Regarding preload

[remulus]

Hi.

I want my pictures to be preloaded, so the images slide up and shows right away and no loadtime is shown or needed!..

But how??

I havent been able to find out where or how i could preload my images, to a new guest...

Can anyone help??

Best regards
Remulus

[torstein.honsi]

The preload is integrated in the examples:

Code: Select all

window.onload = function () {
  hs.preloadImages(n);
}

where n is the number of images you want to preload.

[johnywhy]

according to the doc, it sounds like this only preloads before you click a thumbnail on the webpage. once the highslide pane is open, preloading stops.

which is a drag. seems like it would be useful to preload images while viewing a slide, because page-visitors will likely click a thumbnail to open highslide shortly after the page loads, leaving little time for preloading more images.

also seems it would be especially useful during an automated slideshow to load the next image while viewing the current one. As it is, you get a loading delay every time the slideshow tries to move forward to the next image.

[EarlyOut]

The next image is always preloaded in the background while your visitor is looking at an expanded image.

[johandeysel]

Yes the next image always preloads in the background, but people don't look at every image for the same amount of time. Sometimes they skip an image more quickly and reach the following image before it has completely loaded (in the background). There is nothing one can do to this situation, but what I am thinking is if the visitor views one image for a longer time than is required to preload the following image, wouldn't it be beneficial to continue preloading the second image thereafter and so forth? If a visitor views the image for a time that would be sufficient to preload 4 following images in the background, why doesn't this happen (or does it?) If this is possible, please could you tell me how? I am a photographer and created my own website, but I would like my gallery to be as fast as possible and preloading images as much and as far as possible would always help I am sure.

Do you have any advice?

[EarlyOut]

I've always hoped that Torstein would try to incorporate that into Highslide JS. Once the next image is preloaded, the script should then try to "get ahead" again, and preload the next X images, if it has time to do so. It hasn't happened, alas.

[johandeysel]

Yes... that's the phrase... the script should always try to "get ahead" with the background loading and keep loading as much as possible. Or even if parallel loading is possible it would also help. Does anybody know whether this is possible? My galleries aren't huge so it won't be loading a whole lot of images in the background (even if it loads everything), but I would like it to try and stay ahead of the viewer. There is nothing as impressive as browsing through a gallery and never having to see a "loading" message or having to wait at all !!

I hope Torstein would keep this in mind and actually I am looking forward to hear his viewpoint on this and whether there is a possible solution.

[RoadRash]

I hope Torstein would keep this in mind and actually I am looking forward to hear his viewpoint on this and whether there is a possible solution.

I've sent Torstein an email and told him that his viewpoint is wanted.

[johandeysel]

Thank you very much. I am not really a programmer, but I understand coding a little. I am just a photographer wanting the fastest, most impressive galleries possible. I like the highslide effect very much and I use it in my Wordpress site, but I would love to be able to preload images continuously or in parallel. I think my feeling is also related to our relatively slow internet here in South Africa

[torstein.honsi]

The hs.numberOfImagesToPreload works a little bit like this, though not exactly. It will try to preload n images, but once the user starts to browse the gallery, the preloading is cancelled and it goes into the preload next mode.

[EarlyOut]

What it really should do, however, is start trying to preload the next numberOfImagesToPreload images, starting from wherever the visitor is in the gallery at this moment (even if he closes the expander), not just the next one. That may still not help the visitor who hops, skips, and jumps all over the place, but it would be better.

[johandeysel]

Thank you for all the replies guys. I know that the hs.numberOfImagesToPreload controls the amount of images that should be preloaded, but my problem comes when the user clicks on the first image, the preloading stops. Because it's a photography website, people are likely to click on the first image about 5 seconds after the page has loaded. This leaves very little time for any images to preload completely. And even on the preloading of the next image there is a concern for me... some images are viewed very quickly and when the visitor skips to the next, there will be a slight delay because the skipped to the next before the next has finished loading. This is a problem for me, because when they have to wait too much they get annoyed and leave my site. Now, some images are viewed for longer and thus the script actually has time to preload more than only the next image and I would like it to go ahead and keep loading to stay ahead of the viewer as much as possible. I know that some viewers hop around, and for them it will work like it's working now, but at least for the visitors who goes next next next, the advance will seem fast. Do you think there is anything that could be done about this?? As an alternative, I do not know if parallel loading is possible at all...

[RoadRash]

Do you think there is anything that could be done about this?? As an alternative, I do not know if parallel loading is possible at all...

The only option in Highslide for the time being is the numberOfImagesToPreload function, and there are no plans in the near future for changes in this area.

What you can do on your own is make sure that your images are optimized in size for fast loading - both the thumbnails and the large images. You mention in an earlier post that the Internet connection in South Africa is slow, so if most of your visitors are from that area you should be very concerned of the kb size of your images; relatively small images and returning visitors are better than large images and visitors that never returns.

[johandeysel]

Thank you very much for your reply and support. It does make sense what you said about size. Obviously being a photographer I want my images to be the best possible quality, but of course I need to find the balance between quality and speed. Speed is important and counts for Google too. I do think my images are too big... most around 300kb. I will work on it, thank you. Still hope to see some preload support

[torstein.honsi]

(respons to: viewtopic.php?p=57466#p57466)
I think the current functionality in Highslide is a reasonable compromise between preloading and not spending too much bandwidth for the end users. Also, if you keep preloading in the background, whenever the user clicks an image that is not preloaded, the browser will wait until the currently preloading image is finished before starting the new one. So in many cases your users will actually experience a delay.

If you still want to preload all images in your page, it is no more complicated than adding an invisible image tag for all your images:

Code: Select all

<image style="display: none" src="image1.jpg" />
<image style="display: none" src="image2.jpg" />