Extension talk:Media Viewer/About

Please share your feedback about the Media Viewer.

What do you like about Media Viewer?

 * I like that I can see all the most relevant information about the image in 1 page only and the graphic display. --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I like that it is possible to watch more details present on a picture, exactly text explaining what a part or a component of some graph means, so eliminates some confusion of not being sure what is on that picture. Cornel24 (talk) 17:53, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

What would you change in Media Viewer?

 * I'd make the initial view/popup show a larger image size. The full screen shot of the bird is a great size. Something closer to that without needing a second click would be great. Quicklinks to other image sizes are a must. MarkJurgens
 * I agree with MarkJurgens: it makes no sense to click two times, 1 click is enough. Moreover, I don't like the initial trasparent view, it is usefulness. --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The "created on YYYY-MM-DD" placed just above "by X" seem to imply that the user uploading created it on that day. That will be correct for images taken by the user, but for uploads of old images it will be strange, making it look like the user was alive hundreds of years ago. --Ainali (talk) 09:07, 2 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The smily face in front of "by X" is strange to me, especially with the word "by". Either have a upload symbol so the row can be interpreted as "Uploaded by X" or remove the "by" So it reads as "User X". --Ainali (talk) 09:07, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I suggest to replace the smily face with an icon showing an arrow going in a box, similar to this one: File:Crystal Clear app ark2.png. --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I'd like to see all the main information in a summary that could be quickly copy/pasted by people willing to reuse the file. I think that author, license and source should be provided in an easy format that allows the license to be respected even if the reuser doesn't know, well, anything about how licenses work. --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 14:03, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * This is really important. Our readers are already struggling how to reuse files, please don't make it any harder for them. Note that the uploader is not necessarily the author! (cf. uploads from flickr by bots) --Church of emacs talk · contrib 12:55, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm quite a fan of the links which quickly allow you to switch among image sizes. Small or full screen are not exactly my favorite formats :) --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 14:15, 4 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Clicking outside of the modal should close it. Theopolisme (talk) 21:56, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 JamesA (talk) 23:27, 5 November 2013 (UTC)


 * "Use this file" menu should have the option to "copy to clipboard" or any other option that can be used together with the VisualEditor.--Micru (talk) 01:16, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, I also thought about this. +1 Micru :) Cornel24 (talk) 16:26, 12 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The resize arrow shouldn't change the size to full screen. It should have several size steps (2-3) before changing to full screen.--Micru (talk) 01:16, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I disagree: instead to have to click many times to see the full screen it, it could be easier to have some links to click to change the image in the desired format, like it happens in Flickr. See for example here, where you can choose the format of the picture in the section "Sizes". --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I prefer much better other color schemes and designs like the one used in "Picasa Viewer". Related images could be shown in a gallery on the lower part.--Micru (talk) 01:16, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Shubhamkanodia (talk) 14:12, 6 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Give more room to the image. Other sites (500px, Flickr) are handling this far better. --Frank Schulenburg (talk) 21:05, 7 November 2013 (UTC)


