Blog Image Updates
Submitted: Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 18:44
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ExplorOz - David & Michelle
To all our Bloggers,
I have just installed a completely new image handler for all blog images. This new system is linked to our gallery system and offers much greater flexibility, you can resize images and set the alignment as you wish. The options to change size and alignment are in the Edit
Blogs page. You can also easily update the titles and descriptions by clicking on the little edit icon. Also the uploader now supports multiple selection so you can select a number of images or even a folder to be uploaded to your blog in a single step.
Now for the punch line - this update may effect the layout of some of your existing
blogs. I have noticed that some of the image rich
blogs have a layout effect. So in your own time you may wish to edit/update the layout and play with the way images can be shown, you can have strips of 3,4 or 5 images in a single row or force all images to align left or right for a column output - have a play and see what you think. The actual layout options are almost unlimited.
I still need to address the Blog Photo View as this has not been updated to support the Gallery system (I am working on this Monday). I also need to migrate the gallery to your profile/home pages as the old system is being phased out. So please be patient and in the next few days you will have a new gallery system in your member accounts which will link every photo you have ever loaded onto ExplorOz in a single gallery.
I am also in the process of working on a wysiwyg editor for
blogs so that you can edit in a window how it will be presented. This development required the image update be done first.
David
Reply By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 20:36
Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 20:36
I need to post au update - during one of the conversion processes the system crashed (great) and this has corrupted a number of the large image based
blogs. I am working on a process to put them back together however it is a major effort and is mostly manual - If you have a large image based blog and there are holes in it please be patient I have a method to identify the entries however the formatting is going to be poor once it is adjusted.
There are a number and you can tell by looking at the index view - if you see a message [Blog Image] where their should be an image then this indicates a problem. The images have been converted to the gallery but the index links in the actual blog entry did not convert. So the images are not gone they are just not connected to the blog correctly.
Sorry for the hassle and trust me I do not need it either but it is being resolved but will not be finished till next week.
David
AnswerID:
436391
Reply By: Mick O - Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 21:34
Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 21:34
Thanks David. It looks really intersting. A couple of things I've noticed that might be worth mentioning are;
1. A photo will always load to the top right hand side of the blog pane and not in the actual position you place the cursor within the blog like the old system. You then cut and paste the link into position.
2. If bulk uploading, the last picture of your "set" will appear first in the blog. They pop up in reverse order so make sure they are reversed prior to loading if you require them to be in specific order.
Will this change David?
Great initiatives David. Thanks Mick
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 21:38
Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 21:38
Thanks Mick,
I am struggling with the data convert at the moment - some
blogs are done others are being done. It tasks time when there are thousands of images involved.
Anyway - good pick up about the load order - I will look into this and see if I can easily reverse it. It relates to the order of the file transfer but I need to investigate.
The insert should happen at the specific point - I will have to adjust this also. Thanks for the pick up.
I will have to get onto these on Monday as I have had enough today and need to get out of the office and let the data conversion run overnight.
Thanks and have a good one.
David
FollowupID:
707680
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Monday, Nov 22, 2010 at 18:22
Monday, Nov 22, 2010 at 18:22
Mick,
I have attended to both of these issues and can confirm that I have tested it and the images will load in the order they download. So a small byte size (quicker downloading) one may pop in before a large one in a multi item download. If you download one at a time they will go in the order you request. But make sure you wait for the image to load before starting a second one.
Also the image will insert at the current cursor position as it used to. I think none of the script libraries did not load correctly as this functionality was installed it may just not have updated. To be 100% sure do a Refresh/Reload on your browser one any page of ExplorOz to ensure you get the latest scripts loaded.
Enjoy - David
Almost finished this round of blog updates.
FollowupID:
707998
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:52
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:52
Just a quick note I have finished the manual rebuilds of the
blogs so am now completed with the image updates in
blogs for the time being.
David
FollowupID:
708140
Reply By: Flynnie - Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 22:57
Friday, Nov 19, 2010 at 22:57
David
My big
blogs seem to be fairly intact. Nothing that can't be fixed. I downloaded the three from this year as pdf files so rebuilding will be fairly easy. Last year's big blog will be a bit harder but not too bad. Anyway they could benefit from some rearranging.
Has there been any change in the graphic size? Can larger images than 800x600 be used yet?
I will wait until after your upgrade work is completed before attempting anything.
Flynnie
AnswerID:
436407
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Saturday, Nov 20, 2010 at 00:32
Saturday, Nov 20, 2010 at 00:32
Flynnie,
The newer uploaders are happy to receive your full size images and will scale on output to whatever size is to be displayed. At the moment I set the pop up viewer to max 800 but this could be changed to anything and any soze image upto the uploaded size is available. So upload your images direct from your camera if these are not over the top (no point uploading 5+MB images.
Yes best to give me a few more days to be sure I have it all solved. But please have a look at the updates and see if you can think there is anything I could do better.
David
FollowupID:
707699
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:53
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:53
Just a quick note I have finished the manual rebuilds of the
blogs so am now completed with the image updates in
blogs for the time being.
David
FollowupID:
708141
Reply By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Saturday, Nov 20, 2010 at 02:25
Saturday, Nov 20, 2010 at 02:25
Conversions complete - 31
blogs to manually fix up. This will take a few hours on Monday and then we should be sorted.
AnswerID:
436418
Reply By: Member - John and Val - Saturday, Nov 20, 2010 at 09:09
Saturday, Nov 20, 2010 at 09:09
David,
A huge step forward! Having control over aspect ratio, sizing and positioning of photos gives lots of opportunities.
