FAQ

Our FAQ's (or "Frequently Asked Questions") section is designed to answer questions which other users might have had concerning our product. These FAQ's usually include questions surrounding installation, server requirements, and how to use various features. As we answer common questions about issues past users have listed with us, we post those answers in our FAQ section. Please try this area first before contacting us directly by email.

General

What kind of products does GiantIsland.com sell?

GiantIsland.com sells web products that provide new and exciting functionality inside your current website or web presence on the Web. Our web products include web applications that allow you to do things like upload photos, manage audio, manage documents, and share videos, all inside your current website, and using a simple web browser and a connection to the Internet! We will be offering many types of web software products in the future, so visit us often!

What is a "web product"?

A "web product" is actually a web application, or folder of website scripts that are all contained in a simple folder you download from us (after a purchase). You simply upload this folder of web page scripts to your website on the Web and then type its location inside your browser's address bar (example: http://yourwebsitename.com/thewebproductname/). You can immediately begin using our web product and the power of the Web to do cool things, like manage photos or videos usingh your existing website!

Like your website pages, our web products run on a web server which houses your website. This folder of scripts contains a series of web pages, xml, images and style sheets, all of which run together to create a "website" or a "web product" that you see in your web browser, after installing the product on your website. Just like pages on your website, our product pages require a web server to run, and can only be run on the right kind of web server (see or "requirements" and "installation" faq section below, for more information). Once uploaded to your website, our product creates its own graphical interface and website application that you can surf to in your web browsers from anywhere. This way, our products allow you to access valuable media and information from anywhere on the Web using a web browser and typing a url to the web product inside your web domain. Using our web products, you can easily manage media, photos, audio, or videos online inside your web domain or url and free of subscription services, advertising, countless logins, or computer-dependent desktop software. Our web products free you to use the power of the web more efficiently. All you need to use our web products is a website or web presence online!

What do your products do?

As has been mentioned, our products allow you to do cool stuff....like upload photos, add them to a web page inside your website, then share that page of pictures with friends and family online. People with web browsers can now get to your digital photos and see them instantly! We will be releasing new software built on the same architecture that also allows you to manage audio, video, business documents, and even create your own website pages! Because our software is so different than most desktop software, our products allow you to leverage the power of your existing website online, and use your website domain to manage data important to you! You data doesnt need to be chained to your home computer all the time. Allow our products to free your data so it can be accessed via the World Wide Web 24/7 from anywhere in the world!

Does your product require a special database or other software to run?

No! Our product is simply drag-and-drop! Upload our folder of web scripts to your server and its done! Just download the folder of web pages that contain our web product, and upload into a directory inside your current website! Most people use FTP Software or their browsers to get pages to their websites. Use the same method to get our web product to your server, and you are done and can use it instantly! There is no database installation as our system uses special XML database pages built into the system to manage data. Those are controlled by each "module" in the web product, which means each module manages its own data, and even uploading individual modules in each product is drag-and-drop! So, no database installation, no special subscription setup required, and no complicated configuration beyond uploading the media items to your web server!

* Web Server Requirements: Keep in mind that our product has to run on a certain type of web server with the correct setup features on the server to run. If you already use a Windows-based web server (IIs) then you may already be setup to run our web products with no changes at all to your server. Because neither you nor the product can control that server setup, you may have to contact your Host Provider or ISP (company that manages your website) to see if your site offers those web server features. Most Host Providers will gladly change your server or its settings if asked, and set them up for you. Most of the items required by our web products are setup by default and supported by Windows-based web server hosting companies. Please see or "requirements" and "installation" faq section below, for more information.

How do I get a copy of your product?

You may purchase any of our web products through our website! We have a secure shopping cart feature that allows you to use your credit card when purchasing our products. One you purchase them, we will send you a link to download the software. Download the software to your PC, uncompress and upload to your website. Thats it!

Is your product line designed for my businesses?

Our product line is good for your business if you find you need a small, affordable web application for your website that can support a website that exists there already. In other words, If you already manage a website and its data, but need an extra product to help you manage, say, photos, or video, and share that with your users, then yes, our software is for you! (As we build new "business features" for our product lines, that will expand into new areas). So, we can help just about any business manage media and data via existing websites.

Keep in mind, though, that our product line is generally designed for the home user, individual and small business owner, and is not designed for large enterprise level business solutions. Because our web products use small xml databases, they do well in small websites where a small group of users manage data shown to many groups of users. Because of this database and web architecture, our solution works best when many instances of our web products are used individually by groups of people across many different website instances, versus one single instance managed by a very large group of users constantly. This is especially the case when it comes to allowing large volumes of uploads and edits by a large user base. Because our XML database solution can only manage so many simultaneous saves, its design works best when a smaller group of users has access to data management portions of the product (ie ImageManager in ImageIsland, etc.) but is shared online via the web to a larger subset of users. For this reason, our solution would also work well within an intranet setting where a smaller, select group of users is allowed to use the application. But for the web, where you (or your family or friends) may be the only one uploading new media items, but sharing them online, our solution is ideal.

