Image uploads too Large

wmuckell · 30th June 2008, 02:11 PM

I have an application that allows people to upload details of adverts to my site, with 3 images.

However many people are ignoring the MAX SIZE warning and trying to upload MASSIVE 3MB files instead of resizing them first.

I know I can probably resize the image on upload, but I am not sure that is the correct direction I want to go in. I would prefer to Stop people doing it in the first place. If I let people upload 3 X 3mb images via a form, it will firstly take ages, then the resize will also take ages and I am not sure it will work either.

Does anyone have any other ideas, or do I have to go down the Image Resize direction with something like ImageCopyResampled

percepts · 30th June 2008, 10:58 PM

My previous post was wrong as I just found out with some more testing.

wmuckell · 22nd July 2008, 10:52 AM

I still have a major issue with this that my client is getting very irritated with.

At certain times of the day, the ones that I expect are busiest on the internet. An application I have which uploads images to the server and resizes them timesout and the script does not complete.

I think it is when there are large files involved, e.g. 3 X 3MB and the form has to submit the files to the server before the script can even run to resize them.

They just get an Internet Explorer cannot view this pages.

Have other people run into issues like this and did they find neat solutions. Or do they simply have to go to a dedicated server to get full performance. Which is an expensive solutions.

Terra · 23rd July 2008, 11:02 AM

it's not something as simple as running out of max_memory? If you resize very large images (especially if there are multiples), the script will need quite a bit of max_memory to complete. I've had this issue when resizing 4 large images into thumbnails via a PHP script.

You could contact UH & see what you're max_memory is, and whether there's any room to increase (maybe just temporarily to see if the problem can be isolated).

The other thing to watch out for is browser time-out (which would be set in the visitor's browser settings). If a script takes too long to respond, the browser time-out will kick in and display a "site takes too long to respond" or similar message. The solution for that would be to split the script into chunks & resend bits to the browser (e.g. updates such as "1st image uploaded ..... 2nd images uploaded .. ") with browser refresh so the time-out doesn't kick in.

wmuckell · 23rd July 2008, 11:09 AM

thanks terra for the reply. How would you suggest sending in chunks if the whole form is submitted using one form. People are stupid enough without giving them several steps to undertake.

ozsan · 27th July 2008, 11:11 PM

I run a photo resotration business and have the same problem with image sizes. As you can imagine a large file is an advantage for me in the process of restoration and customers often have problems uploading them to my site. I'm at the stage where I have to look off site for uploads, I.m in the process of researching sites that don't cost a fortune and that I can intergrate into my site. I can't afford a dedicated server here at UH. The one I'm currently looking at is Sendspace hopefully this is a workaround that will get me out of trouble.

fluxman · 29th July 2008, 11:08 PM

isn't there some kind of program to upload any sized file in chunks or something? Maybe in Flash or Java?

I'm always having image resize problems, but just tell everyone to make sure it's fairly small and compressed before uploading.

ozsan · 30th July 2008, 12:10 AM

I'm sure there is a program to do this but I don't have the expertise or time to go that way that's why I need an easy solution.

percepts · 7th August 2008, 07:13 PM

I just came across this which I think is just what you are looking for. However, the documentation is not clear on when the filesize limit kicks in. But saying that, I have just checked the flash documentation and it does indeed allow you to access the filesize which javascript doesn't, so theoretically it should be able to check the size before the upload actually begins.

You will however need to do a little javascript coding to make it handle the size limit events you create.

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skifreak · 7th August 2008, 08:33 PM

GD2 can't handle images of more than about 600k (might be less or more depending on jpeg quality/pixel size). Set a limit and if the files are bigger than that then use ImageMagick - this will work up to whatever the upload limit is.

That doesn't help if the script is timing out waiting for the upload obviously!