Simple question about pictures...

[gacollege]

I think this is a simple question / clarification on pictures.....

When I needed to load a picture - I just went to my production set up page and loaded the single picture from my hard drive. I made sure the picture was a .png that that the size was not too big.

Now - I am adding a whole new list of products (1,000) and my programmer is telling me that I need image handler (which I had him install) and to load my pictures via FTP..........

Hmmmmm - ok - I got into my c-panel and I figure out how to load a picture via FTP....

The question I have is... I assume the original way I mentioned is basically the same as the FTP? If so - why use FTP?

Also - and I to assume that my pictures are to be uploaded as jpg via the FTP and then I use image handler to bring over to my site?


Confused...............................please clear me up on FTP, Image handler and pictures.....

[schoolboy]

You should use PNG format only if you are trying to take advantage of certain characteristics - such as its capacity to render transparent backgrounds.

The desirable format (certainly for product images) is JPG.

Why? (You may ask).

PNG cannot be compressed, so large images are going to be large in file size too. With eCommerce sites, you want big pictures, but they must load fast too. The faster, the better.

JPG images CAN be compressed, and if edited in a professional-grade program, like Photoshop, you can tweak them to be quite heavily compressed, yet still be large in pixel size.

ImageHandler works on the principle of re-sampling a single image, and creating (initially on-the-fly) cache files of that image, which it then gets the ZC system to use in different contexts. Product images are the most relevant here, because they can (and are) displayed in many different situations, at radically differing physical sizes (pixels X pixels).

So IH works BEST with jpg format.

FTP is the fastest way of loading lots of images - particularly if there are several "additional images" for the products. It is also the most secure way of transmitting files.

And to load 1000's of products is best done either through Easy Populate, or a program like Apsona ShopAdmin. These mass upload systems will get 1000 products into your database in under 10 seconds... but not the associated images.

Then you send all 1000 images via FTP.

[schoolboy]

Just looking again at your post...

I think you are confusing the actions in C-Panel with FTP. These are not the same things.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is independent of your c-panel, and requires special FTP software on your local machine (Filezilla is the popular free FTP program, but we use WSFTP-Pro, because it offers better features, and (critically) better security which Filezilla lacks).

Image Handler is installed on your system, and for the most part you don't even need to worry about it. It will do its job without you needing to tinker with the code that drives it.

You will, however, see a range of new options available in your webshop admin panel, when it comes to the management of images via IH.

Another big advantage of IH is that because it works with only ONE image (which should be quite large in pixel dimensions - we use images about 800 wide by 600 deep), you need only load (via FTP) just this ONE image, into the main images folder on the server.

IH will automatically take care of the re-sampling. You set the various size options in ADMIN >>> CONFIGURATION >>> IMAGES.

[gacollege]

Ok - thanks for the information...

I thought at one time I was pretty computer savvy... but this is kicking my @#$.

Ok - here is my thoughts....which are probably wrong....

I would have to assume I go into c panal and create a folder for my images.... then I use FTP program like Core (recommended by my programmer) to load images into that folder.

Then I go into image handler and go to each product and load the images to that product one by one........

Not sure where the Easy Populate will come in and help...

[schoolboy]

There is already a folder for images in the root directory... no need to create a new one.

C-Panel and FTP are DIFFERENT programs and DIFFERENT protocols.

You need to go get a FTP program (Filezilla is free, but as I said, it has poor security - that's why we use Ipswitch's WSFTP-Pro) and you need to install that program on your home computer (or your office computer - wherever you are working from).

You then use that FTP program to load the images to your images folder (the one that is already there - see above...).

The image FILE NAME (not the actual image FILE itself) must be represented in the database. Remember... this is just the NAME of the image, which is not the same thing as the image itself... and Easy Populate is a quick way of inserting these IMAGE NAMES into the database.

The ACTUAL image file - the binary code that generates the picture - lives in the "images" folder.

What happens is that when a page is assembled by the code for any given page display, the process of assembly (of the resultant HTML) needs to insert the IMAGE NAME of the relevant product image, into the html, and it "collects" this name (which is just a string of text) from the relevant database table, and it strips that "text into the relevant <img src... > tag.

When the compiled HTML is delivered to the browser, the <img src="xxxxxxx.jpg> element calls the actual binary file of the image to render on-screen.

I don't know what this "core ftp" is, but it sounds like something to avoid. Either use Filezilla or WSFTP-Pro.

As mentioned in my previous post, Easy Populate (or Apsona ShopAdmin) are tools for MASS UPLOADING of info into the database, so when you have a LOT of info (which could include the FILENAMES of images) that needs to be populated into the database, it is quicker to use these tools than it is to upload product info one-at-a-time in the conventional way - which is through your shop's ADMIN PANEL and the PRODUCT ADD/EDIT screen.

Of course, you can use this standard interface to load one... two... or twenty thousand poducts into your store - but the more there are to do, the longer it will take. Mass-upload systems do the job far more quickly. Whether you use such mass-upload systems is entirely up to you.

Image handler operates in the background, and all it needs is to have a single, good-quality and relatively large, image, loaded into the main images folder.

I can't make it any more simple... The procedure and protocol is standard webmastership.

[fairestcape]

Actually schoolboy... CORE FTP is quite good.

[gacollege]

Ok - That is pretty good explaination - I will try that tonight. I am pretty 'tecky' - or I think I am... but this web and html stuff throws me for a loop.

If I had someone I could pay a few dollars to ask 1 or 2 questions over the phone - 30-45 min - that would clear up a lot also.......

Thanks,
Richard