Requirements

Compatibility Verification Script

Please download the Compatibility Verification Script to ensure your server meets the requirements. Simply unzip the file, and place ce_image_check.php in a URL accessible place on your server. Navigate to the script’s URL in the browser (for example: http://example.com/ce_image_check.php), and the script will give you details on whether or not your server is compatible to run CE Image. After you are done, please remove the script from your server.

PHP

You will need:

  • ExpressionEngine® 2.x
  • PHP 5+. You will need 5.3.0+ if you want to use the pixelate filter, and 5.2.5+ if you want to use the alpha option of the colorize filter.
  • GD2+ PHP module. It seems that both Ubuntu and Debian use an “unmodified” version of the GD2 lib by default. Please run the Compatibility Verification Script (above) to make sure your version of GD2 is adequate.
  • PHP Safe Mode must NOT be enabled. “Safe Mode” is a bit misleading, and is a misnomer, as your server can be setup very securely with it disabled. As a matter of fact, Safe Mode is being deprecated as of version 5.3.0. The plugin needs the ability to create directories and save the images. Safe Mode restricts this ability, and consequently prevents the plugin from doing its job. Note: There have been some reports that CE Image can work if Safe Mode is enabled with PHP running as FastCGI (as opposed to running as a module)…

Recommendations

It is recommended that you have:

  • PHP 5.2+, to mitigate the risk of the alpha channel turning black. There are easy workarounds for this in most cases (view the documentation), but more recent versions of PHP tend to handle the alpha channels better.

Memory

CE Image will need enough memory to manipulate the image. The amount of memory depends on what you do, and the before and after sizes of the images you manipulate. This can sometimes exceed 64MB, but for most use cases, 64MB is more than adequate. In fact, 32MB may be sufficient, but it is nice to have more available if needed.

Remote Images

In order to retrieve remote images, CE Image will attempt to use file_get_contents and fallback to cURL, so at least one of the two should work.

Amazon S3

Optional. In order to use the Amazon S3 functionality, you will need:

  • cURL lib installed
  • PHP 5.2+
  • Amazon S3 account credentials