Invalid format when uploading to image hosting service?

[mepAdmin]

I'm not sure if anyone can help me here, but after searching through the support FAQ's, and wrestling with the Knowledge Base on the Ulead site which doesn't seem to want to work for me, I'm kind of running out of options.

I run an image hosting service for online auction site sellers (like eBay etc...) and we've noticed a problem with 3 customers who have Ulead Photo Impact installed on their PC.

It seems that any user with Impact installed on their computer is unable to upload images to our automated image hosting service. None of our other customers experience this problem, no matter what other brand photo editors they use to optimize their images before uploading. What happens the customer will initiate their upload of a photo, and when our server checks the file for a valid image format, it is rejected as being an invalid image file format.

So far the only solution that has worked - having the user un-install Impact. The minute they un-install it and reboot, they're able to upload images to our service with no problem whatsoever. Also, so far the only reports have come from 3 of our customers in the past year, and all 3 were using PhotoImpact 10 to work with their images before uploading.

I know that on most message boards it is against rules to post links to another site, so if anyone would be interested in testing this out for themselves there's a link to my web service in my profile. I would be especially interested to know if there are any users with PI 10 that are able to upload to it successfully, but I'm also interested to know if the problem exists with other version of PI.

Most importantly though, I'm curious to know - does anyone have any idea what it is in PI 10 that might cause this issue? This problem does not exist for users who do not have PI installed on their computer.

Thank you *very much* in advance for any assistance, I really appreciate it.

[davenz]

I'm not sure if anyone can help me here, but after searching through the support FAQ's, and wrestling with the Knowledge Base on the Ulead site which doesn't seem to want to work for me, I'm kind of running out of options.

I run an image hosting service for online auction site sellers (like eBay etc...) and we've noticed a problem with 3 customers who have Ulead Photo Impact installed on their PC.

It seems that any user with Impact installed on their computer is unable to upload images to our automated image hosting service. None of our other customers experience this problem, no matter what other brand photo editors they use to optimize their images before uploading. What happens the customer will initiate their upload of a photo, and when our server checks the file for a valid image format, it is rejected as being an invalid image file format.

So far the only solution that has worked - having the user un-install Impact. The minute they un-install it and reboot, they're able to upload images to our service with no problem whatsoever. Also, so far the only reports have come from 3 of our customers in the past year, and all 3 were using PhotoImpact 10 to work with their images before uploading.

I know that on most message boards it is against rules to post links to another site, so if anyone would be interested in testing this out for themselves there's a link to my web service in my profile. I would be especially interested to know if there are any users with PI 10 that are able to upload to it successfully, but I'm also interested to know if the problem exists with other version of PI.

Most importantly though, I'm curious to know - does anyone have any idea what it is in PI 10 that might cause this issue? This problem does not exist for users who do not have PI installed on their computer.

Thank you *very much* in advance for any assistance, I really appreciate it.

Hi there.

I used your demo account (very nice page by the way; kudos to whomever designed it) and uploaded a couple of files no problems. 1 was a jpg created in another program and one was a jpg created the other day with PI 11.

I wouldnt like to hazard a guess as to whats causing the issue either :o)

PI 10, PI 11 installed, Opera 8.5 used for web interface.

[heinz-oz]

Hi,
I use PI 10 and also have PI XL installed. I just uploaded 2 images without any problem.

I'm sure these 3 customers of yours are doing something wrong. Maybe they are trying to upload images in the PI native UFO format. Can you find out the image properties etc. from them?

It would also help if you could get these individuals to give us a step by step explanation of what they are doing when trying to upload.

[VT Photog]

I will agree with heinz-oz that it is likely a user error. If a .jpg image is saved by PI, it will be saved as a .jpg, but if anything such as text, is added, the program will save it as a .ufo in order to preserve the object and layer information. Your users will have to merge all objects and do a "save as" .jpg in order for them to be able to upload.

brian

[JenT]

Most likely user error. PI does have a couple of different formats for saving JPG and my hunch is that if they are uploading JPG, and not UFO, then they are saving their images using the "Progressive" JPG format, which causes problems on some sites. They should use "Standard" or "Standard Optimized" JPG.

HTH!