Re: Collected comments

Hi Joe,
 
> 1) ok, how bout I give you numbers 1...unlimited in the rows/page
> selector.

Excellent. Will you throw in, say, 1..8 for the columns/page also at 
the same time?

> Also, I'm a little worried that as more things
> become configurable, the user will suffer configuration/choice
> fatigue. Is this something you think is really important?

No, I can live with the current solution.

> Do you think the quality settings are worth keeping?

No, I think that you can skip them. I have tested the different 
settings and cannot really see any difference in the pictures. 

> 7) I don't know-- this is the first I've heard of this effect. What
> kind of a proxy are you using? What is your "test setup"?

Don't know about the proxy used, it is my company's proxy. However, I 
checked the content of a page as presented by Pixory, and the "home" 
and "index" bitmaps have a "last modified" date and are only loaded 
once. The other elements (allback, back, forward etc.) does have 
the "last modified" date set as "unknown". The same goes for the 
pictures and thumbnails. All of these are loaded twice. Actually, 
the "home" and "index" bitmaps are direct links to a file, while the 
others are indirect links via a "?service=..." (why do you not use 
direct links for all, by the way?).

I don't know enough about the HTTP protocol to really understand how 
these attributes are used by the proxy/browser, but a decent guess is 
that when the browser requests the "main html page" the proxy loads 
it, gives it to the browser, and then automatically loads all 
elements on the page (bitmaps/thumbnails/picture) since it knows they 
will soon be requested. When the browser then requests each of these 
elements the proxy now sees that the date for these elements 
is "unknown" and thus is forced to fetch them again.

Have you considered setting the "last modified" date to the same date 
as the actual file for these elements also? Or is this not possible 
since they are indirectly linked?

