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Image resizing within the CMS?
#1
I'm new to GetSimple, and I'm wondering what support is offered for image resizing within the CMS.

As we all know, despite advice to the contrary clients love to upload ugly great megapixel images straight from their digital cameras. Those images need to be resized before they get inserted into a page. Does GetSimple allow for this?

In the demo I tried entering pixel dimensions in the WYSIWYG editor, but this just results in a scaled image rather than a genuinely resized image.

I also noted the thumbnail tool in the the Files tab, but that doesn't seem to fit the purpose either.

Is there some method or plugin for GetSimple that can resize images to specified dimensions, preferably from within the WYSIWYG?

Thanks.
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#2
Well,

the upload via the files- datamanager does not scale the images
The Editor allows resizing,

The principle of GetSimple is in the name ... so ;=)

One method to stopp uploading huge images could be to restrict the upload-filesize...

but: the main problem when working with clients is the coaching, I know this from bitter practice.

As GS is per se not a multi-user-system with hundreds of users, the number of users will be limited and I think to teach these people must be possible

I use to write PDF-manuals as handouts, so when errors occur, I can show them (again and again) where there is the description, so they have to study the tutorial
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Das deutschsprachige GetSimple-(Unter-)Forum:   http://get-simple.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=18
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#3
Cerulean Wrote:I'm new to GetSimple, and I'm wondering what support is offered for image resizing within the CMS.

As we all know, despite advice to the contrary clients love to upload ugly great megapixel images straight from their digital cameras. Those images need to be resized before they get inserted into a page. Does GetSimple allow for this?

In the demo I tried entering pixel dimensions in the WYSIWYG editor, but this just results in a scaled image rather than a genuinely resized image.

I also noted the thumbnail tool in the the Files tab, but that doesn't seem to fit the purpose either.

Is there some method or plugin for GetSimple that can resize images to specified dimensions, preferably from within the WYSIWYG?

Thanks.

For photo/image galleries I18N Gallery automatically resizes images on demand.

You could reuse the script pic.php in /plugins/i18n_gallery/browser for your own purposes, but you would probable have to make a plugin yourself to allow resizing from the editor.
I18N, I18N Search, I18N Gallery, I18N Special Pages - essential plugins for multi-language sites.
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#4
Hi folks, thanks for your replies.

I'm a designer rather than a programmer so sadly I don't have the necessary skills to roll my own plugin.

But I'd like to say that as a designer I think this sort of functionality needs to be in the core. Clients need to be able to add their own images in a text block (to float left or right) and it's too much to expect them to have the images sized correctly in advance. You might be able to get them to enter a width into the editor, but that's about as far as it goes in my experience.

Therefore I think the CushyCMS approach to images seems ideal: the dimensions in the editor get passed to a resizing script which results in a genuinely resized image published to the live site. I'd love to find this implemented in a CMS I can host myself, but after much searching I haven't had much joy.

But GS seems like a great CMS in many other ways.
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#5
Cerulean Wrote:Therefore I think the CushyCMS approach to images seems ideal: the dimensions in the editor get passed to a resizing script which results in a genuinely resized image published to the live site. I'd love to find this implemented in a CMS I can host myself, but after much searching I haven't had much joy.

But GS seems like a great CMS in many other ways.

Well, don't be too sad ...

if you stroll through the forum here and notice the speed of development, you will see that there is a chance for implementing this

You might want to open a feature requst in the forum section "Feature Requests"
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Das deutschsprachige GetSimple-(Unter-)Forum:   http://get-simple.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=18
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#6
Why don't you set a thumb size in gsconfig, and then just tell editors to embed a img (to be exact image's thumbnail) and float the text around it ?
Addons: blue business theme, Online Visitors, Notepad
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#7
Thanks yojoe, I'll look into that.
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#8
You could tell clients (if they use windows), to use this tool to resize their pictures.

It allmost can't be simpler.
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#9
Thanks for your reply, datiswous. I understand that there are work-arounds such as this, but I'll say again that I think image resizing should be considered as a core function for GS.

Maybe "GetSimple" was intended to mean simple from a code/developer point of view, but what would be great is if it could extend to a users point of view. The beauty of a CMS is that a website is editable from any location by users of all levels of technical skill (in a perfect world). Ideally, you don't want to have to delegate content management functions to separate software that needs to be installed locally.

When you consider that your average website consists primarily of text and images, and you look at all the control you have over the text side in your average WYSIWYG, it becomes clear that the image control side is really a long way behind. I don't mean specifically in GS, but in CMSs in general.
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#10
Cerulean: I still don't follow you.
Resizing img isn't a main feature of CMS systems.
Uploading images right from photocamera is a bad approach, as they should be firstly resized/compressed manually by editor or a person responsible for media files. Even thumbnails are being generated manually for articles.