Also keep in mind our applications are very small ( < 1 Megabyte), so our solution will not solve larger business demands and needs, such as highly customizeable options, service oriented solutions, enterprise level web integrations, complex workflows, server-drivenand proprietary processes, approval systems, large secure logins management demands, large web portals, and management of very large repositories and libraries of multimedia. Our solution will also not solve problems related to customized business logic, integration with proprietary web systems, ecommerce sites, or integration with large multi-user web portals. Instead, view our products as small "web portlets" that stand alone on your website and server, and which are good at supporting individual web systems and the local user groups or viewers that use them.

Will ImageIsle or any of your other web products interfere with my current website in any way?

No! ImageIsle and our other products will not affect your current website in any way. Whether you install the product in the web root of your website or a sub-nested directory, ImageIsle and our other products will not interfere with your website. Because all of our product script pages are self-contained inside a single web folder, you can be certain that our web product will not save pages or affect scripts outside of its folder and domain. In addition, because our supporting product xml database is self-contained, storing data and files using our products will also not affect your site. The scripting elements inside the product also should not affect or be affected by your site or its pages. Because our products do require extra permissions on the web server to run (i.e. ASP.NET), you may have to add permissions on folders about the product folder in order for our product to work. But because that is additive, rather than subtractive, those changes should not affect your functioning website. In addition, our product allows you to upload large photos or other files, which you have control over. If you elect to upload large files to your server, that in turn exceed the allowed maximum hard drive space allowed for your site, you may have to pay for more space from your Host Provider that hosts your website.

Lastly, our products do use application and session level variables (ASP VBScript). But we append all application and session-scoped variables with a prefix (i.e. "II_" for ImageIsland) so you can be sure that they do not affect any ASP site variables used by other ASP or ASP.NET pages used in your website.

Otherwise, our products do not in any way affect your current website after installation.

Instructions on How to Secure your Product using the Security Module

All of the full versions of the "Island" products, including ImageIsland, come with a free Security Module. This module allows you to make your website product private so no one can view your multimedia with out logging in first. When you use the Security Module to "secure" your product, you are preventing all others on the Web from Accessing your website and viewing or downloading media without your permission. To allow others to view your product, you have to add "user" to your website then assign those users to your modules. Using the Security Module, you can easily make your modules private behind a login page and then create users with login usernames and passwords that allow those people the ability to login and access your site. The instructions for setting up your product this way are listed below:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SECURING IMAGEISLAND
When you "secure" your product, you are doing two things:

First you lock down modules by changing them from "public" to "private" in the Security Module.
Then assigning a user(s) with logins to one or more of your private modules.

When you complete these two tasks, your web product will be secure from the Web and you will have users who can now access your web product securely, uploading or viewing photos to your system. As a user yourself, you are considered the "Global Administrator" user, and have access to this default user account, at all times. This account is to be used for accessing all media and modules in the system, and can always see all items in the system. However, even this account must be manually assigned to Modules you make private, otherwise, even you cannot access these web pages without a login. Your product comes with the Global Administrator account already installed and assigned to the Security Module, so no matter what access issues you have, you can always log into your Security Modules and make changes as needed. Below are the full instructions to begin setting up your web product and securing it using the Global Administrator Account and assigning users to your modules:

