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How to Opt-In to Multiple Images Feature
When your store is upgraded to use multiple images for your products, you will need to be aware of some changes on the storefront, in the store administration area, and in the store maintenance processes. This FAQ contains important information and pointers to help you move to the new multiple images format.
About the New Multiple Product Images Feature in ProStores
Starting with release 9.3.1, ProStores allows you to associate up to 4 product images for each product in your store. Further, each of the four product images will be automatically resized to three different sizes: small, medium, and large, provided that the original uploaded image meets certain size requirements. This means that your customers can have access to up to 12 images of your product.
Image Usage Contexts
The first image that you associate with your product will be used as the primary product image and will be displayed in storefront searches, product list, and product detail pages. Other images - secondary images - will be available as thumbnails from the product detail page so you can provide additional product views to your customers.
Listed below are the different image sizes and how they will be used on the storefront:
Small - 100px
Search results, product list pages, home page and thumbnails on product detail pages
Medium - 300px
Main photo image for the product detail page
Displayed when customers hover over small sized thumbnails on product detail page
Displayed for zoomed in view if a higher sized image not available
Large - 650px
Displayed for zoomed in view when customer clicks on medium-sized image
Conversion Criteria
If the images in your store meet the pre-requisites for the multiple images feature, they will be automatically converted and reassigned to your products. In general, all images that do not contain "_thumb" in their file names will be converted to the new multiple images format and reassigned to your products. Depending on the sizes of the image, the original image will be resized to up to 3 different sizes for best display on the storefront. Generated images are downsized from the original uploaded image, so some image sizes may not be generated if the original image size is too small.
The following table correlates the size of the uploaded image with whether or not a small, medium, or large image will be generated.
Note: If the longest side of the image is less than 100 pixels, then the image is not resized, and the image itself is saved as the small version.
What changes should I expect in the Store Administration area?
* Assigning images to products
The Images section of the Add Product page has been updated to simplify the image association feature. It now consists of the Product Images area with 4 placeholder image containers and an Available Images area with a scrolling list of thumbnails of the images available in your store. You can drag and drop images from the Available Images list into the Product Images containers to associate them with your products.
* Uploading product images
In addition to the Support > Upload Images option, you can also use the Product > Images section to upload product images.
Note: Going forward, you will need to upload product images before you upload product details into your store.
Any image conversion and resizing rules I should know about?
Yes. We recommend that you read all product image rules and considerations to better understand this new feature. See Product Images for more information.
Will I need to re-upload product images or re-assign them to my products?
No. Images associated with products in your store will be automatically converted and resized after your store is upgraded to use multiple images. All images assigned to products will be converted and automatically re-assigned as primary images, unless they have "_thumb" in the file name. To view or manage the converted images, browse to Product > Images in Store Administration.
If you have manually uploaded a thumbnail image for a product instead of using the automatically generated thumbnail image, and if it doesn't have "_thumb" in the file name, it will also be converted and associated with your product as a secondary image.
All image resizing and conversion is subject to the image resolution requirements. See Product Images for more information.
I can see all my existing product images in the catalog folder. Can I still use the catalog directory to upload or associate product images?
All images, both converted and non-converted, will remain available from the catalog directory. This will ensure that any direct/hard-coded links to images on your storefront do not break after your store has been converted to use the new image format. However, any new images that you upload going forward will not be available from the catalog folder. To manage both converted and new images, use the Product > Images area.
What do I do with the unused images from the catalog directory?
We recommend that you export your store images from your catalog directory and re-upload them using the Upload button from Product > Images, or from the Support > Upload Images area. These images will be resized and converted to the new image format and will be available on the Product > Images page for you to manage.
As you move toward using multiple images for all your products, we strongly recommend that you delete images from your catalog directory to save on store disk space.
Can I FTP images to the File Management Area and use them for products?
You can no longer FTP images to the File Management area or to the catalog directory. Going forward post-conversion, any images that you do upload to this area will not be available for assignment to products. You must upload images to the media_upload directory instead. This directory is a holding area for the images that you upload until they are resized and converted to the new multiple product images storage format. After the conversion, the images will be deleted from this area and placed in the Product > Images area.
Note: For system and store efficiency, we recommend that you only upload new or modified images to this directory after all the images in your store have been converted to the new image format.
Do I need to modify direct image references on the storefront?
Yes. We strongly recommend that you modify all direct references to use the new image formats.
If you have direct references to catalog images on storefront templates, you can convert these references to use the new mediaImage method off of the Store business object.
As an example, instead of using
use
Alternatively, if you have assigned this media image to your product, you can also reference it from the Product object as follows:
Note: The storefront variables, $product.photoImage and $product.thumbnailImage, default to the medium-sized and small-sized primary product images respectively.
I use image references in other fields (ISBN, MPN, UPC, Custom 1-6). How should I modify image references in these fields?
The ISBN, MPC, UPC, Custom 1-6 fields are meant to provide specific information about your products and intended to enhance customer search results. If you use image references in these fields, we recommend that you convert your products to use the new multiple images feature instead and assign additional images to your products.
Can I continue to use my existing product import file?
Existing product import files will continue to work after image conversion. Images in the ‘photo’ column will be treated as ‘media1’ and the images in the ‘thumbnail’ column will be treated as ‘media2’.
Note: Going forward after conversion, you will need to upload image files before you upload the product data for your products.
After your store has been converted, a product export file will show product image file names in the mediaItem1, mediaItem2, mediaItem3, and mediaItem4 column
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