Images & Graphics subdirectory numbers

[Miss Kate]

Well, I'm glad I didn't do the website updates I was planning on doing since a new update revision came out today. Recently I discovered that since the inception of the multiple numbered graphic partition subdirectories, I'm missing many images when I FTP into my website directories. Luckily, I have a graphics directory saved on my computer from my 5.5 days that has all the images I'm missing.

When the graphics subdirectory partitiioning first occurred, I was one of the first to discover a problem with it. Is it completely stable at this point? This is the last time I'm going to add my images back onto the website since I am the maker of my product besides doing all the website work. I have yet to discover how they disappeared in the first place. Right now I have partitions 1 and 2 along with images directory below the 1 subdirectory in the graphics folder. I plan on double checking the images in that folder to see if they are duplicated in folder 1 before I delete them from the graphics subdirectory.

Can I add multiple partitioning subdirectory folders to the graphics folder? All of my missing images I plan on putting in a folder marked 3 and continue on from there. How many partitioning subfolders can I have under the Graphics directory? Also, I can't remember how many files can be in each folder.

[ILoveHostasaurus]

Those partitioned folders are intended to be utilized by Miva Merchant as part of the image management functions. The reason it's doing that is to keep the number of files per directory relatively small, which can result in significant performance gains when they're served. So, you would not normally create them manually, it will add new ones as the quantity of images it manages in each folder reaches the limit.

If you manage the images outside of Merchant, and just configure the image paths at the product level manually, my recommendation would be to attempt to mimic what Merchant is doing via your own file management in a way that is easy to utilize. The goal is to try to avoid having more than 1000 files per directory, so depending on how your images are named, perhaps using the alphabet as subdirectories would be easy to sort the files into, or something along those lines.

[Miss Kate]

Those partitioned folders are intended to be utilized by Miva Merchant as part of the image management functions. The reason it's doing that is to keep the number of files per directory relatively small, which can result in significant performance gains when they're served. So, you would not normally create them manually, it will add new ones as the quantity of images it manages in each folder reaches the limit.

If you manage the images outside of Merchant, and just configure the image paths at the product level manually, my recommendation would be to attempt to mimic what Merchant is doing via your own file management in a way that is easy to utilize. The goal is to try to avoid having more than 1000 files per directory, so depending on how your images are named, perhaps using the alphabet as subdirectories would be easy to sort the files into, or something along those lines.

So can I create a partitioning folder 3 manually or will it screw up my website more than it already is? What irritates me about this whole process is that I never had more than 1000 images in the graphics/0000001/ folder in the first place and it was partitioned into 1 and 2 by Miva Merchant. Several times over the past year I have had to change the image pointers on many of my products under several categories because it seems like it lost the partitioning information. Thus my question as to whether or not this is a stable operation at this point. If files are partitioned automatically into another subfolder, why when updating Image Management, does the link pointing to the graphic not update also? It is extremely time consuming to continually monitor this operation when you can't afford to hire someone to monitor it for you. I've been using Miva Merchant since 2003 and this has been the most disruptive process I've had to deal with so far.

[ILoveHostasaurus]

You should not create manual folders to mimic what the store may do at some point; that may behave unpredictably. If you're managing your images outside of Merchant, the recommendation would be to not use image machine and create your own image directory hierarchy in a different parent directory, or use names that will not conflict.

Stores that had images created before Image Machine would not have those images touched, as the pointers exist in legacy product image variables the partitioning feature doesn't look at.

If the files in question were part of image management, then their paths would normally update automatically when someone chooses to execute the Partition Images feature. There is an open bug related to the Shadows ReadyTheme (MM-10041) which support can fill you in on if you are using that theme and believe it may be the issue. Otherwise, we have had numerous stores use the feature and have not had this type of occurrence reported, so it would probably need to be investigated specific to your store with our support group. Ideally they would need to know the time it was noticed and some example products, paths, image names, so they can work backwards in the logs.

[Miss Kate]

You should not create manual folders to mimic what the store may do at some point; that may behave unpredictably. If you're managing your images outside of Merchant, the recommendation would be to not use image machine and create your own image directory hierarchy in a different parent directory, or use names that will not conflict.

Stores that had images created before Image Machine would not have those images touched, as the pointers exist in legacy product image variables the partitioning feature doesn't look at.

If the files in question were part of image management, then their paths would normally update automatically when someone chooses to execute the Partition Images feature. There is an open bug related to the Shadows ReadyTheme (MM-10041) which support can fill you in on if you are using that theme and believe it may be the issue. Otherwise, we have had numerous stores use the feature and have not had this type of occurrence reported, so it would probably need to be investigated specific to your store with our support group. Ideally they would need to know the time it was noticed and some example products, paths, image names, so they can work backwards in the logs.

Yes, it looks like I'm using the Shadows ReadyTheme framework. That's really disappointing to hear.

[ILoveHostasaurus]

Actually it does not sound like that is the issue; that was a release candidate 1 bug that was resolved, and the remaining issue affects just a category tree image, not product images like it sounds you're seeing. I'd suggest the support route.