Changes (and more coming) to PlantFiles

As many of you have noticed, we have rolled out a few minor changes to PlantFiles in the last week or so. We encountered a few glitches, which the techs fixed. We are still tweaking it, and there will be more changes (that should make searching MUCH more user-friendly regardless of device), so stay tuned.

When I have an ETA for the next series of changes, I will post here to let everyone know they are coming.

Same applies to BirdFiles and other files?

I noticed the BugFiles looking like the newest plant files, so suspect it will roll over to the birds. I really hope things get easier, I've been using the files less already with the new changes.

I am no longer able to thumb through photos in plant files under any particular species that has a lot of photos... just keeps popping me back and forth and I cannot even see what is available to look at... in most cases I was only able to see 10 photos... the rest simply were impossbile to get to or/and unavailable... even when there are hundreds of photos listed... what gives?

I feel I'm lucky if I can find a cultivator under a species. I loved DG PFs but now it's easier to google. I can't look A-Z or Z-A....hopefully this is only a glitch that was never meant to be permenate. When I do google now many times DG no longer comes up as a choice for info on the plant.

Can't scroll through them here at work, but can at home on my newer computer.. .here at work, I just get a max of 10 photos and then they start over again. Hope most have a better computer than this one!

I so miss the old page where you could see all the photos at once and then enlarge ones you pick out.

Kell, they are looking at some compromises, but when you have dozens of images on a page, there is no way that's going to work on a small phone or even tablet screen. And more people expect/demand that websites are mobile-friendly.

I just uploaded photo that is not mine to PlantFiles. But I see nowhere to give the real photographer the credit. I used to do so under the photo under description. So now it appears that I took this photo.

Kell, did you see the caption area? That's the only area we've ever had available to add a note and give credit. Unless you mean the ability to not add a watermark.

No, I do not see any caption area. I used to be able to add a description of the photo. I use that space to give credit to the photographer. Like this
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/370631/

It is just under the photo. If I can no longer give credit, I can no longer post these fantastic photos.

Kell, I just double-checked the photo-upload process and editing a caption. The upload still has the place for you to check/uncheck the attribution box, and add a caption.

When you add your text to the caption, it displays under the photo. Before then caption was on top, but I think the location is the only thing that has changed (and technically captions typically are beneath the photo, not on top.)

What am I missing?

on iris board and daylily, roses etc main pages one can no longer see the 10 newest added images..i felt that was an important feature as even after a person's photos' are no longer on the main plantfiles board anymore as newer images added,, one was still able to see them, these 10 newest say irises on DG long after main PF board images had been replaced on the Iris pages board. talked to Joan about it and she said Terry could ask tech people if maybe they could change that feauture back as it was a feature which i know atleast encouraged me and gave incentive to me to add pics and feel proud i could see them as well as others all over the world could even if just for a little while in the iris and daylily or rose specific boards.

I had no problems uploading images and adding captions in PlantFiles today.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/390954/

Thank-You :-)

Terry, I'm assuming that this latest update you're referring to is what affected Bloom Of The Day too. I'll figure it out. I have a new computer (which I am also trying to figure out) and I use my phone and tablet to access DG more than I used to, so I expect I would have been hoping for these type of changes soon anyway.

Like Palmbob, I am having a lot of trouble with the "Gallery" of images in PlantFiles. The entry says that there are 66 more images for Royal Poinciana, Flamboyant Tree, but I am unable to scroll through them. When I click on the right arrow to see the next "set" of 5 or 6, the screen jumps around, and it goes back to the first set. If I click on the right arrow on the enlarged picture, I can sometimes get it to progress through all of them, but it often reverts back to the first picture. Even when it does scroll through each one, it flashes a different image up first, of the first picture in the "set" in the scroll bar beneath the picture, before it loads the actual image. There is also no left arrow, to go back to a previous image. The only option is to go through all 66 of them again. I really miss the ability to see thumbnails of all the pictures and only open the ones I am interested in seeing, rather than a one-way, one-at-a-time option.

