What is New in Image Uploader 7

Image Uploader 7 is not just yet another update of Aurigma flagship product. It is a milestone in Image Uploader evolution. Both ActiveX and Java part of the product was completely rewritten and it allowed us making the product more polished, stable and convenient than ever.

Let's go through the most remarkable changes.

New Refreshed User Interface

When we created the first version of Image Uploader, our concept was to make it as close to standard Windows user interface as possible. It was a good idea back then, but nowadays this concept is a bit outdated.

So we have redesigned the user interface. It became more modern and friendly. Now instead of three different layouts we have introduced one layout which combines benefits of all three of them. The user can expand/collapse different panels - e.g. upload list or file tree can be hidden.

We have refreshed all elements of user interface.

Full-fledged multiple selection is introduced in Java version.

One of important changes was getting rid of modal dialogs that were pretty annoying and prevented full-fledged usage of tabs in browsers. Instead of popup alerts messages are displayed in a special bar now.

Progress bar dialog is a part of the Image Uploader window, rather than a separate modal dialog. 

If you use Image Uploader in the "instant upload mode" (i.e. upload starts as soon as some file is added to the upload list), progress indicator is displayed in the special bar.

New features were added to the user interface - new view mode called Tiles (more compact than Thumbnails and as informative as Details), 

Search within the current folder,

possibility to filter out the files that cannot be selected for upload, simple image editor, and many others. 

Another great improvement will be noticed by those users who work with large amounts of files. Old versions were not very good in handling folders with thousands files. It took pretty much time to load a list of files in such folders. New version works fast regardless to the number of files. User interface never hangs if you walk through the network share or open the folder with a lot of files.

Crop Functionality

Ability to crop photos before upload is a long waited feature. You can configure whether the user can crop only according to a specific aspect ratio or freehand, as well as whether both album and portrait orientation is allowed. You can even crop images automatically through JavaScript.

If your website requires photos to have a specific aspect ratio, you can use JavaScript to check whether photos selected by the user meet your requirements. If not, you can force the user to crop the photo before it can be uploaded.

Cropped images in the upload list are marked with a special icon.

Chunk Upload

Uploading large amounts of data always was a challenge. If you upload huge file, you have to prepare HTTP POST request on client side, load it in memory, open HTTP connection with a server for pretty long time, and the server has to have enough memory to receive the file. Earlier we had to do some tricks to avoid memory problems, but in Image Uploader 7 we have found an ultimate solution. 

Now you can configure Image Uploader to split files in multiple chunks. What it means? Imagine, you have 500 MB file. Earlier you had to create a single HTTP POST request containing this file. Now you can split this file into 500 pieces 1 MB each and send them separately.

The benefits of this approach are obvious:

• Memory friendly - you deal only with 1 MB chunks instead of a huge file.
• Supports really heavy files - need to receive files of 2 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB size? Not a problem anymore. 
• No need to increase HTTP request length limitations on the server - now you can receive gigabytes of data even if the server has strict limitations for a max HTTP request length.
• No need to open HTTP connection for a long time - it is much more friendly for your server resources, especially when a lot of users access it at the same time.
• Automatic upload recovery - if the upload fails in the middle of the process, no need to restart the upload from a scratch. No need to re-upload chunks that were succesfully transferred.  

Improved Upload Speed

The upload performance has been significantly improved. Now photo resize works simultaneously with the upload. So the upload completes much faster - the user does not have to wait until all thumbnails are generated.

New Licensing Model

Image Uploader licensing used to be pretty tricky. Sometimes even our own sales persons were confused with it. That's why we decided to simplify it and make it more transparent. The following changes are introduced:

• Now all Image Uploader editions have different set of features. The following editions are available: Express, Professional, Print, and Premium.
• The following simple rule is used to determine how many licenses you need: if you have more domains than servers, you purchase as many licenses as many domains you have. Otherwise, you purchase as many licenses as many servers you have. The only exception is Express: you cannot use it in multi-server or multi-domain environment.
• If you have too many domains (e.g. unlimited number of subdomains or multiple websites on a single server), you can use Premium license which is a "server-wide". In other words, you just purchase a Premium license per each server and use Image Uploader with any number of websites hosted on these servers.
• You can purchase a maintenance subscription. With maintenance you are eligible for free updates within the maintenance period (one year) regardless to the version number. In the end of the maintenance period you just extend the subscription instead of purchasing upgrades.

Learn more about licensing model