What is the future of EPiImage?
Yesterday I released version 2.8 of EPiImage which is now a mature module with mostly minor bugfixes being done. But what is the future of EPiImage? Both short term and long term? Well, it is up to you! (and EPiServer).
Short term
Short term I am considering adding some new functionality, but I have trouble deciding what to focus on. That’s why I need your input. Here are some suggestions:
Server side resizing of images in XHTML Property
Editors can add images to a XHTML Property and resize them using the mouse.
When you save and publish the page the result is kinda dirty. What EPiServer does is to use the full size image and set width and height attributes on the img tag to resize the image client side. One idea is to let EPiImage detected and server side resize the image to the correct size.
Cross browser file drag and drop upload
This is one of the things I most miss in EPiServer. Being a Chrome/Firefox fan it is annoying to have to start IE every time I have a few files I need to upload. And some customers have problems installing ActiveX due to corporate policy. The people who made TinyMCE also made a open source drag and drop file upload tool called Plupload. (There is a module on EPiServer Nuget called
Aurumio.EPiServer.Integration.PlupLoad, but sadly it doesn’t work 100% and uses an old version of PlupLoad.)
I am not sure if this should be part of EPiImage or released as a separate module, but it is high on my whish list.
EPiImage properties in Dynamic Content
It is currently impossible to use EPiImageProperty and EPiImageGalleryproperty due to, among other things, bug #64001 in EPiserver CMS 6 R2. I think however that there might be a way to make this happen. So the question is: Would this be something you would use?
Any other feature requests?
Is there any other feature you would like to see, or maybe that you have already extended EPiImage with in your own projects? Please let me know in the comments.
Long term
In my first blog post about EPiImage I wrote:
“The astonishing fact that this functionality isn’t built into EPiServer. It should have been in version 4 if you ask me.”
My hopes are that some kind of new image functionality in EPiServer Falcon will make EPiImage superfluous, but we will just have to wait and see if that will happen or not. If it doesn’t then the next step will be to rewrite EPiImage to work with Falcon and take advantage of the new features it provides.
What do you think?
Please leave your feedback in the comments below on what features you would like to see in the next version of EPiImage.
First of all, excellent work on EPiImage! Your work is greatly appreciated and makes our work so much easier :) Thank you Alexander!
Now, on the matter at hand. From what I've gathered, there are two major features that editors usually request at some point.
1. Multiple image upload
Some editors have asked if they could somehow add multiple images to a gallery at once. Adding something like 10 photos for 10 different pages takes some time.
I realize this might be impossible because of the EPiServer file manager, but this would be a cool, usability improving feature! I think the file manager at least allows you to choose multiple files using "Ctrl"?
2. Add image gallery as dynamic content in XHTMLString
I saw someone's screencast on this: http://screencast.com/t/9p1Y6WI2G
And this video pretty much explains the feature: being able to insert a gallery as dynamic content. I think you listed this in your blog post as well, but I wasn't 100% sure, because the wording was a bit funny :)
I realize we could do this ourselves, and probably will soon, but having it baked in EPiImage would be awesome.
That's all, keep on coding!
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback.
>First of all, excellent work on EPiImage!
Thank you :-)
1. You can drag and drop a folder of images from the File Manager into a image gallery. See this YouTube video for more details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCKWwTu8I3Q
To upload multiple images use the built in feature in EPiServer CMS (Active X/IE only)
2. The image gallery is serialized as a XHTML Property. There is a bug in EPiServer CMS 6 R2 that prevents this from working, but it should work in EPiServer CMS 6.
-Alex
What are your plans for implementing EPiImage in EPiServer 7 CMS?
Or is it perhaps already done, just waiting for the actual release?
Best regards
Christian
MakingWaves.EpiImage is not saving the images used in it in export file during export/import process from one environment to other.
Although other images which are used by Episerver.ImageProperty control are easily being exported and imported in the same process.. Please Help me....