Rotated images test

[Jim]

iPhone 7 images. via Phone - taken, cropped for smaller size, uploaded to the post.

[speedkills]

This is a test of the emergency entertainment system.

[open_circuit]

No good on auto rotate yet. I like seeing the permanent CB in that rig, Shane. That should be a nice improvement over the portable.

[Jim]

Let's have some folks posting images from different OS's / devices.

So far, my iPhone 7 images work as desired but Shane's do not. What device / OS are you using Shane?

[The StRanger]

Wife.

[speedkills]

No good on auto rotate yet. I like seeing the permanent CB in that rig, Shane. That should be a nice improvement over the portable.

Max talked me into finally getting a decent CB, haven't gotten around to mounting the antenna yet though, need to find a nice way to route the cable. Could be this weekends project.

[speedkills]

Not sure what it is about it, but I always enjoy seeing an engine on a stand, feels like good things are going to happen soon.

[Jim]

Shane - what device / OS are you using for your pictures? Are you uploading them direct from the device to the forum or is there an intermediate step you're using? What is different for your pictures than mine and Sam.

[speedkills]

I'm using an iPhone 11 max. Uploading directly from my device. It works if I upload to any other forum, or any other forum and link to it from here, just not directly from here. Didn't mean to cause so much trouble with this, I thought this was just a known forum issue with the image rendering software with a known fix to swap it out for a different one but I hate to have you go through all of this effort just for me, and it seems not to impact anyone else. I wonder if I'm the only one using a newer iPhone, or if everyone else uploads from a laptop maybe?

[open_circuit]

I have other issues with the forum image software (apparently I exceeded image quota, but Jim can't find where a quota is set), so I don't upload directly to the forums any longer at all. Either way, I don't often use my phone to post here, because the forum is painful to use on a small mobile device.

[Jim]

Thx.

It has been a long time, somewhat under the radar, issue. Now is a good time to clean this cobweb out of the engine bay.

[Jim]

(apparently I exceeded image quota, but Jim can't find where a quota is set)

Please refresh my memory. Image quotas (max width/height, file size) are listed on the image upload page.

[speedkills]

Oh yeah, come to think of it Trent, I post about 2/3rd of the time from my iPad, but same issues.

[open_circuit]

Please refresh my memory. Image quotas (max width/height, file size) are listed on the image upload page.

If I try to upload a new photo, I get a pop-up windows that says:
Front Range 4x4 Message

This photo exceeds your total album file-size quota by 929.2 KB.

Note that this pop-up window and message is the only thing I get now when I click "upload pictures" from my photo albums page when logged in.

So the only way for me to get under the limit is to delete old photos, which are generally linked in old trail run report threads. I'm stuck with a choice of breaking the old threads or not uploading any new photos.

[Jim]

Thanks. Let me do some digging...

[Jim]

Trent - Thanks for the note. Please try uploading again. I think I found the setting. This graphic might be of interest.

[Jim]

Shane - Try an iPad photo upload - might it work differently than your iPhone?

[open_circuit]

Trent - Thanks for the note. Please try uploading again. I think I found the setting. This graphic might be of interest.

Looks like success. I did not receive the error message when I hit the upload button. I have to find a photo to upload this afternoon and try to take this to it's conclusion.

[Tom]

Ipad photo uploads. The rotated one was taken in portrait mode

[Spieg]

I believe I have encountered the rotation issue on another forum that used the same platform as FR4x4 ("vBulletin" I think is the name?). IIRC, the problem is that Apple does not use the same method of designating which way is up as most/all other cameras or phones (leave it to Apple to be different just for the heck of it). The vBulletin developers have been aware of the problem for years but apparently have no intention of fixing it. Other platforms have developed methods to compensate for the issue with Apple photos.

[speedkills]

As I read it, there are 3 image rendering library options for vBullitin, only one of them supports the apple rotation flag. If that is the case, i can understand why vBullitin devs don't want to address it themselves, as it's a layer below them and they want you to just swap out the rendering library. Of course, I may have read that wrong, but do we have the ability to find out what rendering library is used on our server? Is it one or multiple servers? In someones garage, or hosted by a hosting service?

