new way of displaying images: HAVE A LOOK
|
ronan
Joined: 2002-09-26
Posts: 9 |
Posted: Thu, 2002-09-26 09:29
|
|
I found an interesting way of displaying images: from the thumbnail page, when you click on an image, rather than opening this image in a new page, the image is displayed over the thumbnail dynamically. This allows a quicker browsing (and uses less server resources) It is based on cbe, a cross browser dhtml framework available at <!-- BBCode Start --><A HREF="http://www.cross-browser.com" TARGET="_blank">http://www.cross-browser.com</A><!-- BBCode End -->. That would be an interesing way of displaying image, at least for those user who like it (thanks to a gallery level option and/or user level option). See the post below for a demo (link to my own gallery) Ronan |
|
Posts: 9
This suggestion (by me) is so nice :wink: that I implemented it myself <!-- BBCode Start --><A HREF="http://ronan.dnsalias.net/gallery/album12" TARGET="_blank">on my own gallery</A><!-- BBCode End --> (click on any thumbnail to see how it behaves: image should popup - click again to hide the popup).
It is just a prototype that could be customized (for example to display the intermediate size picture, rather than the best one as I did, which would be a 1 minute change).
Please note that it works very well for IE, quite good for NS >6, not at all for NS 4.75. Having it working on all browsers should be possible with a little more time.
What is your opinion ?
Ronan
Posts: 3
Overall it's neat.
The biggest problem, with both yours and the link you originally posted, is that if I try to click on an image before the page has completely loaded (could happen frequently, since thumbs take a while to download), I get a "document.all.cbe" is not defined error.
Another problem, particularly noticeable on your site, is that I have to wait for large/huge images to completely load before you see anything on the screen. I'd rather watch it fill in from the top down as it loads.
-- Rob
Posts: 9
Right. That should now be fixed.
This shows that my code works well... since I intentionally coded it so that the imaged is only displayed when it is fully loaded ! I understand your point of view and of course, this feature is easier to disable than to code :wink: (this could also be an option).
Anyway, since you tried it a few improvement have been added:
- I have replaced the huge format by the "resized" format which is much more appropriate to this kind of browsing
- I have added a cursor trailer tooltip which informs you that the download is in progress
Moreover, browser compatibility is now better (not perfect for Netscape 4.75 yet).
Feel free to <!-- BBCode Start --><A HREF="http://ronan.dnsalias.net/gallery/album12" TARGET="_blank">have a look</A><!-- BBCode End --> and thank you for your useful comments and critics.
Ronan
Posts: 1301
Hi there
Looks very nice, I like the borderless windows that the photos come up in. I'm wondering how this would be for people with slow connections (I'm on cable and I still waited more than a minute for just the page of thumbnails to load). My other concern is lower version browsers (like NS4.xx). I still get quite a few visitors using them, but if you don't - then lucky you! :lol: (seriously, I wish everyone that could update their browser would just do it).
I'm assuming there is no option to comment on photos with the way you have the images displaying. Mind you, I'm considering just removing the comment thing from my gallery, since I get more people emailing me their comments than actually commenting on site.
FYI: This script doesn't seem to work with Opera. It tried to load the fullsize image on a new page, but after 2 minutes I still couldn't see anything.
Also, if you keep this setup you might want to load fewer thumbnails per page. On my cable connection there was a 22 second wait before I saw anything, and your page took over 1 minute and 30 seconds to load in total (speed average: 7 KB/s).
But it has definite potential, that's for sure. Thanks for the info!
Posts: 9
I don't know why it is so slow for you: for me it is very quick ! Anyway this server is hosted by me, on my modest cable access. I guess the connection can be sometime slow, especially from other countries (My server is located in France).
The good news is that hte page being slow is nowhere caused by this different technique ! You may just assume that loading an image with this technique on your usual server will take exactly the same time than it usually does ! Moreover it could even take a little less time since there is no need to load a full page (no PHP page generation time involved, just the bulk image transfer).
This is a real concern, but it could easily be fixed for old browser (NS4) or tricky browsers (Opera): it just needs a few more hours of coding/testing.
There could be an option to display the comments with a small button on the side of the picture, that is possible for sure.
I am really willing to go ahead if ever this is of any interest for the community (and/or for the development team).
Ronan
Posts: 14
Yep.. This was a great feature, but still having the option to post comments is vital.. at least for me :smile:
Great work!