First go to the Security Section from the homepage of your web product by clicking the module dropdown at the top left. In the list choose "Security" and press "Go". This will take you to the homepage of the Security Module.
In the list of users on that page, go to the Global Administrator's user at the top. This is your default administrator account. Click it to access its information page. Note: Unless your web product comes with additional users, you may not see those listed here. You will be able to by "packs" of users or an updated Security section with unlimited user additions and add more users in this area. This module will be available for purchase later from our website.
In this Global Administrator account Security page, change your username and password, and write this down. This is your Global Administrator account login and you will always need it to manage your account. (Note: the default login for this account is "admin" and "admin" for username and password, if you forget to change it and get logged out of the system). After you secure your modules below , you will need your username and password to log back in. The Global Admin account gives you full and complete access to your website and all its media and web pages added by all users, no matter what users are in the system. You cannot remove this account and must always know your login information to login once you set a module to "private".
Now click the "Manage Modules" icon at the top of your Security page and that will take you to the Modules Secruity area where you assign your modules as either publicly accessible or "private". Setting a module to private means a login is required for access. All modules, including the security module, in ImageIsland are "public" or accessible to anyone on the web by default, so you will want to secure them now.
Click "Private" next to every module in this list and submit. We recommend you make everything private if others will be accessing your website and uploading media. On pressing submit in this page, you may be logged out to the homepage, If so, you must have your Global Administrator username and password to login to any module set as "private". Your site is now secured!
When you are at the homepage you may try to choose a module and go there but you may not without a login. This login appears at the top under the dropdown menus, and appears in this bar at the top. You may toggle this login "bar" on and off" as needed, but it will alwyas appear when accessing a module you have secured as private. Simply enter your Global Admin username/password and press go. You will be taken to the module IF you assigned yourself to it in Security. If you didnt, dont worry, you are ALWAYS assigned to the Secruity Module by default, so go there by choosing Security from the dropdown at the top of the page and click go. In the Security Module click "Assign User To Modules" link next to the Global Admin account. There you can assign your modules to your administrator account. Remember, the Security Module is always assigned to the Global admin account regardless of settings, so if you make a mistake and cannot access a module, you can always login and go there to assign your account to that module.
As above, go to the Security area again and in the user list, first click the "Assign User To Modules" next to the Global admin. In the new page that appears hold down shift and select all the modules in the system to the right. Then click the "Assign" button. That will assign all modules to your default global account. Now when you login, you can access all pages in your website. But, no one else can access any module your assigned as private without both a username/password, and being assigned to the module. To assign users to your module, follow the additional instructions below:

SECURING MODULES FOR USERS

Go back to the Security section and go to the users you want to give access and click "Assign User To Modules" next to their name in the list. Assign the ImageManager and the ImageWebPages Module, if you like, to each user you want to give access. These are generally the most important modules in ImageIsland and what you will want to secure. Be sure to press "assign" and you should see those module to the left under the assigned modules list for that user. Do the same for All users you want to provide this level of access.
Now each user, when they come to your homepage, can only access the ImageManage and/or ImageWebPages areas and only with a login. But they can now upload and view their photos in the ImageManager and ImageWebPages Modules and manage and share them online, if they like. Only assign the ImageManager if you dont want them to be able to upload their own images and manage them. As Global Admin, you will be able to see all users images and pages as a logged in Global administrator. You can also login as that user to see what just the user uploaded and created. Keep in mind users can share their passwords anytime and allow friends to upload to your system so we recommend you change the username/password at intervals.

Can I customize any of your Island products? Can I modify the code?

Yes, you can modify the source code sent to you with every purchase, and even add new modules and skins if you know a little code (see our Licensing Agreement for more details and limitations). All our products are written in a combination of VBScript and C#. The style sheet skins are written in CSS. If you design a cool module or skin and want to share that with our customer, we would be happy to see your new creation and review it for inclusion as an add-on! Just send us an email with a copy of your module or skin for review.

How can I sell your great products on my site?

Yes, you can sell all our products right in your website. Its easy, and profitable! We offer from 30-50% on sales of all our products. To get your commission, you must become an affiliate of ours, joining our ecommerce provider, www.RegNow.com. Just fill out the Affiliate Form listed in the link below. Our affiliate provider, RegNow.com, will take care of the rest, and provide you with the appropriate links to sell any of our products:

Register to Sell Our Products!

Requirements

What do I need to run your Software?

The following is a comprehensive list of what you will need to run our Web Products and use them successfully. (Note: Because most of the requirements below are dependent on Microsoft Products and Windows-based Servers and Solutions, in most cases, if you already use Windows XP for your home computer and a Windows Web server for your website hosting, you should be setup and ready to go!):

Windows Computer - You will need to download our software, after purchase, to a Windows computer or PC. The web pages are stored "compressed" using Windows 2000,XP, or Vista. So, we prefer you use a Windows computer when downloading, so you can easily uncompress the downloaded software file. If you do not, you may still uncompress our files on older Windows machines if you have a copy of WinZip Software. Either Windows XP/Vista or a copy of WinZip software will allow you to extract the files.
Website - You must have a website on the Web in order to use our software. There are many affordable and even free website hosting companies online you can use, if you do not have a website, or your website will not support our software. We recommend you consider buying a very affordable Microsoft Windows hosted website for your software, if you do not have one, as well as web domain.

Did you know that GoDaddy.com, our hosting partner, offers Windows-based website hosting that is compatible with our products? You may get a very affordable website for your Island product at GoDaddy.com by clicking the link image to the left! Be sure to follow our GoDaddy setup instructions here, once you are setup with your new site. It will help you setup our product on your new site quickly. It's that easy!