[speedkills]

Reading a bit more into this as I've done some imaging software in the past, the specification Apple uses is plain old Exif (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif) buuuuut, vbulletin doesn't support Exif which surprised me a bit, I thought everyone and their uncle supported Exif, but maybe vBulletin is drunk uncle? Jim, do you know which version of vBulletin we are running?

The latest info I see on version 5.5.5 is that if imagick is used exif rotation will be respected, it will not for GD. There is also an open issue from 4 years ago to add a manual rotation button, but that looks like it will never happen, and I suppose if there is a library that makes auto-rotation work then it's probably of fairly low value for them to add a button.

I can certainly see why they would strip Exif data out, it may have gps location and other private data in it, but they really should have saved the orientation data before throwing the Exif data away.

[speedkills]

GD says they will never fix the rotation issue, because the bug was around for so long that people have worked around it themselves, basically depending on the bug so now they can never fix it. https://github.com/libgd/libgd/issues/341 Oh man, software is hard, I've run into this many times before (hyrem's law I think?), and of course, there is even an XKCD about it. https://xkcd.com/1172/

[Jim]

vBulletin centric hosting service. Shared server I believe / nothing special.

vBulletin Image Settings: None, GD, ImageMagick 6 with ImageMagick currently enabled.

A primary reason I didn't stir the waters to tend this in the past is that this version of vBulletin is not mobile friendly. Overall, if we wish to have a mobile friendly forum, which would include image rotation, we're switching versions. I believe I did stir the waters on "do we wish to upgrade" and as I recall - let it be was the answer (otherwise we would have changed). If anyone wishes to stir the waters, start a thread in this forum and we'll see where it goes. I'm game though it's a group decision.

[Jim]

which version of vBulletin we are running?

4.2.5

Chris built this place. I ended up with the keys and mostly change oil, keep the tank full, and enjoy the ride.

[Jim]

Possible forum rebuild thread from 2015
www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?24011-Possible-Forum-Rebuild-What-features-do-we-need-want-post-build (http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?24011-Possible-Forum-Rebuild-What-features-do-we-need-want-post-build)

Back then we were having issues of forum bombs - requiring our host either restoring from backup or tending the issue. In the end, they dug into the error and found some long turned-off, but still installed, plug-in issue. They disabled it and we've been up since then (years). The mobile friendly and rotated images issues were on the table back then.

[speedkills]

Thanks for the version number Jim. If we're on 4.2.5 then ImageMagick alone wouldn't fix it (as we can see) but at least it means the software is available on the server to fix it. Do we have the ability to install plugins? There is a plugin specifically for v4 with ImageMagick that is supposed to fix the problem by adding the -auto-rotate flag to calls to ImageMagick.

https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=318291

[speedkills]

Also, for kicks I'm going to test upoading an image from my ipad that is quite small, to see if it bypasses the image resizing library and maybe just works. Not expecting much, but worth a test.

[speedkills]

Oh well, no luck there.

[Jim]

I'll give that plug-in a try before closing shop for the night...

[Jim]

Try it now.

EDIT: Of note, images uploaded prior stay as they were uploaded. New uploads are supposed to be tended and auto-rotated upright.

Of note, folks, please comment to me if you have problems with photo uploads. Comments on this add-in are that some have issues with image attachment uploads failing.

[speedkills]

testing

[Tom]

Testing

[Jim]

Another “taken sideways” from my phone since making forum change.

(edit - and it shows in proper orientation).

Hmm - I learned something new (and is an often problem for folks - photo size being too large for forum use)! On the phone, there was a blue link on the photo selection page (photo size) where I could choose different sizes - NICE! (IOS v13.4)

[Tom]

Test still rotated here

[speedkills]

Sorry I just disappeared in the middle of testing, I haven't been feeling well but better now.

[Jim]

`hope you'e doing better.

IMO - it'll remain an unresolved issue as long as we're with v4 vBulletin.

[speedkills]

I sure appreciate you taking a swing at it, and I'm inclined to agree with you about v4.