Is this you? and responding to forumite requests

[shmoo]

Below are some recent pictures posted on yourboatpix. As usual, click on the title to get to larger pic. There are actually more new ones than I have posted here, but I don't want to outwear my welcome with huge mails!

A number of formites have kindly offered improvement requests. The most popular of which are a for date field and some means of contacting the uploader.

Date field
I have implemented a "date taken" field, which is set to the upload date by default but can be changed by the uploader. I have changed some pictures to the date taken where there was enough of a clue to do that. The "List" page allows sort on date and the "Search" page will optionally filter on a data range. Leaving out either or both dates should work intuitively.

Means of contacting the uploader is a work in progress. I don't want to reinvent a forum, and want to avoid the need for registration. Couple of weeks.

Windjammer at So good, I had to do it twice!

Windjammer at River Blackwater off the Bradwell shore

A Finesse 24, Sail No 84 I think at River Blackwater off Bradwell

Aqualina at River Blackwater off Stone

Limbo at Brightlingsea 180707

Unknown at Orwell210707

Unknown at Orwell210707

Dutch barge at Orwell210707

Orion at Orwell210707

Dreamer Of ? at Orwell210707

GBR2649Y at Orwell210707

Toccata at Orwell210707

W17 at Orwell210707

White Pearl at Orwell210707

Yuletide at Orwell210707

Take Five at Orwell210707

SeaU at Felixstowe 210707

Bevorlac at Felixstowe 210707

Challenge II at Felixstowe 210707

Just Fleur at Felixstowe 210707

Unknown Moody at Felixstowe 210707

K3138T at Wallett 190707

Corribee 455 at Solent - yarmouth to Southampton Water

Greylag at Plockton, August 2006

Searush at Off Red Wharf Bay, anglesey

Quiver V at Chichester Harbour

Hydrogen at Medway

Blue Shark at Portsmouth

GBR7899T at Round the Island Race 2005

K5630 at Round the Island Race 2005

 

[rickp]

Can you populate the 'Date Taken' field from the Exif data if its present?

Rick

 

[rickp]

Also there is a mistake in the HTML for the uploader page, so the boatname field does not appear:

<inpu t class="formInputText"...

Edit: pixUpload2.php is fine, its pixUpload3.php that has the issue...

Rick

 

[shmoo]

rikp - I am obliged. Now fixed.

 

[shmoo]

exif data. Just been off to google it. Yeh, I would think so. Will look in to it.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I use a program called view exif to read the data on on-line images. I don't know if it will help you to create something for on-line interrogation that can be done automatically.

Maybe a mail to the writer might get you the source code for his proggy as he is a hobbyist who just shares it with the world..

http://ak.no-ip.com/

It may just give you some ideas of how to write your own code.

 

[shmoo]

Thanks. I didn't know such stuff existed until rikp's message. Bit insular here in the ivory tower.

It looks fairly straightforward actually: php has a function to read it into an array. There are the usual horror stories of different manufacturers formating the fields differently and tales of XP stripping it off altogether...

Will see if I can pop it up as the default and let uploader edit it if its wrong/they don't like it.

 

[wingdiver]

Dreamer of the Day is the boat on the Orwell.

 

[shmoo]

Thanks. I've updated it.

 

[Jomo]

I guessed it was you that edited Dreamer, I don't suppose anyone else has the permissions. Thanks

 

[shmoo]

That's right. Sorry - couldn't keep my fingers off!

 

[Searush]

In case you hadn't guessed, Yup, that's me off Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey. But I have to admit I cheated by posting it myself! Then, I guess that's pretty obvious too, as the piccy was taken from on board!

Just an old Nokia phone, easy to use even when you're busy. It's nice to see her with a bone in her teeth. Most of that trip had to be under engine at full power to beat the Swellies and other tidal gates.

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Liz_I]

Fantastic to see Hydrogen, we charted her for our 'big leaving/retirement party in the Pool of London in '97!

 

[shmoo]

Yup, I used to be a "photographer" with a Rollei, lightmeter and all that, and and still have a complicated Nikon, but it just gathers dust since I realized my phone would take pictures!

 

[DeeGee]

I think this is a great thing you are doing. Just the sort of thing needed, and the sort of thing one thinks of doing but never does! Can I suggest that you include a route (poster's email address, optional for the poster, or SB moniker?) for a finder to get a higher resolution image from the poster? If I have a 59M raw image of someone's boat, then upload a little jpeg as one of a group, it will be a few-K as an upload, and the finder will not be able to print a fine piccy of his boat at A4 for example. I would be quite happy to send a hi-res image if someone wanted it, and suspect some others may feel the same. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[shmoo]

Thanks for kind words...

I understand the problem and would really welcome suggestions to address it.

The issues are these: 1) No one wants their e-mail address on a public website and 2) I am trying not to introduce registration because of the admin overhead and I think it is a real barrier to participation.

I think I was sort of expecting folks to use the existing forum as a means of communication. Lots of uploaders use nicknames that match their fourm handles. I think if you were to upload with a nickname of "Dembigh" or even "Dembigh at ybw" people would know how to contact you.

What I am planning to do over next couple of weeks, sailing and work permitting, is to provide a one-way back-channel from viewers to the uploader, which the uploader (only) would be able to see from the picture's edit page, subject to entering their original PIN. This could be used for simply saying "thanks = that was me" or for providing the uploader with an e-mail address to start an offsite conversation. (Ok to have e-mail address there because only the uploader can access it)

An alternative, I suppose, would be to provide an extra place to upload really big pics and provide a seperate url to it along with a caution about the size.