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  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default Can I literally use SEPARATE images as a thumbnails in multiple product photos?

    I’ve read posts regarding earlier and later versions of Zen Cart, but I must not be grasping a concept here. I’ve used Zen Cart for a long time, but this is my first attempt at multiple product images. Ultimately, I’m wondering if Zen Cart literally supports the use of separate thumbnail images.

    My point is that for a cleaner presentation on multiple images for products, I want to use square thumbnails that I’ve cropped and reduced in file size for faster page loading. They should link to the larger images which may be portrait or landscape. For the moment, I’ve used CSS to make the thumbnails 50px x 50px. And, currently, using multiple product images works when I have my medium size image and all the thumbnails in the main image directory. Kinda good and I'm half way home.

    Maybe I’ve done something wrong, but my problem is that currently, my thumbnails only link to themselves, so I can't use my own custom 50px thumbnail and any portrait or landscape photo used as a thumbnail get squished visually. But, I have no other choice. If I want the thumbnail to load the larger photo, my thumbnail HAS to be the larger photo, just squished and squared by CSS. Not only am I using large photos as thumbnails which are visually messy because they're squished, but I'm reducing page load time because it's loading all the larger images.

    This poses some questions about what I’m doing…
    • Shouldn’t I be able to literally use a separate image for a thumbnail and have it link to the larger image?
    • If I can, how and where should the thumbnails be uploaded? It seems (I could be wrong) that this has changed somewhat through the evolution of Zen Cart.
    • Am I not uploading them correctly?
    • What directories should I be using for Zen Cart 1.5.1?

    My structure in the image directory is:
    photo.jpg
    photo_01.jpg (thumbnail)
    photo_02.jpg (thumbnail)
    photo_03.jpg (thumbnail)

    I’ve tried all weekend with variations of uploading, using the large directory, etc. and I feel like I’m missing the most basic concepts.

    Does anyone have insight to my questions above? As always the community, thanks in advance!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Default Re: Can I literally use SEPARATE images as a thumbnails in multiple product photos?

    First is to identify is this a thought experiment or something that you need quickly implemented to support your site and to move on not spending a significant amount of time to figure things out?

    If it is something you need right away, may I suggest installing Image Handler version 4. It supports accomplishing all that you are trying to do.

    That said, it is always good to know and understand the image naming features/requirements especially when it comes to additional images... The naming convention that you used does provide for additional images, but if the images are all stored in the images directory only with no additional files/renamed files, then all images will be presented at the applicable size for the expected photo, but be of the "small" image... Now if you want to present a certain image as the small (thumbnail) and a different image for medium or large images, then with the "standard" image loaded as the small image, the large image equivalent has the same name but ends with _LRG before the prefix. This is a value that is set in the database in the configuration/images area. But, basically, that suffix identifies what ending should exist on the file to be considered the LARGE file. The same type of comparison is available for medium images as well.. Basically if the image ends with that type of ending, then the file is to fit that type of viewer/image to be displayed... So in your case you could have had photo.jpg, photo_LRG.jpg, and, photo_MED.jpg for the small, large, and medium photos respectfully. Things become more organized if the large and medium directories are used, but as for that it becomes a little more "complex" at least in remembering all of the details.

    That all said, IH 4 does all the resizing for you, load the original image and it downsizes the image to a high quality lower image size than the chosen image, but quickly and with cleanly.
    ZC Installation/Maintenance Support <- Site
    Contribution for contributions welcome...

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Can I literally use SEPARATE images as a thumbnails in multiple product photos?

    I think you missed my greater point, but I'm graetful for your help nonetheless. I am well aware of the procedure for formatting, suffix use, and folder locations. For the life of me, though, I couldn't get it to work the way I thought it should. As it turns out, I had a javascript issue that somehow interfered with the additional images. I hate posting in the forums until I've truly exhausted all resources. Now this is a useless post to clutter things up. I have to say, you merely reinforced what I thought was the correct procedure, so it forced me to really break down what was going on and examine every element (php, css, javascript, etc.).

    Thank you for your time and contribution! This is why I love using Zen Cart.

 

 

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