Gallery file types

[Joel R]

Gallery hard-coded to accept all image-based formats, even if I don't want certain file types like GIF.

One normal GIF file of a 3-second motion can be multiple megabytes, so I'd like better control over file types in gallery.  

[bfarber]

A jpeg could also be several MB - why is gif any different in this regard?

[Joel R]

Because all GIFs are quite large, whereas a comparable JPG of the same dimensions can be x30 times smaller.  That's a huge difference.

I'm just not interested in (or paying for) storage for GIFs or BMP.  

When you have one GIF here or there, it's not such a big deal.  But when you have a gallery of 220,000 photos and you start thinking about the potential storage size if it's x30 times larger, then you can see how a small problem adds up to a big problem.  

 

[bfarber]

11 hours ago, Joel R said:

Because all GIFs are quite large

Here's an animated gif that is ~72kb (random one on my computer)

11 hours ago, Joel R said:

I'm just not interested in (or paying for) storage for GIFs or BMP.  

The biggest problem/concern is that you then push the onus of understanding file types and encodings on to the user. If a user tries to upload an image and can't, most won't really understand "oh I should convert this to a jpeg". They just give up. I don't really see how telling a user they can't use gifs (a perfectly valid image file type) in a gallery would be beneficial.

[Joel R]

Well, the GIFs that are posted are not simple gifs, but full color action clips of several seconds.  I've asked a user to upload a sample album of his GIFs, so I'll evaluate file sizes with real data.  Most users are able to easily distinguish between GIFs and other image types because it's such a unique file type.  

You allow us to control file extensions in normal attachments around the suite, I guess I'm asking you to extend the same courtesy to gallery (which, by its inherent nature, is entirely media). 

  On a fundamental level, I agree with you that I want to make it as easy as possible.  I'm all for open content and open posting,  so I'll definitely assess once I see data on sample albums. 

[AlexWright]

Could this be limited with php.ini? We set ours to 10MB. Downloads goes around that limit on it's uploaded files, but the screenshots for the file do not.

[bfarber]

There is a group setting already to limit the maximum size of uploaded images

Is this not a sufficient and appropriate solution to the problem suggested? Rather than base it on file type (which is arbitrary), base the restriction on file size which is easier to understand and makes more sense in this context.

[AlexWright]

5 minutes ago, bfarber said:

There is a group setting already to limit the maximum size of uploaded images

Is this not a sufficient and appropriate solution to the problem suggested? Rather than base it on file type (which is arbitrary), base the restriction on file size which is easier to understand and makes more sense in this context.

I always forget this exists.