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Instructions for everyday LENA operation in the Joomla administrator area.
Opening LENA Sign in to the Joomla administrator area. Its standard address is: https://example.com/administrator Open Components → LENA. You will see the Photos library. The submenu also contains: Albums — create albums, arrange photos and choose covers; Categories — group albums; About LENA — the component version, help links and release history. Your first gallery, step by step The example below shows how to create an album and insert it into an article.
Photos contains LENA’s shared library. By default, it displays photos that are not in the trash — both those used in albums and those not yet assigned. Uploading a file to the library does not automatically add it to an album. Library view Photos are grouped by the date taken from EXIF, the information a camera stores in a JPEG file. Reading it requires the PHP exif_read_data function on the server.
An album is an ordered set of photos from the main library. The same photo can belong to several albums without creating additional copies of its original file. Album list Each card shows a title, category, state, active-photo count and—when selected—a cover. A graphical album symbol is shown when no cover has been selected. Tools above the list let you: search by title and alias; find one record by entering ID: followed by the album number; filter by state; filter by category; sort by order, date, title, state or category; change the number of cards per page.
The album form has permanent Title and Alias fields and two tabs: Photos in this album and Other. Other opens for a new album; the photo tab opens by default for an existing one. Basic fields Title — required; displayed in the administrator area, album lists and the separate album page. A gallery inserted into an article does not add this title automatically. Alias — the URL segment created automatically from the title when left empty.
Photos in this album becomes available after the album’s first save. It shows assigned photos that are not in the trash. Adding and removing photos, changing their order and choosing a cover are saved immediately, once LENA confirms the action. Adding photos from the library Select Add photos. In Choose photos, search by title, alternative text or file name. Select one or several photos. Select Add selected. You can select up to 200 photos at once.
Categories group albums so they can be published as one grid. LENA uses Joomla’s standard category manager. Creating a category Go to Components → LENA → Categories. Select New. Enter the category title. Select a parent category if you are creating a hierarchy. Set Published and the intended access level. Save the category. Other fields, such as description, note, metadata and language, come from Joomla’s standard form. The LENA 1.0 frontend displays the selected category’s title but not its description.
Move a photo to the trash to hide it from the active photo library and every LENA gallery. You can restore it later. To remove a photo from only one album, use the cross on its card in that album. Photo trash and album trash are separate. Moving an album to the trash does not trash its photos. Moving a photo to the trash Open a photo in the main library.
LENA or a required button is missing Check the user group’s permissions. Component access, creation, editing, state changes, deletion and configuration are controlled separately. A missing button normally means the corresponding permission is unavailable. A photo cannot be uploaded Check, in order: that it is JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP or AVIF; that the file is within the Joomla Media or separate LENA limit; that the file is within PHP, web server and hosting limits; that fileinfo and gd are available; that GD supports this particular format; that PHP can write to the photo directory; that the administrator session has not expired.