Started planning of new Image Uploader version we decided to focus on three goals: support of images of big size, usage simplicity, and wide support of browsers.

The first goal support of big images is the solution for well-known problem when Image Uploader was unable to create thumbnails for big images and sent icons instead. We realized that modern cameras increase megapixels from year to year and the problem became serious. Our development team had to reimplement image processing modules of both ActiveX and Java versions and as a result we have support of large images and have increased the quality of thumbnails.

The second goal make Image Uploader easier to embed to customers' solutions required to survey what platforms were used by our customers. We found out that two of them ASP.NET and PHP form absolute majority. We implemented special solutions for each platform (Image Uploader ASP.NET control and Image Uploader PHP library) wrapping Image Uploader and allowing to use it in a straight forward way on a platform.

The third goal is support of modern browsers. In recent times several new browsers were released Chrome and Internet Explorer 8. We made some efforts to test Image Uploader on these new ones and adapt the control to them. As a result Image Uploader supports these two browsers and Opera 9 additionally.

Here is the overall list of new features and improvements in Image Uploader 6.

Both ActiveX and Java Version Improvements

• Three editions of Image Uploader are available: Express, Standard, and Professional.
• Memory friendly image processing.
• Image Uploader ASP.NET control and Image Uploader PHP library solutions making Image Uploader usage easier on corresponding server platforms.
• Support of cloud storages: Amazon S3 and Nirvanix. Now Image Uploader can upload files and metadata to these online storages.
• Support of AJAX-enabled applications. Now visibility of Image Uploader can be handled via CSS.
• The ability to customize POST request sent by Image Uploader was improved.
• Image Uploader supports review of response sent by web server back in the PackageComplete event.

ActiveX Version Specific Improvements

• Support of Internet Explorer 8.
• Support of new non-admin ActiveX controls feature in Internet Explorer 8.
• New installation progress of Image Uploader ActiveX control.
• Improved estimation of remaining upload time in the progress bar.
• Refactored memory management. Several problems that could be potentially led to crash were found and fixed.
• The problem when Image Uploader froze on "waiting for response from server" stage was resolved.
• Fixed several problems with drag-and-drop functionality in upload pane.
• Thumbnail in the progress dialog can be hidden now.
• Fixed the problem when some methods and properties of Image Uploader became unavailable in the case when InitComplete event handler was specified.
• Fixed several problems with saving and restoring of upload list.
• A number of minor improvements and bug fixes.

Java Version Specific Improvements

• Support of Chrome and Opera 9.
• Improved quality of resize.
• Increased speed of folders tree navigation.
• Windows 2008 network shares are supported now.
• Fixed the problem with proxies on Windows platforms.
• Now files can be deleted after upload.
• Now files can be deleted from folder pane.
• Fixed the problem with tree pane refreshing.
• Fixed several problems with saving and restoring of upload list.
• Fixed the problem with extracting of UserComment fields from EXIF.
• Fixed the problem with deleting of temporary files created by Image Uploader.
• A number of minor improvements and bug fixes.

ActiveX Version Specific Improvements

• Now UploadThumbnailCompressionMode works correctly for all UploadThumbnailFitMode types.
• Fixed the problem with dimensions of uploaded thumbnails.
• Folder selection works correctly in Windows XP now.
• Fixed the problem with creating thumbnails from some PNG images.
• Now widths of columns in folder and upload panes are calculated correctly.
• Fixed the problem with EnableInstantUpload in the two panes layout.
• Fixed memory leak in the process of creating thumbnails.
• Fixed the problem with displaying custom buttons after several page refreshes in a browser.

Java Version Specific Improvements

• Fixed file names sorting.
• Fixed the problem with events in Java SE 6 Update 10.
• Now colors in rotated thumbnails created from images with alpha channels look correctly.
• UploadThumbnailCompressionMode works correctly for all UploadThumbnailFitMode types.
• Now Image Uploader can upload on sites having NTLM authentication enabled.
• Now Image Uploader can upload on sites having basic authentication enabled.
• Fixed the problem with creating thumbnails from grayscale images.
• UploadThumbnailCompressOversizedOnly works correctly now.
• Now uploaded thumbnails have the same resolution as original images.

Both ActiveX and Java Version Improvements

While working on version 5.5 of Image Uploader Dual, we were focusing on two major objectives: stability and performance. This version almost does not include new functionality, nevertheless we did huge work. Some modules of the product have been refactored, some of them have been written from scratch. New fresh view of the product and some new approaches allowed us to make Image Uploader faster and overall better.

