Posted by tedd on 01/19/06 16:28

>Hello,
>
>I need to build an image 'library'. The library will consist mostly of
>images taken with digital cameras. Since unedited digicam pics will most
>likely be too big for web usage they need to be edited automatically so that
>they can be put to a web page.
>
>I'am trying to deside between two options. To resize (=scale down) the
>images once they are uploaded to server and store the smaller file or upload
>and store the original BIG file and scale it to thumbnail once it's viewed.
>Any opinnions about this.
>
>I think that if the disk space is not an issue I could upload the original
>file. But are there performance issues if the thumbnails are created "on the
>fly" if there are hundreds of pics?
>
>Thanks for your advice
>-Will

Will:

I don't want to start any "my machine will beat-up your machine"
wars, but if I was confronted with the problem (using a Mac), it
would be a somewhat simple process to automate resizing a bunch of
pictures using Photoshop and Automator and then make them to the
size/type I want before uploading.

Barring that, you could use a thumbnail script to cycle through a
directory and resample pictures to a specific size. But after that, I
would delete the originals online -- no need to keep them UNLESS you
are going to use them in some fashion.

As to where to put them, there are two schools of thought: 1) store
them in folders and put their url's in the dB; 2) or store them
directly in the dB. I've heard good/bad points about each side and to
me it boils down to which method are you most comfortable.

As far as performance issues creating thumbnails "on the fly", just
reduce them to a number that the user can comfortably view at one and
then show them as the user wants. I would guess that no one wants to
see hundreds of picts at one time.

Please review --

http://xn--ovg.com/mysql

-- to see an example of what I mean. There you can generate up-to
1000 records but see them a few (5) at a time.

tedd

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://sperling.com/

[Back to original message]