New picture posting functionality (August 2013)

[MattG]

As many will know, the previous system the forums had for attaching images had a filesize limit that meant attempts to upload large pictures would result in an ambiguous server error. This was actually due to PHP configuration settings for the image conversion function used to create thumbnails...not a forum setting, and not something I was able to alter.

So, I've switched things over to a different image attachment and resizing system, to see if it is more useful. The upload process is effectively the same (except without size limitations), but when viewing a post, all images now have small icons up in the top left corner that indicate if larger or smaller versions are available. This resizing/zooming is a multistep process...you start with a reduced image, can zoom in to an version that fills your browser window, and can (if available) zoom all the way in to a full-size version.

Example:

IMG_3955m.jpg (562.34 KiB) Viewed 16674 times

This system is not retroactive, so older attachments will still appear with the older style thumbnails and zooming functionality.

[Buzz Bumble]

It doesn't really worry me, but just in case you need to know, the example image above doesn't display and isn't clickable on my computer (ancient Firefox v1.0.7). Some of the SWNZ server uploaded images in the other topics simply display a spinning waiting icon.

I'm going to be upgrading the operating system to a slightly newer (but stil ancient) version of Mac OS X either this coming weekened or the next, so will get a newer version of Firefox then and see if it works or not.