Hi @kamawp,
Thank you for your review.
However, there’s no option for converting a single image or just a few images from your library. I would dearly love to see such option added in a future release.
Our goal is to create a simple and fast plugin. Why do you need such functionality? After installing the plugin, you convert all images with one click. Then newly added images are converted automatically. You don’t have to do anything with it. I guess it’s about making the plugin maintenance-free?
Another thing that bothered me is that uninstalling the plugin is also removing the already converted collection.
If you want to temporarily disable a plugin, just deactivate it. You don’t need to uninstall it. If you uninstall a plugin, it means you no longer need it. A lot of plugins don’t clean up after themselves – that’s a huge problem in my opinion. That’s why we make sure that our plugin removes everything after it is uninstalled. For me, it’s not a bug, but a conscious advantage.
What do you think I wrote? I will be very glad if we talk about it.
Best,
Mateusz
Thank you for your answer @kamawp,
The reason I want this functionality is that after the batch conversion of about 5000 + images (plus all the smaller size images that WordPress adds) I found quite a few photos that were missed by the conversion. Where they were only converted to webp of not converted at all.
Can you give me more information on which images have been omitted? Please provide examples of these images, I’d love to explore it. I am here to help you and explain everything.
If you want to convert only the missing images, just click the “Start Bulk Optimization” button and they will be converted. The plugin will not re-convert all images – it will only convert the missing ones.
But in this special case I had to debug a sudden technical issue on my website which could only be solved by installing a backup from a few weeks ago. This meant that your plugin had disappeared and I had I to reinstall it to get back to where the website was before it broke down. I was unpleasantly surprised that the plugin didn’t continue its good work and I had to do the conversion all over again.
Please remember that the plugin must be universal. It is used by over 200,000 users. Your case is unique, but for most people it’s better that the plugin “cleans up after itself”. Imagine how many unaware people install various image optimization plugins, remove them, and still have a lot of files and database entries on their disk. This negatively impacts the performance of their site and causes clutter.
When evaluating the plugin, please pay attention to the fact that it is a solution used by hundreds of thousands of various websites. And it has to be a solution tailored to 99% of users, not 1%. Although it may sound brutal, I try to be completely honest and wanted to present my point of view to you in this way.
Good afternoon Mateusz, you wrote:
Can you give me more information on which images have been omitted? Please provide examples of these images, I’d love to explore it. I am here to help you and explain everything.
This may take some time to find them again. I hope to get back on this soon.
If you want to convert only the missing images, just click the “Start Bulk Optimization” button and they will be converted. The plugin will not re-convert all images – it will only convert the missing ones.
I’m going to test this. But again, this may take some time.
When evaluating the plugin, please pay attention to the fact that it is a solution used by hundreds of thousands of various websites. And it has to be a solution tailored to 99% of users, not 1%. Although it may sound brutal, I try to be completely honest and wanted to present my point of view to you in this way.
I understand your point. But all I do, is writing a review from my personal experience. I cannot write other people’s reviews.
All the best, Hans
@kamawp, thank you for your answer,
This may take some time to find them again. I hope to get back on this soon.
How did you know that some images were not converted?
I understand your point. But all I do, is writing a review from my personal experience. I cannot write other people’s reviews.
I understand you. I tried to explain to you why the plugin cleans up after itself. When creating a plugin, it should stick to the good practices announced by WordPress.
Here you can read what is the difference between Deactivation Hook and Uninstall Hook:
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-basics/uninstall-methods/
I understand what your added review is about. However, if I did what you think it should be, it would mean that the plugin does not follow the good practices announced by WordPress.
I make sure that the plugin’s ratings are as good as possible and that’s why as many users as possible are satisfied. That’s why I’m trying to explain to you why something works the way it does.
You wrote:
How did you know that some images were not converted?
I found them by chance while going through my photos and randomly trying to save them. Then I saw that I could only save them as *.jpg or as *.webp, not as *.avif. When I investigated the photos in the Uploads folder I found that the *.avif versions were not there. Of one photo I remember which one it was. So I will start from there to see what’s happening. As I said, I will come back about this issue. First I must be able to reproduce this behaviour. I will also compare the amount of photos in the different folders to see if there are more jpg’s than avif’s. That should point me in the right direction.
I’ll take notice of the WordPress conventions that you pointed out. Meanwhile I’m trying to explain what I think would be good usability when it comes to plugins. Or what a user like me expects from a plugin. Based on my experience with many other plugins for WordPress.
hk
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This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by
Hans Konings.
Thank you for your answer @kamawp,
When I investigated the photos in the Uploads folder I found that the *.avif versions were not there.
WebP and AVIF files are saved in the /wp-content/uploads-webpc/ directory. If you have WebP files in the /wp-content/uploads/ directory, these are not files generated by my plugin.
Below I have attached the instructions:
Meanwhile I’m trying to explain what I think would be good usability when it comes to plugins. Or what a user like me expects from a plugin. Based on my experience with many other plugins for WordPress.
I understand, thank you for your time and willingness to discuss. If some plugins don’t remove data on uninstall then they don’t follow good practices. I want the plugin to be compliant with good practices.
Thank you for your time, Mateusz. I appreciate this very much. And please, do not take my three stars review as a sign that I am not happy with your plugin. Because generally I am happy, for it does what it should do and it does this in an efficient manner. It’s only that I saw some room for improvement. That’s why I wrote the review.
I’m not even worried that the plugin apparently missed some files while converting to *.avif this huge collection of photos that I have on my blog. I was, after all, intending to correct this manually. All part of the regular maintenance.
Wish you a good day,
hk
I understand you @kamawp – thank you!
If you encounter any other questions, please, feel free to reach out to me.
Good afternoon,
I’m puzzled by the behaviour of the plugin. Is it possible that the process of conversion continues AFTER it says it has completed the conversion task? Because the one photo that I remembered as converted to *.webp only and not to *.avif (confirmed by its absence in the dedicated upload folder on the server) is now available as *.avif. This means I cannot reproduce the error for testing. I am not allowed to post URL’s in this conversation, but if you look up my profile and search for kamafotos dot nl, it’s this photo of a duck:
../wp-content/uploads/2021/07/210710-amsterdam_amsteldijk-02.jpg
Now I’m able to save this file as 210710-amsterdam_amsteldijk-02.avif. Before I was offered this photo to save as 210710-amsterdam_amsteldijk-02.webp only. And this was not the result of another plugin, because yours is the only conversion plugin installed on kamafotos dot nl.
This FYI, because I promised to get back on this issue. But I think I’ll leave it at this. The plugin works fine and I accept your reasoning as to why the plugin works the way it does.
hk
@kamawp I did a test of this image and everything works fine:
https://i.snipboard.io/oqESb7.jpg
Have you cleared the cache in your browser before testing this? In my experience, this is the most common problem in plugin testing.
Yes, I did clear all possible caches. I also tested in different browsers. On different computers as well. I have two Linux PC’s and one Mac at my disposal, all with more than one browser. On all of them I have a special browser that I never use for day to day browsing. To make sure it doesn’t display the page from its cache or history. But the final proof was (at that moment) the absence of 210710-amsterdam_amsteldijk-02.avif on the server. This is something where you have to trust me. 🙂
Anyway, let’s call it case closed. I appreciate your ideas and your help on this issue. I’ll leave the three stars, because anyone interested can read our conversation and see that my review is positive after all.
hk
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This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Hans Konings.
