Image Handler 3 Support Thread (for ZC v1.3.9)

[godjira]

is there any mileage in incorporating timthumb in to the re-worked Image Handler?

On the downside it's externally maintained code, but you *could* say that about PHP or jquery.

On the plus side it does the image resizing on the fly and could feasibly be dropped in to the zen_image function. It also has a crop function for when you absolutely need your images square.

I'm working with it now for a site where I need to resize the attribute images.

[DivaVocals]

is there any mileage in incorporating timthumb in to the re-worked Image Handler?

On the downside it's externally maintained code, but you *could* say that about PHP or jquery.

On the plus side it does the image resizing on the fly and could feasibly be dropped in to the zen_image function. It also has a crop function for when you absolutely need your images square.

I'm working with it now for a site where I need to resize the attribute images.

Sure I can see a lot of value as TimThumb includes options that are not part of the current Image Handler featureset. In particular these features:

• alignment - Crop alignment. c = center, t = top, b = bottom, r = right, l = left. The positions can be combined to create diagonal positions
• zoom / crop - Change the cropping and scaling settings
• filters - too many to mention. Let's you apply image filters to the modify the resized picture. For instance you can change brightness/ contrast or even blur the image
• sharpen - Apply a sharpen filter to the image, makes scaled down images look a little crisper

I wouldn't try to link to TimThumb persay, but porting/integrating these features into Image Handler seems like a SMASHING idea..

Now that said would YOU be interested in updating Image Handler to make these changes?? Frankly I don't have the bandwidth to tackle this and this change is also a bit over my head to tackle..

[DivaVocals]

Has anybody tried to use this with 1.5?

I have but can't get it to work. I've rechecked the files a few times and everything is there but no joy...

No IH3 in admin link tools..... I guess it need some rewriting for 1.5???

Doesn't work with v1.5.. Being worked on.. NO ETA on release..

[niccol]

Well, some commercial modules have incorporated TimThumb rather messily into Zen. It obviously works but would need to be thought of a bit more.

I am kind of interested in that in my on-going exploration of what the best way of dealing with images is :-) Which Diva knows all about.

The advantage of TimThumb is that it is pretty actively developed because of it's use in a lot of wordpress themes. And it is powerful. Perhaps too powerful in some respects. But it is a very solid bit of coding that actually would not be all that hard to incorporate into Zen in a nice way.

[DivaVocals]

Well, some commercial modules have incorporated TimThumb rather messily into Zen. It obviously works but would need to be thought of a bit more.

Disappointing but not surprising..

I am kind of interested in that in my on-going exploration of what the best way of dealing with images is :-) Which Diva knows all about.

I do indeed!!!

The advantage of TimThumb is that it is pretty actively developed because of it's use in a lot of wordpress themes. And it is powerful. Perhaps too powerful in some respects. But it is a very solid bit of coding that actually would not be all that hard to incorporate into Zen in a nice way.

I wonder if TimThumb is integrated with NextGen Gallery for WordPress.. NextGen certainly has many similar features supported by TimThumb..

[godjira]

WordPress has it's own built in image crunching, which is getting increasingly sophisticated and timthumb is kind of getting left behind a bit. There was a spate of exploits that took a lot of sites down with timthumb a short while ago, but I guess if the disaster has already happened it's not going to happen again.

I'm pretty sure NextGen gallery uses GD/ImageMagick directly rather than through timthumb or uses WordPress image handling. I will crack it open and look at the code next time I am in the vicinity.

Image resizing really ought to be core within Zen Cart IMHO. I would love to be able to help but my bandwidth is also at 100% doing Work for Money. I will report back about NGG and WP though.

[DivaVocals]

WordPress has it's own built in image crunching, which is getting increasingly sophisticated and timthumb is kind of getting left behind a bit.

Indeed it is nice..

I'm pretty sure NextGen gallery uses GD/ImageMagick directly rather than through timthumb or uses WordPress image handling. I will crack it open and look at the code next time I am in the vicinity.

I am pretty sure it is indeed using GD/ImageMagick. You are aware that Image Handle ris also using GD/ImageMagick correct???

Image resizing really ought to be core within Zen Cart IMHO.

Perhaps, but for now it's not... In the meantime, there are plugins like Image Handler to fill the gap..

I would love to be able to help but my bandwidth is also at 100% doing Work for Money. I will report back about NGG and WP though.

I understand..

[niccol]

Well, those exploits of TimThumb were closed amazingly quickly. Due to a lot of hard work by many people. It was actually very impressive. And version 2 was released without those particular vulnerabilities.

Yes, NGG uses it's own crunching I believe. Yes, wordpresses own image handling is getting much better.

I just put timthumb 2 up on a zen test site. Integration would be pretty easy. It took me ten minutes to get a working version going so it can't have been all that hard :-) But it is a bit slow. And looking at the code I am not sure why that is.

Hmmm, interesting....

[HeathenMagic]

We have been using ZenCart for a while, and I am not sure if anyone has the issue when trying to access additional images or the settings, where the following message is shown:-

No Image Handler information found.

It won't let me uninstall, and we have had it since the first version.

But it still runs okay, just a niggle really, it is a shame there is no way to manually uninstall through SQL to try and reinstall.

A new image module sounds like a good idea, but Image Handler has been brilliant so far, the above being the only real issue.

I wish I could help with coding and such, but I am useless frankly lol. Mabye myself and other users could help donating to those that upgrade or create an image module. As we did when Tim Kroeger initially made this module.

[DivaVocals]

The intall/uninstall can be "run" manually by removing all the Image Handle r admin configuration options (which is really all the install/uninstall SQL does)

If it won't "let" you uninstall, that is indicative of corruption in your Image Handler files..

ALL of which could be resolved by re-installing Image Handler.. and let me be clear... when I say re-install I mean RE-UPLOAD the files for the version of Image Handler you are running (you don't say which version you are running) and then see if the un-install/install features work again..
[quote=HeathenMagic;1108173]We have been using ZenCart for a while, and I am not sure if anyone has the issue when trying to access additional images or the settings, where the following message is shown:-



It won't let me uninstall, and we have had it since the first version.

But it still runs okay, just a niggle really, it is a shame there is no way to manually uninstall through SQL to try and reinstall.

A new image module sounds like a good idea, but Image Handler has been brilliant so far, the above being the only real issue.

I wish I could help with coding and such, but I am useless frankly lol. Mabye myself and other users could help donating to those that upgrade or create an image module. As we did when Tim Kroeger initially made this module.

While it's true that niccol is working on a new image module, there has been NOTHING posted AYWHERE which would indicate/imply that Image Handler is dead/dying/not being updated.. it's being updated.. but there is no E.T.A. on when it will be available, as this free work is secondary to paid work and private lives.