Is this possible: Client-side web-ready-ifying of images on upload?

[jove4015]

So, I installed Coppermine a few weeks ago as part of a major server modernization, and I love it.  It does so many things so well, however, there is one major problem.  My base of users has many pictures they would like to put in the photo gallery, but their digital cameras/ photo CDs have pictures that are way too big to be posted.  While I (and, not surprisingly, others users with macs) have no problem making a picture web ready in seconds, the overwhelming majority of my users use Windows XP, don't know how to use it very well, and couldn't make a web-ready image even after I made detailed instructions and tools available.  Many are the self-righteous e-mails I've received telling me that the program is "stupid" or "pointless" because they can't directly upload their obnoxiously huge files.  My server only allows for 100MB of space and so every user is restricted to 1 MB total space, with a maximum per-file size of 50KB (more than enough for most web-ready pictures).  The maximum upload size for the server is standard at 1MB per file.  The files that people generally have range from 400KB (very few) to >3MB (very many).  I'm working on getting better server conditions (like unlimited space), but my boss won't shell out one euro until there's demonstrated interest, which is running me into a serious chicken-and-egg problem.

I would implement a server-side routine to shrink the files before they go in the albums; however, since most of the files are over 1MB, they would never even make it to the server for processing in the first place.  What I need is something that will automatically reduce the images to display quality on the client side, prior to upload, without my lazy users having to do one extra thing.  Does anyone know of any Javascript or Java program (even ActiveX, since this is a primarily a Windows-user problem) that can do this or that I can modify to do this?  I would greatly appreciate any help.  Thanks!

[Nibbler]

You can use the windows xp publishing wizard (xp_publish.php) to upload to coppermine, maybe that would help.

[kegobeer]

I found this via a Google search for "client-size image resize".  This isn't free, and I have no idea how hard it would be adapt for use with Coppermine.  I'm not volunteering for this, just pointing you to what I found.

[jove4015]

You know, I have no idea how I overlooked that XP-Publishing Wizard feature (I really didn't know that wizard even existed.)  That's brilliant, thank you so much.  I'll try it out as soon as I get a minute...

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Steve

[the_todd]

Have you tried the xp publish out yet? I'm very interested about results.
Todd

[donnoman]

Check this thread out for a server side solution: Resizing the full size image after upload.

http://forum.coppermine-gallery.net/index.php?topic=9159.0

[jove4015]

OK, so I finally found an XP computer to test on, and I got it working pretty nicely (in that there's no big errors or hurdles), but there's still the problem that the files aren't resized small enough to post to the site.  Now, I have the upload limit set pretty low at 50KB a picture, and that's also pretty arbitrary, so I'd have no problem raising that up a little bit, but first I need to know what the upper limit of the Wizard's resize feature is.  I'd only be concerned with pictures resized to the 640x480 (Small) size - I'll be working on greying out the Medium and Large options anyway.

I tried changing this setting in function startUpload() in the xp_publish.php file:

                var dataTag = xml.createNode(1, 'formdata', '');
                dataTag.setAttribute('name', 'MAX_FILE_SIZE');
                dataTag.text = '51200';  //Originally set to 10000000 (way bigger than our maximum)
                postTag.appendChild(dataTag);

But this has little effect other than to reject the pictures that are too big, which are... well, about half of them on average, a little uninspiring.

Of course, if there is a way to tell Windows XP somehow that all files should be no more than 50K, that would be *perfect*, but I'm not expecting miracles here.

Thanks and great job with this, it'd be really solid if it weren't for my lack of web space...

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Steve