Family Connections 2.2 RC

With Family Connections 2.2 I wanted to try something a little different.  Usually when I’ve finished development on the new release, I simple do some quick testing and then release it, and fix any bugs in some small follow up releases.  To prevent that from happening this time, I’ve decided to wait on the release of FCMS 2.2 until it has been tested a little better.

Instead, I’m going to do what is called a Release Candidate (RC), which basically means this is the final version of 2.2 unless something major has been found.  This means that you can upgrade to 2.2 (RC) now, if you want to, but users won’t be notified on the upgrade screen that they need to upgrade like they normally do.

I’m going to have my family website upgraded to 2.2 (RC) and do some more thorough testing and in a week or two, if everything is fine, then I’ll release this as FCMS 2.2.  If bugs are found, then I’ll simply fix those and add them to 2.2.

Using a Release Candidate will allow users who can’t wait for the next release to go ahead and upgrade now, and other users can wait until all the kinks are worked out.  So if you do upgrade to 2.2 (RC), please be sure to report any bugs or issues you find.

Download FCMS 2.2 (RC) now.

Family Connections 2.3

And for a sneak peek at what is currently scheduled for the next major release, check out the following list.  Remember that this, can and probably will change.

I wanted to talk a little bit about a new feature that will be added to Family Connections 2.2, which is very close to being finished.

Background

Some of you may already know that my family also uses Family Connections, so a lot of new features are added or changed as a direct result of something that has happened on my family site.  And since I started FCMS the thing that has caused the most trouble with the site is the Photo Gallery.

About the problem

The reason the Photo Gallery causes so much trouble doesn’t really have anything to do with the Photo Gallery, but has to do with how much memory it takes to resize a large resolution photo.  To save on storage/bandwidth and fit the photo neatly within the design of the site, all photos wider than 500px are resized.  And nowadays that’s pretty much every digital camera, in fact, some cell phones probably produce photos larger than that.

Most web hosts these days have set a limit on the amount of memory each user can use to somewhere between 8MB and 16MB.  The problem is, if you try and upload a photo from a 7 megapixel camera you will need around 34MB to resize the photo, so FCMS just outputs an error.

What are our options?

Really there isn’t anything special FCMS can do to fix this problem, the issue is with memory, not the way FCMS resizes photos.  So the only two options would be to 1. increase memory or 2. resize the photos before you upload them.  The problem with #1 is that not everyone can change that setting, the problem with #2 is that it adds an extra step to the process and requires additional software.

If anyone has ever used sites like Facebook to upload photos you might be wondering how they get around this problem.

Advanced Uploader to the Rescue

The solution is to use something called Java, which is a small piece of software that users will download that will allow the photos to be resized on their computer before being uploaded to FCMS.  The great thing is that it’s is integrated nicely into the site and users won’t even really notice any difference.