Because our software supports traditional features inside a typical IIs Windows web server environment, once you get your website running, it's just a matter of uploading our software to your website in order to get started!
Windows Website Server - Your website server must be a Microsoft Windows web server (IIs). Any of the following will support the software:
- Windows NT Server (some limitations may apply on older versions of NT)
- Windows Server 2000 (highly recommended)
- Windows Server 2003 (highly recommended)
- Windows Server 2008 (highly recommended)
- *Some additional Microsoft Server packages may also run the site. Please check with your Host Provider if they are running any of these servers. In any case, they must run IIs version 4, 5 or 6.
Windows Website Settings - In addition, the Windows Web Server must be setup with the following features and setup in order to run successfully on the server:
- ASP Classic (3.0) must be setup to run on the web server and site
- ASP.NET, version 1.1 or later must be setup to run on the web server and site
- MSXML installed on the server (by default, is on almost all Windows servers - installed with Internet Explorer)
- Because our products read and write files to the web server, they must have "read/write/delete/modify" permissions set on the root folder of the website for the "IUSR_" and "ASP_NET"/"NETWORK_SERVICES" accounts. (Note: The IUSR controls permissions for the ASP and MSXML write access identities. The ASP_NET and NETWOR_SERVICES affect ASP.NET process accounts. The IUSR can be applied directly to the web product folder itself, but the ASP.NET permission must be applied from the web root. Both permissions must be set to allow inheritance and propogate on down through all folders and web pages contained inside the website, especially the "web product" folders and scripting pages (example: the "ImageIsland" folder on the web server)

Keep in mind, all web server requirements are the sole responsibility of your Host Provider, who must support and install all tehse technologies on the web server that supports your hosted website. In all cases, your host provider can easily check and verify these technologies are present, or simply add them free of charge, as they are all default properties of IIs on most Windows web servers.

(Note: Please read our Support Section on server requirements and other setup issues prior to purchasing our Web Products so you can verify your website and server will support the minimum requirements. If you have any additional questions, please contact your ISP or Web Hosting Provider for information on the type of web server your website uses. We cannot control nor infuence your website and server setup or configuration because of of the secure relationship your Host Provider has with you their customer. But we do recommend you send them to this page for more information if they are having any problem. They may also contact us by email.)

Can I run your product on a Linux or other non-Windows web server?

No, unfortunately, you cannot run our product on any other server system but Microsoft Windows. Some Linux (Apache) servers may support ASP 3.0 Classic. Because those servers do not support other required services, such as ASP.NET, version 1.1 or later, or MSXML.dll, they will not support our software, at this time. In order to run our software, you must have a Windows Server (IIs), as described above in our Requirements area. If you find the product was uploaded and will not run because you are using another type of server, you have two choices. You can either ask your Host Provider to move your website to a Windows Server with the supporting features listed above, or purchase another website that uses Windows. If you elect to move your site, please make sure it is not running dynamic data or scripts that only work on that type of server.

If you have your ISP or Host Provider move your site to a Windows Server, make sure your site is written in plain html or made up of other non-scripting pages and such a move will not adversly affect your existing website. For that reason, in most cases, if you are not on a Windows server, and think you might be using dynamic pages, we recomend you purchase a very cheap hosting plan with Windows, and upload our web product there. You can then link to this second site from your first site, use a new domain you purchase, or creatively use other methods to link to your product on this new website.

What programming language is your product written in?

Our products are written in Microsoft's Active Server Page scripting language called VBScript, with a few special supporting pages written in Microsoft's newer ASP.NET, version 1.1 or later, framework and the C# language. Parts of our VBScripted pages also rely on Microsoft's MSXML libraries, and are used to access our unique XML database technologies. All data in the products we offer are controlled and managed my MSXML. Because MSXML is found on all Microsoft servers and platforms, we use this technology in creating and managing data in all our products. Because our products are so dependent on ASP, ASP.NET and MSXML, we require that all users have a Windows web server (IIs) for their site, and that all technologies are present and enabled on the servers. By default, Microsoft has these technologies present and enabled on most of their web server product line, so in most cases, you dont have to do anything when uploading and installing your web product on a Windows server.

How do I know if my website will support your web products?

That is a very good question! There are many ways to find out if your website is hosted on a Windows server (IIs) and has the required features. One way is to simply email your Host Provider and ask them? Send them our list of requirements in the "What do I need to run your Software?" FAQ listing above. Send them only the server requirements information or ask them up front, "Is my website hosted on a Windows web server?". If they say yes, find out if they can setup some services for you, like ASP Classic 3.0, ASP.NET, version 1.1 or later, and the list of permissions outlined above? Thats it! Another option for you is to download ImageIsle from our website, which is a free version. Upload that to your server and see what you get! If you see some serious error pages, its likely you are not on a Windows web server. If you see the web product interface in your browser, scroll down to the bottom and see if there are any "errors" listed. Do the same when uploading a media item into the system. If you see errors at the bottom of the page or get error pages themselves when uploading, your web server may be missing support for one or more needed features. Check our Support Section for detailed errors to find out what they mean.

