[Plugin: WordPress Portfolio Plugin (WP Portfolio)] How to add custom thumbnails?

Are other thumbnails showing correctly? The cache directory might not exist or have the right permissions. See the FAQ for more info on the cache directory.

Dan

I too have the same problem.

My cache directory already has lots of images generated by ‘Shrink The Web.’ Would this suggest that the permissions are set correctly already?

How would I find out if I have the correct permissions?

Your help will be appreciated,

Steve

There’s a new feature in V1.19 in the settings section that will tell you if the cache directory is writeable.

Dan

Thanks Dan,

I checked with the feature you spoke of and it seems everything is in order. My Cache is writable and I have ticked all three boxes.

When I check the link in the WP Portfolio section everything is fine. The image comes up no problem when I click the ‘Custom Thumb: View Image’ link. However, I’m just greeted with the ‘thumbnail queued for update’ on the left. It’s been several hours now with no change.

This is a strange one alright.

Steve

Hi Steve

Have you checked your ShrinkTheWeb details to ensure they are correct?

Could you email me (dan dot harrison at wpdoctors.co.uk) a screenshot of your settings page, and one of your websites please?

ScreenGrab for Firefox works well for this sort of thing.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your offer of assistance. I’ve sent an email to you.

Steve

I tried using images from outside my host and it worked! Not sure what the problem was with my host, but, the work around worked a treat.

101% support all the way.

Thanks Dan.

Hi, first off thanks for such a great plug-in, instead of having a link back to your site, could I make a small donation?

The above sounds like the same problem I’m having, I uploaded an image to my host (same ftp account as my WP site is hosted) to use as a custom thumbnail, and despite having all three ticks in the server compatibility checker, my image remained as queued on the page.

I have the cache set to /wp-content/wp-portfolio/cache/

I uploaded the image to photobucket and used the link for my custom thumbnail & hey presto it worked.

Do you know what the problem could be on the hosts side?
It works, but I’d like to keep all the files hosted on my own server.

I’m using WordPress 3.0.4 and WP Portfolio 1.19.

My host is Heart Internet.

Many thanks!

Hello, a donation would be welcomed, thank you.

The host might have a security setting to disable cURL accessing websites on the same server. I found a single report with someone hitting similar issues with cURL. I’m pretty sure it’s not a bug with the plugin, as the plugin works fine for you for external domains, and it works for other people on the same domain (including me).

So I suggest you chat to Heart Internet about any DNS or cURL issues that would prevent it working on the same host. Please let me know what they say, as I’d love to know what’s going on.

Kind Regards
Dan

Hi Dan,

Wow! A response in 15 mins is what I call customer service!

I have waited until I got a response from my host to reply, here’s what they said:

“Hi Ben,

Thanks for contacting us. Yes, all connections from the server back to its self are blocked at the firewall. This is a security measure to protect the server from its self and cannot be bypassed unfortunately.”

So it looks like cURL is out of the question for me sadly.

I haven’t tried it yet, but do you think changing the ‘Thumbnail Fetch Method’ in settings to ‘fopen’ instead of ‘cURL’ would make a difference?

Many thanks ??

Hi Ben

You’re welcome. I just happened to be looking at my email ??

If that’s the case, then fopen will not work either. I’m not sure why they consider blocking self-connections is a security measure, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

A better location for storing your images might be DropBox (https://www.wpdoctors.co.uk/recommends/dropbox) where you can add images to the public folder within WP Portfolio.

Kind Regards
Dan

Rocket speed support :o)

My host is Heart Internet too.

My workaround temp. host was also DropBox and I’m still using that now, however, using my host would help keep things together.

Worth a NOTE: I found that after a week or so my thumbnails failed to display, so, I went in and changed the ‘Number of Days to Cache Thumbnail’ setting to ‘Never Expire Thumbnails’ and that seemed to clear things up in that department (maybe I altered something else and it was coincidence. I’m not 100% on that one.)

It sounds like Heart Internet is a little flakey for WP Portfolio then. I’ll see if I can think of a solution for where images are on the same host.

Dan

From what I’ve heard, Heart Internet isn’t suitable for WP full stop. They apparently don’t “allow” you to use absolute urls to link to other parts of your own site!

I’ve never had any other trouble with hosting and WP with Heart Internet – they do include an auto WP installer in the control panel (not sure if this would suggest they’re compatible though.)