 * It loads photos sloooooowwwwly. For me (on a fast connection and a fast computer), images take between 3 seconds and about 25 seconds to load.--Ragesoss (talk) 03:40, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Me too. Way too slowly. --Another Believer (talk) 03:44, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Maybe we can solve it giving the possibility to change the image resolution. --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Or maybe have a preview with a lower resolution and only if user wants full screen load the picture in best resolution. Some users have slower connections, others faster, somebody access from smartphones, others from tablets and so on. I think it's appropriate to have a standard resolution for every category of devices. Cornel24 (talk) 17:39, 10 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Perhaps whatever's loaded so far could be shown on the screen, like how loading images are typically shown? --Yair rand (talk) 03:46, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
 * yep, would a VipsScaler implementation help ? Slowking4 (talk) 03:09, 15 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The file information should be balanced centrally with the image, instead of jutting to the left. The layout seems to divide in the middle between the metadata (on the right) and the description (on the left), but the metadata is much more compact than a typical description, making the whole text area feel lopsided.--Ragesoss (talk) 03:40, 8 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The transparent background against the file information is distracting. I would prefer that the text have an opaque background.--Ragesoss (talk) 03:40, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Agreed. --Another Believer (talk) 03:46, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
 * The entire page should be overlaid with a darker semi-transparent color -- 80% black, for instance -- with the text in a white box. Lightboxes tend to work that way, for good reason. equazcion � 09:02, 8 Nov 2013 (UTC)
 * I would prefer no transparency at all: just show it in another page. --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'm agree too. No transparency will fit better. Or why not let the user choose what he wants? Just to have a checkbox. :) Cornel24 (talk) 17:49, 10 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Each field has its own issues mostly due large variety of Commons:Infoboxes and how they are used. Some good galleries to try: Musée_du_Louvre:Inventory or Stroop_Report
 * Primary Info ( shown above the image):
 * File name - I think this one should link to the file itself so if other links fail (like for this image), this one should be always there.
 * Author - should work with creator templates like here, might need to distinguish between the photographer and the original artist, like here or here. It works here but not here. If author is "unknown" than it is hard to tell what is unknown about the image since nothing says that this field is an author. Some usernames can be also be confusing like User:Vsop.de. Another example: J. Stroop is not the author of this photo only the report this photo come from.
 * Source - source can have large variety of inputs, like here. Anything more complicated than "own work" or "self-photographed" should be skipped or replaced with "see image", so we do not get situations like with this. Source of this image seem to be too long and irrelevant.
 * License Info I think this one works fine: some licenses are recognized like CC-BY others are not and are linking to the page.
 * Secondary Info ( shown below the image): this image is missing all secondary info
 * Description sometimes like in this photo description was not found.
 * Uploader name is this the first or last uploader? I removed a lot of watermarks over the years, but some minor change like this should not make me the uploader. May be both?
 * Creation Date very few date formats seem to be recognized, like here, or here giving "Created on Invalid Date" message when date is quite clear.
 * Hope this helps. --Jarekt (talk) 17:39, 8 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The "Use this file" option should generate the proper attribution for use outside Wikimedia sites, according to the license of the file. Rsocol (talk) 19:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I think it would make sense if clicking a photo with the middle mouse button (MMB) would open it in a new tab, as opening it in the Media Viewer intuitively happens through LMB. For people editing Categories or looking for fast access to the full-sized file, this would avoid having to go through the right-click menu. (Browser tested: Chrome) Julian Herzog (talk) 19:05, 13 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The Close button (the 'X') should be on the opposite side of the image frame. It's counter-intuitive for it to be on the left side. FreeRangeFrog (talk) 04:54, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

What new Media Viewer features would you like to see?

 * In the Light box I think it would be nice if the image is a link to the Commons file-page. Ainali (talk) 08:52, 2 November 2013 (UTC)


 * In Ligh box mode, clicking outside the boundraries of the light box should return you to the article. Ainali (talk) 09:07, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:34, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Add left and right arrows to navigate to other media in the article.--Micru (talk) 01:16, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree to this proposal in the case you click on the image in a Wikipedia article. When instead you click the image inside a Commons category, the left and right arrows have to be used to navigate to other media in the category. I would really appreciate this function. --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:29, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Support for multiple page documents (Djvu, PDF, PPT, etc). For some inspiration you can take a look to the IA Book reader.--Micru (talk) 01:19, 5 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Zooming would be useful. --FocalPoint (talk) 16:26, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:34, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Why not show license at the media page?--Zhangjintao(Connect to me at zh.wikipedia.org 04:41, 7 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Annotations, for images like File:1911 Solvay conference.jpg. See Commons:Help:Gadget-ImageAnnotator --Jarekt (talk) 19:33, 8 November 2013 (UTC)


 * It could be nice a function to see a slideshow of the images in the same Commons category or in the same Wikipedia page, showing the next image after few seconds. It could be great a tool to create a personalized list of pictures, then see the slideshow and to save it as a .ppt file, so it can be used to create easily and quickly some presentation to use offline (for example by the teacher in a school during a lesson). --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 06:45, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

Some more feedback
Please feel free to ignore/strike if I'm missing something obvious here.
 * Sunrise over fishing boats in Kerala is missing the license at the top right corner, and says date is invalid;
 * Lu3 TIFF file - missing license;
 * San-Francisco-Aerial-View-Photo-5 - invalid date;
 * Tropical Fish Aquarium - California Academy of Sciences - missing license;
 * Pentacle SVG file - missing license;
 * BetaFeatures-MediaViewer-Thumbnail - missing license;
 * Animated GIF - took a lot to load the first time, missing license;
 * 05 Micro-Macro - missing license;
 * Sydney Tower Panorama - missing license;
 * Nijkerk-grote-kerk-toren-2011- - missing license, invalid date. --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 14:15, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