ActiveX Version Specific Improvements

• Speed of adding items to upload pane in details view has dramatically increased.
• Handling files on network drives works faster.
• Progress events for "prepare to upload" and "upload" operations have been improved. Now ZIP compressing causes progress events.
• The problems with the support of cameras directly connected to a computer have been fixed.
• Rotation operations have been improved. Now upload pane displays rotated images correctly.
• The problem with cancelling the addition of a whole folder to upload pane has been fixed.
• The problem with displaying subfolders in Windows 2000 has been fixed.
• Now adding and removing files in the upload pane works correctly.
• ShellComboBox synchronizes the path with ImageUploader control now.
• The GoToFolder() method accepts paths containing back slashes now.
• The problem with displaying the detailed information about files in detailed view has been fixed.
• A number of minor improvements and bug fixes.

Java Version Specific Improvements

Java version of Image Uploader has been deeply refactored. In this version we were moving in three main directions: increase the speed of the applet, decrease memory consumption, and improve support of the Macintosh platform:

• Applet performance has dramatically increased. Now folder browsing and thumbnail preparation works faster.
• Memory consumption has greatly decreased, reducing the probability of getting the "out of memory" exception.
• Thumbnail generation module has been refactored. Now the probability of uploading icons instead of thumbnails greatly reduced.
• Improved support of Safari and Firefox browsers on Macintosh computers.
• Resize quality can be changed again.
• Problems with ShellComboBox control have been fixed.
• The GoToFolder() method works correctly now.
• The Action property treats relative paths correctly now.
• The problem with multiple displaying of restriction dialogs has been solved.
• The SaveUploadList() and LoadUploadList() methods work correctly now.
• The problem with AdditionalFormName is fixed.
• A number of minor improvements and bug fixes.

ActiveX Version Secific Improvements

Image Uploader is safe now. At the beginning of year 2008, several vulnerabilities were found in the ActiveX version of Image Uploader. By the release of version 5.1, we have completed the audit of source code and refactored the insecure parts of the control. New version 5.1 has different CLSIDs , which prevents the usage of previous unsafe versions of Image Uploader.

Both ActiveX and Java Version Improvements

• ZIP compression for files is now available. Use these properties to change the compression mode:
  • UploadThumbnail1CompressionMode,
  • UploadThumbnail2CompressionMode,
  • UploadThumbnail3CompressionMode,
  • UploadThumbnailCompressionMode.
• POST request format is now customizable to seamlessly integrate with CMSs, blogging systems, etc. You can omit standard POST text fields (SendDefaultFields property) or rename them (RenameField() method). For details, also see POST Field Reference and Configuring POST Format sections.
• Progress bar placement behavior changed for the Advanced Details view (see UploadView property to learn more about view modes). Now if you upload a single image in a package (i.e. FilesPerOnePackageCount value is 1), the progress bar appears in the list item of that specific image and not in the list item allotted specifically for progress indication.
• Instant upload for the Advanced Details view. You can specify that the upload start immediately after you drag the file into the upload pane. To this end, set EnableInstantUpload property value to true.
• You can now opt to display an image instead of the Drop file here text message (OnePane and ThreePanes layouts). See DropFilesHereImageFormat property for details.
• You choose to show a background image in the Advanced Details view. See UploadPaneBackgroundImageFormat property for details.
• Minimum file count for upload: if this is specified, the upload will not start unless the minimum allowed amount of files are selected for upload (MinFileCount property).
• Upload file list feature. You can save\load\delete lists of files to be uploaded (see SaveUploadList(), LoadUploadList() and ResetUploadList() methods).
• Upload can be denied for CMYK images (AllowCmykImages property). Custom warning can be shown to the user
  • in the said file description (CmykImagesAreNotAllowedText property) and\or
  • in the pop up box (MessageCmykImagesAreNotAllowedText property).
• New upload control events added:
  • PackageBeforeUpload raised right before the package is to be uploaded,
  • PackageError raised if an error occurred while uploading the current package,
  • PackageComplete raised upon successful package upload completion.
• On-hover tooltips now can be displayed individually
  • for the description of a file (DescriptionTooltipText property) and
  • for the line that prompts user to edit said description (EditDescriptionTooltipText property).
• Pane item unchecking via PaneItem API has been implemented (PaneItemChecked property).

ActiveX Version Secific Improvements

• Windows Vista native view. Turned on by default for Vista users (UseSystemColors property must be true which it is by default).
• PackageProgress event added. It is the same as Progress but the values are returned only for the package specified in the event index.

Java Version Secific Improvements

• Same version numbers as the ActiveX version from now on.
• Now horizontal and vertical thumbnail spacing is available:
  • ThumbnailVerticalSpacing,
  • ThumbnailHorizontalSpacing.
• Thumbnail controls border colors are now customizable:
  • PreviewThumbnailBorderColor,
  • PreviewThumbnailBorderHoverColor.
• Pane border styles are now customizable. The following properties modify this setting:
  • TreePaneBorderStyle,
  • FolderPaneBorderStyle,
  • UploadPaneBorderStyle.
• Folder change warning text feature implemented (MessageSwitchAnotherFolderWarningText property).
• Sun JIMI image processing library is no longer used. ImageIO library is used instead as being much more stable.