mproulx

There is still some hope that I may update the plugin!

Hello,

There is a simple fix that will allow you to use PNG files now, available here: https://www.district30.net/?page_id=577

If the plugin is updated again, it will have PNG support built-in.

Let me know if you run into any difficulties.

Hello,

I’m working on the testing phase of version 1.7. This version updates the widget interface to the WP 2.8+ version which should resolve the issue with the settings. I hope I’ve resolved your issues with scaling on the plugin’s page.

Thanks-

You are right about the caption field; in version 1.5, it must be used for a caption that applies to all photos. (Future versions will include the ability to access a “database” to pull individualized captions).

The URL field (which again must apply to all images in version 1.5) should make all of the images link to that URL as long as the check box next to “Link to URL” is checked. Otherwise, the thumbnail will link to the larger version. I’d definitely like to know if this isn’t what you’re seeing.

Up through version 1.5, scaling is fixed for images displayed in the sidebar. The scaling in version 1.5 is only for images used outside of the sidebar, though I failed to make this clear in the options page.

Version 1.6 will include scaling for the sidebar as well. A beta version will be available beginning on March 18, 2009. In the meantime, you can also adjust the image size by editing the php file. Check out the plugin’s webpage for more details.

Thanks!

Ok, the 1.5 code version inserts comments in the code that show how long it takes the plugin to read each directory. On my server, it takes 2-3 tenths of a second to read nearly 9000 images, and it is displaying the images in around .4 or .5 seconds the first time the page is loaded–it takes awhile, but nowhere near the amount of time you’re talking about. The images I’m using aren’t huge–somewhere in the 200KB-500KB range.

I think you’re problems are somehow server related, but take a look at the code and see what you find.

Thanks-

What theme are you using? I’ll spend some time trying to stress-test the new version over the next few days to see if I can replicate your problem and let you know what I find…

Hello,

Version 1.3 generally didn’t cause many problems over its seven months as the most recent version, but it did have one bug that may be the cause of the slow loading. Try upgrading to 1.4b and let me know if that helps.

Based on your comments on another thread, I would strongly consider that reading images off of your new server is the cause of the slowness. This plugin reads the full size version of the images and lets the browser scale it down; using the browser to do this isn’t as efficient as doing it server side, but I aimed for simple on that aspect. You could try scaling the images down manually and see if that speeds things up as well.

I’ve confirmed that v1.4 misreads the path. The ‘\’ in your path should be replaced with ‘/’; this should solve the problem until I can correct my input validation and release an update.

Apologies for the inconvenience!

A few other people seem to be having issues with the new version as well.

Does the section head display?

Double check that the path is still correct. My suspicion is that the new version may overwrite or misread the default path.

@annys: Yes, it’s possible to do this. You would need to copy most of the code contained in the disp_random_image() function in the random-image.php file, but instead of using the built-in $args variables ($before_widget, $after_title, etc.) you would use your own formatting as necessary.

Since this has been a popular request, I will make adding a single function that can be called within the page a wishlist item.

I recently released version 2.0 of the widget, which includes caching. I’m finding this does speed things up in most cases (although slow feeds are still an issue). Thanks for the suggestion!

I agree…with large feeds or many photos to be displayed, the plugin can slow page loading to an unacceptable level. I’ve never been really 100% satisfied with the way it’s done. I’ll see if I can’t play around with caching images on the server.