ParentZone Gallery Downloader

This tool helps you save all of your child’s gallery photos from ParentZone onto your own computer.

It has been written to be as easy as possible, even if you have never used Python before.

---

💾 What you will need

• A Windows PC or a Mac computer with internet access.
• Google Chrome installed.
• This folder (the ParentZone-Gallery-Downloader) downloaded from GitHub.

---

⬇️ 1. Download this tool

1. On GitHub, click the green Code button (near the top right).
2. Choose Download ZIP.
3. When it finishes downloading, open the ZIP and drag the folder somewhere easy, like your Desktop or Documents.

You should now have a folder called ParentZone-Gallery-Downloader with some files inside:

• downloader.py (the program itself)
• README.md (this guide)
• requirements.txt
• LICENSE
• .gitignore
  (and a hidden .github folder you can ignore)

---

🐍 2. Install Python 3

If you don’t already have Python 3:

On Windows

1. Go to python.org/downloads.
2. Click Download Python 3.x.x (latest version).
3. Run the installer.
   ✅ Important: tick the box that says “Add Python to PATH” before clicking Install Now.

After it installs, open the Command Prompt (search for it in the Start menu) and type:

python --version

You should see something like: Python 3.12.6.

---

On Mac

1. Go to python.org/downloads.
2. Download the latest macOS installer (Universal2).
3. Open the .pkg file and follow the steps.

After it installs, open Terminal (Applications → Utilities) and type:

python3 --version

You should see something like: Python 3.12.6.

---

📦 3. Create a virtual environment (one-time setup)

This makes sure everything stays tidy.

Open your command window (Command Prompt on Windows, Terminal on Mac), go into the folder you unzipped, then run:

cd path/to/ParentZone-Gallery-Downloader
python3 -m venv venv

Now activate it:

• On Mac/Linux:

  source venv/bin/activate

• On Windows:

  venv\Scripts\activate

When active, you’ll see (venv) at the start of your prompt.

---

📥 4. Install the required tools

With the virtual environment active, install the packages:

pip install -U -r requirements.txt

This installs everything the program needs.

---

🌍 5. Set your nursery location

The script saves your nursery’s location inside each photo so apps can show them on a map.
By default, it uses an example set of coordinates.

You should change these to your own nursery location. You can do this in two ways:

Option 1: Quick edit

Open downloader.py in a text editor, and find these lines near the top:

DEFAULT_LAT = 51.49009034271866
DEFAULT_LON = -3.163831280770506

Replace them with your nursery’s latitude and longitude.
You can find these by right‑clicking your nursery on Google Maps and copying the numbers.

Option 2: Command line

Instead of editing the file, you can give the coordinates when you run the script:

python3 downloader.py --lat 52.12345 --lon -1.23456

---

▶️ 6. Run the downloader

With (venv) active, type:

python3 downloader.py

(or include --lat / --lon if using the command line option above).

A Chrome window will open.

---

📸 7. Critical step: open the gallery lightbox

1. Log in to ParentZone in Chrome.
2. Go to your child’s Gallery page.
3. Click any photo to open it in the large “lightbox” view.
   ⚠️ Important: the script won’t find any photos if you stay on the thumbnail grid.
4. Once the big photo is showing, go back to the command window and press Enter.

---

⏳ 8. What happens next

• A progress bar appears as images are downloaded.
• Photos are saved into a folder called parentzone_gallery inside this folder.
• Each photo is stamped with the right date and location.
• A log file download_log.csv records which ones worked or failed.

---

🔄 9. Retrying failures

If some images fail:

• At the end, you’ll be asked:
  “Retry the failed downloads now? [y/N]”
  Type y and press Enter to retry immediately.
• Or later you can run:

  python3 downloader.py --retry-failed

---

🛠 Troubleshooting

• “0 images found” → You pressed Enter too early. Make sure you clicked a photo to open the lightbox first.
• “python not recognised” → Restart your computer, or try python instead of python3.
• Chrome doesn’t open → Ensure Google Chrome is installed and up to date.
• Lots of 502/504 errors → That’s the website being busy. Use --retry-failed later.
• Dates look wrong → The script uses the u= timestamp in the image URL. Some images may not have it.

---

✅ You’re done!

Next time, just:

cd path/to/ParentZone-Gallery-Downloader
source venv/bin/activate   # Mac/Linux
venv\Scripts\activate    # Windows
python3 downloader.py --lat <your-lat> --lon <your-lon>

Then log in, click a photo to open the lightbox, press Enter — and your photos will be saved.