* Note: In the future, we will be offering you special Website Test Pages from our website that will allow you to see if you are hosted on a Windows Web Server and what your general settings are.

Installation

What do I need to install your products?

To install our products, you will need the following: (Please see our "Requirements" FAQ area for more detailed information).

Windows Computer - Once you purchase and download our software, you will need to uncompress the ZIP so that you end up with an extracted web product folder of files. Because the web pages were compressed with Windows XP, we recommend you extract the file using a Windows XP computer. If you have an older Windows operating system, you may get a copy of WinZip Software online and use that to extract the web product folder of web pages to your computer. Mac versions of our compressed software are not supported at this time. (If you are requesting a freeware version of our software, and are using a Macintosh computer, you may email us to see if we can offer access to that file uncompressed over FTP.)
Website - You will need a website, and that website must be hosted on a Windows web server (see our Requirements" FAQ area for more detailed information).
Windows Web Server (IIs) - Your website above must be hosted on a Windows Web Server (IIS). (see our Requirements" FAQ area for more detailed information).

How do I install your product?

Once you met the requirements above, to install the web product, simply download the compressed ZIP to your Windows PC. Extract or uncompress the web pages and folders by double-clicking the file on your desktop and dragging the web product folder to your desktop. You should see a single folder of web pages and other folders. That folder is the complete web product that you will now upload to your website!

To upload this folder and all its scripting pages, you must have access to your website using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software or other upload process. We recommmend you have FTP access using either FTP Software (which is free and can be downloaded here: www.download.com) or your web browser. Your ISP or Host Provider will have information on how to upload pages to your website. In most cases they will have sent you information on how to connect to your website and their servers using FTP.

Once you have connected to your website using FTP, find a suitable web folder under the web root of your website. Our web Products are designed to work under any folder or subfolder foound in your website. The software will intelligently figure out where its at and set its folder paths and other variables the first time you surf to the product using your browser. Once you have found the folder inside your website where you want to upload the product, begin uploading its folder to that location. The size of our products is relatively small, and in some cases less that 500 kilobytes. But because some folders, like skins, have so many items, it may take a while to upload. Please be patient and let your FTP software upload pages under the web product root folder.

That's it! Once the complete web product folder has been uploaded into your website domain, simply link to the product folder. That would be wherever you uploaded your folder. (example: http://yourwebsitedomain.com/yoursubfolder/imageisland/). When you link to the root product folder the first time, you may have a short wait (few seconds) while it builds variables needed to run. Once thats complete, and assuming you have set up all the permissions and requirements, you should see the web product homepage. You will know its an "Island" product as you will always see the twoo major dropdown menus at the top left of the interface.
(*Note: If you have any problems viewing your software at this stage, please go back and read our "Requirements" area above and make sure you have set up all the features and services required. If your site is hosted and controlled by an ISP or Host Provider company, email them and request that all requirements listed in our FAQ section are fulfilled. We also will be adding a "Support" section soon to our site and troubleshooting details area as well to assist you!)

How do I setup a site on GoDaddy.com with the correct read/write permissions?

Did you know that GoDaddy, our hosting partner, offers Windows-based website hosting that is compatible with our products? You may get a very affordable website for your Island product at GoDaddy.com by clicking the link image to the left! Be sure to follow our GoDaddy setup instructions here, once you are setup with your new site. It will help you setup our product on your new site quickly. It's that easy!

They also offer a very easy way to setup all the necessary permissions needed to run our web products out of the box! To do so, simply follow the instructions below to create the read/write permission folder for your software.

*Note: Make sure you did not already create or upload your web product folder to your GoDaddy.com website before running the above process. If you did, just delete your web product folder and all pages under it on your server before using the instructions below. Also, make sure you don't upload your ImageIsland folder and write over this one created on the server when uploading, else you will have to delete it again and start over.

