Using ProductCart - Thumbnail Generation

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Thumbnail Generation

Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Using ProductCart
Forum Description: Running your store with ProductCart
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3535
Printed Date: 01-March-2025 at 12:32pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Thumbnail Generation

Posted By: dragoncrown
Subject: Thumbnail Generation
Date Posted: 21-March-2010 at 10:30pm

Is there any way for the cart to generate the three image sizes needed based off of the initial image that is uploaded?

I had this feature in a previous cart that I was testing and it was extremely handy.

Sean

Replies:

Posted By: Greg Dinger
Date Posted: 21-March-2010 at 10:42pm

This is not a stock feature, but it is one that we would be enthusastic about building if you want a custom solution.

If your site is hosted on a server that has http://aspjpeg.com - http://aspjpeg.com (this is one of the components used by the PC image upload/resize feature) installed, we could use that to generate the small/medium images from the large version.

Please e-mail me directly at my site if you would like to discuss.

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GreyBeard Design Group

Certified ProductCart Developer

Web Design/Development/Hosting

http://tinyurl.com/5c8t4t" rel="nofollow - Add-Ons & Custom Code |

Posted By: dragoncrown
Date Posted: 21-March-2010 at 10:52pm

Thanks but I looking for built in features. I can write my own code but I would rather just run my business.

Sean

Posted By: ProductCart
Date Posted: 22-March-2010 at 2:30am

Yes, ProductCart does exactly that: for more information on how the three images are automatically created, please see:

http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/products_adding_new#the_upload_resize_feature - http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/products_adding_new#the_upload_resize_feature

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The ProductCart Team

Home of ProductCart http://www.productcart.com" rel="nofollow - shopping cart software

Posted By: Greg Dinger
Date Posted: 22-March-2010 at 9:14am

I suspect he means mass-uploading a single image for each product, perhaps via FTP, and that the store will render appropriate image sizes dynamically - as opposed to uploading product images one at a time. I've seen that elsewhere. Dragoncrown, could you confirm please?

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GreyBeard Design Group

Certified ProductCart Developer

Web Design/Development/Hosting

http://tinyurl.com/5c8t4t" rel="nofollow - Add-Ons & Custom Code |

Posted By: dragoncrown
Date Posted: 22-March-2010 at 10:29am

The automatic resize is great except that it requires another investment to get basic functionality. Or at least I think it is basic functionality. So when I start adding up all the additional fees, I am at pricing that is similiar if not higher than other carts that provide a lot of the same functionality without a number of extras.

Posted By: Greg Dinger
Date Posted: 22-March-2010 at 10:37am

Dragoncrown, could you confirm if you were asking for what I desribed above - that you would FTP a single image and that the store will resize images dynamically?

The store admin does have the ability, as described above, to resize the uploaded image (while uploading images for a product) and will store the 3 different sizes. But I'm thinking you were asking for what I have described in this post. Is that correct?

If you are trying to price-compare ProductCart to other applications, you are going to find it difficult if you are looking at only this feature, or only at the license fee (which is really low compared to what you get with PC).

There are intangible values with PC that you may not enjoy with other carts, such as world-class support from Early Impact. The base application is remarkably robust and stable, and is frequently upgraded. Hope you are giving this a good close look because it simply rocks.

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GreyBeard Design Group

Certified ProductCart Developer

Web Design/Development/Hosting

http://tinyurl.com/5c8t4t" rel="nofollow - Add-Ons & Custom Code |

Posted By: dragoncrown
Date Posted: 22-March-2010 at 11:06am

All I want with respect to the image resizing is one or the other.

1) Upload via FTP and then assign an image to the Product. Then it would generate the three images.

2) Mass Upload via the cart or even one image at a time. Then when it is assigned to the product, it generates the three images.

Granted I am probably tainted as I came from another cart (hosted) Pinnacle Cart. That had that functionality and it worked great.

The argument for world-class support I get but honestly I do not want to have to talk with support. If the product is easy to use and documented well, then I have no need to work with support. I own another company that speciliazes in IT so I get the whole technical aspect of stuff.

Posted By: Greg Dinger
Date Posted: 22-March-2010 at 11:42am

The admin already supports generating 3 images when you upload a product image - just not in batch mode.

If you want to process the images in batch mode, and have the 3 resulting images stored and associated with the product, have a look at this:

http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/widgets/thirdparty/batchprocessimages - http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/widgets/thirdparty/batchprocessimages

I should have asked for clarification before answering your post - there was a recent discussion elsewhere on the topic of dynamic resizing (on the fly, with only one image uploaded and only that image stored) and that's what I thought you were asking for. Sorry.

As for support, you may very likely not need to use them. As I say, the application is robust and stable. But if/when you do need support, you want them to be there. I have ugly memories of another cart where stability was not assured, and the quality of the support was awful. You will find support from EI just what you expect, should you ever need such assistance.

Hope we have helped with your decision.

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GreyBeard Design Group

Certified ProductCart Developer

Web Design/Development/Hosting

http://tinyurl.com/5c8t4t" rel="nofollow - Add-Ons & Custom Code |

Posted By: dragoncrown
Date Posted: 22-March-2010 at 10:16pm

Thanks for the info. I appreciate the time and effort to answer.

Posted By: BlackReefDesigns
Date Posted: 23-March-2010 at 12:50am

Hey dragoncrown,

Ya I went through a similar situation awhile back. I went from a shared hosting server that had all the ASPJPEG and ASPUpload utilities built into it, so the upload & resize feature through the PC control panel automatically made (3) separate image sizes from one image.

In that specific situation, I ended up purchasing ASPJPEG and ASPUpload anyways and got that squared away.

What I typically do now for mass amounts images is just use this batch process routine:

http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/how_to/display_additional_views_same_height - http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/how_to/display_additional_views_same_height

Then I use 'bulk rename utility' to rename the thumbnail, general & detailed image names.

For ex:

I would add the 't' suffix to all the thumbnail images, then the 'g' suffix for all the general sized images (this can be done in that bulk rename utility). So I could literally rename thousands of thumbnail or general images in seconds.

Then the last step is to go into the product spreadsheet, and assign all 3 image sizes to each product.

I would name the image the same as the SKU, so I could just copy the whole SKU column and paste it in the Thumbnail, General & Detail columns of the spreadsheet. Then I would use an Excel add-on to mass-rename the image file names in the spreadsheet to that of their image counterparts.

Then I would import the spreadsheet and upload all the images to the catalog folder.

Hope that helps!! Let me know if you have any questions
-Joe

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Joe S.
BlackReef.net

Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 23-March-2010 at 5:47am

The free Irfanview also has excellent & easy to use bulk resize / crop / compress and rename facilities. It cannot create the three types of image in the same run, but three runs (one for each size) don't take very long.

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