Colin's Blog My thoughts on everything.

1. 

   Matt
   December 21st, 2009 - 14:06

   I do this on my blog, and there are good plugins for it. It can create a pretty large burden on the server, though, which is why we decided to delay implementation until the next version.

   Also, common mistake, but Automattic does not make WordPress.org, it’s made by many people (over 140 thanked in the announcement post) the vast majority of whom have nothing to do with Automattic, and some find it insulting when you refer to them as one and the same.

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2. 

   Colin Carmichael
   December 21st, 2009 - 14:42

   Hey Matt,

   Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate the distinction between .org and .com and Automattic different role with each, but I hope you’ll appreciate that for a many WP users, WordPress is WordPress and WordPress is Automattic.

   Anyway, my frustration had more to do with the fact that WP has painted me into a corner with hard-coded image-sizes with no way to easily adjust now for a new theme with a wider content area.

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3. 

   James
   December 22nd, 2009 - 06:01

   I understand what you mean. Image resizing should be transparent to the end user.

   It took me a while to do it for my websites. You have to mess around with the actual server itself to handle redirects and such. I’m not so sure wordpress would work in every circmstance depending on how your server was configured. Example, CGI versus Apache Mod, Linux versus Windows.

   That’s probably why they don’t do it.

   As for the load on the server. You only need to compress it “on-the-fly” once and cache the results.

   Typically, wordpress is a big mashy mess, far from anything innovative at all… it’s really just popular. It will an eternity before they really hammer everything out, jmo… I mean they laid such a strange groundwork now they are stuck with it as many people have extended it.

   Hope that helps paint a picture…

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4. 

   Barry Friedman
   December 23rd, 2009 - 13:28

   In 2.8 in the editor you can click on an image included in a post and manipulate resize controls. Has this changed in 2.9? What exactly are you referring to?

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5. 

   vince jelenic
   December 28th, 2009 - 22:46

   WP is very compartmentalized.
   Trying to make a change to ALL elements is frustrating, to say the least.
   Not a true OOP implementation.

   But… I do believe there is a plugin for image thumbnail resizing up on wp somewhere.
   In one swoop, it will regenerate all image to your preferred size, as set in WP media prefs.

   (none of the above obviates the need for better image handling, just helps alleviate a bit).

   Personally, looking forwards to moving to Drupal in future.

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6. 

   James
   December 30th, 2009 - 02:27

   I think I understand what your saying. While OOP might give you better “compartmentalization”, it’s still not going to change the architecture they are currently working with.

   I heard WordPress the newer version offers image editing capabilities, however it seems to repeat desktop editing functionality in the browser as opposed to “on-the-fly” image management.

   It seems you just have the ability to create new images for use elsewhere…

   OOP is really not beneficial in the sense that anyone can still write a mess in OOP code.

   Just wanted to come back and mention that regeneration is something I used to do with my CMS but it creates an issue with reusing the same image in multiple areas at different resolutions. An upper limit, sure, but a fixed size applied and recompressed against all images? It sounds like it could be CSS in which case it works, but not very well…

   I don’t want to give it away, but drupal is most certainly the closest one to having it set up right…

   You can tell by the folder naming structure…

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7. 

   James
   December 30th, 2009 - 02:31

   But Drupal is still not “on-the-fly”… It looks like they compress at the point at which the resolution is applied in the settings rather than at the point at which the page is generated.

   Hence… each photo is still unique… Creates a large and unmanageable potential mess long term… jmo…

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8. 

   James
   December 30th, 2009 - 02:36

   In any event… what ever happened to resolution independence? That’s what everybody should be shooting for… jmo… I mean SVG and VML is very real and give CSS another few years and presto… websites will jump from Windows 3.1 desktop bitmap graphics to scalable vector graphics Windows 7. Right?

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9. 

   Name22
   August 9th, 2010 - 10:37

   i absolutely agree – image handling in wordpress is absolutely awful. it’s actually pathetic it is so bad. you have so much flexibility with text handling in wordpress but their image handling in terms what they offer for their interface is absolutely terrible. i feel like there is no reason they should neglect image handling like they do. it’s unacceptable from a “blogging platform” development stand point.

   however, i dont think that image resizing is really a good idea for creating thumbnails. in terms of bandwidht and cpu load etc i just prefer to have small thumbnails link to a big image as much as possible. i think they should improve their code for creating thumbnails. my nikon d40x takes slightly wider pictures than most cameras. yet their thumbnail cruncher just chops off the sides. also, why cant i organize multiple galleries per post? i hate this.

   personally, i think it’s bad to load a full all the data of a full size image then just resize it in the browser. thats inefficient. just load a very small thumbnail thats the right size you want. however, there definitely are situations where the webmaster needs resizing for whatever reason. wordpress image handling / management suuuucks!

   i’ve searched for plugins that improve or provide more options – there’s nothing unless want flash on your site, which id rather die before that happens IMO.

   basically if you want to create multiple galleries and have more flexibility with this … in theory and IMHO … you just have to create your own custom css, create your own thumbnails offline first, upload the images manually even perhaps

   in other words lets say you have a bunch of images for a post but you want to show them separated into different small groups, some by themselves, different sizes, etc – just not all at once! ill try to do it in steps:

   1. use imagemagick to batch create thumbnails exactly how you want them in terms of image resoluation, jpg quality etc. i shoot only in raw so i would probably do it from my nikon editing software but imagemagick for linux/unix or irfanview for windows is the way to go IMO.

   1a – ftp these into the wp-content/uploads folder.

   2. write up a php script that asks how many images it will create code for and how you want them displayed. you enter in the image locations too. since youre writing the php you can create all the flexible options you need and none that you dont! such as a check box for border width, margins, all that

   3. write up custom css that will display the images how you want them with captions and a different background color etc. i would use tables + css personally.

   4. the php scripts runs and just produces that code containing your custom css / html with the links to your image files according to the specifications you wrote code for.

   5. drop the generated code into the html editor of wordpress

   i think this would be a bit of a pain to get running at first but once that is all done it would offer you 100% custom image handling and custom display very quickly and very simply.

   thoughts?

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