Using Actinic for Image Hosting

[Andy H]

I would like to have a hidden section in Actinic where I can store about a dozen pictures. I don't want them visible to anyone while browsing the store.

I want to use these pictures for my eBay listings.

I have read the Preventing Unregistered Customers from Entering Certain Sections in your Store bit in the Advanced User Guide, but I don't know the pictures would be visible in the eBay listing as the viewer wouldn't be registered.

Could someone advise me in the best way to approach this

Andy

[los_design]

I would like to have a hidden section in Actinic where I can store about a dozen pictures. I don't want them visible to anyone while browsing the store.

I want to use these pictures for my eBay listings.

I have read the Preventing Unregistered Customers from Entering Certain Sections in your Store bit in the Advanced User Guide, but I don't know the pictures would be visible in the eBay listing as the viewer wouldn't be registered.

Could someone advise me in the best way to approach this

Andy

I think a simpler route to take would be to ftp a folder upto your webspace and restrict access to bots by a robot txt file and if you wished, p/w protect the folder using your .htaccess file.

Any reason why you want to use Actinic for this specifically?

Regards

[Andy H]

I wanted to use Actinic specifically because I've never used anything else. My Actinic website is the only thing I have ever done and I'm not familiar with anything else (I thought that since Actinic occupies my website address then nothing else could be there)

I've heard of ftp before but nothing else you mentioned - I guess more research and studying is required on my part!

Thank you very much indeed for your super-quick reply

Andrew

[los_design]

I wanted to use Actinic specifically because I've never used anything else. My Actinic website is the only thing I have ever done and I'm not familiar with anything else (I thought that since Actinic occupies my website address then nothing else could be there)

I've heard of ftp before but nothing else you mentioned - I guess more research and studying is required on my part!

Thank you very much indeed for your super-quick reply

Andrew

Hi Andrew

No worries.

If you view your webspace using an ftp client such as smartftp (loads out there for free), all you have to do is

1 Log in using ftp client
2 Create a folder within the public area (documents, public or www)
3 Upload your images using the client (many are drag and click)
4 refer to them in your listings as http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN.com/images/YOUR_IMAGE_NAME

HTH

[jont]

You can also use the inbuilt FTP tool inside Actinic - add your files to the "additional files" list and Actinic will upload these when you refresh the site.

[pinbrook]

or use FTP from within IE

(I thought that since Actinic occupies my website address then nothing else could be there)

This is untrue you can add anything you like to your webspace, lots of us have actinic plus a forum, plus a blogg plus non actinic webpages too

[I-CC]

If your need is simply to get the files onto your webspace and are happy with them residing within the acatalog folder, but not actually referenced in any web pages, then use the Additional Files ability of the software, which would upload them for you straight into the acatalog folder.

Just an idea thats simple enough.

[NormanRouxel]

The Jont / Techo Web solution is may well be the easist if you're unsure about working a different FTP system.

Just go to Design / Additional Files and add them there. These files will then be available from the web via http://www.mysite.com/acatalog/myfile.jpg.

It may be a good idea to start all these files names with something similar like eb<filename>.jpg so you can easily see that they're not part of your Actinic site.

[Andy H]

I would like to thank everyone for replying - you have all been very helpful.

I first tried the IE method and got my images uploaded but couldn't view them from other programs - All I got was a small white square with a red cross in it.

I then downloaded SmartFTP and had the same results.

I then tried the Additional Files method within Actinic and again had the same result.

Since they all had the same thing in common I tried copying one of the images already used and it worked in all cases.

The problem seems to be with my original test image which was a jpg. I converted it from a jpg to gif and everything then worked. I haven't a clue why the jpg wouldn't work as all my product images in Actinic are this format.

However I am very happy now (especially as I have spent 7 hours on this) as I can now proceed, and would again like to thank everyone for their help

Andy

[pinbrook]

The problem seems to be with my original test image which was a jpg. I converted it from a jpg to gif and everything then worked. I haven't a clue why the jpg wouldn't work as all my product images in Actinic are this format.

I would imagine the problem was that you were trying to display a gif file so when you uploaded a jpg it couldn't find an image.

Actinic supports gif, jpg and png

[wjcampbe]

More likely the jpg being used was an indexed format which no web program/browser could support.

[TraceyHand]

More likely the jpg being used was an indexed format which no web program/browser could support.

Hating to sound completely ignorant but what does that mean, Bill?

I'd let it go...but I hate not knowing LOL

[Duncan Rounding]

Some interesting reading (if you're up at 4am and there's no one on the forum):
http://www.w3.org/Graphics/JPEG/
- especially ITU T.81

[jont]

Hating to sound completely ignorant but what does that mean, Bill?

JPEG's can be saved and displayed in image editors using 32bit (CMYK) of colour depths ... these can not be rendered by browsers ... quite often hi-res images from suppliers are sent as these are perfect for resolution and colour separations prior to sending to print houses.