Frequently asked questions

If tbis FAQ didn't help you, please ask your question at the JAlbum forum, but search through the forum first using the forum search tool.

General questions

What is JAlbum?

JAlbum is a free tool that produces web based photo albums with index pages and slide shows from image folders

Why "J"?
JAlbum is made in the Java programming language so it runs not only on Windows machines, but also on Macintosh System X and Unix systems like Linux. Being a Java program it needs a VM (Virtual Machine) that adopts its code for each machine. If you don't already have a VM installed (at least v1.3 is required) you can download JAlbum with a Java VM.

Do I need Java to view albums?
No, only to generate them. JAlbum usually generates plain html web albums so any modern browser will do for viewing albums.

How do I check if I have the right version of the Java VM already installed?
Open a command window and issue java -version The output should at least read 1.3

Getting started

I downloaded the version without the Java runtime (because I already have a Java VM installed on my machine.) When I run the program I get the following error:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/swing/UIManager
at se/datadosen/jalbum/JAlbum.main
at java/lang/reflect/Method.invoke
at com/zerog/lax/LAX.launch
at com/zerog/lax/LAX.main

JAlbum requires at least v1.3 of the installed Java VM. This message shows if you run JAlbum on top of a too old Java VM. When downloading, select the install option that includes a "Java VM" or download a Java VM from Sun

I have a previously installed JAlbum that included a Java VM. Can I use that VM when I update JAlbum?
Yes. When you are asked to select a Java VM. Manually point the installer to [JAlbum install dir]/jre/bin/javaw.exe

I get errors when running the installer
Some people have had difficulties getting the installers to run. If that applies to you, you can download JAlbum without an installer Assuming you at least have Java 1.3 installed, start JAlbum by double clicking the JAlbum.jar file or issue java -jar JAlbum.jar at a command prompt.

Using

How do I make JAlbum add a link back to my site?
Usually one puts a JAlbum album in a subdirectory of a web site. JAlbum will automatically add a "parent/up" link on the thumbnail/index page(s), but only if it senses index web pages in the parent directory of the output directory during page generation. You can force JAlbum to generate a custom link by defining the variable parentIndexPage to ../index.html or whatever that points users back to your site in the "Advanced" tab of JAlbum. Remember to press <ENTER> after editing user defined variables otherwise the change will not be noticed.

Can I have another title on the album than the folder name?
Yes. Go to the "Advanced" tab of JAlbum and add title as a user defined variable, enter a custom title in the value field, press <ENTER> and regenerate the album by pressing "Make album".

How do I get rid of copyright notices that appear below images?
Some image packages (not JAlbum) stores copyright notices ("LEAD Technologies" etc) in the comment area of JPEG images. JAlbum extracts and displays these comments believing they are user comments, but you can suppress this by simply defining comment with no value as a "user defined variable" in the "Advanced" tab of JAlbum. Press <ENTER> and regenerate the album by pressing "Make album".

What's the difference between "Rebuild all" and "Make album"?
First a rule of thumb: Use "Rebuild all" only after changing image sizes to an existing album. Use "Make album" for everything else. Rescaling images is the most time consuming part of album generation, therefore JAlbum tries to avoid image rescaling for already generated images (thumbnails and closeups) if you press "Make album". "Make album" can be used for initial album generation, when adding new images, when experimenting with different skins and image sizes, but to get good quality on the final album when image sizes has changed, "Rebuild all" is neccessary.

What is the preferred way to add images to my existing JAlbum album?
Press "Make album" after adding images to the image directory you use as source. JAlbum will then only rescale the added images. The album itself is being rebuilt, but it is the rescaling that is time consuming - "Make album" doesn't rescale existing images.

I have increased the thumbnail size but now the quality looks poor. Why?
Press "Rebuld all" after changing image sizes. JAlbum will then rescale all images to their new size. "Make album" never physically rescales already generated images in order to gain speed on subsequent album generations using the same image size when images are being added or different skins are being tried out.

The generated date and time is in US format and I live in (enter country here)
Download the international version of Suns Java runtime in order to have JAlbum make the right guess right away or set a date pattern manually in the advanced tab.

Nothing happens when I click "View album after clicking "Make album".
Have you made sure that you have selected an image directory containing jpeg, gif or png images? (Or movie files)

How do I add comments to images, rotate or sharpen images?
JAlbum tries to do it's central task (album generation) best and leave other types of operations to other programs. Image rotation and comment editing is however now included. See the "Edit" tab. Use an ordinary image editor to sharpen, crop and color balance images. Another free program to add comments to and rotate jpeg images losslessly is Exifer by Friedemann Schmidt.

Vertical (portrait) images appear smaller than the horizontal ones. How do I get the same size: 640x480 and 480x640 respectively?
Just set the "Max image size" to 640x640 and you'll have that effect. The "Max image size" specifies a "bounding box" and never changes the width/height ratio of an image.

How can I have all thumbnails in the same height? Now portrait thumbnails are higher
Set the thumbnail size to something extreme like 140x80 instead of 120x120 and you will have this effect.

Some generated albums do not look perfect on <add old browser here>
Adjust the skin templates that made the failing album so they work for this browser too and mail me the corrected skin for inclusion. Adjustments should be "clean" and tested for current browsers.

Can JAlbum display the 35 mm equivalent focal length instead?
Yes, refer to the scripting examples for instructions on how to do this.

Foreign characters gets messed up on my Mac with JAlbum
Apple recommends an update to the latest service release of os 10.2. They state that they haven't been able to reproduce this problem on that release. The update is free for registered OS X users.

I get an error code returned in the status row when trying to upload an album through FTP. What's wrong
Check out the meaning of the code at some site that lists FTP error codes. A common cause is "Invalid file name" where the remote server is more picky about some special characters in the file name than your own system. Renaming some files is then the recommended solution.

I try to select an image directory, but nothing happens when I choose "open"
You are probably one level too deep. Go to the parent directory and select the image folder WITHOUT entering it (single click). Now press "open". An even simpler alternative is to drag and drop the image directory icon on the "image directory" section of JAlbum. The less than intuitive behaviour of the directory chooser has been fixed in Java 1.4

I get an out of memory error when running JAlbum with large images
Update to the latest version (v2.3 and above). It is allowed to allocate more memory if needed.

I want JAlbum to open Mozilla instead of Netscape when I click "View album". I am using Linux
Linux users can specify other browsers to be launched than Netscape by running JAlbum like this:

java -Dbrowser.cmd="mozilla" -Dbrowser.arg0="@url" -jar JAlbum.jar

Other users should have their default browser automatically opened.

If tbis FAQ didn't help you, please ask your question at the JAlbum forum, but search through the forum first using the forum search tool.