BR
   /Gunnar

> --- In [email protected], Gunnar Heikkilä
> <gunnar.heikkila.1@h...> wrote:
> > Hi Joe,
> > 
> > here comes a rather long "collected comments" on various Pixory 
> > topics. They all relate to version 2.12 as I am still a little 
bit 
> > hesitant to install a newer version until the ignore subfolders 
and 
> > the discoloured pictures issues have been resolved. Please bear 
with 
> > me if I comment on something you have fixed in later versions. 
> > 
> > 1) For each album it is possible to specify the number of rows 
and 
> > columns to use per page for the album index. However, as I have 
> > earlier commented, it is currently not possible to enter a number 
> > higher than 5 in these selections boxes. Since I am using small 
> > thumbnails (75) I would like to use at least a 8 columns times 10 
> > rows layout. Actually, I would really like to set the "rows per 
page" 
> > selection to "unlimited", giving my viewers the possibility to 
load 
> > all thumbnails and just use the vertical scrollbar instead of 
> > manually paging through the pages. Most of my viewers want to 
look at 
> > all thumbnails anyway, but only clicks into some of the pictures.
> > 
> > I realise that with more thumbnails (even with small ones) the 
load 
> > on the pixory server will be momentarily higher when all 
thumbnails 
> > are loaded (or reloaded when going "up" again, depending on the 
cache 
> > setting in the client), but I think it would still be nice if it 
was 
> > left for me to decide if this server load is OK.  If you think 
there 
> > are serious reasons for not allowing the above "extended 
rows/columns 
> > settings", please explain?
> > 
> > 2) A related topic is the top level index, where there are no 
> > corresponding row/column settings (or thumbnail size setting). In 
a 
> > way you could say that the top level index have the parameters 
> > hardcoded as "150 pixels thumbnail, 4 columns, unlimited rows". 
> > Currently I have about 150 albums, with a growing rate of about 3 
> > albums per week, and one day I might want to somewhat limit the 
> > number of pictures loaded for the top level page. Have you 
considered 
> > adding these attributes to the top level?
> > 
> > 3) Another "top level" issue: The sorting is based on the date of 
the 
> > album pictures. But sometimes I have two albums from the same day 
> > (skiing in the morning, climbing in the afternoon), and it seems 
to 
> > me that Pixory in this case uses the album directory name 
> > for "subsorting". I would prefer to have all albums sorted after 
> > date, and in this case time also, so that the chronology is 
> > consistent.
> > 
> > 4) I have all my thumbnail settings as "quality", but in 
the .album 
> > directory there are always two versions of the top level 150 
pixels 
> > thumbnails (medium and high). Clearing the thumbnails and letting 
> > Pixory create new ones does not help. Is this a bug?
> > 
> > 5) When I login to Pixory the top level album sorting seems to be 
> > a "name sorting", not "reverse date sorting" as for the viewer, 
and 
> > since my directories are named as "YYMMDD Topic" the pictures I 
add 
> > is always last in the list. If I add two albums I need to scroll 
150 
> > albums down until I can get into the first one and configure it. 
When 
> > I go back I need to do the same scrolling before I can go into 
the 
> > next album. It would be nice with a sorting attribute (name, name 
> > reverse, date, date reverse, ...), even if I can live with the 
> > current sorting. :-)
> > 
> > 6) I have the "image size" set to 600 to make it possible to see 
both 
> > portrait and landscape pictures on a normal 1024x768 screen 
without 
> > the need to scroll down. However, if I add a lot of text to the 
> > pictures the text will not be visible without scrolling. On the 
other 
> > hand, since screens are wider than they are high there will 
always be 
> > plenty of space at the left or right side of the picture where 
the 
> > caption and narrative could be displayed. Have you considered 
adding 
> > an album attribute for "caption and narrative position" (above, 
> > below, left, right)? Also if you use the "right" (or "left") 
option 
> > then of course the picture should not be centered on the screen, 
but 
> > put more on the left (or right) side.
> > 
> > 7) When I access my albums (as a viewer) through a proxy I 
noticed 
> > that it takes longer time, and sometimes Pixory seems to "halt" 
for 
> > 10-20 seconds before continuing. When I looked into the logs, I 
saw 
> > that with proxy access every thumbnail (or picture) was fetched 
> > twice, with a few seconds between the "double fetches". Without 
proxy 
> > the thumbnails/pictures are only fetched once. Is this 
known "bug" (I 
> > assume that it has to do with the "last modified" setting for the 
> > pictures being reported as "Unknown")?
> > 
> > 8) About hierarchical albums: Yes please! I saw that you are 
thinking 
> > on how to handle the user interface, so here are some 
suggestions: 
> > Currently when you are looking at an album you have the album 
title 
> > (e.g. "My vacation") at the top left corner. You could easily(?) 
use 
> > a recursive description style here, where each title is 
clickable. An 
> > example with two sub-levels:
> > 
> > My vacation
> >    New York
> >       At the opera
> > 
> > To make this more consistent you could consider adding "Home", 
> > or "Top", as the first line:
> > 
> > Home
> >    My vacation
> >       New York
> >          At the opera
> > 
> > This could be combined with an "up arrow icon". A minor negative 
side 
> > of the idea of a recursive title display is that the picture area 
> > will be slightly smaller, but I think that is a price most of us 
sub-
> > album fans will be ready to pay.
> > 
> > When looking inside an album with one or more sub-albums, I think 
> > that you should mimic the behaviour of Windows Explorer; i.e. the 
> > first entries are the cover thumbnails for the sub-albums (with 
the 
> > same info and text as on the top level today), then the 
thumbnails of 
> > the ordinary pictures (if any) follows. Maybe you could emphasize 
the 
> > current top-level "shadow effect" for the sub-album thumbnails 
even 
> > more, thus making it clear that these are sub-albums? Perhaps 
> > a "double shadow" which gives the impression of multiple pictures?
> > 
> > I have seen that viewers using Pixory their first time often 
selects 
> > the "house icon" when they in fact only wants to get from the 
single-
> > picture mode up one level (to the thumbnails). I THINK that this 
> > could be due to the fact that in Windows Explorer you only have 
> > an "up icon", not a "home icon", and in some way the viewers feel 
> > that the "house icon" should take them up one level 
(towards "home")? 
> > 
> > The "four squares icon" might be even more cumbersome to 
understand 
> > for the viewer when you have sub-albums, and thus thumbnails at 
> > several levels. You could consider skipping the "house icon" and 
> > the "four squares icon" completely, having the "up arrow icon" 
> > (together with the recursive title list) as the only ways to go 
> > upwards?
> > 
> > If you go for an "up arrow icon", you might consider to use a 
> > different symbol for the "download album" since the up- and down-
> > arrow will have completely different scopes. Maybe some kind 
> > of "WinZip icon", or a "hard-disk icon" could be used? By the 
way, 
> > you could consider a check-box in the download pop-up window, 
> > specifying if only the current level pictures should be 
downloaded, 
> > or if the complete tree should be downloaded.
> > 
> > OK, thats pretty much sums up me experience after using Pixory 
some 
> > time now. Hope you still manage to enjoy some "Pixory-free time" 
at 
> > least one day per week!
> > 
> > /Gunnar



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