Mac: Selecting pictures/folders within iPhoto

I'm in the middle of optimizing the uploader for all my users and I've gotten stuck with a Mac problem.

When selecting files on a Mac with the Java uploader the left side panel is hidden/removed in the selection window. This panel is the link to Media->Pictures which is a direct link to the iPhoto library.

Is there a way to show this panel?

Currently all my Mac users are redirected straight to the Flash uploader (because of this issue) but with when uploading with the Flash on a Mac I'm still experiencing memory issues (even with the latest version).

treePane: {
        width: 250,
    },
//...other parameters...

Thank you, I will try this asap.

When I try to load images in the Flash uploader my machine's memory get flooded and the loading process stops. Noting craches, it just stops loading.

The same images uploads without any problems when I tried SWFupload. I'm not cropping the images or doing anything to them in your software.

I've tested it in both Firefox and Safari and all get this exact same error. It floods after about 10-15 pictures (depending on how high quality they are).

This is my settings for the Flash upload.

var flashupload = $au.imageUploaderFlash({
id: 'imageupload',
width: '780px',
height: '400px',
licenseKey: '***;***',
enableDescriptionEditor: false,
enableRotation: false,
flashControl: {
	codeBase : 'flash/imageuploaderflash7.2.swf',
	themeUrl: 'flash/theme/DefaultTheme2.swf'
},
uploadSettings: {
	actionUrl: "http://upload.domain.com"
},
topPane: {
	showViewComboBox: false
},
uploadPane: {
	thumbnailPreviewSize: 100,
	viewMode: 'Thumbnails'
},
restrictions: {
	maxFileCount: 500,
	maxFileSize: 20971520,
	minFileSize: 51200,
	minImageHeight: 200,
	minImageWidth: 200,
	fileMask: [['Bilder (*.jpg;*.jpeg)', '*.jpg;*.jpeg']]
},
converters: [{
	mode: "*.*=SourceFile"
}]
});

Adobe Flash has strange design of memory sub-system. If you open a reference to a file using file picker and want to load some information from this file (image width/height to validate restrictions in our example), you have to read the whole file to memory and keep it there. Flash doesn’t allow to unload file binary from memory, all you can do is to destroy reference to it (memory is cleared in this case). After that you cannot get access to this file. If you need this file again somewhere in your program (upload stage in our case), you have to open file picker again and ask your user to choose the same file. That’s Adobe Flash.

Following this logic, if you enable restrictions to image width/height, photos are loaded to memory right after you select them in file picker. A photo remains loaded to memory until the moment when it’s uploaded to a server. If you don’t use image-related restrictions, the uploader works another way. During upload stage the uploader takes files one by one, loads a file to memory, does whatever it should do with the file, uploads it and then destroys reference to it (clears memory), then turns to the next file, etc. This way, you don’t stress memory usage in Web browser process.

Edited by user Tuesday, June 28, 2011 11:16:36 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

We don’t draw file pickers neither in Java nor in Flash. They are implemented in the environment classes (internal code in Flash/Java), we just use them in our code. I’m aware that file open dialog in Java looks completely different than standard dialog in Mac OSX (e.g. doesn’t support iPhoto). We have this problem in the bug tracker, and we'll dig into the question whether it’s possible to switch to native dialog in “Snow Leopard”. “Leopard” didn’t allow that for sure.

The idea of restrictions in Image Uploader Flash is to validate files on the “adding to upload list” stage. If you add 100 files to upload list and the latest one doesn’t meet the requirements, you will know about it only after 99 files are uploaded. However, maybe it’s not bad idea taking into account Flash limitations.

Edited by user Wednesday, June 29, 2011 11:35:52 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified