solved Nervous about re-sizing images

A test run shows I can save 1 GB of space by resizing my images even to the largest limit (2048 pixels). That would be welcome, and I imagine it will allow photos to load faster too. But I'm nervous about pushing the button and potentially damaging 7 years of images irreversibly.

My site relies on sharing photos of detailed craft work; I need to see clear images and often zoom in on details. The projected space savings is so significant (shrinking my image file storage to 20% of its current size) that I'm afraid I might lose significant quality. From your experience, should I be afraid? I suppose in the worst case scenario, I could go back and re-import the original files from Ning if I'm unhappy, right? Do I have anything to lose?

Would you offer any warnings or encouragement before I push the button?
updated by @lesrinchen: 12/19/16 02:27:46AM

Create a copy of your site, then reduce the image size, then check the results.

If your results are generally acceptable (decompressing will affect different images in different ways) then make a backup so you have copies of all images, then go for it.

Make sure you have that backup so it is reversible.


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¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

Good idea, SteveX. Now I just have to learn how to make a copy of my site and back up. I'll get there. Thanks!

You can create another (dummy) domain on your Jamroom server and then use the tools available to you in your Hosting Control Panel ( https://www.jamroom.net/lesrinchen/hosting/dashboard) to copy the existing site to the new one, BUT as you are currently using 3GB of your 4GB server this won't work unless you increase the server to 8GB say.
Alternatively, from your Hosting Control Panel you can invoke a full backup at any time thought this may be up to 24 hours old so you would lose any other changes made since the last backup.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Nope, all images will already be being cached and run through the image system. You probably wont notice any speed increase.

Like here on jamroom.net you can see my image here:
https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/icon

and you can view it at any of the allowed sizes:
so any of those URLs will work

https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/24
https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/40
https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/128
https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/256
https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/320
https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/800
https://www.jamroom.net/user/image/user_image/4/1280

But no other sizes will, so if your user uploads a 4000x4000 then viewed in a skin, it will probably show one of the set sizes.
updated by @michael: 09/15/16 09:01:01PM

Les, later on when you have time you may also want to look into installing the DB Backup & Restore module and opening an Amazon AWS 'bucket' account to do additional site backups on:
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/22/db-and-system-backup

There's a good JR tutorial step by step ...and if I managed to do it somehow, anyone can.
That doesn't address your current scenario, but it's handy to setup for the future and gives more peace of mind.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Thanks, Strumelia. You're my role model and inspiration! I'm going to put this image resize on hold until I can wait 24 hours without changing anything, to be sure my backup's up-to-date. And yes, I'll look at the DB Backup & Restore module one of these days too. Moving forward inch by inch.

Could I increase my server for just a month to go through this process, then drop back down when I'm confident my image sizes are okay?

If I do this, I'd create a dummy domain on the server, then use the Import a site button to copy my existing site over, is that right? Then I could resize my images and look back and forth between the two to make sure the quality's not too far reduced.

upgrading or downgrading a server is easy, just click "Change Server Plan" button from here:
https://www.jamroom.net/lesrinchen/hosting/server_tools/253

Our plans are pro-rated, so you'll only be charged for the length of time you use the larger server, not the whole month.

Just adding to what Michael said, yes, upgrade to an 8G server then create a test domain for the site, stitchingbuddhastest.com, say and copy the actual site into it.
You might then want to consider keeping this test site so that when stitchingbuddhas.com is live, you have a test site to try things out on prior to upgrading the live site. Just a thought


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist
updated by @paul: 09/19/16 02:31:44AM

This is a terrific thread and it's helping me for when i too will be creating a test site from a copy of my existing site. Thank you all!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Thanks, Paul and Michael! Now I know what I'll be up to today! Glad it's helpful to you too, Strumelia!

Running into some difficulty. I installed the Hosting Transfer module on my main site. I increased my server to 8GB. I created a new domain, sbtestcom.jamroomhosting.com. (I don't own the domain sb-test.com, but I don't think that matters as I'm not going to set up remote DNS, just using this for my own backend tests on the Jamroom server. screenshot 1) I copied my access key from the Hosting Transfer Global Config. I copied my jamroom SFTP password from the server settings. And I tried to start import. But I keep getting an error. Unable to login to SFTP (screenshot 2). Tried with both stitchingbuddhas.com and stitchingbuddhascom.jamroomhosting.com in the existing Jamroom URL field. What am I missing?

In the meantime, my whole server is running very slow... so maybe something else is going on or maybe I'm trying to move through steps too quickly.

Second screenshot: port number on jamroom hosting is 222 not 22. Thats probably the issue.

No problem with not owning the sb-test.com domain.

That was it! Thanks Michael. And the test re-size looks good.

Many thanks to Strumelia for bringing image-resize to my awareness!