Image Handler 2 (for ZC v1.3.8 ONLY) Support

[DivaVocals]

Carlos, it is I who should thank you for taking the reins on this development.. I made but a FEW minor changes to the code you and Mano authored.. It's not humility, it ethics.. I could never take credit for an app in which the ONLY part of it I authored is the readme.. So I am happy to give credit where credit is REALLY due.. Will shout it from the mountaintops.. Thanks again for your work!!Thanks also to Mano and Nigel for their work.. Without all of you kind souls IH2 Rev 8 would not have come to be..

Congrats Diva for submission.
Always so humble to take credit, you were the "alma mater" and coordinator of this effort.
I hope it gets published soon.
We outcasts had to update IH2 anyway, because it was not working on that other unspeakable fork either, when on PHP 5.3.x (hey, there is no free lunch).
I hope the dark forces of censorship don't prevail.
You are right that nobody wanted to tackle the inclusion of a gallery mod.
With so many of them around, some users might not even like the included one, and, even with the option to deactivate it, it might not be that easy to uninstall,, even with the option to deactivate it.
I know I floated the idea once, but decided to dump it, better keep IH2 as a codebase.
Rasmus Lerdorf always emphasizes the idea of simplicity.
Indeed, it is always better to KISS.

[ckosloff]

Without all of you kind souls...

One thing I will not admit is the insult of calling me a "kind soul"

[DivaVocals]

One thing I will not admit is the insult of calling me a "kind soul"

I retract it for the sake of maintaining your reputation!!

[MB1]

it seems to be working fine but as soon as yours is approved i will update the ih2 to rev8 as i'm sure i made a million mistakes in the merging attempt as i have no clue what any line of info really does it's all trial and error until something works thank you very much

[Mal2809]

Thanks Diva for clarification.
Regarding this new zoom nonsense:
You do not need IH2 just to zoom on images, this is a very simple Javascript effect accomplished with the onmouseover event handler.
In fact, I have seen this contrib called "stupid" because the brilliant poster could achieve the zoom effect without it.
Congratulations, but, as Diva pointed out, this is the least important thing about IH2.
Beginners almost always stumble on adding additional images to products, IH2 makes this point-and-click, can organize images in sub-cats, is compatible with mass upload utilities, and, you can have any gallery mod installed and uninstalled without altering IH2 core files.
IH2 is a codebase that allows for installation of different effects, the fact that it does not zoom on product images is because that is the programming hook for other contribs.
Finally, yes, you can zoom on product images all you want.
You can also dive head on in a sea of trouble if you would, for all I care.
I repeat my plea, please take your discredited defense of that zoom effect elsewhere, IH2 does not need your brilliant innovations.
Oh, yes, I did not semi-jump ship, I jumped away completely, the only reason I post here is because I still feel responsible for this mod.
It's called ethics.

I only asked if it could be included as i did like the option of using it.

Its not a huge issue for me if its not there and i'm just glad someone has updated this to work with the latest Zen Cart and PHP 5.3 as my server will be upgrading from 5.2.9 soon.

So please do not think this is some sort of attack on your work, its not and i appreciate your efforts, it was simply a query i had as to why medium images could not be enabled, i simply wanted to know the complexities involved in such work. and thats why i posted as i did have medium images working last year before a recent upgrade.

I can live without it as i am now using Fual Slimbox with Image Handler, purely a question i had and thats all as if it could have been made to work i may have ditched Slimbox to use that function. ( although it never worked in the Opera browser )

[Mal2809]

Incidentally research i did suggests 1024x768 is the most common display resolution used today but more and more people are using higher resolutions, i myself have a 1920x1080 display.

I designed my site to take into account the most common resolution and thus i have my images set at the resolution below.

I think 350px for height for medium images and 650px for large size images is about right when you take into account around 75% of people still use 1024x768 resolution.

I don't consider that to be too large an image size, indeed i consider those sizes appropriate, now 300px is too small for what should be a large image although thats just my opinion.

I mention all this because zoom on medium will not overspill at the sizes i have chosen and displays great on most peoples browsers, sure the old 800x600 displays will have issues but its a personal preference as the smaller the image the more of a compromise you make, i believe i have reached a good compromise while some sites have far too small an image such as 300px for large images.

It's all good though and i know you are not wanting to implement medium zoom so i'll use what is available.

Thank you for updating the plugin.

[DivaVocals]

It's all good though and i know you are not wanting to implement medium zoom so i'll use what is available.

Let me be clear on this.. It's not a matter of "not wanting to". It is as I explained a LOT MORE COMPLEX to add this feature AND maintain compatibility with other modules which affect product image displays. There are two ways this could be resolved:

1. Build these features into Image Handler
2. Build a separate module which works with Image Handler specifically which provides this functionality

As building free Zen Cart modules is a volunteer effort, our volunteers on this module were unable to volunteer this additional effort based on the amount of work required.

That said IMO, the REAL reason to use Image Handler is not the fancy image effect features.. IMO the most compelling reason to use Image Handler is twofold:

1. It eases the work required to create additional product images..
2. Performance. The optimization of image performance and the use of image caching to help with performance is a HUGE reason to use Image Handler.

For my clients they do not have to understand how Zen Cart recognizes additional images or naming rules etc.. They simply upload additional images and Image Handler handles the proper naming Zen Cart needs to link those images to the same product.

My three cents..

[dcrosbie]

Just a quick note to Diva, CKoslof and all others working on the IH2 mod to say thanks for working on this and I appreciate the time you are taking to do this in your 'spare' time. I am redesigning my site for 139 and am patiently awaiting the final IH2 r8 package to finish it off. You guys are awesome!

Yes, big thanks from me too. My hosting is upgrading to PHP5.3 on July 15th and I'm rushing to upgrade before then. does anyone have a guess how long downloads normally take to be approved? I'm hoping to get the new image handler before July 15th.

[fei2010]

Yes, big thanks from me too. My hosting is upgrading to PHP5.3 on July 15th and I'm rushing to upgrade before then. does anyone have a guess how long downloads normally take to be approved? I'm hoping to get the new image handler before July 15th.

take that long? I was checking everyday!

Of course big thanks for all those who made this happen!

[Shane78]

Yes, big thanks from me too. My hosting is upgrading to PHP5.3 on July 15th and I'm rushing to upgrade before then. does anyone have a guess how long downloads normally take to be approved? I'm hoping to get the new image handler before July 15th.

i have submitted 3

1st one was refused after a week
2nd was accepted after a few days
3rd was accepted almost two weeks after submission, (i actually forgot i submitted it, it took that long).

i guess it goes on how busy they are / important the mod is / size of the mod

SWGUY would know better, he's a mod and has loads of mods