Organising Images

[behemoth]

Joomla! 2.5.16
VM 2.0.24a

Can the image directory (media URL) be split up and if so, what's the best way to go about it?

We have a very large number of images (multiple per product; over 2250 products and rising fast). Previously we've asked our host to increase the FTP file limit from the default 10000 to 20000, which they were happy to do, but we've now hit this new ceiling. Whilst I'm sure they'd be happy to raise it again, when I discussed it with them originally, they suggested that the limit is for security reasons and that having a lot of files in a directory can cause other issues over time.

For us, the big issue is the inconvenience of having to request amendments as our inventory grows, as well as the threat of 'other issues'; I want to future proof the site as best I can.

We use CSVI to import our products, so there's no problem prefixing the image name with a subfolder - Is this going to cause problems? Is there an established recommended alternative approach?

[jjk]

See here: http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=115516.msg389228#msg389228
Only small 'disadvantage' is that you can't use the automatic thumbnail generation of VM (didn't test this with VM3 yet), beause the thumnails would be automatically created in the standard folder. On my site I also ftp the thumbnails into .../resized/manufacturername/ folders.

[behemoth]

Hi jjk; thanks for responding.

I did see your post when I was searching but it didn't dawn on me that you'd set your image folder up more or less as I was intending (I'll blame lack of sleep). There are some differences - I'm actually uploading the product images and whatnot via a scheduled FTP job and batch script, so I'll need to think about how to organise it and how to create the relevant folders dynamically if necessary, but it sounds like it'll work exactly as I need - I don't use the automatic thumbnails.

In response to your query about how the FTP client deals with so many files, I find it cuts off at whatever the server limit is. I expect for most people, it wouldn't be necessary to increase this limit - the files still exist. In my case it was preventing the FTP script from recognising some of the existing files (ie the ten-thousand-and-first and beyond) on the server and therefore re-synchronising them when it wasn't necessary. It turned what should have been a very quick upload script into a marathon!