Downloading images and using locally?

[Bluesplayer]

Hi

I am developing a range of shops in sub domains from each category of the v3 software. I have just created a 'Fashion' shop - http://fashion.bluesplayer.co.uk - which will have a large thumbnail here: http://shopping.bluesplayer.co.uk, as will all the sections. I am wondering if there is a way to cache all the category images locally as the displaying of images is definitely a severe weak point with the client software. For instance images haven't been displaying for hours today yet the links are all there in place. Is it possible to download certain category images and use them locally?

Another point! Why not use the same image for the thumbnail as for the product image? I figure if your system is supplying images fine then it can also supply slightly larger images too in more or less the same time. It seems to me that if there is a bottleneck or hold up on image downloading they will either download or not so size isn't too much of a concern. If the same image is used for the thumb and product display then the product display will show instantly and neatly.

"Displaying images is a severe weak point with the client software".

I am surprised there are not more people posting about this on here.

Regards
Mark

[Confuscius]

Displaying images is a severe weak point with the client software

This has ALWAYS been an issue for the client software to the extent that it eventually renders most indexed shop window sites useless in the eyes of Google since the page construction times are so slow.

Personally, because of the delays caused on heavily indexed sites then I have my servers configured to kill all processing tasks that are running over MY time limit for a reasonable load time otherwise the waiting just clogs up the server with hundreds of never ending tasks which affects my other non shop window sites. This basically means that I have sacrificed a lot of my SW income to protect what is more important stuff, in my eyes.

Google knows the SW footprint well and does a good job at removing SW sites from its index, can you blame them?

[Bluesplayer]

Hell. Don't like the sound of that. Think I am barking up the wrong tree and wasting my time. Will have to have another rethink on where to go with the shopping side of my site.

[Bluesplayer]

I left site designing for 24 hours thinking the image problem would go away - nope! The reason being was that Firefox had updated something and small images on websites stopped loading! Nothing to do with the shopwindow client. I realized this after trying explorer on various sites and could see that images were where they were supposed to be.

So appologies to the shopwindow client guys as it was my own fault that the images were not showing. My new fashion site is working great now. Laptop site next...

Regards
Bluesplayer

[GeorgeGaz]

Hi Bluesplayer,

Glad to hear that you have that all sorted.

Cheers