What is the GD 2.0 library?

[Guest]

Hi list,

 

Can someone explain what the GD 2.0 library is, how to check if it is installed, where to get it and how to install it if needed.

 

I am interested in installing the 'On the Fly' contribution to help me with image resizing and it needs the above already installed.

 

Would this be a good contribution to use? Or should I try something else?

 

Thanks

Michael

[user99999999]

Check in Admin->Tools->Server-Info

 

It should list any php modules installed.

 

If its not listed there you can ask your host if they will put it in.

 

Most lowend host exclude it because image conversion uses lots of cpu time and it can easily be abused to kill your server.

 

If you have GD or imagemagik then look at the contribs that create the thumbnail in admin or cache it on first view.

[nate_02631]

Hey, user99999999, I forgot about that admin feature!

 

Gucciman, if you check out the admin as suggested above, you should see a "gd" section under the Configuration section of your server info... If you have GD, but not 2.0+, I think there's a tip in the contrib post to make an easy change so it'll work with older versions of GD...

 

GD is now quite common with Vhosts and comes pre-packaged with later versions of PHP... It does use CPU cycles, but computers are so darn fast these days, I don't see it as much of an issue (scaling an image doesn't exactly break the CPU bank ;)). It's a good mod because it doesn't require the creation of extra thumbnail files to keep track of and there's an easy tweak to have an intermediate-size image on your product page.

[Guest]

Hi list,

 

Thank you for the insight. I have check and my GD version is 1.6.2 or higher.

 

Would you suggest I have my host upgrade to 2?

 

I would like to use the contribution 'on the fly' and I says it needs version 2.

 

Thank you.

[nate_02631]

As I mentioned before, check out the forum post for that contrib for a adjustment you can make so it'll work with older versions of GD...