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

[DivaVocals]

when uploading your images try naming them like the product without spaces in the name or special characters....like serenity.jpg or serenityprayer.jpg

that way you will be able to find it in the images folder should you need to as well as keep a copy of them on your computer for if it should get corrupted you can then reupload it.

Great advice!!!

[DivaVocals]

Let me state this very simply then..

You do not need to use the "imagesihnew" folder you plan to make.. Take all your "large images" from my images/large folder and put them all in "images" folder. Delete EVERYTHING ELSE.

Now if you are not comfortable doing that, then make a backup on your local computer of these files/folders.. But DO DELETE THESE files/folders from your store..

IH2 will then read the files in the images folder and create small, medium and large images optimized and sized based on your image settings in the bmz_cache folder. Because it creates these images from the large image you place in the "images" folder, your original images remain in place untouched.

Thank you.
Perhaps there is a language barrier of something, but I've read and re-read those pages you claim that I never have read yet

To me when you say "
Therefore you need to upload your LARGEST image to the store's "image" folder. " It is not explained very well at all. Yes I have an image folder (which holds the small med and large...which apparently wont' be needed any more and of which I'm glad), but it does not say what to do with them...I've put a new directory under my images directory called imagesihnew...which is where I see my newest and only product image) since trying to use IH2, but it isn't explained (in my opinion) well enough to make me feel comfortable about moving things around in my store (with over 900 products) without "really" knowing what I'm supposed to do.

So let me see if I understand (and thanks for your patience again)
I just need to take all my "large images" from my images/large folder and put them all in my new imagesihnew directory and they will pop up in the right places? ...which will make the mbz get to work and store my others sizes (as specified in the admin/images?

[fajmp]

yes delete the images from the LRG and MED folder they are not needed

as for finding out what the image is...that is what the control center (admin?tools?IH2) is for, go there, find the product in the listing then it will tell you the name of the image.

the one you see when you hover is the generic name in the bmz_cache fodler only...this is so it loads quicker and not the original image.

when uploading your images try naming them like the product without spaces in the name or special characters....like serenity.jpg or serenityprayer.jpg

that way you will be able to find it in the images folder should you need to as well as keep a copy of them on your computer for if it should get corrupted you can then reupload it.

Thank you again for your quickness...I feel something good comin' on..

As asked above and not answered:

I no longer have "larger" images wider that 480 (which are in my /images/large folder. So can i take these and place them in my new folder imagesihnew folder and have everything work or do I have to go to each product and upload the image for that particular product....or should I delete my small images and put the larger _LRG ones there?

[DivaVocals]

Let me put it this way and you can decide how this applies to your current products.

You add images to products via the IH2 interface or upload images via the product's info pages.

Either method you chose to add images to products, you must select the largest sized image. IH2 looks for the image you have associated with the product to generate the 3 image sizes in the bmz_cache folder.. IH2 assumes that this is the LARGEST image. So if the file you associated with the product is in fact the SMALLEST image, your small and medium images will in fact be smaller than they should be..

So if the image you have associated with your products is NOT the largest product image, then IH2 will not work correctly..

Does this make sense now??

Thank you again for your quickness...I feel something good comin' on..

As asked above and not answered:

I no longer have "larger" images wider that 480 (which are in my /images/large folder. So can i take these and place them in my new folder imagesihnew folder and have everything work or do I have to go to each product and upload the image for that particular product....or should I delete my small images and put the larger _LRG ones there?

[fajmp]

Let me state this very simply then..

You do not need to use the "imagesihnew" folder you plan to make.. Take all your "large images" from my images/large folder and put them all in "images" folder. Delete EVERYTHING ELSE.

Now if you are not comfortable doing that, then make a backup on your local computer of these files/folders.. But DO DELETE THESE files/folders from your store..

IH2 will then read the files in the images folder and create small, medium and large images optimized and sized based on your image settings in the bmz_cache folder. Because it creates these images from the large image you place in the "images" folder, your original images remain in place untouched.

Well I did as said...I made copies of my small medium & large images, Then I deleted all of them from my side and re-downloaded my largest images (which are actually from my large folder) and placed them in my images folder which used to hold my small ones....
there must be something else I need to do because look at my site.. Yikes...this is not good...

[DivaVocals]

Well I did as said...I made copies of my small medium & large images, Then I deleted all of them from my side and re-downloaded my largest images (which are actually from my large folder) and placed them in my images folder which used to hold my small ones....
there must be something else I need to do because look at my site.. Yikes...this is not good...

Yes there is.. You missed something in my last post (and this IS in the IH3 read me too..) Please see the things I highlighted..

