How-to: Image Association

Files are normally stored in the media directory of your website. We can associate images with products in two main ways.

• Use an online form to upload a single file to the correct directory for you for each product.
  
• FTP your image files to a target directory and then associate the images to products.
  

The online form method is useful for a small number of products, but when you are updating a large number the associative method is better and allows one to have great control of the target directories.

One has to first process the images and upload them to the media directory (or a sub folder from media) using a ftp program.

Associate Image
The process is fairly simple, first find your products; the most obvious method is via the main product list (product search) in the Product/Category/Gallery area.

1. Find your product
For recently added items you might like to search for the following:
Search: id (product id)
Operator != (NOT EQUAL)
Value leave the value box blank
Sort By date_added (Date the product was added)
Order By DESC (Descending – in this case newest first)
Limit 20 This would limit the restult to just 20 products,
With no value you will get ALL you products.

In the results click on the “Images” link.

You could also find products that are missing an image in the “Image Management System” area. Click on “Products Without Thumbnails” or “Products w/o Display Image”. This can be an intensive search so may take a few seconds to display the results. If you use this method I would recommend keeping the results in one window (or tab) and opening the ‘Product Images’ page by right clicking on the link and opening in a new window (or tab) so you don’t need to perform the data search again.

Product Images
This page (product_images.php) allows one to directly enter a filename (and path) for a product.

Some product details are listed such as product code, name and description to confirm that you are looking at the correct product and to help cut and paste for the alternate text that should be included with each image.

The first box is the image use:
· Thumbnail – the smaller image used in the gallery view.
· Display – The full sized image used on the product page
· Pop-up – alternative image, which will open in a new window if licked upon.
· Inline – Displayed on product page. Actual display is dependent on your own design and CSS file. Generally will appear under the main Display image and will align next to one another. So could be used to have one main Display image and two smaller thumbnails underneath.

The follows the filename:
The image file should always be in the media folder or a subfolder of media. You may use subfolders by including the path, so if one had an image called myimage.jpg in the mybrand folder of the media directory, www.onlinesales.co.uk/media/mybrand/ you would need to enter /mybrand/myimage.jpg in the filename box. Do not enter the full URL of the file, just the path beyond the media folder.

(It is recommended for simplicity to just upload files to the main media directory.)


Alt Text:
In this area enter some descriptive text of the image, this is useful for both search engines, browsers that have turned off images, and for use as links with the pop-up images.

Enter your data and hit submit.

If everything is okay, you should see the image listed in the details below the form, and that the Width and Height has values in it. If the Width and Height are blank then the filename/path are wrong and need to be verified. If that is the case click Edit and correct the error.

Add as many images as you want for the product, though obviously one thumbnail will only be displayed, and more than one display image will cause layout problems.

Notice the area just above the input form. This contains links to the previous and next products based on the product id.
<< previous product | next product >>

If you are updating several new products at once this can save you searching for each product individually.