Bug fix - thumbnail size problem and PNG files. FIG is now PHP5 only.

Thumbnail Resizing Bug

A bug where thumbnails could not be created at any other size other than 100 x 100 has been fixed. This bug accompanied an error like below as described in this forum post:

Warning: imagesx(): supplied argument is not a valid Image resource in /fig/makethumbs.php on line 60
Warning: imagesy(): supplied argument is not a valid Image resource in /fig/makethumbs.php on line 61

The error only occurred on servers using PHP5 (as far as I know). The script that the gallery uses to resize thumbnails has been updated. Unfortunately, the latest version of phpThumb does not work with PHP4. So this bug fixed version of FIG and any future upgrades will be PHP5 only and the server will need GD 2.0+. If your using PHP4 don't upgrade the phpThumb folder.

Better PNG Support for Borders set to Zero

Another quirk that has been fixed is that setting borders to zero in FIG did not actually removed the border completely. When set to zero the thumbnail images simply covered up the box that made the borders. For almost everyone this is not an issue. If you used PNG files with transparency or GIF files with transparency then it causes the border to be seen through the image. Now setting borders to zero will remove the border completely and PNG's and GIF's will be fully transparent.

Slight Interface Change

There is one slight interface change. Thumbnails will no longer fade when they are rolled over. Instead the contrast for the thumbnails will increase. Seemed like a better and more flash-like behavior to use.

Forum is acting weird

The whole site was switched to a new host at the end of December. For some reason the forum seems to point back to the old host once in a while and shows the latest post as one from December. I will be fiddling with some files in the forum, so don't be surprised if it goes down for a bit or is sporadic.

Troubles Embedding Fig?

There have been a lot of troubles reported by people trying to embed Fig in their website. In light of that, I have changed the embed code and rewritten the documentation on how to place fig in your website. All the examples on the demo page use the new simplified embed code. You can view the source on those pages for examples on how to embed fig.

I also suggest using a crossdomain.xml file to alleviate any problems, as is explained in the documentation on how to place fig in your website.

I was using the swfObject method for flash detection, but it was causing problems on different browsers. If you would still like to use swfObject, you can download it from their site.

The new method I am using for embedding flash content is to make it as simple as possible using the Flash Satay method. My theory is that people can get fig working quicker with this method and if they need a more robust solution they can add swfOject or something else later.

If you have been having troubles embedding fig, give the new documentation a look over.

FigPro Update: Flickr Integration

FigPro now has basic flickr integration for photostreams and photosets. More details on the flickr integration documentation page.

FigPro also has a new setting in the XML settings called galleryPadTop which will determine at what height thumbnails will start. Normally all thumbnails start just below the navigation menu, but that extra spacing is not needed when the removeNav setting is set to true and no navigation is shown. Now thumbnails can start at the top by setting galleryPadTop to zero.

Demo 5 - Light Window Integration

I put up one more demo on the demos page. Demo 5 uses the light window script to show how a link can be made anywhere in a website to display Fig in a popup using light window. Also in Demo 5 there is a second link that demonstrates sending the two flash vars that fig accepts through the querystring.

For the people that do a little digging, this can present one small problem:

• How do you make a link to one gallery but still have a page where you show all your galleries?

This problem occurs because the removeNav setting is set in the settings.xml file. The solution is actually pretty simple. Make a second settings.xml file (maybe called settings_no_nav.xml) that has removeNav set to true and use that one for the settingsPath flash var along with setting the defaultGallery flash var.

If this is confusing, don't worry. I'm not explaining it that well. I just wanted to show another way that Fig can be used and hopefully Demo 5 shows that.

I need to do some editing on the demos page. Looks too crowded.

FigPro For Sale

FigPro is now for sale on the downloads page. The price is $24.95 and this does not include the source actionscript files. The XML settings page has been updated to display the extra settings that the Pro Version has. A license page has also been added.

Please make sure to try out FigLite before making a purchase. It should give you a good idea if it's worth it for you or not.

I guess I'm going to transition to doing some marketing of Fig for a short while instead of more features. There haven't been any feature requests in the forum, but I have a few in mind.

In other news, I'm getting excited for the release of Expression Engine 2.0 on December 1st. It's a great CMS system and I'm looking forward in trying to integrate Fig with it and generally just playing around with it. Now I just need to scrounge up a $100 for a license to buy it.

Adventures in Selling Software

I have been looking for a way to sell figPro on the internet, but it seems the exact setup I want would need to be custom made. It's hard for me to believe that I can't find a service or system that can do the following:

• Sell multiple licenses of the same product
• Provide a members area to download updates
• Tracks how many licenses of a product a member owns

aMember Pro is the closest solution, but some coding has to be done to allow multiple purchases of the same product. I did find a promising product called webber, but it is no longer actively supported.

I have decided to sign up with fastspring and will have to figure out something from there. They do not have subscriptions for memberships, so my thought is to offer a coupon discount (50% off?) to past purchasers when an update comes out. I'm not even sure that can be done.

After my disappointing search for the right solution, I did think about making a custom solution using PayPal IPN and a basic membership management area with MySQL and PHP. Given my lack of time, that would have been a longer process than I would like and there are always unforeseen problems. There would also be a need for more features like another gateway besides PayPal. And then there is the fact that I have no idea how many sales that might be done. If I only get two sales, then all my time would be for squat anyway. I'm better off using a service like fastspring to start and seeing what happens.

So, figPro should be up for purchase/download sometime this week if my fastspring account gets setup any time soon.

First Update to Fig

Wow. That didn't take long. The new Fig has been up for less than 24 hours and there is a new update. Sorry about that folks.

I added an XML setting called "navText" to the settings.xml file. This setting lets you change the standard "Navigation" text to any text you would like. This seemed like a crucial thing since different languages would need to translate this text. Started a change log in the documentation too.

On the same topic of making Fig multilingual, I updated the FAQ section to show people how to change the "Home" text that shows at the top of the navigation.