You add images to products via the IH2 interface or upload images via the product's info pages.

Either method you chose to add images to products, you must select the largest sized image. IH2 looks for the image you have associated with the product to generate the 3 image sizes in the bmz_cache folder.. IH2 assumes that this is the LARGEST image. So if the file you associated with the product is in fact the SMALLEST image, your small and medium images will in fact be smaller than they should be..

So if the image you have associated with your products is NOT the largest product image, then IH2 will not work correctly..

Does this make sense now??

You need to make sure that the image associated with the product corresponds with an image in your image folder. This must be the largest image so that IH2 can correctly generate the 3 images sizes needed in the bmz_cache folder.. Because you started out your store using default Zen Cart image management it means you probably have your products associated with the wrong images (which is why IH2 was only HALF working).. AND BTW, the large images do NOT need _LRG in the names at all when using IH2..

[DivaVocals]

More information.. This is straight from the IH3 readme Troubleshooting tab (which as I have indicated in previous posts can be used by IH2 users too as it contains much more/better information than the IH2 readme..)

Prepare Your Site for Growth

Not many users are aware that Image Handler3 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 Handler3 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 Handler3, 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 Handler3 will do the rest! Simply upload your largest highest quality image and Image Handler3 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
----------------------------------
/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
--------------------------------
/images/widgets/red_widget.jpg (main product image for a red widget)

Product: Gold Doodad with 2 images
----------------------------------
/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
------------------------------------
/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 Handler3, you can easily sort and manage thousands of images without confusion or hassle! When selecting the main image for a product in the Image Handler3 interface, Image Handler3 lets you pick the location for this image. This prompt disappears afterwards because Image Handler3 knows that additional images need to be in the same folder as their main product image and handles that automatically!

[fajmp]

Yes there is.. You missed something in my last post (and this IS in the IH3 read me too..) Please see the things I highlighted..


You need to make sure that the image associated with the product corresponds with an image in your image folder. This must be the largest image so that IH2 can correctly generate the 3 images sizes needed in the bmz_cache folder.. Because you started out your store using default Zen Cart image management it means you probably have your products associated with the wrong images (which is why IH2 was only HALF working).. AND BTW, the large images do NOT need _LRG in the names at all when using IH2..

Well, I feel like some dunce or something...did I not just put the largest files associated with my products when I used my _LRG files? Would they not be associated? If not then what the heck does that mean to be associated? Do I have to change the file name and eliminate the _LRG? Or do I have to go and input the file for each and every product??? Or should I unintall the IH again? I obviously really need to fix this...

[DivaVocals]

Well, I feel like some dunce or something...did I not just put the largest files associated with my products when I used my _LRG files? Would they not be associated? If not then what the heck does that mean to be associated? Do I have to change the file name and eliminate the _LRG? Or do I have to go and input the file for each and every product??? Or should I unintall the IH again? I obviously really need to fix this...

You need to look at your products and in particular the section which is where you will see the image that is associated with that product..

From the IH3 readme:

You can use Image Handler3 in two ways.

• Admin > Catalog > Categories/Products
• Admin > Tools > Image Handler3

There are screenshots of these sections in the readme..

From either of these places you will be able to see what image is associated with your products. This location needs to be the same as where the large image file is located.. So looking at this product:
http://talkingwalls.ca/aline/index.p...roducts_id=847

It's looking for the product image to be located here:
http://talkingwalls.ca/aline/images/everyone%20welcome.jpg

It's not showing any image at all and that's because this image no longer exists. So to fix this product and get IH2 to correctly generate the 3 image sizes needed, you need to edit this product and correct the image to the location of the largest image for this product. Once you do this, the product image will be displayed again, and then IH2 will then generate the 3 images needed for this product and place them in the bmz_cache folder.

BTW, DarkAngel is correct when she suggests that you not use spaces in image file names.. The %20 in the above image link represents a space in the file name.

[DivaVocals]

One last thing.. There is an EASY way you can cheat without having to update all your products.. This ASSUMES that the small images you had in your "images" folder have names similar to the large images..

Using the product example I previously cited the large image is found here:
http://talkingwalls.ca/aline/images/...elcome_LRG.jpg

The product though is associated (and looking for) this image:
http://talkingwalls.ca/aline/images/...%20welcome.jpg

If you renamed everyone welcome_LRG.jpg to everyone welcome.jpg, then you will "trick" Zen Cart into displaying the image without having to update the product.

Now if all your other images follow a similar pattern then you can batch update the file names.. You can do this by downloading one of the many free file re-naming tools (http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php) and rename all your images and re-upload them.. This should solve all your issues without having to manually update your products..