[Linda Everett]

This problem just cropped up today, and I did update my WordPress version yesterday to 4.0, so I think it’s related. When looking at this page on an iPhone:

http://ccl.rutgers.edu/collaborators/

the images are horribly pixelated. In some cases the problem shows up also on an iPad (not on mine, but on my boss’s, which is a newer iPad) and on laptop and desktop, in all browsers.

I tried re-uploading some of the images. I would upload one image, then refresh the iphone browser, and it looked fine again. Then I would upload another one and refresh and the second one looked fine, but the first was back to pixelated again. tried with 3rd pic, same thing happened.

My other directory page (http://ccl.rutgers.edu/ccl-team/) was critical to me so I set all the images to not display until this problem is figured out. Any idea?

Thanks!

[Linda Everett]

Steve

After reading some other bug reports, I am convinced that the problem I am seeing is related not to WP 4,0 update but rather to Connections 8.1 update feature for retina display. I think that’s true because the problem occurs seemingly on newer displays, like my iPhone, my boss’s iPad and his brand new Lenovo laptop, which I believe has HD display, but looks fine on my old laptop and my husband’s older display.

That said, until the issue is fixed, can you possibly tell me how to drop back to the previous version of Connections? I’d like to do that temporarily until this gets sorted out. I am attaching here a screenshot of what the images look like on the iphone so you can see what I mean.

Thanks,
Linda

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[Steven Zahm]

@ Linda

Yes Lind that is correct. It seems a core function in WordPress for streaming images, which is what Connections using to serve HiDPI (Retina) images, does no longer use a default image quality of 90. It is either not set or defaults to a real low value in 4.0. When I tested 4.0 before releasing I didn’t notice this because I don’t think I refreshed the page multiple times. The first load a image is created and cached, Connections does set a default quality, and page refresh, the cached image is served and no default quality is set (in WP 4.0).

A bug fix will be released shortly, after I resolve a few other bugs.

You can apply a hotfix…

Open this file:

../wp-content/plugins/connections/includes/image/class.image.php

Right before this line:
$image->set_quality( $quality );

Add this:

// Ensure a stream quality is set otherwise we get a block mess as an image when serving a cached image.
$quality = get_query_var( 'q' ) ? get_query_var( 'q' ) : 90;

// Ensure valid value for $quality. If invalid valid is supplied reset to the default of 90, matching WP core.
if ( filter_var( (int) $quality, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, array( 'options' => array( 'min_range' => 1, 'max_range' => 100 ) ) ) === FALSE ) {

	$quality = 90;
}

$image->set_quality( $quality );

Save and upload overwriting the original.

Hope that helps and apologies for the trouble.

[Linda]

Thanks Steve – I will try the hot fix on one of my other sites – for my main site I have already dropped back to the previous version of connections (and had to re-upload all my photos, sadly).

I do appreciate your response and I will look forward to the full bug fix.

Linda

[Linda]

Steve

I am not confident enough with PHP to know if this is correct – I can’t find the line you specify in that file. The closest I find is :

$editor->set_quality( $quality );

Is that what I’m looking for?

Thx,
Linda

[Steven Zahm]

@ Linda

Errr. copy/paste error my part. Right before this line:
$image->stream();

Here’s a link to the file/line, paste the code I gave before the above line.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Linda

This bug fix, among several others, is definitely in the next release so you will not have to worry about it.

If you want to be certain. I’d being will to install it for you to test to ensure it. All I would need is a temp admin account.

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