X3Photo Gallery Forums

twomoocows wrote:Hi. I have searched the forums but can't seem to find how to upgrade my website from X2 to X3.

Because of the completely different nature of X3 in relation to X2, this is not an entirely logical process. You could keep your content folder with images, but you would likely need to go through each page and apply settings. Basically, you are only keeping your images in the same structure, nothing else ... Also though, are you sure your images in X2 are big enough for X3? A lot changed on the web since X2 was launched.

Depending on how many folders and images you have, I would consider setting up X3 from scratch, including creating pages. Of course, this could take a while if you have a lot of content. Do you have a current X2 website I could take a look at so I can make a recommendation?

Hi Stew. I had a look at your X2 website ... My first observation is this: The menu/folder structure looks a bit random, and more like a catalog index. If you were to keep this structure in X3, you would need to use the SIDEBAR layout to support such a menu. Imagine your menu in the demo https://demo.photo.gallery, and you will understand what I mean ... If you want to use the TOPBAR, you would need to re-think your folder structure slightly, but perhaps a good opportunity?

Therefore, I have two suggestions:

A) You don't want- or don't have time to mess around right now, in which case you could just attempt to make a conversion to X3. However, you would still need to spend some time on the conversion anyway. See my note further down.

B) X3 is more a complete "website" than X2 ever was, and maybe this is an opportunity to clean up your website structure and recreate it from scratch? The menu you have in X2 quite honestly does not look like it's made with visitors in mind. You should try to limit the amount of top-level folders, for example galleries/about/contact, and then sort your galleries neatly into the "galleries" subfolder. Also, since X3 has albums-layout (layout of folders), this adds an extra dimension. I recommend you browse around a bit in the demo to understand what X3 has that X2 doesn't ... Also try the "styler" (button top left) to review some layouts/styles.

Converting X2
If you do want to "convert" your existing gallery, I would suggest the following. As you will understand, it is still a tedious process, so may be generally better to recreate from scratch.
1. Delete ALL files/folders in your x2 folder, EXCEPT "content".
2. By FTP, you need to delete all thumbnail files tn_imagename.jpg in each folder.
3. Upload the X3 files/folders, also copy the folders from inside x3 "content" into your existing "content" folder.
4. From the X3 panel, you will need to click through all X2 folders, so that the settings file is created. You would also need to add any specific settings to them. Rename them with a number in front (for example "2.flora"), to follow the X3 naming/order convention.
5. Just as if it was a new X3 install, you will still need to go through all settings, which are unique to X3 and not convertible from X2.

Sorry, but just while writing the above, I really can't see how an X2 "convert" process is more beneficial than a clean X3 setup. It won't take you that long to recreate similar folders as you had in X2, perhaps with a better-planned folder structure and less confusion involved.