Mopics only loading _big pic?

[ErnieZ]

Has anyone seen this?

My mopics (the one that comes with OSCmax 1.7) was working just fine. Now when I click on the thumbnails, it only loads up the image that is associated with the _big thumbnail (the thumbnails are still the correct _pic1, _pic2, etc images).

I no longer see an option in my admin panel to specify the extra image patern (1,2,3 ... a,b,c ... etc).

Between the time that mopics was working and now, I have changed only things relating to getting my site ready to take orders (shipping, credit card, store info). All changes were made through the admin panel.

Any ideas?

Also, where can I find Mopics 3.0?

Thanks,
Ernie

[ErnieZ]

I figured it out. Apparently, if you select Search Engine Friendly URL's, mopics will not grab the correct pic. The solution can be found on this message board by search for the following:

search AND engine AND safe url mopics

This will bring up the thread that covers this issue.


Regards,
Ernie

[miahac]

Dynamic MoPics is in my opinion the weakest mod in the max 1.5-2.0 distro. Before I get flamed read the following:

First of all it is not dynamic, thumbs must be generated in advance.
Second there is no additions to the admin interface, photos must be uploaded via ftp.
Third this adds an extra step when adding new products.
I don't even think except for the settings, that it stores anything in the database, it is all pattern based making file names confusing and leaving out some file name search engine opportunities.

I wish it worked more like the ebay picture upload ( but without so much compression). Generating the large photo and thumb at the time of admin upload. The product details page would also do better with a thumb gallery that rotated the large images when clicked instead of a popup.

[dreamscape]

Originally Posted by miahac

First of all it is not dynamic, thumbs must be generated in advance.

It has never claimed to be a dynamic thumbnail generator. If you are a serious entrepreneur, then you should act like one and purchase the necessary software or services to create professional looking product images. By no stretch of the imagination does this mean you should buy photoshop either. There are plenty of low cost (and a few free -- GIMP) image software products that work 100 times better than GD Lib does (which is what most likely would have to be used for PHP to dynamically generate a thumbnail).

Originally Posted by miahac

Second there is no additions to the admin interface

Yes that is correct. This is intended as a benefit to the end user installer. They do not have to alter an already overcrowded admin categories page (the code is overcrowded and all discombobulated... just take a look at it).

Originally Posted by miahac

photos must be uploaded via ftp

That is correct. You want to add, remove, or alter an image, you just upload it with FTP. Nothing to change in the database. Nothing to change in the admin. You can just simply alter and add your product images on the fly by just uploading them to the correct location. This is why it is called "dynamic"

Originally Posted by miahac

Third this adds an extra step when adding new products.

Only in some cases, and then only when the product is first added. The module's original intended use is for catalog managers who upload their products from a spreadsheet. If you do this, then you most likely FTP up your main image (which you define in the spreadsheet).

Originally Posted by miahac

I don't even think except for the settings, that it stores anything in the database

And why should it? It is only dealing with images, and a filesystem is much faster than a database system.

Originally Posted by miahac

it is all pattern based

Yes it has to be pattern based, otherwise it could not know how to find the images.

Originally Posted by miahac

making file names confusing

If you know how to count, there is nothing confusing about it. First of all, you setup your own custom pattern, so if you are confused, it is your own fault for setting up a confusing pattern. Secondly, if you don't know how to count, consider re-attending a few second grade classes

As an example, tell me how the following is confusing in any way:

pattern: imagebase_extra{1}
thumb dir: images_sm/
big dir: images_big/

images:

images_sm/myproduct.gif
images_sm/myproduct_extra1.gif
images_sm/myproduct_extra2.gif
images_sm/myproduct_extra3.gif
images_big/myproduct.jpg
images_big/myproduct_extra1.jpg
images_big/myproduct_extra2.jpg
images_big/myproduct_extra3.jpg

All I can say is, if you are confused by counting from 1 to n, you need some serious help