Go to GoDaddy Website Purchase Area after purchasing your website and domain.
Login to the login area for customers in upper right corner of the homepage.
Use your username/password to login to your account.
Click "My Account" under the login form in the upper right corner.
At the new screen, at the top, click "Hosting and Email" icon, and choose "Web Hosting and Databases" in the dropdown menu.
In the new screen, you will see a list of your websites. Find the one you created and to the right of its name, click the "open" link in the page view list. This opens the "Tools" area that allows you to manage your website.
A new window should popup with the website management area inside. Click "Settings" in upper left corner of this new "Hosting Manager".
Scroll down and click "Directory Manager", or choose this from the list under "Settings".
At the bottom of this Directory Manager page click "Create Directory". This will create a directory for your website product under the root of your website. If you want to create this directory somewhere else in a subdirectory, drill down until you come to the directory you want to add your website product directory in and do "Create Directory" there.
On this next page, after creating your directory, under "Step One", enter the name of your folder by typing "ImageIsland" (or the name of your website product), and in the "Step Two" area check "Read", "Web","Write", and "SetRoot" only. Click "Continue" or "Ok", when you are done, and click Add or Update on the next screen. This process creates a parent directory for your website product that has all the necessary permissions to run both ASP and ASP.NET with read/write permissions under this folder.
Go back to the Directory Manager area and make sure the "Content" area shows you are running ASP.NET, version 1.1 or later, for your websites. You can set that as well under the settings area. ASP.NET 1.1 is needed to run many processes in the website apps, such as creating thumbnails and rotating photos in ImageIsland, for example.
It takes the GoDaddy server some time to build this folder. You may see the word "processing" when you return to the Directory Management area. I would wait a few minutes and log in under FTP and check if the folder is there.
Once you see this folder on your site on GoDaddy, simply upload all the web pages inside your website product folder (ie "ImageIsland") into this same folder on your server. Once thats complete, you are ready to go. *Note: Again, make sure you don't upload your web product folder and write over this same one created on the server when uploading. Otherwise, you will have to delete it and all its contents on the server and run the same process above again.

How do I get your product to my web server?

It's easy to get your product uploaded to your website or server. Every host provider will give you FTP (File Transfer Protocol) information, that allows you to post your scripting pages from your home computer to your server on the Web, where your website directory resides. Just access your site following their FTP instructions provided by your host provider (using your web browser, computer network software, or any other free FTP software). Once you are connected to your site, just upload the product folder you uncompressed to your desktop. In most cases, its called something like "ImageIsland", etc. In some FTP applications, you can even drag and drop this folder onto your site. Please be patient while the product pages and scripts upload to your web server.

Can I upload your web product to any sub folder in my site, or does it have to be in the web root?

Yes, the product is designed to work in any subfolder. It will automatically detect the subtree of your website down to its location on your server, and instantiate the necessary variables needed to run. It will not affect any other systems or web pages in your website, either. If you later run the product from a subfolder, then decide to move it to another location on your server, the site will need to know to re-instantiate itself and its application variables on the server. It will not run till you do that. To force that, we have a "System/SystemSettings.asp page in the product folder, which you can open and set a variable at the very top. This will allow you to force a "reset" in the web product. Be sure to set it back when you are done. Also, if adding your product to a deeply nested folder, be sure that your Host Provider can set up ASP and ASP.NET to run under that nested location (or your complete site), as well as sets read/write permissions on all files in the folder and its subtree.

Securing Your Module Data

You can increase the security level of your modular data by moving your "Data" folders to a folder one level above your web root, enabling "parent paths" in IIs on the server, and then setting a simple path variable inside the "configuration.xml" file. This will increase the level of security behind the XML Database. If you have purchased one of our products, you may contact us my email using your purchase email address, and we will send you instructions on how to secure your databases: support@giantisland.com

Troubleshooting

When I upload my photos or press submit, it says successful, but nothing has changed, or no images show up?

The reason that nothing appears when you upload photos is because your website folder on the web server does not have the right "security permissions" setup. You Website Host Provider must go on the server and give the IUSR and ASP.NET accounts read and write permissions for the "ImageIsland" (or your product's folder name) physical folder, and all child folders under it. This will allow the web application and its processes on the web server the right to store images, write xml data, create thumbnails, and rotate photos. Without these permissions setup correctly on your website server, your website pages cannot perform these tasks. Because these permissions apply to a whole host of security processes controlled by the company that hosts your website, we cannot affect these changes. They are a part of the security tied to your Host Provider and the Web in general. For more detailed information about these settings on folders stored on your website server, read our "Installation" information elsewhere in this FAQ page.

I am having problems uploading my photos into ImageIsland.

There are a range of issues in uploading any photo to a web server from a browser. Most web applications attempt to make the process as reliable and inclusive of all users, but there are a number of problems unrelated to the ImageIsland product you should check:

What image "mime types" or extensions are you using when you upload? Are they Jpegs, gifs, etc? Make sure they are JPG, GIF, PNG, or BMP formats. ImageIsland does not support any other formats but these, and any other type will be rejected by the website. You may have an image that has the jpg extension but its not a true JPEG file. Make sure you convert all your images using photo software to one of these types before uploading into ImageIsland.
How big are the photos in megabytes when you upload multiples? If you attempt to upload a lot of very large (> 1 megabyte) photos, they may never get to the server because of the time involved for the stream to reach the server. Either your connection is slow and/or the server is timing out its connection when attempting to upload large items. In other words, do not upload large images as it takes too long over the Web, and something is dropping your connection before all images can be uploaded. Try saving your images using photo software into a smaller size first. Remember, the Web is not designed for display and download of large photos to a user's browser. Keep them small and you will be able to complete multiple uploads into ImageIsland.
Do your uploads work ok but no thumbnails are being created? This means the ASP.NET service - version 1.1 or later - may not be enabled for your website. Check with your ISP to make sure that acount is working and setup correctly for your site. Also make sure they give write permissions to the ASP.NET service account.
Do you get an error message about permissions at the top when uploading? This means you need to set read/write permissions on the server for both the anonymous IUSR account and the ASP.NET account. This needs to be applied to ALL folders under the ImageIsland folder for photos to be saved by the web application.
Your server "connection timeout" in IIs for your website may be too low. If its 120 seconds or less, then what may be happening is the server times out before it can finish processing. You can request your ISP to increase that value. Some may not, but thats one area to check. ImageIsland has maxed the script timeout to 24 hours, so photos have the best chance of being processed in ASP. But if the connection timeouts in your ISP's website settings, the upload will be dropped. You should either increase this value, if you can, or try and upload smaller sizes that will upload within say 2 minutes or less over your connection, if possible, as thats the default in IIs on most IIs web servers.
Check how much space your ISP allows you for your images. Some ISP's, if you exceed your allowed storage capacity for photos, will not allow images to upload. If you are uploading lots of large images but only allowed a small amount of space on the server, they may drop the upload connection and the upload will start to fail.
As mentioned above, the other issue with uploads is "file size". If you are uploading really large items and lots of them, and happen to be on a slow connection (some DSL's or dialup), then you wont be able to get the items to the server before the connection times out, script times out, or HTTP connection is lost. That's all dependent on your bandwidth and the size of the files in kilobytes you are uploading. In general, if you are on cable and uploading multiple files say 1 meg or less each, then the system should upload fine. When uploading really large files greater than 4 megs and in multiples, you would need to have a very fast upload connection speed, extended connection timeouts in IIs on your website server, and no connection HTTP drops. A poor combination of all those variables may be the cause of a poor upload experience in ImageIsland, so is highly dependent on your situation. File uploading in general over the Web is also related to limitations with the web in general and uploading files over HTPP protocols, and ImageIsland can have very little affect on those issues. ImageIsland has been carefully engineered to maximize the chance that your files will be successfully delivered to the web server.
Lastly, check to make sure you are accessing your site as an anonymous user (IUSR). You may have setup authentication with your web server, and if you logged in, when going to your domain, you may be running under an account that does not allow write permissions to the web server. See our installation section here in FAQ's for more information on permission requirements and setup.

When I upload my photos into ImageIsland, it says successful, and the photos upload, but no thumbnails are created. When I rotate photos, I see the same problem, and no images are rotated, and I get an error page.

Both issues are due to your ASP.NET settings - version 1.1 or later - on your web server. Contact your host provider and make sure they have enabled ASP.NET on your website and server. Also, make sure they have given ASP.NET and its user identity (ASP_NET or NETWORK_SERVICES) full read/write permissions on all folders in your website. Please see our installation section for more detailed information. Without support for ASP.NET, the web product will not create thumbnails or rotate or resize your photos.

When I upload my photos into ImageIsland, only images less than 200 Kilobytes are uploaded sucessfully.

This problem is caused by a server setting on your website, which has changed based on a service pack update by Microsoft. You will need to contact your Host Provider to fix this settings. This web server setting is tied to security updates Microsoft has made for IIs on XP, Server 2000, Server 2003, or Server 2008. To fix this problem your Host Provider must make a IIs "metabase" value change. Below is the Microsoft article explaining it:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327659

By default, the server restricts certain types of binary file uploads to 200 Kb. But that can be changed. IIS 6 (Windows Server 2003) has a limit of 200 KB for ASP requests in general and uploads in particular. To remove this limitation in IIS 6 you need to edit the Metabase file on the web server box, which can be found at c:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv\MetaBase.xml.

Follow these steps: Go to IIS and right click the server, select properties, and check the box "Allow changes to MetaBase configuration while IIS is running"; if after this step the metabase file is still locked, try turning off IIS or even restarting the machine in safe mode; open the item in an editor; the variable AspMaxRequestEntityAllowed limits the number of bytes in the page request (by default 200KB); change the value to 1073741824 (unlimited) or to a limit of your choice; check whether the same variable shows up in other places in the file.

VideoIsland: Flash will not play, even though I have installed the latest Flash player.

