ECT (ECommerceTemplates) just came out with a new version of their online store and they’ve included a great image uploader function. This type of function used to be available only as an after-market modification. As of now, the 5.5 manual doesn’t include instructions on how to use this new 5.5 image uploader function, and so I’ve made a video tutorial to help folks understand and use this new feature. Enjoy!

Note that I have several windows open at one time: the admin area to my ECT online store, and the “normal” customer view of my store.

Also note, that when you get ready to upload you need to know what size you want your small and large images to be. Typically my clients have small images that range from 100px - 200px, and large images that are 200px - 400px. Giant images, the ones you start with, should not be bigger than 800px wide by 1000 px high. Generally, you want to keep your image sizes consistent throughout your online store.

The video shows how to use the “giant image” uploader to create large and small images automatically. You start with a “giant image” you have saved on your computer, and the image uploader will create small and large images to sizes you specify. You can also start with either the small or large uploader, but I think starting with the giant is the fastest way to get consistently sized images to your store.

A side note for those of you that are saying, “hey, how come the giant image isn’t much bigger than the large image?”. Good question. My original image, that I used for the “Giant” image was just under 400 pixel wide. I set the size of the “Large” image as 400 wide, which is why the Giant image and the Large image look the same size. I picked this width because all the other large images in my store are 400, and I wanted it to match. Maybe I should have started with a much bigger image of grapes for the demo, but I do the best I can with what I find.

And do keep in mind how the image resizing works:
Aspect Ratio Is Maintained: It will NOT change the aspect ratio of your images. If you start with a square, you will end up with a square. If you start with a rectangle, you will end up with a rectangle. If you start with a 400 wide by 300 high image and resize to 200 wide (equaling a 50% reduction because 200/400 = 0.5) this means the height will be reduced by 50% also, to 300. It keeps the ratio of width to height constant. If your original images all have different aspect ratios, so will your resulting resized images, and they won’t match, just like they didn’t match BEFORE you did the resizing.

It will resize ONE DIMENSION (height or width, not both) and it will do this only if the original image dimension is larger than what you’re resizing to. This means it won’t enlarge images and make them fuzzy. So if your original image is 150 px wide, and you try to resize it to 200 px wide, nothing will happen.

If you have additional questions, please post them here so that others can benefit and my tutorials improve.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm and is filed under the ECT Store, eCommerce category. Read other Aldebaran Website Design Blog articles by returning to main blog page. Need a blog added to your website? Click here to read about blog installation services or click here to contact Aldebaran Web Design.