Image Organization

[Mike Parks]

I would like to see if anybody has had experience with how to organize images so they can be grouped together.
The problem is as follows: A single record can have multiple images, but the images may be added at various times. Imagine a product image with multiple views, front; back; l-side; r-side; top. At some point you need to add additional images to the series.

Using v11 Image Gallery, I don't want images for multiple products to be mixed together. I want the image gallery to only show the images for the specific product. So my theory is that each products images will need to be segregated by some means, whether physically or by name. There will probably be anywhere from one to ?? images for each product. Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Rich Merritt]

Re: Image Organization

I'm no expert so I don't know if this is the best way...but I store all images in a seperate table (image file references actually). So the table has ProductID, Description and image file reference fields).
Then I linked the main (Products) table to the images table (ProductImages) by the ProductID (!:M).
Then I display the ProductImages using a row expander from the grid grid built on the Products table, using the ProductID as the filter.
In the ProductImages table I also have a date field so that I can use that as the sort order for the ProductImages (the products in this case are photos of plants which are taken as they reach various stages of growth).
To make things easier for myself, I give each image a unique name which is the ProductID+Date, ie, T01499211011.jpg

Hope it helps,
Rich

[peteconway]

Re: Image Organization

There is a process for this; I'm a little pressed for time at the moment - but I will come back to the issue for you.

[Clipper87]

Re: Image Organization

What you need is an image folder per product. In your product table have a field "imagedir" (could just as well be the article nr). Then in your product grid add a button with in it's onclick event "open an image gallery component". In the onclick event select the image gallery component and then edit the argument bindings: select the igc, select the argument value & insert a field placeholder. Done!

[Mike Parks]

Re: Image Organization

Thank you all for the suggestions. I had thought about using a separate directory for each product but ruled that out because of the number of products. My next idea was to use a one-to-many link between the product and the images associated with it. This seems like a workable solution. I just have a gut feeling that I am overlooking something here that will come back and haunt me down the road.

I do intend to store all my images in an "images directory" on the server. This brings up another question - what is the best way to utilize the "image file reference field in a situation like this?

The fields I am considering are as follows: Image_ID; Subject;Image; Description and Image_File_Reference. The Image_ID is an auto increment field and the Image field just stores the .jpg file. I was going to use the Subject field to store the Product Number that the image refers to along with a brief image name (12345 - Blue Widget, front view).

I just want to make sure that the end user will only see the images in the gallery that pertain to the specific product. I may be over analyzing this but I want to make sure I don't miss something here.

Thanks again.

[cptutrecht]

Re: Image Organization

I'm beginning to like the image galery more and more, but don't see at the moment enough possibilities to filter images that are referenced by a grid. Maybe it will be build in in time, but for now for these purposes the image galary just isn't the correct tool i think.

However, if it doesn't get filtering capacities in time i might investigate another scenario (i havent the time to investigate it now):

- store the images in the database (blob field)
- filter the records and download them to a tempory directory (current session folder)
- try to reference the image galery on the fly to that temporal directory

But maybe this a a too wild plan......

[MichaelCarroll]

Re: Image Organization

I'm beginning to like the image galery more and more, but don't see at the moment enough possibilities to filter images that are referenced by a grid. Maybe it will be build in in time, but for now for these purposes the image galary just isn't the correct tool i think.

However, if it doesn't get filtering capacities in time i might investigate another scenario (i havent the time to investigate it now):

- store the images in the database (blob field)
- filter the records and download them to a tempory directory (current session folder)
- try to reference the image galery on the fly to that temporal directory

But maybe this a a too wild plan......

Ger, your post brings up the following questions?

1. Can the Image Component reference a Blob or does it need a hard coded image in a directory?
2. Can the Image Component be dynamically programmed to override its default image directory settings and use a grid or SQL?

I am still poking the thing to see what I can see - so far I am not seeing what I would like to see...

[cptutrecht]

Re: Image Organization

Ger, your post brings up the following questions?

1. Can the Image Component reference a Blob or does it need a hard coded image in a directory?
2. Can the Image Component be dynamically programmed to override its default image directory settings and use a grid or SQL?

I am still poking the thing to see what I can see - so far I am not seeing what I would like to see...

your 1: No, and that is not my plan. You would have imagerecords (Id, description, blob which contains the image). And a proces that downloads the images in the selected records into a dynamic temporary directory. The location of that directory you store in a session variable. At the end of that proces you open the image galary.

Your 2: As i understood you can set the default image directory indeed at runtime to the value of the session variable above

I think with enough time and skills it is doable, but i have two concerns about this approach myself:
- won't it overload the webserver if many of such requests would be made and / or if the selected images are to big / too many.
- you would need to manage instances of those temporary directory per session: a user can open multiple of them of course in 1 session

[Mike Parks]

Re: Image Organization

I have gone back and reviewed the videos associated with using the image gallery and they seem to imply that a seperate directory is required for the images to be separated by "project" or in my case by product. Before I set up my structure for storing the images I want to see if there are any reasons not to have a single image directory and use one-to-many links between image files and products.

One product with Product_ID linked to Image_ID as required. Then I would want the gallery to display only the images linked to the Product_ID as though they are in separate directories. If a user were to click through different products and each "group" were in seperate directories, there would seem to be a tremendous drain on resources not to mention time required to process each callback.