySQL (or should I say operator problem). But I don't mind learning by trial and error.

Thanks for the great feedback, humeston, really. I know that the setup process needs work, and I am not proud of it in its current state. It needs to be streamlined, more automatic, and give good specific feedback about what to do if something goes wrong. It works just fine on 95% of the server configurations out there, but it chokes on some. I recognize that deficiency, and I'm sorry you had to go through a bad installation.

I try to make up for it by personally attending to the support forums to help people through anything that goes wrong, and by fostering a supportive, friendly community where you can vent like this and be heard positively. These guys are right, this really is one of the most helpful communities for any OS project I've seen, so take advantage of that. It's part of Zenphoto. Comes with it at no additional charge.

I'm sorry you came across a bad configuration - I really will work to simplify the installation process so things like this don't happen as often in the future, and when they do, I'll still try to keep the forums a friendly and supportive place to come for help.

Sorry again, best of luck finding a better gallery for your needs. And if you do come back, I'd love to hear more specifics about what didn't work for you, where problems occurred, what made you angry (seriously, that'd be great information), and how you think the process should ideally go. Thanks.

This IS the best gallery out there.

I have to agree that installation is a bit difficult. Things you think from setting up other sites would be true arent on here. You have to read and re-read to make sure you have the right file and then the install or setup file is run and I will bet thats the problem. He didnt hit go.

I have this setup on my test domain and it took a while to get up and running. I thought I had it down and when I reinstalled on real domain took me 20 mins to install, even thought I did it weeks before.

I do understand what he went through, but if your reading this reinstall and hit the go button. This gallery is the best and I have looked at them all.

Setting the ZenPhoto is as easy as learning then ABC - and i mean this First 3 letters of the alphabet only. HEHEHE! This is the simpliest script i have ever installed. I also don't have any clue about codings or scripting but if you follow the simple instructions then you could end up with a good outcome on installing it.

And all i can say about your comment humeston, honestly, it is a trash.

Trisweb's response was a good one, and bravo for admitting the 'slight' deficiencies in the installation process. The installation will work fine on at least 95% of the time and is a cinch. But, when it goes bad, it goes very bad. Unfortunately when an install fails, there isn't much to lead you to a conclusion as to why it failed - and those in shared hosting environments with poor tech support are not likely to get much help. Hopefully the installation can be strengthened in future versions. Anyone savvy enough can look at their server logs and figure out why an install failed, but not everyone has access to that information, or understands it.

Those being hyper sensitive to the comments should realize that while Zen Photo is a fantastic program a failed install does not necessarily mean the user did anything wrong. For me, for instance, getting ZP to run on my dedicated server takes quite a bit of tweaking. It does not work out-of-the-box. That said... it is well worth the effort to get it up and running!

Installation:
* Also I had problems with Zenphoto installation and the reasons were SuSE Apache- and
MySQL Configurations.
First time users:
* More Zenphoto users means more tester/contributer, but if they fail on the first
steps (installation etc.) they (may be) will stop using Zenphoto.
Conclusion:
* Installation should be "foolproof".
* Why not making a big packet like LAMPP? Everything included ==> Everything works.

Just to add my pennies-worth,

I'm also sorry to hear about the problem installing I know i'm not the only one who can sypathise, we have most likely all been there one time or another but I have to say, after installing and rejecting an enourmous list of photo gallery scripts (i had to keep a list, i tried out so many) ZP has been a 100% positive experience for me. And a very supportive community makes problem solving almost a pleasure.

If its useful, the only other scripts on my short list were singapore (now known as sgal) and photostack, maybe you want to check them out?

Kudos to Tris for sharing.

I'm impressed at how civil everyone remains, considering the tone of the first comment. :-)

I like Zenphoto. No I didn't have any problems at install, and if I did, I would have done what I do with other programs that are in development: I would have posted questions (and will do on some functionalities I'm unsure about) and detailed my problem as much as I could.

Just coming out with all guns firing may help someone vent, but it doesn't serve any useful purpose.

Thanks all for your kind and civilized comments. I'll make sure to work on the installation and make it "fool proof," give as much information and do as many checks as possible, and get rid of zp-config.php editing sometime soon as well :-)