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January 28, 2008 11:49 AM

Categories: RoboCommunity Lounge RoboCommunity Feedback

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MrScott

  Moderator
Joined: 06/07/2007

You don't have to have a photo host to post pictures here. It's one option, but not a requirement.

Just to your right of the the Image Edit popup URL field is a widget to Browse for pictures on your computer. Click on that and you will see another dialog for uploading images. There is another Browse button on this dialog, which will pop up a standard file search dialog for your computer. 

Click through your computer folders and find the image you want (I use View Thumbnails under XP to see the pictures I'm browsing). Click on a picture from your drive folder, and you will be taken back to the Upload dialog with the location of the file you clicked on showing in the Browse field. Click on Upload to get it into your RoboCommunity workspace. 

You can add multiple files to your RoboCommunity upload work space by using the drive Browse and Upload dialog multiple times.

Once you have the pictures uploaded that you want, click on a thumbnail for one of the uploaded pictures, and you will be taken back to the orginal Image Edit dialog with the file name filled in.

Finally, click on Insert Image and the image will be shown in the post you are editing.

Not as simple as some photo upload dialogs I've see, but not too complicated, either.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Comments 1-15 of 15 | Latest Comment

RobosapienV2-4mem8 Avatar
  Member
January 28, 2008 11:18 AM

M'mmmm, MrScott, You know how many times i've pasted in that image/edit box and never noticed that widget until you just mentioned it, D**n I must be blind. Thanks. I take it that this is prefered by Robo commuinty to upload pics in an article based situation rather that an outside upload program like imageshack?? Then again these other servers are on 24/7 and access is 24/7 where as if I upload from my pc it's not on 24/7 and pics will not be displayed if this is an article based senario, Single pics posted here may be ok in that situation. Or, once the photo's are uploaded to Robo community's server I guess that they are avaiable 24/7?? I know I have posted  articles with photo's from imageshack to Robo community and if thier server goes down so do the photo's that are posted here and also on my website.

People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.


Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
January 28, 2008 11:32 AM

Once you upload, the pics are in the robocommunity space. It doesn't pull them from your pc everytime somebody views a thread.

Another (very weird) thing about that file upload widget on the Image Add/Edit dialog is that it is not available when creating a new thread. For whatever reason, the Browse/Upload widget doesn't appear until you either post to an existing thread, or edit your opening post of a thread that's already started.

I don't know the mechanics behind that. Perhaps the pictures are actually uploaded as files associated with a specific thread, and you can't do the upload until a thread exits. 

Don't feel bad about overlooking that little widget. It was months before an admin pointed it out to me.

What say Yey? Does this warrant a Feedback thread all its own for how to document this pic uploading feature? Maybe an article? 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

RobosapienV2-4mem8 Avatar
  Member
January 28, 2008 11:46 AM

Good idea MrScott a new thread. So If we create a new article it's NOT available. D**n. Can this be sorted out.

People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.


Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
January 28, 2008 11:53 AM

Dear Capable Networks interface gurus, 

can we get a read out on getting the photo upload capability turned on for the initial creation of a thread? An article?

I've been getting around it by doing the initial post without a photo, and then going back to edit the post later. Once the thread is established the file Browse/Upload widget appears on the post dialog. 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

RobosapienV2-4mem8 Avatar
  Member
January 28, 2008 11:59 AM

Nice one MrScott, Lets hope Capable Networks can sort this one out.

People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.


Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
January 28, 2008 8:56 PM

Here are some screen grabs describing what I see on my computer when doing a picture upload for insert.

First, in the post edit area, click on the Tree icon to get the Image Insert/edit dialog.


Note the Browse icon to your right of the Image URL field.


When you click on that Browse Icon, you will get the Upload dialog.

Note that I already have an unused, uploaded picture in the dialog. Once you upload a picture, it stays in the dialog for some amount of time. Not forever, but for hours. I suspect some garbage collection scheme clears out your upload area periodically.

When you click on Browse on that dialog, you will get your computer drive browse dialog. This is my XP dialog, with display set to Thumbnails, so that I can easily identify the photos.

When you click on a picture in your computer files dialog, the location of that file will be filled in on the Upload dialog's file name field. Press the Upload button to pull it from your computer drive into your RoboCommunity upload area.

Finally, click on one of the uploaded file icons, which will prefill the URL field of the original Image Insert/Edit Dialog with the address of the picture in the upload area.

