Compress Image Before Upload

[bowers01 +]

Hi,
I am looking to compress the images before upload to stop people from uploading a 5mb file(Some users dont know how to compress an image)
I have found http://imageuploader.versalsoft.com/ but it is $99 does anyone know of a script that will do the same thing cheaper?
Also what are your opinions of intergrating it into 68C do you think it can work?
Cheers,
Nick

[Lhotch +]

Just a word of caution, if your going to offer directions for your users to follow I would suggest using widely accepted terms for the tasks they must perform. In geneal computer speak the word "Compress" is generally associated with the size of a file on a disk. A jpg image format is already comressed so if you tell people they need to compress it you may just confuse them. The proper term would be to "resize" or "downsample" the image which are common terms used to tell people that an image needs to have its pixel count reduced.

Another word of caution, when you start dealing with activeX controls they are applets that get run on the client side. Since everyone and their brother runs a virus checker nowdays the control likely wont auto load which means you will have to display directions on how people can load the control etc. In the end this is likely more complex than just telling them they need to resize their image. All cameras now days come with software to modify the images their cameras take so everyone already has the software they need to shrink the image size.

[philoo +]

Originally Posted by bowers01

Hi,
I am looking to compress the images before upload to stop people from uploading a 5mb file(Some users dont know how to compress an image)

Nick,

Where is the problem to upload a 5mb picture ? The original picture is not stored but it is resized at the size you decide in Image Settings ... it is the resized picture that is stored in the /images directory ...

My experience with classifieds show that customers consider it is boring to work on pics before listing their ads...

[Lhotch +]

Forgot to mention if anyone needs a free online service to tweak images they can use photoshop express.

https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

[bowers01 +]

If you try and upload a 5mb picture on a standard connection most likly it will timeout(On shared hosting) so i want to reduce the size of the image before uploaded so the user only has to upload say a 500k file then 68C resizes it to the specifieds size.
Nick

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by philoo

Nick,

Where is the problem to upload a 5mb picture ? The original picture is not stored but it is resized at the size you decide in Image Settings ... it is the resized picture that is stored in the /images directory ...

My experience with classifieds show that customers consider it is boring to work on pics before listing their ads...

A 5mg picture is a problem for many 68C ustomers because the skimp on web hosts.

jpg images are compressed and when an image needs to be resized by 68c (or any server side script) the image needs o be uncompressed. A typical 5mp image is approx 2592 x 1944 pixels and when uncompressed for viewing or to modify the image consumes approx 45megabytes which is far higher than most shared hosting providers allow a PHP script to use.

[philoo +]

The problem is not a technical problem, but a structural problem.

Running a classifieds business on shared hosting is _for me_ an heresy. It means by default few visitors, low traffic, few listings .... and technical limitations like the size of uploaded files.

Lowcost dedicated servers begins around $49 a month, and you can manage ALL your parameters.

[Maffo +]

Good points Philoo.

I also dont see the point in allowing a user to upload a 5mb picture only to compress it.

Why not limit the user to a 1mb image and offer them a page showing them how to downsize their images?

Offer links to free resizing products etc...