Importing images into your library

How to import images

To import images which you've uploaded to your website into your image library, you need to click into the 'Content' tab of the admin navigation panel and choose the link to 'import images'.

On the import page, you will see a form with options allowing you to import low resolution and high resolution images, complete directories of images or to upload new files using your web browser.

Any images or directories of images uploaded into /resources/incoming/ on your server can be viewed and imported into your library by following the on screen instructions in the import wizard.

Why can't I import low and high res images at the same time?

When it imports images, Pixaria generates thumbnails and organises these into a directory ready to move from the 'incoming' folder to the main 'library' folder. The resizing process puts quite a heavy strain on the server and because of this, it's not possible to import more than 10 high resolution images at one time because it can cause the import process to fail.

Because of this, the import process for high resolution and low resolution images have been separated from one another. If you would like to deal with large numbers of images more effectively, it's usually easier to create all the thumbnails and other images offline and upload a ready made directory of images by FTP.

What are the limitations on importing images?

Only images and directories that are writable by PHP can be imported which is why it's important to ensure all your images have the correct permissions set at the time of upload if you use FTP to put your images online. If you upload images using your web browser, you don't need to worry about permissions.

In the first part of the import screen for individual images, you are able to select the name of a directory you would like to import images into. This is to help you keep your image files organised. Due to limitations in the current version of Pixaria, the name you choose at this stage cannot be the name of a directory that already exists in the 'library' directory.

Also note that because of the high server and memory resources needed to resize high resolution images on a web server, Pixaria will only allow you to import up to ten high-resolution images at a time.

Completing the import wizard

Once you've selected images to import into your library, it's important to follow the step by step forms carefully as you will be setting preferences that apply to all the images you're about to import.

These settings include who has access to view the images so be careful to set the permissions correctly.

The image import process

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and so the following state diagram is included to illustrate how the importing process in Pixaria works from the point of view of what you see as an administrator and behind the scenes on the server:

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Created: Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Last edited: Thursday, August 23, 2007