Click on Insert on that Image Insert/Edit dialog to paste the picture directly into the post. I've done that multiple times for this comment to post these screen captures into the thread.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

RobosapienV2-4mem8 Avatar
  Member
January 28, 2008 10:24 PM

Nice one MrScott.

People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.


Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/

Peter Redmer Avatar
  Administrator
January 29, 2008 9:54 PM

Thanks for pointing all of this out, guys - and you did a great job with the step-by-step on image adding.  We're always trying to do what we can to improve the interface, and thanks for keeping us up to date on it!  I'm sure the how-to guide will prove useful for those looking to create content for the community.

Pete 

Peter Redmer
Administrator
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Matt Whitlock Avatar
Editor
January 29, 2008 11:34 PM

Well done MrScott! That step by step guide is fantastic!

As a quick tip to everyone who may want to post a few pictures, there are two situations where you will not see the upload option right away (as MrScott noticed).

1. When starting a new thread

2. When posting a new blog entry (for those who have blogs here on the site)

Here's the explanation as to why:

All items on the site (blog entries, articles, forum threads, etc.) are tied to an ID number for the item. For example, the content ID for this thread is 12681 (look at the URL and you'll see it). When you go to add a photo, a content ID is required so that way the system can sort out what the photos are assigned to. Now, when creating articles, we assign an ID number immediately, but we do not assign an ID for forum threads or blog entries until they're first posted. So, if you're creating a new thread and want to add photos to the post, you'll need to post first without pictures, then go back and edit your post. When you edit, you'll see that the option to add pictures is back. (again, this only matters when starting a NEW thread. If you're adding a comment to a thread that already exists, you'll see the option to upload immediately).

Blogs are the same way, so if any of you have a blog here, you need to preview the blog entry and edit it again before you can add any photos.

It's not perfect, and I'm sure we'll readdress how it works sometime in the future to get around this little hiccup in the system. At least with this info you won't think you're going crazy if you don't see the upload option. :-)

Have fun everyone!

Nocturnal Avatar
  Member
January 29, 2008 11:42 PM

So what your saying is that pictures need to be linked to a parent ID, but until the article or blog is actually posted, it doesn't have an ID for things to be linked to.

It shouldn't be to hard a problem to solve. 

RoboGuide - Your guide to hacking all things WowWee

RobosapienV2-4mem8 Avatar
  Member
January 30, 2008 2:11 AM

Matt Whitlock: Thanks for the explanation.

People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.


Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
January 30, 2008 9:01 AM

While we're talking about the mechanics working behind the scenes, I have a wishlist item for an enhancement to the Upload dialogs.

Please provide a means to delete an uploaded picture that appears on the Image Uploader dialog.

While making posts to this thread, I uploaded various pictures to make screen shots that showed icons. Now they linger on that Image Uploader panel.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

Matt Whitlock Avatar
Editor
January 30, 2008 9:50 AM

MrScott said: While we're talking about the mechanics working behind the scenes, I have a wishlist item for an enhancement to the Upload dialogs. Please provide a means to delete an uploaded picture that appears on the Image Uploader dialog. While making posts to this thread, I uploaded various pictures to make screen shots that showed icons. Now they linger on that Image Uploader panel.
I'm sure Peter would be happy to pass on any suggestions, but I wouldn't go too overboard thinking up improvements to the current implementation. It's been on our wishlist to completely revamp the way it works and put something else in its place. I'm hoping for as few dialog boxes as possible, drag and drop photo placement, better integration with things like Flickr and Photobucket, etc. Not sure what the developers are going to do as of yet or when, but hopefully we can all enjoy some improvement on this front as soon as possible.

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
January 30, 2008 10:22 AM

I'm not hung up on the specific implementation. The inablility to "un-upload" seems like a significant missing feature of the current dialog. Especially if the uploaded files linger on that dialog for the life of the thread.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
February 2, 2008 10:20 AM

As a side note on this, Capable Networks asked me to convert this to an article, and add a section on Video pasting to it. My understanding is that the article will appear on other communities besides RoboCommunity, too.

How-To-Upload-Pictures-and-Post-Videos 

If anybody finds any significant differences with how uploading works on your Linux, Mac, Vista, or other OS equipped hardware, post it here, or as a comment to the article, and I'll update the article. 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Back to Top | Comments 1-15 of 15 | Latest Comment

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