GS has all functionalities regarding image management, which should have a simple but still powerful CMS.
With GS3 I haven't seen a problem with embedding thumbnails/small img in news/pages, as I do it exactly in the way I told you. When you embed an img with ckeditor's img button, you can choose full sized img, or its automatically generated thumbnail.

Functionality you are asking for is up to gallery like and media plugins/modules, not wysiwyg/content editors.
Addons: blue business theme, Online Visitors, Notepad
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#11
Quote:Uploading images right from photocamera is a bad approach, as they should be firstly resized/compressed manually by editor or a person responsible for media files.
Yojoe, I entirely agree, but in the real world we have to accommodate non-technical clients who don't know what image resolution is. This is especially true when you are serving the small business market, as both I and the GS team do.

Quote:Resizing img isn't a main feature of CMS systems.
This is also true, but as a web designer I think that's a shortcoming. A Content Management System exists to do just that - manage content. That content can be text, images, videos, or anything else that people want to put on the web these days. Having an WYSIWYG editor that can insert images is great, but if those images are oversized files that are just scaled down then there's room for improvement. If genuinely resized images could be generated based on the dimensions entered into the WYSIWYG don't you think that would be more intuitive and an advantage for users?

But your suggestion of using the auto-generated thumbnail is a good one, and will be all that's needed many cases. I'm really impressed with GS overall, and I'm looking forward to using it for client sites in the future.
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#12
Cerulean,

I understand your arguments and I just checked whether there is an option in uploadify, the script which is integrated for the upload of files.

I could not find an option for including cropping or resizing there at http://www.uploadify.com/documentation/

maybe there are other scripts which offer this opportunity?
If so these could be alternatives to include in future versions maybe?

I found this one, which could be interesting:

upload, resize and crop in one step: http://www.freelancer-id.com/upload-crop-resize-in-php
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Das deutschsprachige GetSimple-(Unter-)Forum:   http://get-simple.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=18
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#13
Connie, I have looked into upload scripts too but I'm not confident enough with my PHP to try and create my own addon. Of the scripts I found this one seemed to be quite powerful in terms of features: http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet3233.htm
If someone with PHP skills wants to develop it into a plugin for GS that would be fantastic.

I think it would be a good idea to bring an option to upload images/files into the page editor. So when a user clicks the Image or Link buttons in the editor there is a tab or button for Upload.

This would provide a simplified workflow for the user, because the user doesn't have to upload their images/files in advance from the Files tab. They can be editing a page, think to themselves "I'd like to add a new image here", and do that entirely from the editor. This workflow more closely resembles the workflow in Microsoft Word, and in my experience the more closely a CMS interface resembles a word processor the easier it is for new users to orientate themselves and learn.

If there is the ability to upload within the editor, then I'm not sure whether it is best to resize the files as they are uploaded, or to apply a resizing script to the editor output. By that I mean, instead of having the editor output the code
Code:
<img src="path/to/image.jpg" style="width: 216px; height: 144px;" />
it would output
Code:
<img src="/slir/w216-h144/path/to/image.jpg" />
and use a resizing script such as SLIR: http://code.google.com/p/smart-lencioni-...wiki/Usage

This second option would be more difficult to implement because you would have to parse the output of the editor when the "Save Updates" button is clicked, but it would be a powerful feature.
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#14
Cerulean Wrote:If there is the ability to upload within the editor, then I'm not sure whether it is best to resize the files as they are uploaded, or to apply a resizing script to the editor output. By that I mean, instead of having the editor output the code
Code:
<img src="path/to/image.jpg" style="width: 216px; height: 144px;" />
it would output
Code:
<img src="/slir/w216-h144/path/to/image.jpg" />
and use a resizing script such as SLIR: http://code.google.com/p/smart-lencioni-...wiki/Usage

This second option would be more difficult to implement because you would have to parse the output of the editor when the "Save Updates" button is clicked, but it would be a powerful feature.

The I18N Gallery plugin already uses an approach like this: it resizes the image on first access and caches it in the thumbs directory, e.g.
Code:
<img src="http://my.site/plugins/i18n_gallery/browser/pic.php?p=myimage.jpg&w=200&h=150" alt=""/>
You can specify one or both of width/height and the image (relative path from /uploads) is always resized proportionally, while not exceeding the given width/height.
I18N, I18N Search, I18N Gallery, I18N Special Pages - essential plugins for multi-language sites.
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#15
I just want to add that I agree with Cerulean that this should be a standard option in the cms. Don't know if this should have top priority though.
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