Installing Photovault

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Pre-requisites

Before you can install and use Photovault you need to make sure that you have the needed Java environment and libraries installed. These are not distributed with Photovault due to licensing reasons. You can download and install all of these from Sun Java web site:

  • Java run-time environment 1.5 or newer (download) There are several alternatives to download, unless you are SW developer install "JRE 5.0"
  • Java Advanced Imaging (download) If you just installed Java JRE select the "JRE install". If you have JDK already installed select the appropriate

Notes for Mac OS X users

If you have latest version of OS X (10.4) in your computer you should already have both of these installed. If you have an older system you can install these from Apple support pages:

Java for Max OS X 10.3

Java for Max OS X 10.4

Java Advanced imaging for Mac OS X

Installation

Windows

Double-click the installer icon and install Photovault like any windows application.

Mac OS X

Open the image file you downloaded and drag Photovault to desired place.

Linux

Extract the installation package to desired place: 

ginny dist # tar xfvz photovault-0.5.0.tar.gz -C /usr/share/

Create symbolic link to Photovault executable (optional) 

ginny dist # ln -s /usr/share/photovault-0.5.0/photovault /usr/bin/

Photovault set-up

On first startup you must set up your database. Photovault uses relational database for storing information (metadata) about the images. Actual images are stored as normal files, either in Photovault data directory or in user directories.

Photovault supports two alternate database engines. For basic use Apache Derby is the easiest to set up. However, it can be used only by single user at a time from the local machine. If you are planning a network or multi-user installation MySQL is the only alternative.

Creating Photovault database using Derby

When you start Photovault for first time you get a dialog box for defining where the data is stored. Enter the needed information:

  • Database name Enter here a name for your database. It can be basically anything - it is only to help you to identify this database if you have several in your computer.
  • Photo directory This is the directory where the photos will be stored. If you choose to use the embedded database engine alsot metadata will be stored here. Select an empty directory on a disk drive with plenty of free space
  • For database type, select "Embedded database".

You can leave the rest of the fields empty.

Now just click OK and you should be ready to go!

Note!!!
When Photovault shows login dialog leave username and password empty! These are needed only with MySQL database server.

After main Photovault window appears start by importing some photos into the database (File - Import) and entering information about them.

Creating Photovault database using MySQL

Before setting up a MySQL database you obviously need to install MySQL. Download it from the company web site. After installing it create a new database for Photovault using MySQL client program or some other tool: 

ginny harri % mysql -p
Enter password: <enter your administrator password>
mysql> create database <db name>;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> grant all on  pv_test.* to <user>@localhost identified by <password>;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Now start Photovault. If this is the first time you start it the database setup dialog will be displayed automatically. Otherwise, press the "New database..." button in login dialog to create a new database.

Enter the needed information in database setup dialog:

  • Database name Enter here a name for your database. It can be basically anything - it is only to help you to identify this database if you have several in your computer.
  • Photo directory This is the directory where the photos will be stored. If you choose to use the embedded database engine alsot metadata will be stored here. Select an empty directory on a disk drive with plenty of free space
  • For database type, select "MySQL server".
  • MySQL host Enter here the name or ip address for your database server. If it is running in the same machine enter here 'localhost'.
    • Database name This is the MySQL database name for Photovault database. it must be the same you entered earlier in the 'create database' clause.

Click "OK". Photovault asks for database administrator login. Give the correct username and password. After that Photovault creates the database schema.

Now your database should be ready for use. Select the newly created database in Photovault login dialog, enter the username and password you set up earlier and start to use Photovault.