1-Step Upload?

[Pro]

🎯Description of the issue

Hi,

We are having an issue with what for us is a fairly common use case.

Often times, we (admins and members) are uploading entire album dumps (e.g. of an event) - maybe hundreds of pictures.

Like any (desirably) automated process, we may not be at the computer for the entire time it's uploading.

The problem is that Chevereto has a 2 step upload process: first you select the images to upload (drag n drop, file picker, whatever), then their previews populate, but then you have to click the button when they're done to actually upload them, otherwise the upload process is abandoned.

This is problematic for us because as I said, a lot of time, these are big album dumps which means that even though this initial stage "merely" loads/displays the images from the computer, because of the sheer number, this step in the process itself can take a very long time, and a lot of time can go by before we even remember to check on the progress. Often times, by the time we check on it, the images will all have loaded, but the process will have timed out (and the request is not remembered), so when we click the button to "commit/finalize" them, they don't upload, and we have to repeat the entire process until we just so happen to be around within whatever period of time we have to click that button to actually upload them.

By the problem's nature, I can't tell you that we're always there within 5 (or any concrete/consistent number of) minutes of the upload finishing so as to just increase PHP variables (nor do I think doing so would be a great idea unless as a last resort). I'm also hoping the solution isn't just to tell people "try half an album at a time, if that doesn't work, try a quarter, etc." - partially also because they intend to upload them all in one period of time and in one go, and may not have time to keep checking back every X period of time to resume the manually segmented upload process.

So, I'm wondering if there's another way to resolve this.

Can we perhaps eliminate the Upload button and make it - like many major image hosts these days - that images just get uploaded when selected?

In my view - or at least in my case - the presumable reason for 2-step (editing/unselecting images to upload) is redundant since the decision to upload them (a) is implied by their selection; plus (b) can be cancelled in the next step or deleted later; and (at least most of) the image details can always be updated after uploading.

Or is there perhaps another solution?

Thanks.

▶🚶‍Reproduction steps

1. Select files
2. Go away
3. Come back
4. Cry
5. Repeat
6. Get lucky with timing 2 days later
7. End loop

😢Unexpected result

See above; technically a timeout, but UX based.

📃Error log message

N/A

 

[Rodolfo]

The uploader doesn't have any limitation, but your web browser does. You can't expect to upload a large number of images if your web browser can't handle that load.

You should use the bulk content importer: https://chevereto.com/docs/bulk-importer

 

[Pro]

Thanks, I know about the bulk importer.

What I mean isn't about the upload step or problems with the upload. It is (comes down to be) a UX issue:

• I select the images
• Chevereto must populate them (i'll call this "buffer") before I can click the Upload button
• After the images are Buffered and I can click Upload, if I do not click Upload in time, it "times out" (Even if I am doing nothing else on my computer - i.e. I am away), even if it's just a few minutes.
• After the images are buffered, if I am there immediately and click Upload, it will upload it.

In other words, the difference in being able to upload the images or having to buffer them all again is how long I wait before clicking Upload.

Are you saying this is a limitation of my computer/browser and has nothing to do with Chevereto at all?

Otherwise, is there any way to skip this first buffering step?

For example, if I go on Imgur and select or drag n drop a whole bunch of images they just start uploading. I don't have to wait for an intermediate step to upload - Imgur assumes because I've selected them, I want to upload them. On the other hand, Chevereto is basically asking "are you sure?" not only on a non-delete command, but on a create command no less - imagine, if programs asked you "are you sure you want to create a Word document?", "are you sure you want to upload this file?", "you're about to open a new Chrome tab, are you sure you want to do that?".

If you're taking suggestions for the next version, I get that you can do a couple of things only at that step like edit the size or make them delete after a certain period of time, but it might be good to make those functions things you can do after the image is uploaded (if they are even highly used features), instead of making the user confirm a file creation/upload.

For now I just wonder if there's a way to upload in only 1 step (removing the buffer feature altogether), like other popular image hosts are moving to, or a way of increasing the acceptable timeout of the buffer feature (ideally without editing php variables).

 

[Rodolfo]

The uploader was built to work with a pre-editing step because we don't have a post uploading editing feature (for the actual image). The "buffer" is the queue which loads each image into the browser memory. The system needs to load these to show the thumbnail and the actual (big) image when you click the edit button.

I think that this could be labeled as a fast uploader or something like that where the browser only stores the thumb and no pre-upload editing is available, soon as you add some images it sends the request.

Interesting suggestion, hope it gets more traction.

 

[Pro]

Thanks for explaining.

I think that this could be labeled as a fast uploader or something like that where the browser only stores the thumb and no pre-upload editing is available, soon as you add some images it sends the request.

Yes, this is the way around it I suppose from the front-end side of things. So at the moment, the only alternative is the bulk importer?

The "buffer" is the queue which loads each image into the browser memory.

I'm still not clear about what makes this cause of the problem - presumably the browser "releases" the images after a certain time, and so the solution is to tweak our browser somehow?

Again in case I didn't make it clear, it's not exclusively a matter of how many images, but a function of time - the same number of images will work just fine if we click "upload" fast enough.

Is there anything that can be changed on Chevereto's side to "hold on" to them for longer - i.e. extend the time we have between populating the queue and uploading it?

 

[Rodolfo]

Please note that I won't talk about the concrete implementation, neither I will explain further how the process work.

The only thing that matters is the general interest on this feature and for now, it seems that this doesn't get much traction so I won't trouble myself with this for now.