There is no obvious interface for getting to a larger version or the original media file. This is particularly important in screenshots, for example, which may be unusable in the thumbnail or lightbox size and resolution. —Michael Z. 2013-11-06 15:49 z 


 * 1) It takes much longer (10 seconds or more) than normally to load/view an image. Normally i open files in a new tab which is quicker.
 * 2) The date given is wrong. For example "Erstellt am -2147483629. Dezember 1969" (=photo taken december 1969) when you view the photo commons:File:Hattingen - Rathausplatz - Rathaus 03 ies.jpg on Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis. I don't know from where the media viewer could have taken this information. The photo was made in 2010 see its information template and the exif informations. Holger1959 (talk) 21:32, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

There is already a user script for that - Picture Popups
There is already a user script that displays images in larger sizes on the article pages - en:User:Zocky/Picture Popups. It's advantage is that it does not gray out the whole article when showing the images, instead they open in windows which you can move around the page and you can open multiple such windows. My suggestion is to allow this behaviour in Media Viewer as well. --V111P (talk) 21:37, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
 * media viewer hangs on large images (over 50mb) ? integrating VipsScaler would be a nice fix ? Slowking4 (talk) 03:32, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Sorry
Simply adjust the settings in preferences (appearance / file) for quick viewing and better than what is proposed by default. I use daily (1280x1024) and 300px for miniature; Its gives a result better and faster than what is proposed by this beta. The caption data is very fragmented and they are not directly accessible. This gadget is slow and I do not see the interest. --Archaeodontosaurus (talk) 13:36, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Closing the window
I feel weird that the "X" to close the view is on the top left and not in the top right. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with this. Barcex (talk) 17:58, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 I expected the closing X on the top right position too. Raymond (talk) 21:38, 9 November 2013 (UTC)


 * That's where it'll be in the next version, see Multimedia/About Media Viewer.--Eloquence (talk) 21:54, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't feel such discomfort, maybe because I'm left-handed and right-handed too. But, I'm agree that most users expect the closing X at right. Cornel24 (talk) 16:14, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Invalid date
All my pictures have correct dates and times in the information template. The information template translates the dates correctly to different languages. However, this viewers says that the date is "Invalid". Barcex (talk) 18:05, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Same for me, all my images are tagged with the global standard time and date notation (2013-09-07 17:59:30). In the normal view, this is interpreted correctly, the Media Viewer regards it as "invalid". Julian Herzog (talk) 15:08, 10 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Interestingly, as I just found out, it's interpreted correctly here: commons:File:Eurojet EJ200 for Eurofighter Typhoon PAS 2013 01 free.jpg, only the displayed format of the date is still wrong then (what's "6/19/2013"?). I have my date display preference set to "2013-11-10T15:11:17", but that seems to be ignored. Julian Herzog (talk) 15:12, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for your great feedback!

 * Thank you all for your wonderful feedback, everyone! Especially Daniele Pugliesi, Cornel24, MarkJurgens, Ainali, Elitre, Micru, Ragesoss, Jarekt, Holger1959, Barcex, Raymond and Julian Herzog, to name but a few. Your detailed feedback is absolutely invaluable to us -- and much, much appreciated :) We are passing on to our development team recommendations to address the issues you raised. Some of these issues were already on our to-do list, but your comments are helping us give these tasks a higher priority. We are now fixing the most urgent bugs, and will be rolling out more tweaks and new features in coming weeks, with our next release due on 21 November, and more updates in December. If you have any more suggestions or questions, you are welcome to post them here, and/or on this Media Viewer discussion page. I am out of office until 19 November, but you can contact our community liaison Keegan (WMF) or lead developer Mark Homquist with any urgent requests. Thanks again for your amazing suggestions, and for all that you are doing to help improve this tool as a collaboration between the community and the foundation! Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 03:11, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Description should be on the top
Hi! I'm Himanis Das of English Wikipeida, I find the Media viewer quite in-acceptable because when I opened a file through it, the Source info appears in the top between the close 'X' and 'View license' button; and the Description info is present in the left side in the bottom of the file opened.

No! The description info should be in the place of source info. It'll allow people to access easy understanding of the file rather than gaining knowledge where from the respective file has been derived.

Drew: Am I correct ?

Himanis Das (talk) 08:05, 14 November 2013 (UTC)