Ok folks, finally a more definitive update.
A few weeks ago, I found out that the faulty Coppermine SVG plugin is
not required to upload SVGs. Apparently the entire purpose of the SVG plugin is to create and display the thumbnail and intermediate images. But it malfunctions in 2 ways. 1 - It crops the image to fit the thumbnail dimensions, so that you don't see all of any image larger than the thumbnail dimensions (128 px). And 2 - It somehow messes up the gallery's navigation system. Normally, we click on a thumbnail, to go to an intermediate page (which contains an intermediate size image and all the file info), and then click on the intermediate, to get the full size (in a new window). But with the SVG plugin installed, we had to click not
on, but in the white space
beside the thumb or intermed, to navigate.
Without the SVG plugin installed, we don't have any thumbnails or intermediate images, although the file info on the intermed page is still shown, and the full size image is still available. Instead, the gallery provides a very bland, grayscale image, by default, that I think looks like a transparent cube. But also without the plugin, we have normal navigation of the gallery. I'll try to make a simple chart below, to simplify all this. I know it will be hard for some of you to understand (it's taken me months, lol).
So anyway, once I realized, and understood the situation, I immediately thought of a different plugin, called Custom Thumbnails. It's designed to allow a custom thumbnail to be uploaded for videos, which otherwise acquire a standard default thumbnail (which makes for an ugly thumbnail page in an album with more than 1 video). But it can be used to create a custom thumbnail (and intermediate) for any uploaded file.
So I set out to investigate that plugin. Turns out, it had a problem when SVG was the filetype (rather than video or other). Folks at the CPG (Coppermine) forum gave me some code fixes for that (since it's primarily a photo album, i.e. raster) (afaik, we're the only CPG users who currently need SVG support
). So now, we are able to upload SVGs, and using the Custom Thumbnail button (on the intermediate page, right beside "Delete this file" button, in my theme) upload a custom thumbnail and intermediate for it.
The only remaining issue, is that for 1 PNG I've uploaded as a custom thumbnail (in my tests) its transparent background is displayed as black. It doesn't seem to always happen, but it did in this one case. And the folks at CPG forum are helping me to investigate. But I think it will be a fairly uncommon result, even if it can't be fixed.
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Meanwhile, and ironically, within hours of discovering that SVGs could be uploaded without using the plugin, someone contacted me by email, about the plugin issue. I would credit them, except that they haven't even reg'd at IC, so maybe they don't want the public credit. Anyway, they made some preliminary edits to the original SVG plugin. It fixed some problems, but created others.
It got rid of the cropping effect (of both thumbs and intermeds). And it partially fixed the navigation issue. With this revised SVG plugin, you could click on the thumbnail, to go to the intermediate image. But there was no clicking on the intermed to get to the full size. So easy access to view the full size SVG was lost. Another problem, was that only square or nearly square images were displayed properly, as either thumb or intermed. The further away from square dimensions of an image, the more distorted its thumbnail and intermediate were, despite the fact they were still SVG.
After reporting the results, and upon further discussion (with this person who volunteered to try to fix the plugin), it became apparent that fixing this faulty SVG plugin is NOT going to be a simple or easy task! In fact, it seems to me like it would be easier for someone to create a whole new gallery software, designed to handle SVGs primarily (and raster secondary) than try to wedge the functionality needed for SVG into the CPG (which is primarily for photos) software. We can get into the details why I think this, in subsequent replies. But I want to get to the point I'm trying to make, in this message.
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So that point is, that we, and mostly I, have a decision to make. Do we keep limping along with the faulty SVG plugin? I was fine with limping along, as long as I thought fixing it would be fairly simple. Or do we forget the SVG plugin, and use the Custom Thumbnail plugin? At first, I was thinking the Custom Thumbnail plugin was going to be better than the SVG plugin, at least until the SVG plugin could be fixed. But now that I realize it's not going to be a simple fix, I have to decide which plugin to use.
Hhmm...time out! I wonder what would happen if we use both? Since I'm waiting for support in the CPG forum, I don't want to reinstall the SVG plugin, at the moment. But it seems like a worthwhile test to have both plugins installed, and try the custom thumbnail on the SVG which was installed with SVG plugin. So there's a chance that might be a 3rd option.
Let's see if I can create a little chart, that simplifies all the options. I'll put it in a new reply, so discussion can start on this already (since Lazur posted a shout about this, earlier today).
Questions/comments welcome
