Hi,

I'm new to IPS, so could someone explain why no thumbnails are displayed with uploaded images? To be clear, I do mean in the 'downloads' area.

 

Thanks.

Could you please clarify what you mean? Thumbnails would need to be uploaded separately as part of creating a downloads item. 

I see. I'll go back and look again. I just noted that uploaded images had no thumbnails - I assumed they would be created on the fly for images.

Oh. So, 'add screenshots' means 'add a thumbnail image'. That's less than intuitive.

It would make more sense for thumbnails to be generated automatically for images (or provide the option), and change 'add screenshots' to 'add thumbnail image' (or some such).

Edited April 12, 20232 yr by Como

What are you trying to offer with the Downloads app?

It is usually used for software, videos and things like that. That’s why “screenshots” makes sense as representation of the content. 

If you add images as downloads, then it would be a different story. And the software can’t always create screenshots. For example, I have a website where the downloads consist of images, but they are huge TIF files put into ZIP archives. It would be pretty much impossible for the server to generate thumbnails from that. So, a user field to add some representative images makes perfect sense. 

 

If you’re dealing with regular or smaller images, look at the Gallery app. 

On 4/12/2023 at 8:38 AM, opentype said:

What are you trying to offer with the Downloads app?

Hi @opentype

The forum admins and I are IPS neophyte. So we are just feeling our way around. I do not yet know exactly how we will use 'Downloads' - one of the admins uploaded a few images there and I noticed that there are no thumbnails.

On 4/12/2023 at 8:38 AM, opentype said:

It is usually used for software, videos and things like that. That’s why “screenshots” makes sense as representation of the content.

Hmm. I understand what you are saying, but to a new user of the software, it does not make much sense. I still think 'thumbnail' would be more readily understandable. But no biggie - I was looking for an explanation and I now have it.

On 4/12/2023 at 8:38 AM, opentype said:

If you add images as downloads, then it would be a different story. And the software can’t always create screenshots.

It was just unexpected behaviour. If thumbnails are automatically generated in other contexts, then it is reasonable to expect similar in the Downloads area. I assumed that I either missed a setting, or there was a bug or a (Cloud) server glitch.

On 4/12/2023 at 8:38 AM, opentype said:

For example, I have a website where the downloads consist of images, but they are huge TIF files put into ZIP archives. It would be pretty much impossible for the server to generate thumbnails from that. So, a user field to add some representative images makes perfect sense.

Again, I understand what you are saying. And, again, it is inconsistent behaviour, so caused me some confusion. But thank you for the explanation. Appreciated.

On 4/12/2023 at 10:14 AM, Randy Calvert said:

If you’re dealing with regular or smaller images, look at the Gallery app. 

Will do. We were intending to use the native Gallery solution, but it seems there might be better options. Now that you have prompted me, I'll look into it. Thanks.