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

[RodG]

perhaps it's because it's early, but in this very long post I'm not truly clear on what the issue is..

LOL. No offence intended here, but I'm with you, it is hard to tell exactly what the issue is. This is just GAM's 'style' of bug reporting, it is all perfectly clear in his head, but it doesn't always translate well to the written word, <g>.

and you haven't provided a link to your site.. (as we suggest ALL the time in this support thread)..

Fair comment, but unless I'm mistaken, he's currently in the process of doing an upgrade on a non live site, as such, there is no suitable link to be provided.

I'm not entirely clear on what you mean by "Full size but no suffix". Does this refer to the filename extension or something else..

This related to ZenCarts 'conventional' image filenames for the different sized images (*_MED, *_LRG), which I admit has me a little confused because I'm under the impression that IH4 negates the need for these anyway.. doesn't it?

I gather that there are several issues (watermarks, image hover, image quality issue with medium images, no large popup)

My conclusion was that IH4 simply isn't working. period.

Suggest going back to the readme.. review the configuration and usage tabs.. assuming you have this installed correctly (and since you've provided none of the information suggested in the readme or even on the first page of this post we can only guess that you do have this installed correctly) there are specific configuration settings required for the image hover to work.. There are other settings that may help with the image quality issues. Bottomline it may indeed be a button to "flick". Sounds like your admin settings need to be adjusted, and the usage & configuration tabs will provide the info you need..

That was going to be my suggestion too, but I thought I'd wait to see what your input was first.

With respect to GAM, I will add that he's not a novice/noob. He has been using ZenCart for almost as long as I can remember (my wife just laughed, and said its been much longer than my 2 week memory capacity. <g>).

I fear that because of this, there probably isn't much that we can give in the way of specific advice for the problem(s) reported (This is where I was hoping you may have been more helpful than I could). Methinks there is just some fundamental cause, a misplaced file, a javascript conflict, or something of a similar nature that is going to be impossible for us to guess at, in which case, yes, its back to the readme and/or repeating the install until it does work.

GAM, FWIW, I have also had similar issues in the past with some IH installations. I know how frustrating it can be, but I don't think I've ever come across the same problem more than once... IOW, each time, the cause has been some minor thing that I'd overlooked or missed during the install.
The idea that it could be a 'Oh, flick this and click that' is a very good one, but as an old 'nemesis' used to frequently say 'It aint that simple'.

Cheers
Rod

[GAM]

Good moanin'

LOL, perhaps it was because it was late (GMT+10 here) ;-) Apologies for the somewhat confusing/unclear post. I was tackling that post at the end of (another) very long day following round upon round of read, reread, tweak, etc.

Thank you both for responding.

I have stock coming in and a load of orders to deal with this morning but I hope to get back to it ASAP and will read again with clearer mind and perform the necessary installation and configuration steps.

Rod is very astute and knows me well. We have worked on Ozpost together at different times for a very long time. Thanks for your input and assistance Rod. And yes, you are correct... mostly; IH4 isn't working properly and the site is currently 'down for maintenance'.

For clarity, Image - Use Proportional Images on Products and Categories setting effects results as follows:

Image - Use Proportional Images on Products and Categories = 1

1. No additional images (thumbnails) displayed
2. Watermark on large image only (should be medium too)
3. No hover effects

Image - Use Proportional Images on Products and Categories = 0

1. Additional images displayed (full size displays in pop-up)
2. No watermarks
3. No hover effects
4. Medium image quality not good
5. Medium image on click displays blank pop-up window i.e., no large image.

All other config settings as per Readme example.



Ignoring the above for now if necessary, please answer the following:

The readme states that IH4 works with Easy Populate and also works with an existing store, not affecting/modifying any existing images. My questions are:

1. Does IH4 regenerate images where they exist already? (I thought so)

2. How does it determine which image to use for IH4 'default' image given zen-cart image directory structure:
- store/images/my_manufacturer = small images with filename no suffix
- store/images/medium/my_manufacturer = medium images with filename and '_m' suffix
- store/images/large/my_manufacturer = large images with filename and '_l' suffix
[where, in my case, filename = model number]


Cheers
GAM

[DivaVocals]

