How Do You Use Better File Uploader?

By hoodlum , written on July 29, 2006 at 9:06 PM.

I use the BFU primarily for images. Typically there’s at least one image per post. My design clients, typically not well-versed or even conversant in HTML, are always having the most difficulties with images.

I have a maximum image width defined in the css, so no longer do oversized uploads break the formatting of a blog, but oftentimes, when images are not as wide as the column, users would like a no-code-needed approach to aligning their images to the left or right to allow text to flow nicely around it. Perhaps it would be possible to have an align radio button that defaults to ‘default’ but also enables quick, easy “align=”left’ or “align=”right” attributions.

Another solution would be to have a blank field for “class=” which would allow either via dynamically generated css-populated dropdown or the manual entry of “left” “right ” or “center”. Of course this option would be dependant upon those classes being defined in CSS, but would also allow any number of css styles to be applied to the image in question.

On non-image uploads, which are increasing as video and audio offerings become more prolific, the default behavior of BFU seems to work well. The auto-population of a given field with the download html is nice, although since i use custom fields, typically i cut and paste the output into the correct one in the entry screen.

The gallery integration can be a bit confusing. which gallery, for example, will it be created for? How does that link to a specific entry and how does the current new entry behave in relation to using this function? I’ve never had the patience to figure it all out. But the concept of adding a photo to a pre-existing gallery while using that same upload on the current standard entry as a gateway to the particular gallery is a wonderful one.

By KO , written on July 30, 2006 at 3:19 AM.

I left a couple of comments earlier (without logging in to typekey) but they haven’t showed up yet.

?

By funkypancake , written on July 30, 2006 at 2:43 PM.

I use BFU for my daily image uploads and it’s great.

in an ideal world i’d like the following additional features. no idea if they are possible, but i’ll throw them in the mix anyway !

* drag and drop file selection (rather than having to go via ‘browse’. i’d like to just be able to drag the file from a folder in Windows on to the upload pane and the path be added in the upload screen.

* I’d like to be able to set the default image outline. We corresponded by email on this before and you pointed out i could add this in my CSS, but i wanted the outlines to appear in my RSS feeds too. perhaps this is bad form, but i’d like to do it all the same !

* the ability to add watermarks to uploaded images would be nice. i use thumbnails which i’d not want to watermark, but i’d quite like the full sized images to be watermarked, probably just with some text that i’d specify. ideally this would be selectable on a per upload basis and with the ability to choose whether it’s the thumbnail/original or both which is watermarked (and perhaps some global choice of watermark type).

that’ll do for now ! as i said above, BFU is the best image uploader as it is, but these additional features would make it even besterer.

and thanks for the opportunity to input our thoughts !

By funkypancake , written on July 30, 2006 at 2:51 PM.

oh, and in answer to your specific questions:

* Do you mostly upload photos, or other files?
95% photos. occasional videos (mostly via youtube now though) and MP3s.

* If photos, do you use them to build a gallery of some sort, or just the occasional photo to add to an entry? (A link to an example would be great!)

my blog is a photoblog and i upload 10 new photos everyday using a standard blog layout rather than a photo gallery. www.funkypancake.com/blog

* Do you upload to a specific directory? Do you upload with the year/month/ structure appended?

i take so many photos i’ve lapped the counter on all my cameras a few times meaning i have duplicate image names on my server. i therefore use the year/month file structure so i don’t overwrite older images with the same names from previous months.

* Do you prefer to be shown the HTML, or have a new entry created?

If i’ve only got one photo per entry i’ll use the create new entry. if i’ve more than one (about 20% of the time) i’ll use the HTML option and cut ‘n’ paste.

* Do you create a thumbnail for your image upload? Always, or just sometimes?

always. unless i occasionally stuff up or want to upload something slightly different for the linked full size version.

* What size thumbnail do you make, and which sizing option do you use? Or would you prefer not to have the sizing automated?

max length of the longest side is 250. i love the auto-sizing thing. it saves me SO much trouble !

* Do you use the For Photo Gallery button?

nope

* Do you normally use the Popup or Embedded buttons?

Popup 95% of the time, but occasionally the embedded if the full size image is the same size as a thumbnail. although more recently i’ll still produce a thumbnail of a small image to be consistent on the website.

* On the Show HTML screen, do you like having the HTML selected with one click? Or would you prefer this to be an option?

one click is good.

Another thought:
* bulk upload might be a nice option. perhaps the ability to drag two or three photos in to the upload pane, and BFU would upload them, produce the resized thumbnails and plop them all in to a single entry. that would save me loads of time when i do a multiple-picture entry.

thanks again !

By Simone Carletti , written on July 31, 2006 at 3:38 AM.

It would be great to be able to preconfigure a list of personal path (for example /images /public).
With a select menu users will be able to choose a folder from the list in the upload panel.

By Dan Wolfgang , written on July 31, 2006 at 7:29 PM.

Thanks for the feedback, all.

From funkypancake:

* drag and drop file selection (rather than having to go via ‘browse’. i’d like to just be able to drag the file from a folder in Windows on to the upload pane and the path be added in the upload screen.

Use Firefox? Check out the dragdropupload Extension.

By funkypancake , written on August 1, 2006 at 3:04 AM.

fantastic - that plugin was just what i was looking for Dan ! thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

By Shaun , written on August 22, 2006 at 11:17 PM.

* Mostly photos, occassionally files (would do more if size restrictions didn’t hinder)
* Mostly just the odd photo insert directly into an entry. For large-scale photo management I’ve gotten lazy and just resorted to Flickr.
* I use a year/month upload structure
* I prefer the HTML to be shown because I seldom start an entry with a photo (or purely because of a photo)
* I always create a thumbnail just to reduce image load times for the occassional reader.
* I generally use 128-250pix for the longest side of my thumbnail depending on my mood.
* Never use the gallery function.
* Always use pop-up images
* I like having the HTML selected with one click.

I’ll post something on the feature request entry as well.