This problem is caused by a server setting on your website, which your Host Provider must fix for you on the web server. This web server setting is tied to missing Flash FLV video Mime Type setting on the server. The web server is not delivering the right mime or content-type header for flv or swf's downloaded from the server to your browser. Below is more detailed information:

When Macromedia Flash Player movies that stream external FLV's (Flash videos) are placed on a Microsoft Windows 2003 (or other) server and then viewed in a browser, the SWF item will play correctly, but the FLV video will not stream. These movies will work correctly if tested on other operating systems. This effects all FLV videos played via Windows servers. Microsoft IIS 6.0, the default web server that ships with Windows 2003, requires a MIME type to recognize that FLV movies are streaming media.

This information below describes the steps necessary to allow Windows 2003 to stream Flash videos.

Please be aware that these steps do not resolve any issue with Macromedia Flash, but are a configuration step for Microsoft Windows 2003 and Microsoft IIS Server 6.0. Any difficulties in executing those instructions or any errors that may arise from modifying your system settings should be addressed to Microsoft. For more details, please refer to your IIS documentation.

On the Windows 2003 server, open the Internet Information Services Manager.
Expand the Local Computer Server.
Right-click the local computer server and select Properties.
Select the MIME Types tab.
Click the New button and enter the following information: Associated Extension box: ".FLV", MIME Type box: "flv-application/octet-stream"
Click Ok.
Restart the World Wide Web Publishing service.

I have been logged out of my website and cannot log back in.

In some cases, the security system in our web products may need to "regenerate" itself, and go to the database and retreive a new list of secured sections as well as user assignments. If you have made changes in the Security Module, but cannot login (knowing your username and password are correct), you can try the following:

First, log out of the web application. Make sure you are now in the homepage of your web product.
In the homepage, go to the address bar in your browser and after the url, add the following text: "?resetsecurity=1".
Hit "return" on your keyboard, or the "GO" button in your browser. In the message bar of your homepage you should see the following message: "SECURITY RESET". This means the session and application variables for security have been removed from the server's memory. They will reset and are regenerated in the next step.
Go back to your address bar and remove the added text you added to the url string, then hit "return" or go again, and refresh your web page without this string. All the session values should now be fresh.
Try logging in again as normal. Click the module dropdown list at the top and try and go to your secured modules. At this point you should be able to login as normal.

* Keep in mind, do this process will log out all your users. If you forgot your login, or believe it may be incorrect, you can reset your system by uploading the Security Module on your server. This will reset your accounts to defaults. It should retain your user accounts, but their logins may not work until you reassign them to private modules. If you are running your own Windows server, you can also restart IIs or the web server itself. This will cause all variables to reset throughout the product, and may fix many of these issues.

My photos, when uploaded, dont have width and height values, or look funny in the ImageWebPages.

You must remove "Read Only" settings on ALL photos before uploading. If they are uploaded with read only settings assigned (under properties for the file on your desktop) then in some cases, on upload, the ASP scripts will fail to extract width and height values for the file. You can go to the ImageManager and click a file, then choose edit, to see if width and height values are missing. You will have to delete these items in ImageIsland, remove ready only on the files on your computer, then re-upload again to ImageIsland, to fix this issue.

My VideoIsland will not play files! It seems that it will not play AVI/MPEG/WMV files in the Windows Media Player in the webpage.

When you go to view your files in VideoIsland or MediaIsland, many videos will not play. You may see this in many cases when you are trying to play Windows Media Player files (ie your video appears to have the Windows Media player "player bar"). In most cases, the problem is related to the fact you or your users have installed "web browser add-ons" that are overriding the default codecs or plugins behind the Windows Media Player itself. If you see garbled video or audio but no video in Internet Explorer'e browser, this is likely the case. In Firefox or Opera, if you see video thats not sized correctly, its likely you need to get an updated Windows Media Player from Microsoft. But, if you are using Internet Explorer, and have these issues, the only fiox we have found that will likely fix this is to clean out all installed plugins and add-ons in your web browser. To do that, you simply need to reset the browser. This applies to Internet Explorer 7 on XP and Vista especially. To to this, follow the instructions below. Before you do, note YOU WILL LOST ALL BROWSER SETTINGS! Be sure you document and record any special settings before resetting Internet Explorer:

Open a single instance of Internet Explorer, but close all other programs and browser windows first.
In the menu, go to Tools/Internet Options
Click the Advanced tab
Click Reset. Again YOU WILL LOSE ALL BROWSER SETTINGS. The browser will tell you what settings will remain, if any. Click reset when you are ready and restart your browser.
Open up Internet Explorer again and go to your installed instance of VideoIsland on the web. Try to view the video. Its should now play ok.

Questions? Contact us at by email: support@giantisland.com. Support requests are limited to those users who are responding using their original email address used in their purchase of the product.