interactive picture upload

[Guest]

My web designer said that this couldn't be done...but I can't believe it. I am a hat maker and I want my website to be more interactive with my customers. I love using FP and will probably never use all of its functions but there must be a way to let my clients upload a picture of themselves and then drag one of my hats to their picture so they can virtually 'try on' one of my hats to see how it would look on them. I've already had them send me pictures and I have put the hat on them and sent it back. I would love for them to be able to do this on my site. Can this be done? Is it possible without being a Fortune 500 company? I am a competant amateur when it comes to graphics but I would rather make hats than learn any complex coding. I also have a very cooperative and cool hosting company but I don't know what I need to ask them. Can anyone help me?

 

[Mike Mueller]

My web designer said that this couldn't be done...but I can't believe it.

I am a hat maker and I want my website to be more interactive with my
customers. I love using FP and will probably never use all of its functions
but there must be a way to let my clients upload a picture of themselves and
then drag one of my hats to their picture so they can virtually 'try on' one
of my hats to see how it would look on them. I've already had them send me
pictures and I have put the hat on them and sent it back. I would love for
them to be able to do this on my site. Can this be done? Is it possible
without being a Fortune 500 company? I am a competant amateur when it comes
to graphics but I would rather make hats than learn any complex coding. I
also have a very cooperative and cool hosting company but I don't know what
I need to ask them. Can anyone help me?

Could it be done: Yes
Easy to do: Not very easily (read: expensive)
Why: The real nightmare is going to be the fact that people are going to
send picture in various formats, sizes and resolutions. You would need to
standardize these images before you could proceed. Then you would need to
extract picture informtion with some 'intelligence' to find the persons
hairline, and then make a new image with the original on the bottom and the
hat on the top.

Once you get past that it would be easy

Mike

 

[Guest]

Mike
what I had in mind was a lot more low tech. I can see that you are envisioning a one click type situation...sounds expensive to me too. But I had thought that a simple drag and drop would do it as long as the picture of the person was put in a fixed size frame. Many folks these days with digital cameras can send a jpeg when asked and specific size and resolution when told what to send. So then how can a person upload a picture to a website and how can I use FP to facilitate it ?

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

If you use FP to upload a file to web site, then file is uploaded into a
folder, then you would have to open the live site in FP to retrieve the
uploaded file.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

Mike,
what I had in mind was a lot more low tech. I can see that you are

envisioning a one click type situation...sounds expensive to me too. But I
had thought that a simple drag and drop would do it as long as the picture
of the person was put in a fixed size frame. Many folks these days with
digital cameras can send a jpeg when asked and specific size and resolution
when told what to send. So then how can a person upload a picture to a
website and how can I use FP to facilitate it ?

 

[Guest]

Well, I guess I have to believe what everyone has told me and give up on my idea. It seemed so simple but I guess it's ahead of its time. I managed a Java script drag, but all I needed was for my client to upload their own picture and use the drag function. I guess I just have to make a model for them to play with instead.

Thank you all for your input...
Back to the drawing board sadder but wiser,
Kat

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Depending on what server your site is hosted on, you should be able to use a
server-side script or application to allow the user to upload a photo and
then immediately access it to use with your JavaScript. Is hosted on Windows
IIS with ASP or ASP.net, there many upload script available.

However as someone pointed out, you will not have control over the upload
image, so trying to set a function where you overlay something on the upload
image will be interesting since the actual photos will all be shot from
different view points.

The FP upload function is meant to allow users to upload files to the site,
then the webmaster would open the site and access the upload files, etc. The
FP component does not allow for the uploaded files to appear directly on the
site, unless a page have already been designed and hard coded with the
filename already linked to the filename that has been upload to the specific
folder within the web.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

Well, I guess I have to believe what everyone has told me and give up on

my idea. It seemed so simple but I guess it's ahead of its time. I managed a
Java script drag, but all I needed was for my client to upload their own
picture and use the drag function. I guess I just have to make a model for
them to play with instead.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

It's hardly ahead of its time. However, it would require both server- and
client-side programming to create.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.

Well, I guess I have to believe what everyone has told me and give up on

my idea. It seemed so simple but I guess it's ahead of its time. I managed a
Java script drag, but all I needed was for my client to upload their own
picture and use the drag function. I guess I just have to make a model for
them to play with instead.

 

[Guest]

OK so let me get this straight..
If I'm the webmaster and they upload their picture to me, then I should be able to size the picture correctly and place it in the frame on the webpage. So from that point they can drag my hat pictures and try them on ?It's just the real time aspect of this whole thing that's the hang up. Right?

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Yes, based on what you have indicated. The image would be uploaded to a
specific folder that you set in the FP2002 Upload dialog, then you would
open the web site in FP to retrieve the photo, then you can do whatever,
then place the photo on to a page with your JavaScript application, then
send a link to the user.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

OK so let me get this straight...
If I'm the webmaster and they upload their picture to me, then I should be

able to size the picture correctly and place it in the frame on the webpage.
So from that point they can drag my hat pictures and try them on ?It's just
the real time aspect of this whole thing that's the hang up. Right?

 

[Guest]

By George, I think we've got it

So now my question is where do I find the instructions needed to do this ? What questions do I ask the FP help file so it can guide me step by step? (it's very good that way, by the way...)Will I be able to name this file with the client's name on it so they can open it whenever they want to?

 

[Kevin Spencer]

This is the problem, Kat. You would need to program your own custom
server-side application to do this. It's not something FrontPage can do for
you "out of the box". It's a custom application.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.

By George, I think we've got it !

So now my question is where do I find the instructions needed to do this ?

What questions do I ask the FP help file so it can guide me step by step?
(it's very good that way, by the way...)Will I be able to name this file
with the client's name on it so they can open it whenever they want to?

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Kat,

All you need to is create a page, then insert the form upload component,
then publish to your host via FP's http mode, however you host must have the
FP2002 extensions and allow you to use this component.

Once the file has been uploaded to the web site and you access it by opening
the site directly in FP, you can name it to anything you want with no spaces
and with the proper extension. The problem with this approach of use the FP
upload component, you can't control what type of files users uploaded or
rename them automatically, and if two users upload a file with the same name
the first one may be overwritten (not sure as prefer to use a ASP upload
component where I can control the file type, the file size and the image
pixel size, plus assign it a unique name as well as associating it with a
specific user.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

By George, I think we've got it !

So now my question is where do I find the instructions needed to do this ?

What questions do I ask the FP help file so it can guide me step by step?
(it's very good that way, by the way...)Will I be able to name this file
with the client's name on it so they can open it whenever they want to?