I tried on both Mozilla Firefox and Chrome, and had the same issue on both browsers. I am using a Windows 7 computer.

I'm having the same problem as palmbob and Bookerc1 with not being able to scroll through the photos. I can scroll maybe once, then it keeps bouncing back to the original six pictures even if there are a lot of pics. The only way I've found to look at more is if I scroll one photo at a time from the large photo which is a real hassle if there are tons of photos and even that doesn't always work.

I too have the same problem as nuts, and the others. I haven't been trying to go through the photos if there are more than fits on the page, but I wanted to see if an insect already had a photo of a later stage of growth.

I understand people want mobile-friendly. I don't fault them for expecting this, but please try not to exclude the laptop and PC users.

Those who do use mobile devices, are you having trouble with trying to view images or is it going smoothly for you? I am just curious.

Thank you for asking Chilly. I usually use an iPad and I'm having all the same issues, at least with PFs. I can't even see the main picture, it's all stretched out. This literally happened over night. One day it was fine the next it was a mess.

I was just going to post that I use a mobile devices but PFs still doesn't seem user friendly so what's the advantage supposed to be? Many sites have a mobile app you can use if you want to but you don't have to use it.

I just clicked on a random bloom and the PFs picture is now clear on my iPad I didn't try looking at more of the pics but it seems a lot better then the last time I tried which was just a day or so ago.

I really seldom use my Android phone to do much web browsing- here or other sites. When I do, however, on most sites I'm automatically redirected to a mobile version of the site. That version is never as good as the full desktop site... but that's expected, I guess, due to the limitations imposed by the smaller screen and/or operating system limitations. I'm sure I posed this question in a previous post... but, if not, here it it again. Why not have a separate site for mobile devices (and automatic redirection) and a desktop version which works as I've become accustomed to when working on my desktop or laptop computer?

hmm something changed and I am not able to thumb through photos even on Mac anymore… the plant files are almost useless now… only am able to see first 8-10 photos. what is happening? Hope there is a fix coming soon. Now cannot access photos on any computer I am using.. work or home. Hardly seems worth adding photos anymore to files people can't access (at least I can't, that is). Sure miss the full page of thumbs that we used to be able to select from… this new situation really complicates things . Hope someone is planning to fix this.

Like I posted above, most sites have a mobile version that one can use, if they prefer. I would like to have the choice.....but it doesn't seem to be available at all.

Ive noticed that the pics are clearer now, on PFs, but I haven't tried going any further. This is all using my iPad.

I agree with palmbob's entire post especially about the thumbs......

We have found some problems in the way the navigation advances and I'm going to bring this thread to the tech team's attention right now. I will have them weigh in or I'll bring back an answer as soon as I have one.

Thanks Terry!

Thanks to all of you for helping us identify the specific issues and your patience. I know the techs behind the redesign really want to get it right, so these reports help a lot.

On all the "files" I don't see "home", in the upper left hand corner, to click on to get back to the main page.

I must be missing something. First the comments I would add to the photos I uploaded were always posted to the bottom of the photo never the top. And now no matter how hard I look, I have no way to add my comment to the bottom of the photo or edit that comment once added like I could before.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/390943/ There is a place:to "discuss this image." Not to leave my own personal comment which is seen with the photo.

I don't like having to scroll for pics, I used to like being able to see all thumbprints then select ones that caught my attention. PF changes seem to me to hv been change for change's sake but not unbearable situation.

I had been having the same trouble with the photos as Palmbob described above, but seems to be working better now. There is still a jump in the page each time you click the scroll arrow and you have to adjust the page to get back to the arrow.

Today I have a new format look which I had been seeing off and on from the old look. I tried to do a plant search which I get 9 results, but when I hit "more results" it just goes back to the main page and doesn't show anymore results.

Agree improved, but not 100% yet.