I am using the trial version after going through about 5 other shops that were just :ranting::ranting::ranting:(&(&*&*(^&T.
 
I really like this one as far as I can see. I have even been able to upload via .csv both categories and products .
 
I cannot find a solution to the one hard requirement that I have which is ability to bulk upload the images associated with the products.
 
Regards RLW

I always upload my images in folders rather than use the Viart image upload process. I am building a shop with a potential 30,000 products and I prefer to have some organisation.
 
This means that the image path in the product details needed to point to the relevant folder
 
Having created all my product files I then uploaded my images by ftp. This is all I can recommend - it is a bit of work but I did it for around 1,000 products when I moved to Viart and it was worth the effort.
 
Chris
 
 
PS: If you ever consider using multi sites I recommend uploading images into just one site and use a full path for the image so that all the sites see those images - saves a lot of work.

Thanks and also a new question at the bottom.
 
<QUOTE -- ..... Having created all my product files I then uploaded my images by ftp. .....Chris>
 
I had come to that conclusion and looked at the structure of the pictures on my host server in order to FTP. I tried it and it worked for one of the trial pics. I had not thought of building a image structure, but it makes sense. I will have about 6000 to do so I'll give it some thought.
 
Now comes the challenge of how to create the three sizes of pics in order to upload.
 
New Question:
Any ideas on resize software (hopefully cheap) to use to create the images in two additional sizes.
 
Also, I have images that are not all the same width and height. Any ideas on how to create standard sizes would be appreciated.
 
Regards RLW

I am sure there are many excellent solutions. I have Firefox so I create a very large image for a local reference file.
 
I then re-size to about 300px high and save in images>big>D (orA or F or whatever)
then resize again to, say, 120 high for images> small >
and, finally about 30 - 60 high for tiny and save in images > tiny >
 
I know that Viart will handle the resize process but that will put all the images in the root of the images folder - a mess if you have a very large number.
 
My recommendation is to take one dimension width OR height and try to stick with this where possible - I do make adjustments where my images if exceptionally high or wide.
 
Also, for the 'small' image on the listings page, beware about width; I list two products per row and if i make an image too wide it pushes the page width out.
 
You may get a feel for what I am doing in a supermarket style store - http://www.malikstores.co.uk
 
Hopefully someone else can give you ideas about resize software.
 
Also, btw, ensure that the 'tiny' image is jpeg as this works best for images on the packing list.
 
Best wishes
 
Chris

I too wish we could bulk-upload product images.

High volume image manipulation. Here's how we do it:
 
Purchase Eyebatch (www.eyebatch.com). It's worth the 50 bucks. It will create all 4 sizes of files, adjusting resolution for the web, and write the files to different locations.
 
Once the image processing is complete, simply Ftp the new files to your server. OR if you do this alot, purchase Webdrive for $40, map your server's file system as a local drive then Eyebatch will write teh files directly to the correct folder on your server!
 
I did 2700 images in 2 hours using this method.

Thanks wazoodle.
 
Ill give it a look

Hey Wazoodle,
Thanks for the tip. I haven't looked at it yet, because I downloaded a freeware from TuCows. It's called Easy Thumbnails 3.0
 
http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/?Easy%20Thumbnails=3000
 
I had done a couple of sizes to do my category and product development testing for my Lost Wax store that will sell waxes and finished Gold and Silver Castings.
 
When I saw your post, I just had to see how this product compared. Here are the facts (just the facts <grin> an old series on TV)
Free
693 test jpg test images already cropped
original 693 images 73.8 meg
smallest 36 KB largest 1,463 KB
All this done on a Toshiba Satellite P205 Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5450 1.66GHz 1.67GHz
===================================
 
I put copies of the originals on my desktop in a single folder. and created two internal folders one called 100_100 and the other 30_30. (Creative Huh)
 
I set the preferences in the folder to 100 x 100 and to put the thumbs into the 100_100 folder.
 
I hit "Make All"
ROUGHLY 45.08 seconds later it was done
thumbs of the 693 images 2.27 meg
smallest 3 KB largest 5 KB
 
NEXT TEST
 
I set the preferences in the folder to 30 x 30 and to put the thumbs into the 30_30 folder.
 
I hit "Make All"
ROUGHLY 48.81 seconds later it was done
thumbs of the 693 images 683 kb
smallest 1 KB largest 2 KB uh DO YA THINK WE HAVE A ROUNDING UP TAKING PLACE HERE?
 
 
 
 
I'm sure that for a real Geek there are a lot of lessons here. For me they are Free is OK, Size does matter and I'll have to get the larger ones smaller.
 
The one thing the program doesn't do is change formats. But this will get me through the build and test phase of my store. All I want to do now is move from Newbee to Novice.
 
Regards RLW

Photoshop actions, create an action that saves an image how you want it saved, just don't change the file name while recording since it will overwrite automatic file naming during the process. While recording, save out the file in any number if sizes you want, I use 600, 300 and 75 px images, square.
 
Next, I use Photoshop like this: Create a 600x600 image. I assigned my action to F12 key. When I like the image, I press F12, and magically, my three files show up named in sequence with my original file name, and are in the directories that my action script puts them in. This really is the simplest way to make high quality images automatically.
 
If you read the help file with Photoshop, you can automate your image production quickly in any organizational manner you need.
 
Ed

We use Picassa from Google to do bulk sizing of images. It works well and is free. We create 4 different sizes of our images, import them to a common directory and then when we do the import we use text manipulation in a spreadsheet to make sure that the appropriate image is pointed to. Works great.