Install Issues (Mostly my Own Fault)

Quote 1:: "2 installs no longer seem able to share a media directory."

This certainly is still possible, no only for multiple PGV installations, but even across PGV to webtrees as both my active PGV site and my test webtrees site use the same Media Firewall configuration, folders and all.

Quote 2: "to avoid wiping out my existing media when updating via FTP, I created a mask that bypassed both the media and modules dir where I manually update files."

You are working too hard. Move the media out of the webspace so that any installation and/or update doesn't affect your media.

Quote 3: "the gedcom setup has no way (that I found) to select a path to a gedcom out of the data directory"

webtrees media handling mechanism has not really changed yet, and all the configuration options are either similar or identical to those in PGV.
GEDCOM Admin > Multimedia tab > Use media firewall = YES & Media firewall root directory =/your MFW folder//media/

Can I help more?
-Stephen/Toy Guy

Thanks Stephan.
I am heading out of town for a few days, but will pick up where when I get back.
As for quote #1, why does the wizard insist that media be writable if I can use an external directory?
Thanks

Both PGV and webtrees maintain a media folder with webtrees' version now located in the data/ folder which is technically a new home for index. There was no reason that the PGV media folder was not kept there as well, as the Index folder contained previously was not to be overwritten on an update. Webtrees' developers chose to simplify the process, defining the data folder as the container for anything that was kept in an update, including media.

Media firewall works its 'magic' via some redirects and htaccess. The system thinks the media is in the media folder, and it has to be writable so that media can be managed, uploaded, etc. Also, many admins don't protect their media, choosing to leave it in the standard media folder, now in the data folder. To manage media in webtrees (and PGV) the folder must be writable.
Hope this helps, Stephen

Stephen,
Thanks.
Can you try one thing? set up webtrees from scratch (new tables new everything) without the modules directory present. walk through the wizard and reference a GEDCOM in the data directory. After this point nothing seems to get it out of the funk. I get some odd chars almost like what you get when an expected UTF-8 file is not. At this point my only recourse is to totally start clean.Maybe you will have better luck than I have. Since it may be specific to my GEDCOM, can you post a link to the valid Presidents GEDCOM that I can try?
Thanks again.

Given that almost every feature in webtrees (tabs, menus, reports, charts and more) are now modules and contained therein, how would you possible do an install without that directory.

I just did a fresh install (new DB, new tables) on Friday. I have had no issues with these and my imports, which used to take nearly an hour, happen in exactly 12 minutes - that's 43mb of GEDCOM and 3000 media links.
-Stephen

As to the demo link, its on the forum pages:
http://webtrees.net/demo

Or, you can review my webtrees-installed site (public only) at http://webtrees.myarnolds.com
Stephen

I was not aware that modules took on such an important role. It used to be mostly optional. Is there a list of required VS optional modules? Still have issues that I will next attempt with a clean copy and tables on Monday.
Thanks

<<It used to be mostly optional. Is there a list of required VS optional modules?>>

Go to Admin -> Module Admin. You will see which features are provided by each module. Some provide tabs on the indi page, some provide reports, some provide the blocks on the welcome page. While all of them are theoretically "optional", you'll have some very empty pages if you disable them all!

The idea behind the "disable module" option is that an upgrade won't add a module that you've previously deleted. i.e. no need to use an FTP upload filter.

There were always "modular" components in PGV. (Reports in the reports directory, blocks in the blocks directory, themes in the themes directory, etc.) We've simply formalised the module interface, and moved them all to the modules directory.

Looking to the future, this will allow modules to integrate more closely with webtrees, and offer more features.

<<the gedcom setup has no way (that I found) to select a path to a gedcom out of the data directory>>

To keep things simple (for the masses), you can either upload from the desktop, or import from the /data/ directory.

As with PGV, you can move the /data/ directory (equivalent of PGV's index directory) to another location. The setting for this is in the site-admin screen. Note that to do this, you must have two /data/ directories. The original one in the webtrees dir, containing just config.ini.php, and your new/chosen one, containing everything else.

There are perhaps two reasons for moving /data/

1) to allow two webtrees installations to share a common directory (useful in development, where I have several installations, for testing/developing various things independently)

2) your webserver isn't honouring the .htaccess directives in this directory.

Note that the importance of this directory will diminish over time. The configuration and privacy files will shortly be replaced by database tables. Session and cache storage likewise. We'll still need a writable directory (e.g. to generate export files, sitemaps, etc.)