Ignoring the above for now if necessary, please answer the following:The readme states that IH4 works with Easy Populate and also works with an existing store, not affecting/modifying any existing images. My questions are:1. Does IH4 regenerate images where they exist already? (I thought so)2. How does it determine which image to use for IH4 'default' image given zen-cart image directory structure:- store/images/my_manufacturer = small images with filename no suffix- store/images/medium/my_manufacturer = medium images with filename and '_m' suffix- store/images/large/my_manufacturer = large images with filename and '_l' suffix[where, in my case, filename = model number]CheersGAM

1. Regenerate in the sense that IF you replace any of the product images it will re-generate the image in the IH4 image cache.. Regenerate i nthe sense that if you clear (delete/remove) the images in the image cache IH4 will regenerate the image cache images.The STOCK images in the image folder however will NOT be regenerated if you delete it..

2. As the readme instructions state, (as does the first page of this support thread.. and I and others often say..) you DO NOT need to follow the DEFAULT Zen Cart structure for uploading large medium and small images.. UPLOAD THE LARGEST IMAGE and IH4 will take care to create the proper small, and medium images based on your image settings.. This means DO NOT use the medium and large image folders or suffixes or ANY of that..

Please do read through the read me usage tab.. It REALLY does explain in DETAIL how the image uploda works and other variations that IH supports (for example small image is one picture, while large image is a DIFFERENT image)

[DivaVocals]

LOL. No offence intended here, but I'm with you, it is hard to tell exactly what the issue is. This is just GAM's 'style' of bug reporting, it is all perfectly clear in his head, but it doesn't always translate well to the written word, <g>.

Thanks for confirming that it wasn't because I needed coffee!!!

Fair comment, but unless I'm mistaken, he's currently in the process of doing an upgrade on a non live site, as such, there is no suitable link to be provided.

Fair enough.. OP just needed to make that clear when posting going forward.. It's the first thing EVERYONE asks as you know!!

This related to ZenCarts 'conventional' image filenames for the different sized images (*_MED, *_LRG), which I admit has me a little confused because I'm under the impression that IH4 negates the need for these anyway.. doesn't it?

You sir are correct!! and thanks for the clarification.. I hear "suffix" and I think .jpg, .png..

With respect to GAM, I will add that he's not a novice/noob. He has been using ZenCart for almost as long as I can remember (my wife just laughed, and said its been much longer than my 2 week memory capacity. <g>).

Got it.. We'll work it all out.. (you can translate when needed..)

[GAM]

Hi

I've identified the problem... active template not set correctly. Sorry for wasting everyone's time. Hopefully this helps someone else out in the future in similar circumstances.
[Interesting though how some IH functions were activated/deactivated by the Image - Use Proportional Images on Products and Categories configuration setting]

I'm not used to having more than one template on my site and somehow managed to have 'English' set to the new template and Default(All) set to the old one.

Preliminary testing indicates that IH4 is now functioning correctly on my site. There are some other curious little quirks that I need to investigate but probably my fault again.


Thank you Diva Vocals for your assistance and answers. I did have to ask the question regarding how IH4 handles existing images as it was unclear to me from the information provided in the readme. If it is stated there, I didn't notice and I apologise if I simply overlooked it. What I have noticed from testing and the results is that IH4 seems to use my primary images in my defined 'large' directory over any other images [small, medium] present for the same product. I'm wondering what it will do if I upload a low res image to my 'large' directory and a higher res image to my 'medium' directory... or if this case was present prior to IH4 being installed.

Your answer to question 2 was a good reminder but mostly out of context, which was... how does IH4 deal with 'existing' images.

From the point of view of someone that has been using default Zen-Cart image directory structures and methods for some time and no prior Image Handler experience, I feel that a little more detail could be provided in the readme on:

a. How IH4 processes images already existing on a site
b. Usage general practice for uploading bulk images (not using Image Handler admin tools). [Thorough details, explanations and instructions are provided for using the admin tools and dealing with images one at a time.]

Cheers
GAM

[DivaVocals]

Thank you Diva Vocals for your assistance and answers. I did have to ask the question regarding how IH4 handles existing images as it was unclear to me from the information provided in the readme. If it is stated there, I didn't notice and I apologise if I simply overlooked it. What I have noticed from testing and the results is that IH4 seems to use my primary images in my defined 'large' directory over any other images [small, medium] present for the same product. I'm wondering what it will do if I upload a low res image to my 'large' directory and a higher res image to my 'medium' directory... or if this case was present prior to IH4 being installed.

