Changing the most stupid image upload system

Yeah to be honest I didn't think it was that big a deal but not having a store with hundreds of items in it I can't actually comment on it too much. Giving this option would definitely be advantageous to those like the above though, and will add hardly any weight to the code whatsoever

Right now I have to open the Image Manager and then click on Upload, and then I get a file box that accesses my hard drive. So I'm dealing with two boxes. Are you suggesting eliminating the File Manager altogether and going straight to the file box? If the Image Manager remains as an option, where would you put the link to it?

There are two problems with the File Manager. First, it takes time for hundreds or thousands of images to load into it, and second, it isn't sortable.

So if you do what you are suggesting, in the Images tab for a product, there would be two buttons: "Upload Image" and "File Manager". Something like that?

I don't mind the way it is that much, I just want the Image Manager box to be sortable so I can bring the most recently uploaded image right to the top.

A button directly below the image would make more sense to me tbh. I have to agree i do hate waiting for those images to load up before you can do stuff

Xsecrets wrote:

Qphoria wrote:Well is that what people want? A normal file upload box and next to it have the filemanager button so you can choose to either upload fresh or browse the normal manager? That can be done pretty easily.

I think that sounds like a great solution

...agreed, sounds good.

/ PS: Off-topic, but I like the image management system as a whole. I really appreciate how it resizes images, for the product page and thumbnail…looks great, and I don’t have to do anything! It has saved me a ton of work, so many thanks. Ok, end of OT. //

Qphoria wrote:Well is that what people want? A normal file upload box and next to it have the filemanager button so you can choose to either upload fresh or browse the normal manager? That can be done pretty easily.

I too think this would be a great idea. One site I developed currently houses nearly 20,000 products. I'm sure it would be quite a nightmare trying to locate a single photo in a directory containing that many images.

On the other hand, while I've only been toying with OC for two days now, as someone who has been selling online since '96 I have to say that I am very impressed with the overall ease of use for both customers and admins, as well as the clean, uncluttered appearance. Many thanks for all your hard work.

I just want to add to this thread that Ctrl-F has all kinds of uses. It works not only browser windows, but also in file windows. Thus, once I press Upload in the Image Manager, I can use Ctrl-F in the file window that opens, and then I can use it again to find the image I just uploaded. When I am in the Products page, I always use Ctrl-F to find individual products, so I don't have to bother with the filters. Thus, I can leave the filter set to show only the Enabled products, and I can find individual products with Ctrl-F. (For that to work, all the products have to be showing.) It's really a nifty tool.

Added: Fortune81 was posting at the same time that I was, and I want to echo his sentiment that OpenCart is easy to use and uncluttered. The fact that it's being developed from the ground up (instead of being based on another OS program) is partly responsible, but also the clean, elegant taste of the developers. It's a great program.

Qphoria wrote:Well is that what people want? A normal file upload box and next to it have the filemanager button so you can choose to either upload fresh or browse the normal manager? That can be done pretty easily.

great!

Qphoria wrote:Well is that what people want? A normal file upload box and next to it have the filemanager button so you can choose to either upload fresh or browse the normal manager? That can be done pretty easily.

Great Idea, Mailchimp offers a similar feature where you can choose an image From Your Computer(Direct Upload), From URL or From Gallery. Works like a charm.

What I do for my site is in the image manager I create a folder structure that mirrors my categories and sub categories. I also rename all images with the product name and item number for example "bruneau-jasper-135.jpg" and so on. This keeps all related images in there proper category and organized not to mention helps with SEO. I receive almost 30% of my total traffic via google image search..

I also upload my images via file manager threw my servers cpanel and I can upload 10mb in less that a minute. Something else I do is batch edit all image to 500x500 px before upload to reduce the file size and save server space.

Hope this helps somebody.....

J

Not sure image names fall under SEO tbh, but other than that, it's good advice on how to structure. People visiting a site with google images are not all that likely to purchase something, they're usually just looking for an image to steal (or borrow)

I frequently use Google image search to find things to buy. Recently I needed a certain kind of caliper, and the best way to find it was to look for the image of what I wanted.

Ah I see. That said, Google Images uses the Alt tag to work out the content of an image along with the content of the page it's one, so naming your images isn't really necessary

actually google highly recommends giving your images descriptive file names.

http://www.google.com/support/webmaster ... wer=114016

jayman wrote: I receive almost 30% of my total traffic via google image search....
Hope this helps somebody..... J

wow, that is a huge amount of traffic from image search. As Jay says, they may or may not be prospective purchasers - but it's something I hadn't even considered. Thanks!

poshook wrote:- open cart should then make automatic image structure with the same structure as your categories/subcategories/products structure

Not sure that's possible, as in OC, categories and products dont have a one-to-many parent-child relationship...while a category can have multiple products, a product can be in multiple categories. This is a highly appreciated architectural choice, but it renders the folder structure suggested impossible...unless you dont mind redundancy....i.e. for each category that a product is in, OC would copy images to relevant product folders, which would be clones of each other.

JAY6390 wrote:Ah I see. That said, Google Images uses the Alt tag to work out the content of an image along with the content of the page it's on

I'm totally off-topic in terms of thread, but:
1. jayman is right. Google does recommend naming your images. Best would be to have the images named the same as the product they represent.
2. Google images picks up the text immediately under images as photo caption. Thus, OC images all have the caption "click on the image to enlarge". I have, in my template, added product name under the image, above "click on image to enlarge". I suggest this be made part of core/default template.

Moggin wrote:

jayman wrote: I receive almost 30% of my total traffic via google image search....
Hope this helps somebody..... J

wow, that is a huge amount of traffic from image search. As Jay says, they may or may not be prospective purchasers - but it's something I hadn't even considered. Thanks!

I used to get a lot of traffic on one of my zencart stores that sold old tv shows.. unfortunately the traffic was only due to other forum sites that someone used my product image to discuss the show, but not buy it

I'd love to see a toggleable option to not load image thumbnails in the image browser - when dealing with ~large numbers of images, the browser can grind to a bit of a halt rendering the page.

mwallace wrote:I'd love to see a toggleable option to not load image thumbnails in the image browser - when dealing with ~large numbers of images, the browser can grind to a bit of a halt rendering the page.

Well, that's why Qphoria has said he is going to bypass the Image Manager altogether. So when you upload a photo, it will go directly into the page you are uploading it into. Well, it will also go into the Image Manager, but that will happen in the background. If you then want to access the Image Manager, there will be a separate button for that.

WSurfer wrote:But here's another thing I can not find; is there any possibility to have categories (folders) in expanded view instead like they are right now - in contract view.

Has anyone worked out a way to have the folders expanded please ?

Some things I have done to make the image file manager useful -
- I made the pop-up window larger. Thanks to http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php ... 67&start=0
- I made the thumbs smaller so I could see more
- removed the file size so the window wasn't so busy

Now I would like to make the folders tree stucture stay expanded to save another click. Anyone know how please
Thank-you