Community @ The Turning Gate

Thx Ben!
<<Rest assured we're not trying to make your life difficult.>>

I know you guys do what needs to be done, no complaints there!

It's just that I have been a TTG-customer since the very start and it bothers me that documentation is still such a very weak point.
In all honesty I could not name any other such "vital" product (free or paid for that matter) causing so much loss of time and frustration.
No search function, come on, it's 2020 and not everybody uses the same software lingo.This goes even more for a product that is mostly left pretty much alone for longer periods of time, once a site is up. We're human, we forget. Not to mention that the old documentation for Backlight 1 & 2 with which we had to spent quite a few hours with, has even been made available/accessible!

Backlight is a unique product, as far as I know without any serious competitor. That's fine and good for (TTG's) business, but it should also mean taking extra care that customerts can concentrate on photography rather than reinventing the wheel every time.
Promises in the right direction were made, and yet again I have to bother you moderators with the stupidest of questions.

Oops, my fault. And indeed, now it seems to work. So thanks so far!

From what I see when comparing one of my other Backlight sites, I seem to be missing even the default Pangolin templates.
I only seem to have Okapi versions now...

Also, I would like to use some custom templates I made on another (Backlight2) site on the one I now have updated to BL2.
Is there a way to do this in a practical manner or do I have to first export each one on the other site where it was made, and then import them one by one on the updated site?

Ben: the message disappeared too quickly!
Rod: I have no business with php plugins, and since the mess was getting worse, I have had to revert back to the previous Backlight version before my provider shifts the backup chain. Now that I am back for the 3rd time, I would guess the crazy @import url has something to do with my audacity to choose a non-standard font type when I setup the website years ago.

In short, for now, after two days of trying, there is no other option than for me to try all over again to update.

And..... I cannot access the backlight module anymore because of
ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS
after which I tried clearing the site's cookies to no avail

I tried that three times (!) and only get more errors, either with or without /backlight.
Like: twenty times:        /installer/installer OR /backlight/backlight/installer/installer

Thanks Rod and Daniel. I am not unfamiliar with Backlight 2, in fact I run a few sites on it, but they were "fresh starts".
I was under the impression that upgrading meant: changing the software, and then get on with my data/galleries etc.....

Now for the one I am trying to upgrade from One to Backlight 2:

- I got a bit further thanks to Rods instructions, but I end up with an "empty" site.
- visiting the site result in HTTP error 500, so that is no help.
- cleared all caches, updated/reinstalled from Backlight 2's admin module, and I do see that my galleries still exist
- however: I cannot access anything, getting red error messages like this one https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlB4kN3DO4XXg95Ovgg … A?e=J5Q637

Good day Ben!
I am very grateful for this vital piece of background. I had already drawn the inescapable conclusion that it was useless to further try and "hound the technical support" from hosts who deny and/or ignore the issues I have so tirelessly put before them. For this reason I am leaving, and will continue to work with Backlight on one of my other hosts where thing do work.

As far as I know PHP itself is not the problem, although only really diving into it's technical heart will open up all of its possibilities. But first and foremost....we are photographers (to be).

That said, I would aks TTG to consider the possibility of making some kind of test-set (I'm not a coder so this will most likely sound silly) in order for clients to check their hosts before investing quite a bit of time on what for many of us is - though much loved - a hobby and pastime. You speak of "well-reputed hosts" but I'm afraid that is way beyond what the vast majority of your users will be able to find before actually spending money. I have read hundreds of pages in my own country and all over the internet, looking for reliable client experience information, but again 90% of what you find is either very/too angry customer reviews or biased commercial promoting.

I will certainly forward the essence of my experiences and your valuable comments to my soon ex-provider if only to stress that with probably little effort they could have had and kept a happy client.

Oh and if you DO see a way to start TTG hosted solutions (day job or not ).....LET ME KNOW!

Thanks again,
M.

Hi Ben,
Although this will not do Diederick or me any good, given the dreadful support at Versio: at least we're not alone
Worst complaint: they deny responsibility, refer back to developers like TTG and then - magically - the errors disappear for some time.....

I am on the verge of ending my contract, but for others' sake I would like to leave a farewell message for Versio. In it I would like to be able to refer to some kind of "standard" in terms of PHP configuration, which they obviously don't know or simply ignore. Could you tell me if there is such a thing, like there are conventions/standards/certifications for almost everything that actually works all over the net?
Could be important to mention something like this in the TTG documentation....

Hope you can help out again.

Hi Rod.

I did what you proposed, but now that I made yet another feedback profile for the same album, my client keeps getting the wrong feedbackprofile. The right version does show up in the clients login settings, in the integration tab in lightroom (republished) and in the private album settings. Quite frustrating that Backlight's documentation (search) is still so poor that one cannot help oneself and has to keep bothering you people.

Thank You Rod, that might work. But where/how would I place those text links? And how will visitor find their way back to the originally chosen gallery?