Your answer to question 2 was a good reminder but mostly out of context, which was... how does IH4 deal with 'existing' images.

From the point of view of someone that has been using default Zen-Cart image directory structures and methods for some time and no prior Image Handler experience, I feel that a little more detail could be provided in the readme on:

a. How IH4 processes images already existing on a site
b. Usage general practice for uploading bulk images (not using Image Handler admin tools). [Thorough details, explanations and instructions are provided for using the admin tools and dealing with images one at a time.]

Cheers
GAM

The question of how IH4 handles images already on the site is addressed, and that documentation covers the most common store setups.. Your image setup seems a tad unique and as such is not something I could have REASONABLY foreseen or tested for when testing IH4.. Since this is a volunteer effort please understand that neither I nor anyone who assisted in the testing and documentation of IH4 could POSSIBLY test every possibly variation of a store's image setup. If a community volunteer does want to do this level of testing and provide some insight in this regard, then I am more than happy to include these findings in the IH4 documentation..

There are three bulk image add-ons for Zen Cart and AGAIN, neither I nor anyone who assisted in the testing and documentation of IH4 could POSSIBLY test how IH4 works with each one of these add-ons for EVERY image setup.. What we CAN say (and do cover in the documentation) is that as long as these add-ons save the main image path using Zen Cart standards to the database, then IH4 will pick up the main product image which allows it to create the small and medium images correctly. (and yes volunteers did test this) There's no reason for instructions on usage of bulk product uploaders to be included in the IH4 readme unless the bulk uploader doesn't use standard Zen Cart methods for images.. The bulk uploader of your choice should have detailed usage instructions which guides you for how to properly include images in your bulk uploads and there's NEVER been a reason since IH4 was first created to DUPLICATE their usage instructions in IH4 readme.

[DivaVocals]

Hi

I've identified the problem... active template not set correctly. Sorry for wasting everyone's time. Hopefully this helps someone else out in the future in similar circumstances.
[Interesting though how some IH functions were activated/deactivated by the Image - Use Proportional Images on Products and Categories configuration setting]

I'm not used to having more than one template on my site and somehow managed to have 'English' set to the new template and Default(All) set to the old one.

Preliminary testing indicates that IH4 is now functioning correctly on my site. There are some other curious little quirks that I need to investigate but probably my fault again.

IH4 works for normal store setups.. Your setup is unique and therefore as you discovered IH4 appeared to not be working when using a non-standard template setup..

[GAM]

Thanks Diva Vocals

IH4 is a great add-on and something that I've wanted to use for a long time but always put off until I was ready to upgrade to the latest version of Zen... it has taken a few years to get to this point. My existing version of Zen-Cart is very old.

For the sake of clarity; I have never used any image add-ons on my site until now (this IH4 install).

As mentioned in my first post, I generate all three images (small, medium, large), rename with appropriate suffixes (_m, _l) and upload to the appropriate directories on my server. This is what I learned years ago to be 'standard' practice for images with Zen-Cart. I followed the FAQ suggestions at the time, which was to separate small, medium and large images into separate directory structures.


Cheers
GAM

[DivaVocals]

Thanks Diva Vocals

IH4 is a great add-on and something that I've wanted to use for a long time but always put off until I was ready to upgrade to the latest version of Zen... it has taken a few years to get to this point. My existing version of Zen-Cart is very old.

For the sake of clarity; I have never used any image add-ons on my site until now (this IH4 install).

As mentioned in my first post, I generate all three images (small, medium, large), rename with appropriate suffixes (_m, _l) and upload to the appropriate directories on my server. This is what I learned years ago to be 'standard' practice for images with Zen-Cart. I followed the FAQ suggestions at the time, which was to separate small, medium and large images into separate directory structures.


Cheers
GAM

Understood.. but just as the IH4 documentation states, IH4 eliminates the need to do this 'tis all I was trying to point out..

[GAM]

Understood too. ;-)

Going forward with the new site I will be removing the obsolete size related directories and uploading all my renamed, 'large' images to the new site's ../images/manufacturer_name/ directories and let IH4 do all it's wonderful work for me This makes me very happy.

FWIW, I've been playing with the settings and I REALLY like what IH4 is doing. GREAT mod!

Thank you to all the contributors and supporters of this add-on.

Cheers
GAM

EDIT: ps. Now on to the next add-on. ;-)