Image Manager addon

[boudewijn]

Thank you!

[Soul39]

Hi, i was doing some research on imagemagick, when i came across this thread.
I am looking to rebuild my store which has lots of images, does this IM do more or less the same thing as IH2?

I don't want to prepare and upload three images per product, so anything to minimize that would be great.

I would be very grateful if you could give me a brief description of how you would install IM? Or, does all the instructions come with it.

Many, many thanks

Soul39
http://www.k-craftteddies.co.uk

[boudewijn]

Hi,

IM is not the same as IH2. The latter alters the way ZC stores and displays the images, while IM leaves the ZC code untouched.
IM is purely an administrative add-on, which can check for missing or wrong-sized images, and can generate the medium and large size images from the one image attached as small to the product. It can also help you to keep your images folders clean.

The help text which comes with IM is quite extensive and describes the functionality as well as installation and uninstallation (both less than 5 mins work as no alterations to ZC are made.

IM and IH2 cannot be used together, as IH2 alters the way images are stored/retireved, while IM uses the standard functionality of IM for the three image sizes as well as additional images.

Boudewijn

P.S. The next version of IM will also have an upload link to replace an existing products image fast

[Soul39]

HI, so what size image do i attach to my product?
I would normally attach the small image. How can IM turn a small image into a medium and large?
If i only need to upload 1 image per product as far as i am concerned, that's a bonus.

Thanks in advance,

Soul39

http://www.k-craftteddies.co.uk

[boudewijn]

Hi,

You need to upload an image that is at least the large image size. From the uploaded image you generate the large and medium image, and finally reduce the size of the uploaded image to small. That needs three clicks.
The image sizes for small and medium are defined in Zen-Cart, the max size of the large image is defined in the IM settings and can be changed through the admin interface.
Watermarking (see image_manager.txt) is an optional part of the process of copying/resizing the image.

Boudewijn

[dutchy]

This mod looks promising!!

I am looking for an image management system, I have been waiting a month for IH2c to be approved for download by the zen cart team but this looks so much more streamline and easier to use. I love how there seem to be no core file edits, an excellent system indeed!

Have you encountered any problems with it working with a light-box add-on or even the paid magic-toolbox add-on?

Regards
Michael

[boudewijn]

Hi Michael,

I'm not sure what the magic toolbox add-on does, but I'm sure IM works with Zen Lightbox, as I use it myself too.
There is no interference between the two, because IM does not touch the way Zen-Cart handles images in the front-end (shop). It follows all Zen-Cart structures, naming conventions, etc etc. You could say it automates a bunch of actions that had to be done by hand before.

I started my shop with using IH2 too, but ran into problems with Google indexing the images, because the location of an image in IH2 changed after an image was updated. That's when I decided to develop this add-on.
With IM all links remain the same (=standard Zen-Cart). And with a modified Sitemap XML add-on I am now able to include the images in the sitemap and thus tell Google about them.

Boudewijn

[Soul39]

Hi,
do you end up with 3 folders; small, medium and Large?
I had a quick read of the IM txt file, but i'am still not quite with it.
I am not sure where to put my initial image.
Do you upload all your large images to the "Large" folder which already exists in the images directory? Help!

Soul39

[boudewijn]

Hi,

On the add/edit product page, Zen-cart uploads the product image to the images/ folder by default. It's ok to put it there, but if you wish, you can create different folders subordinate to images/, based on manufacturer, product type, etc. For instance images/vases and images/mugs.
At that stage don't bother about small, medium and large, just make sure that the uploaded image is large enough to create the 'large' image from.

Later on, you use IM to create medium and large size images from the one uploaded. IM wil automatically place the medium/large size images in the appropriate folders and apply the suffixes (usually _MED and _LRG) to the files. If any folder doesn't exist yet, IM will try to create it for you.
Your last action in IM is to reduce the size of the originally uploaded image to small, according to the size defined in the config settings.

Does this answer your question?

[Soul39]

Hi, Ok, i like the sound of that!
I have a couple of questions;


What if the uploaded images are the exact size for the large images?

Will IM move them to the large folder as no resizing needs to be done.

Once i have a small, medium and large image for my product, can i delete the original? or is that still needed?

I hope there aren't too many questions?

Many thanks
Soul39