IP.Gallery Uploading

[Joel R]

I don't mind that the process is time-consuming.  I understand that uploading a large amount of files or images is simply going to take awhile.  I get that.  But what I don't like, however, is needing to physically babysit my files and click through intermediate steps, the totality of which requires me to watch over the entire process.  It's not just time-consuming, it's time-attentive and requires me to physically be present through the ENTIRE upload process.  To be blunt, once I queue my photos, I have better things to do.  

 

1.  Initial upload - I understand this step.  Every gallery system requires my participation to upload photos.    

2. Continue - Why do I need to actually click "Continue"?  This serves no purpose.  The software should automatically redirect me to the Edit Details page, or give me an audio / visual signal that the queue is finished.  I don't have time to watch 200 files slowly get uploaded through the front-end and / or constantly check back to see if the queue is finished.  

3.  Album Creation - For reasons beyond me, album creation is literally in the middle of the upload process.  If you're asking for my participation at the beginning, why can't this information be asked at the beginning?  

4.  Storage - And then I get to wait again for the files to actually be stored.  Why were my images not stored correctly in the first place?  Why can't my images be stored in a background task?  Why do I need to wait for the images to be stored a second time, when I've already waited the first time?

5.  Finish Uploading - I understand this step.  Every gallery system usually requires input of final details at the end.  

 

A normal and efficient gallery system will ask for my participation twice: once at the beginning, once at the end.  The IPS upload queue in IP.Gallery requires four touchpoints throughout the process!  

While small albums and small galleries might be okay with these touchpoints, the problem becomes aggravatingly burdensome for large-scale gallery management.  As a contrast, in Coppermine Photo Gallery I used to be able to batch upload all 100,000 photos in 400 albums directly via FTP to my server.  I would let it run without my participation, and then define my albums once the upload process was finished.  In IP.Gallery, I have to upload album by album and watch each album be uploaded, dragging the process out to 3 months of what would take me two week with Coppermine.   

 

[Rikki]

There are improvements coming soon to the gallery upload process. There's also some other improvements coming to uploading in general too.

I'm not sure I agree with automatically advancing the process once files have finished uploading; in some cases people will be selecting files individually rather than in a batch, and so would want to remain on the upload step until they have finished. That said, letting you know when the uploads are done is something the improvements address.

[Joel R]

I'm not sure I agree with automatically advancing the process once files have finished uploading; in some cases people will be selecting files individually rather than in a batch, and so would want to remain on the upload step until they have finished. 

I genuinely don't understand why IPS thinks editing individual files is a necessary step in the middle of the upload process?  Can you help me understand why it's necessary to have it in the middle, instead of at the end? 

In other gallery systems, the upload process finishes in its entirety and automatically redirects the user to an Edit All template.  The user edits the files as he wishes, then saves before moving to the display template.  

 

On another note: The user can also normally re-access the editing all images template, which is something else IPS doesn't offer - once finished uploading, you only offer the ability to edit images one-by-one (another example of extreme inefficiency), instead of offering Edit All Images from the album or category view.   

  

 

[bradl]

Would *love* to have bulk editing tools. I rarely go back to clean up albums because the process is so dreary. I just spent an hour thrashing around figuring out how to remove titles etc. from the gallery feed widget display because the titles in nearly all of our event albums are craptastic (IMG_8349 etc.) .