We've struck a couple of issues:
Aspect ratio.
We usually use 4:3 and this seems fine, but initially, different ratios display blank areas to make up 4:3. Not a problem and easy to edit to the required ratio, but probably not what you intended.
Aspect ratio.
Manually defining the ratio to match the image works, but erratically reverts to something else - will try to define that one better.
After editing, although the result looks fine, there may be a string such as
[gi]undefined,250,175,L[/gi][gi]undefined,250,175,L[/gi][gi]undefined,250,175,L[/gi]
appended to the end of the text. I assume the undefined refers to the identity of the image. Again probably not what was intended.
I'll try to narrow these effects down and get back to you.
Cheers
John
| J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein
Lifetime Member
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 16:01
Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 16:01
John,
Thanks for the followups on this the undefined error thrown at the end has been fixed but you may need to do a refresh to load the latest script library into your browser to avoid these from appear. They would have occurred when you open the Image Edit function and press cancel - please try these steps again and see if it happens again and let me know.
As for the aspect ratio on load - I am struggling with the best approach - I wanted to be able to define a fixed area on the screen for all images in the initial load and then allow you the ability to resize. I set the resizer to maintain aspect ratio to ensure the images did not get stretched or otherwise distorted. I can remove the maintain aspect ratio and this will allow additional resizing - let me look at this on Monday and report back.
David
FollowupID:
707877
Follow Up By: Member - John and Val - Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 22:41
Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 22:41
David,
The undefined... error no longer occurs.
Aspect ratio - I think I may have misled you. What I (thought I ?) saw was a change in the aspect ratio of the canvas, not the image. I can't duplicate the "problem" so there probably wasn't a problem there at all. My apologies - I think I was jumping at shadows.
I think your approach in defining an initial canvas size and shape, and keeping the aspect ratio of the original image fixed is the right way to go. There will be some blank canvas when the image doesn't match the canvas aspect ratio, but that's easily edited. I reckon there are very few occasions when a blogger will want to fiddle with image aspect ratio on the site. Keep it simple. Any playing with the image should be done before uploading.
Cheers
John
| J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein
Lifetime Member
My Profile My Blog Send Message |
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:53
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:53
Just a quick note I have finished the manual rebuilds of the
blogs so am now completed with the image updates in
blogs for the time being.
David
FollowupID:
708142
Reply By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 10:01
Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 10:01
Hi David
There must be gremlins in there somewhere. I have opened up my Sturt Desert Pea Blog and there are pictures in there that I have not submitted about a truck crash and a muddy Stuart Highway when it was still all dirt. Without deleting all pictures and re inserting them, how do I remove the photos that are not part of my blog.
Cheers
Stephen
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 16:03
Sunday, Nov 21, 2010 at 16:03
Stephen,
Do not delete anything at this stage I will try to work out what happened. This is part of the error that occurred when I triggered the updates. I will do the best I can but do not want to delete anyone else images either. Just give me a day or two in the office to try to work out what on earth happened and I will attempt to clean up as much as I can.
I will let you know what I find.
I am sorry it has made a mess of things I was really careful with the update however I could not have predicted a system failure.
David
FollowupID:
707878
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Monday, Nov 22, 2010 at 13:27
Monday, Nov 22, 2010 at 13:27
Stephen,
I have removed the incorrect images from your blog. It was my typing mistake when I was manually correcting the errors last week. I believe you blog is now right, I did a few alignment adjustments but the last image wraps a bit funny you may wish to make other updates as you see fit. Sorry about the error.
I have 31
blogs yet to correct manually (I do not think any are yours) and will hopefully have this done in the new couple of hours.
David
FollowupID:
707974
Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Monday, Nov 22, 2010 at 13:30
Monday, Nov 22, 2010 at 13:30
Hi David
Thanks for that. You must realy enjoy these challenges and keep up your most valued work.
Cheers
Stephen
FollowupID:
707975
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:53
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010 at 20:53
Just a quick note I have finished the manual rebuilds of the
blogs so am now completed with the image updates in
blogs for the time being.
David
FollowupID:
708143
Follow Up By: Flynnie - Saturday, Nov 27, 2010 at 17:34
Saturday, Nov 27, 2010 at 17:34
David
I have found some long deleted images from
blogs have resurfaced.
If I go into "My Profile" and go down to "Gallery" - Members Gallery - Blog I get an interesting selection of pictures I long ago deleted from
blogs or in two cases the whole blog.
This is a bit awkward as some of those pictures I had a change of mind about displaying for various reasons I won't go into here.
Is there anyway of getting rid of the "deleted" pictures so they can no longer be accessed on the website. There are about nine that really must go.
For now I am going to restrict access to my profile so the images cannot be accessed this way - hopefully.
Flynnie
FollowupID:
708505
Follow Up By: ExplorOz - David & Michelle - Saturday, Nov 27, 2010 at 20:09
Saturday, Nov 27, 2010 at 20:09
All images in this area have been removed as they were not linked to
blogs as you mentioned. The
Blogs folder in your profile gallery is to be replaced with the new gallery system when I get back from Thailand. So you profile is now clear and these images are gone.
David
FollowupID:
708516
Follow Up By: Flynnie - Saturday, Nov 27, 2010 at 22:42
Saturday, Nov 27, 2010 at 22:42
Thanks for removing them David.
I have returned access of the profile to normal.
The reappearance of the pictures reminded me of one of the themes of the "X Files" TV series - Nothing disappears without leaving a trace.
Flynnie
FollowupID:
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