Thread: Can't Upload Pics!

Randy,
Thanks for calling this to my attention during the Sunday night chat. For some reason I completely missed it in the General Forum. I've moved it to the Site Comments Forum as that's where all the other "problem" reports are... hope you don't mind.

Anyway, I get the same problem (ie, medium not found). Tomorrow I'll try upgrading this module to the latest version and see if that helps. We're planning on moving to a completely different Gallery manager in a short while... Maybe I'll have to accelerate that if the upgrade doesn't solve the problem.

...joe

Thanks for looking into this and for moving the thread to the proper forum!

RT

rtaylor61:
I've spent a fair amount of time sifting through various support forums regarding this and several other problems we're having since Friday's upgrade. All indications are that we're most likely being affected by changes in the Joomla package that are incompatible with some javascript scripts.

(For the non-teckkies... Joomla is the software package running the main site and javascript is a language used to create code snippets that are imbedded within the web pages that your browser downloads and processes. Note that Javascript and Java are completely different entities which share little in common other than the four letters "java".)

The ZMG Gallery program (which is the software that provides the "User Gallery" feature accessible via the main site) implemented some javascript features in a recent release that were (apparently) affected/broken by the recent Joomla changes. All this is complicated by the fact that different browsers process javascript differently... most likely resulting in the problems we're seeing where IE and Firefox render the page but Opera and Safari don't.

(The facts of life are that something like 98% of the browsers in use worldwide are either IE or Firefox, hence they get the most attention... all the others get broken/fixed as time permits... where's Rodney King when you need him... "can't we just all get along?" ).

After doing some research I want to wait for the next release of the ZMG Gallery software before upgrading. Based on what I've read, I don't have a lot of confidence that upgrading to the current release will resolve our problem. A new release is promised for today, but they are notoriously unreliable in meeting their commitments.

I also don't think it's wise to accelerate installation of the new Gallery I mentioned in a previous post since we don't have enough manpower resources to migrate all the pics in the ZMG Gallery to the new one in a timely manner.

Kees:
Am I correct... you're concern is/are problem(s) attaching files to Forum posts (whereas rtaylor61's concern is about the main site User Gallery)?

Originally Posted by azjoe

Kees:
Am I correct... you're concern is/are problem(s) attaching files to Forum posts (whereas rtaylor61's concern is about the main site User Gallery)?

That's correct. I once ever managed to get a thumbnail attached in the forum by Tony Miller where he asks pictures of ourselves. But I never managed to copty pictures in a post.

By the way if anyone wants a decent place to host pics then try http://www.electronicfiles.net/login it allows 5gb of space, its free, no automatic delete on files and its easy to use.

How about popups and spyware?

Originally Posted by Kees

That's correct. I once ever managed to get a thumbnail attached in the forum by Tony Miller where he asks pictures of ourselves. But I never managed to copty pictures in a post.

Following is some information which may help. Just ask if you have questions or problems... there are no dumb questions here, nor am I an authority on this... but I'll try to help/explain/resolve anything you're having problems with.

First, lets delineate between in-line "images" and "attachments".

Images:
This is an in-line image:. It is achieved by placing the cursor where you want the image and clicking that button on the edit window tool bar... enter the URL where you have the file stored and it will display in-line. You have to enter a URL... i.e., the image has to be located on a server -- it is not uploaded to the SRP server from your computer. Note that if the image you link to is large, forum users may have difficulty seeing the entire image. For example, if a user has their computer set to use 800x600 screen resolution and you insert a picture that's 1280x1024 then things will get somewhat out control... the image will exceed the width of the forum, scroll bars will appear, things may be cropped, etc.

Attachments:
Attachments differ from in-line images in that they are actually uploaded to the SRP server and stored there. You may upload them from either your computer or another server via the Additional Options/Manage Attachments fields located beneath the message editor.

In general, there is a overall 2-MB file size limit...

This means that you must either resize the pictures you want to attach to be smaller than that or convert the file format to compress it to meet that size restriction. To put this in perspective, a 32-bit color 800x600 picture in .bmp format would be approximately 2-MB. There would seldom be a need to attach a picture larger than that. Actually, most graphics you wish to attach are considerably smaller since they are in formats that compress the data... e.g., .jpg, .png, etc. If you don't know how to resize/convert your images, you should learn because the 2-MB limit is a typical restriction on most web servers. Unfortunately, high mega-pixel cameras can produce huge files on the assumption that you might want to print photos on 18"x24" (or larger) paper. Scanners are another source of large file sizes... a full color scan of an 8.5x11 page at 4000dpi resolution would be HUGE... and usually unnecessary for computer displays which are on the order of 110 to 120dpi. You'll find a decent cause/effect article [here] which illustrates the quality versus compression issue.

SRP pays for the storage space you use for your attachments as long as you leave the attachment there... so, the sizes are further restricted to conserve disk space and server loading... see the settings below for the actual limit by file type. These restrictions are not unreasonable from a quality of display perspective.

Additional info:
vBulletin supports file uploads to posts, called post attachments. Post attachments are useful in attaching any kind of file that relates to a post including images, text files, pdfs, zips, and any other file type allowed to be attached to posts. vBulletin's attachment system settings specify maximum file sizes for each type of file allowed to be attached.

Another feature of vBulletin's attachment system is its support for thumbnails. When a user posts an image attachment vBulletin can generate a miniature version of the image (called a thumbnail) that is linked to the larger version of the image. This is useful in preventing large inline image attachments from stretching the forum layout. Settings for thumbnails and many other attachment options are configurable.


Current configuration settings:
max no. attachments per post=5
resize attached images=no
create thumbnails of attached images=yes

Code:

Filetype   max size    max W   max H  Enabled  Thumbnail  New Window
Type       bytes       pixels  pixels
--------  ----------   -------- ------  ------   --------  -----------
bmp        20,000       620     280     Yes      Yes      Yes      
doc        20,000        -       -      Yes      No       No     
gif        20,000       620     280     Yes      Yes      Yes     
jpe        20,000       620     280     Yes      Yes      Yes     
jpeg      100,000       620     280     Yes      Yes      Yes     
jpg       100,000       620     480     Yes      Yes      Yes     
pdf        20,000        -       -      Yes      No       No     
png        20,000       620     280     Yes      Yes      Yes     
psd        20,000        -       -      Yes      No       No     
txt        20,000        -       -      Yes      No       No     
zip       100,000        -       -      Yes      No       No

Just a note to keep you informed...

Unfortunately the group that develops the Gallery software still hasn't released the update they promised for last Monday... hence you still cannot upload any pics or edit the descriptions. If any of you have an urgent need to upload, delete, edit your gallery, pm me the particulars and I'll take care of it for you via the administrator's console (which fortunately, still works).