Images For Everybody on the Sueetie Wall

Images uploaded directly from the desktop are now supported on the Sueetie Wall.  A single message image is displayed with larger dimensions, while multiple images are displayed with somewhat smaller dimensions. Each image is linked to a full-size version of the image which is displayed in a separate browser tab. Here is a screenshot with two wall messages displaying multiple and single images.

The Image Upload Process

Images are uploaded prior to a message being posted using a simple procedure shown below. To display the image upload area click on the "camera" icon.

When files are selected they are listed with a delete icon for removal if the user changes their mind.

Click "Upload Images" to physically upload the images to the server for associated display with the Wall Message. Again, a delete icon gives the user the option to remove any images from display.

Configuring your Wall Image Sizes

Three versions of a image are created when a user uploads a wall image. Those are a) a small size, b) a medium or optimized size, and c) the original image. Uploading the original image is one of the wall settings which you can chose to not support. Our approach to wall images is that disk space is cheap, but performance is everything, so we use multiple images to optimize performance by displaying the appropriate image size based on the context.

To accommodate larger image files you will want to include a maxRequestLength property in your web.config.

<httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0" maxRequestLength="40960"/>

Image Storage

Images are stored in /images/walls/WALLID/YEAR/USERID. This path logic demonstrates how we built Sueetie Walls to support multiple instances of Walls. It also enables Sueetie Sites to report on the amount of disk storage used by individual walls and users for accounting or billing purposes.

Images filenames are stored as IMAGEID.IMAGESIZE.jpg. Image sizes are: "Sm," "Md," and "Org" for small, medium and original. Here are examples of how one file with imageID = 100 would be stored. UserID = 288.

/images/walls/1/2011/288/100.Sm.jpg
/images/walls/1/2011/288/100.Md.jpg
/images/walls/1/2011/288/100.Org.jpg

Displaying the Original Image

In the initial release of The Wall, message images are linked to the original version of the image which displays in a separate browser tab. We plan to enhance that functionality by displaying images on a separate Sueetie Page to support analytics reporting and inline image paging.