Add Photos from Albums to Forums

OK, So some users at my site have asked if it was possible to 'easily' upload photos from their photo albums into the forum.

The only way I have found to do this is to (so far):

- Open the photo you want

- Click original

- Copy the address link

- Go back into forum

- Click the insert/edit image icon

- Paste the link

That's a lot of steps to do and can be difficult especially if you are using the site via a mobile device. Does anyone have any other ideas as to how this can be done?

The original might be very huge, like 12 megapixels and up.  I think better would be grabbing the one in the view; which can be gotten by right click, copy image, and then paste into the forum editor; with firefox they might have to do the control v.

I thought there was an image code on the page but I think it might have been removed or I imagine it.  I keep meaning to add it to the block but the copy image thing works well.

I use PKForum so I have a max height and width set so I am not too worried about the size.

The ideal thing would be to have a block with an 'embed' code or direct link that can easily be copied.

Easy enough to add to the pageview code; I will look at it when I can but Deano or Modzzz will probably report in with the modification before I have time.

Still looking for any suggestions on a simplified way to get this done if anyone has any..

LOL. Asked by me several times in the past and never answered. That's why I eventually gave up and added the moxy code...

I think a good way would be to make the compressed image that dolphin has already created in a list within the forum. Don't make the original available in the forums. then you don;t have to worry about pushing out the boundaries of the post. I was always told the fish forum was distinctly different than Dolphin and should be considered a stand alone product. Something that also never made any sense to me.

You have more power than me in getting people to respond to these requests. i hope you have better results than I did. The way I'm doing it now seems redundant at best

and then we can start on the photo video upload issues that exist in the groups mod. Also a useless pig by any definition.

The way Dolphin handles photos and videos has always been a bastardization of multiple ideas implemented over top of one another. the entire gallery system should be one with the rest of the script and it should be accessible from anywhere within the site.

Skyforum- I doubt very seriously that I would have any more luck than yourself to be honest.

There is already a 'Photo Info' block on the view photo page but all it contains is the date it was uploaded. Would it be that hard to add a link or something there that could be copied and used?

I truly couldn't tell you. I think we need to try and convince someone (like Deano ... hint hint) to create a mod that would enable a connection between the forums and the photo video galleries. I know it would be very popular, especially for those that have adopted the pkforum like I have. I would be willing to pay handsomely for that feature.

Perhaps something like this tha i have here. http://www.deanbassett.com/m/photos/view/16552-175485159741-3929411-n-jpg

Then talk to the developers of pkforum. I cannot create a bridge to a module i do not have. They should add it as a feature.

Well, I'm sure they would follow if you did one for the fish forum...

Hey Deano,

That is better than what is available right now. Is there any way you can share how you did that? A direct link would be best but an embed code will work for now.

 RE:

 Apparently Zarcon doesn't like this straightforward and simple solution.  It's really something every internet forum user should know how to do.  Why complicate the matter by creating an embed code that the user will have to copy, switch MCE to html mode, paste the code, switch back to normal editor mode, etc?

So what's wrong with the simple cut & paste?  I could teach a retarded chimp to do that in a few minutes.

HL, The copy/paste method works with a PC but when I tried it with the default Android mobile browser, 'paste' did not show in the forum. I had to try it with a different browser (Chrome) and it did end up working working. 

With that said, I can advise users to use a browser like Chrome if they want to do that. Yes, I was looking for a simple button click to make it work.

Having a "slick" copy button for this is not going to be as easy as one thinks; the problem is trying to make it work in all browsers and devices.  The push to try to get some sort of standardisation has just gotten worst with all the different portable devices accessing the internet.

Adding the text for the image tag <img scr="...> and having your users copy it manually is going to be the best situation; this is the way Google does it on YouTube and they have access to a lot of coders.  The reason is the issues of different devices and it is bound to not work on some f-ing Apple crap.

I can have it show just the URL without the img tag. That way the image button can be used and the URL just pasted in there. Would that be what you prefer?

I could also provide urls to each of the available sizes. The original photo, File (750px), Browse(140px), Thumb(64px) and Icon(32px) PX sizes of these may vary depending on the settings in the photo module.for those 4 sizes.

I'd prefer the direct link so that they don't have to use the HTML button to use embed. 

I have no preference on image size personally.  But the larger would better (750px). I set the max and min in the TINYMCE editor anyways. 

The original could be 24 megapixels.

I have been thinking about this original image thing on my site.  For most purposes, there is no need to store the original image.  Someone taking a casual shot of their kitten doing something stupid with a 24 megapixel camera and uploading it to the site really does not need the original stored.

Digital image resolution is about print size; the larger the resolution, the larger an image can be printed; no, it has nothing to do with quality.  So I really only need to store an original image if a photographer is going to be uploading images and wants to present them for download and perhaps that would be better done through the files module.

The 750px image would not be the original. It's the largest of the ones that are sized down from the original. Per the size settings specified in the photo module settings. Which is most likely the best one to use.

Lots of questions.

How do you only give them access to their own gallery?

How do you send them to an upload link if the image they want to add is not already there?

How do you keep them from pushing the boundaries of the post with images too big?

How do you keep your load times from falling apart when someone tries to display a 24 megapixel image?

and then there's videos........

I don't see any way of doing this halfway. it's either all or nothing. Most other sites that have forums make the photo gallery part of the forum, then build the site to access the forum galleries. Here' it's bassackwards from the start.

Set a max-width on the image that is suitable for your forum; you do this in the forum stylesheets.  CSS will scale the image to fit that width if it is larger keeping the aspect ratio of the image.  http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_dim_max-width.asp

You have a point here, there is no size limits in the photo module settings.  If you are not going to allow files or video uploads, then you could set the limit in php.ini.  Most image/file manager add-ons for TinyMCE will allow you to set limits on uploads through that manager.

Zarcon. I would reconsider that image size for the forum post. You might have a 60" monitor but many don't. I never saw a need for any image to be posted in a forum that exceeded 500px.

SkyForum - I have the TinyMCE editor configured in the PKForum to allow ONLY a maximum of 600x480 image. So for me, it doesn't matter if they took the photo with a 24 megapixel camera or a 50 megapixel camera. The image displayed in the forum is only going to be 600x480 no matter what.

This is the best way to make sure that the photos in the forum are not too large when viewing on a PC/Laptop OR any mobile devices. Especially since I have a responsive template.

Hey Deano,

I sent you a PM regarding this and your suggestions. Please let me know if you go that . My email has been screwing up lately.

Yes, i got it. Been busy. So i am way slower than normal responding to posts and message and writing up sets of instructions.

 Not a problem. Thanks for the confirmation. Seems some of my emails are not giving the 'Message sent' confirmation but yet show up in the sent mail..Anywho, thanks again. I appreciate it.

However, it does matter in how fast the image is rendered in the browser, not everyone is on a fast internet connection.

 Yeah but you are forgetting something. Just resizing the photo does nothing to reduce the file size. You'll still have a 24 megapixel photo stuffed in a 600px box....

SkyForum - I believe you are using PKForum too right? You can easily set the max upload size (max_size) in the forum as well, in the same file I set the max height and width.

Look in the config.php located in the jbimages folder. You will find all the setting you need to customize whatever you'd like.

Well howdy fancy that..... Tanks Zarcon baby!

(in case anyone is interested, that folder is located here: /plugins/tiny_mce/plugins/jbimages

 You are welcome sweetheart.. HAHA