Image Handler 4 (for v1.5.x) Support Thread

[DivaVocals]

Zen Cart and Image Management
Image Handler 4 is meant to ease the work required to setup images for your store.. It works WITH default Zen Cart functionality, it does not replace it.. Here's some additional FAQs which discuss how product images work in Zen Cart.

• Image Preparation - How-to
• My images are distorted/fuzzy/squished, help?

Information on how Zen Cart identifies/manages additional product images can be found on these Zen Cart FAQs:

• Why am I seeing images for other products on my product pages?
• How do I add multiple images to a product?
• How do I add more than one image of a product? I want to have a main image and also one or two other images that show more parts of a particular product. How/where do I add additional images to a product page?

Check out these FAQs and see if they help clarify how Zen Cart works with product images.

Prepare Your Site for Growth
Not many folks are aware that Image Handler 4 can manage the needs of a very large site as easily as it does a small one. When first building a site, the owner of a small site needs only to load images to the images folder. But when the site gets bigger and images multiply like rabbits, this can cause file naming confusions for Zen Cart and slow down the site. Preparing for your business to grow from the beginning will save you hours of work later on!

Without Image Handler 4 installed, Zen Cart requires you to create, optimize, and upload three different size images for each image you want to use. You must name these images using naming suffixes, and place them in corresponding folders inside your main image folder. For example: A product called "Widget" requires images/widget.jpg (small image) images/medium/widget_MED.jpg (medium image) and images/large/widget_LRG.jpg. This is such a hassle, especially if many of your products have multiple images. And as your site grows, it becomes an impossible task!

With Image Handler 4, you no longer have to make three sizes of the same images and place them in different folders (unless you want to)! Instead, you need upload only one image in one folder and Image Handler 4 will do the rest! Simply upload your largest highest quality image and Image Handler 4 will resize and optimize your image as needed, and serve up small, medium, or large image sizes appropriate to the page loaded - all automatically and all without actually modifying your original image file in any way! Check out the Configuration Tab of this ReadMe for more info about this awesome functionality!

Prepare your site for growth by simply creating sub-folders in your main images folder. For example, you may want to put all your "widget" images in a folder called "widgets" and all your doodad images in a folder called "doodads" , like this:
Product: Blue Widget with 3 images
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/images/widgets/blue_widget1.jpg (main product image for a blue widget, i.e. front view)
/images/widgets/blue_widget2.jpg (additional product image for a blue widget, i.e. side view)
/images/widgets/blue_widget3.jpg (additional product image for a blue widdget, i.e. rear view)
Product: Red Widget with 1 image
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/images/widgets/red_widget.jpg (main product image for a red widget)
Product: Gold Doodad with 2 images
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/images/doodads/gold_doodad1.jpg (main product image for a gold doodad, i.e. view from above)
/images/doodads/gold_doodad2.jpg (additional product image for a gold doodad, i.e. view from side)
Product: Silver Doodad with 3 images
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/images/doodads/silver_doodad1.jpg (main product image for a silver doodad, i.e. product)
/images/doodads/silver_doodad2.jpg (additional product image for a silver doodad, i.e. product detail)
/images/doodads/silver_doodad3.jpg (additional product image for a silver doodad, i.e. product's silver stamp)

Using Image Handler 4, you can easily sort and manage thousands of images without confusion or hassle! When selecting the main image for a product in the Image Handler 4 interface, Image Handler 4 lets you pick the location for this image. This prompt disappears afterwards because Image Handler 4 knows that additional images need to be in the same folder as their main product image and handles that automatically!