pictures in Components

[Sheila]

Hi

New to all this. Just trying out the trial version and so far so good.

I need help now... I can see many of you tearing your hair out..!

I read somewhere how to insert an image into a component choice which I can preview and everything but I cannot upload the picture. There is a box with a red cross in it. I have added the pictures using advanced/add files. No luck! I have even added the pictures to site1 and previewhtml folders as suggested by someone else. Where am I going wrong??

[DaveT]

Not sure but:

If in Preview Mode you can right click on that missing picture and select Properties it will give you a load of stuff about that image.

What you can do is drag and highlight the Address text and then if you paste that into a reply here we might be able to assist.

[NormanRouxel]

That's probably my (contibutionware) patch. Have you an URL so we can see what's happining?

[Sheila]

Hi

I am using the free hosting with Actinic whilst I'm testing:

http://trials.actinic.com/trials/trial8544/

The properties on the preview for the pictures is as follows:

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Actinic%20v7/Sites/Site1/PreviewHTML/backdrop.jpg

Hope you guys can help. See the problem is that people need to see the options in order to choose what they want. I don't want to add options as products or should I??

[NormanRouxel]

I don't think you're using my patch after all. My patch made the main image change as each choice was selected; allowing really small icons but with the option of seeing them larger.

Anyway the code you've got is OK but the files backdrops.jpg and backdrop2.jpg simply aren't on your server. Double check they're really in Advanced / Additional Files.

[Sheila]

Tried uploading it from every which way. Tried also saving the images under Site1 and previewhtml and then uploading it still no luck.

Without this I can't proceed!!

I just tried to add the backdrops as a product and the associated it with the relevant product. Shows on preview but not on the website. Ahh...!

[NormanRouxel]

This could be a spelling problem. Many systems are case sensitive.

For example your main image is called "Mohini.jpg" - this is a bad idea as "Mohini.jpg" and "mohini.jpg" may / may not be different files depending whether you're on a Windows or Unix server. Also the one icon file that shows is called "Round Mandap.jpg". This is worse as it mixes case and has a space in the middle.

I would rename all your images to always be lower case only and always start with a letter and never have spaces in them. Luckily you're just staring the site so hopefully you don't have hundreds of images to fix.

Do this both on the HTML for Name of the choice and also in Advanced / Additional files.

[NormanRouxel]

If managing all those extra images via Advanced / Additional files is a pain here is a technique that will help you do this at the Product level.

Go to Advanced / Custom Properties, click the "+" and create a property IMAGE1.
repeat until you've created IMAGE2, IMAGE3 and as many as you might need for a single product. You only need do this stage once.

Now when you are in Product Details adding or amending a product; whenever you add extra images to a products choices, go to the Properties tab, click the "+", select IMAGE1, paste the image name into Value, uncheck Searchable and check Use as CUSTOMVAR and File Name. Leave USe File Content unchecked. Repeat for IMAGE2, 3, etc as required.

Actinic will now upload that image for you.

[Sheila]

Thanks guys I will give this a try later tonight and get back to you.

[Sheila]

I think I've been working too many late nights!!! Must get some sleep.

Anyway the problem was the letter case being all in lower. Sometimes you just don't see it! Thanks for the help.

I will try your suggestion Norman about entering the products your way.

[Sheila]

Is there anyway to make these images, (I'm talking about the options on a product) bigger when selected?

In my business details is everything and customers need to be able to see the items they are selecting close up or as close as.

If you look at the site the options pictures are also all on the right. How can I align them to look more presentable on the page?

[NormanRouxel]

Keeping the additional images with the product will also mean that they get maintained with the Product. So if you delete a product then the images will be removed from the live-site. When you add a new product the new images will be uploaded.

Putting them all in Advanced / Additional file means that it may be quite hard to remember if an image is still in use somewhere on the site.

Another thing I've noticed is that your thumbnail images are very large (filesizes that is). That "Round Mandap.jpg" icon is 132Kb and if had 4 or 5 on a page that would lose you sales as download times would be very slow.

It would be much better to resize these to the actual size you want displayed and not use width= and height= tags to do the resizing. You'll get much smaller files.

However you should still use width= and height= but set them to the actual dimensions as this helps the browser lay out the page more quickly.

Also, if you look on www.drillpine.biz/actinicstuff you'll see a patch I did that automates somewhat these icons. It also, optionally, allows you to change the main product image as a choice is selected.

[Sheila]

Thanks Norman

Will resize everything once I know the site is as I want it. I'm glad that I'm practising with it now and trying it to see if it works with our varous products. It's a nightmare once you launch and then you have to change things.