Thumbnail view of files is possible

[blans]

Dear Filezilla people,

I've just registered as a (happy) Filezilla user and here are two questions hopefully someone can help me with:

1. During account activation I was not allowed a hotmail of gmail account. This is very user unfriendly. I understand that most spam comes from these mailproviders but I have also no way of knowing Filezilla forum wont SPAM me on my business mailaddress. Rule nr1 of usability is "go with the majority of use". Filezilla has the wizzkids to find a good solution for the spam issue without ignoring a continent of people using their much preferred hotmail account.

2. (My real question). Why is there still no thumbnail view possible with Filezilla? WS-FTP Pro has that function and that's one of the most wanted feature when you have a website with many product images. WS-FTP Pro has a big pricetag but that feature makes it worth. Please you guys... Can you do you programming magic and make this possible?

Best regards,

Blans
Ing. Human Technology and Usability

[botg]

The FTP specifications do not include a way to get thumbnails or other previews of files.

The only way to get a thumbnail is to first download the file. As that is a very bandwidth-expensive task, FileZilla does not display previews.

[boco]

These mail providers allow mass-creation of accounts used solely for spamming (by not verifying user data). They don't do anything against it.

[blans]

@Botg

I understand that there are technical difficulties in making thumbnailview work but WS-FTP does it and that's a delight to work with.

If they can get it to work, why can't Filezilla?

It would certainly make FZ the nr1 in usability!

[blans]

@Boco

There is always the line between usability and technical abilities and willingness but as a user I was pretty surprised that a forum ignores me with two of the biggest mail providers in the world.

Well... it was just a little note and don't want to make to much out of it. I'm here and that counts. Let's better concentrate on my questions of the thumbnails. There must be a way to make this happen if also other ftps can do it.

[blans]

Well... This subject was already requested and discussed 4 years ago and got the same answer then.

Too bad Filezilla doesn't give Thumbnail view priority.

We are switching to WS-FTP Pro since there pricing has become reasonable and they do offer Thumbnail view.

[dylanh724]

The FTP specifications do not include a way to get thumbnails or other previews of files.

The only way to get a thumbnail is to first download the file. As that is a very bandwidth-expensive task, FileZilla does not display previews.

What is this, 2013? Oh-- ha it was Necro bump, but for the greater good! It's 2016 and bandwidth is almost unlimited! It should be the USERS choice if he wants to spare the bandwidth. I 100% do.

Any reason this isn't out yet?

[botg]

Bandwidth is not unlimited and any spare capacity would quickly evaporate if thumbnails were shown.

It's really expensive to download each file just to show a thumbnail.

[dylanh724]

Bandwidth is not unlimited and any spare capacity would quickly evaporate if thumbnails were shown.

It's really expensive to download each file just to show a thumbnail.

Depends on your customer. I'm on a shared hosting package with unlimited bandwidth, so for example, I couldn't care less.

But the point: Why wouldn't I be able to specify certain directories to get the thumbs? There is no way this is a feature someone wouldn't want. Your point is like saying Facebook images consume too much bandwidth, so may as well view facebook.com as text-only. Take away all those pesky images.

If I have an /images/ folder with 50 images by what it looks like rather than the name, what's the difference between me downloading it all locally and looking at it?

That's just the lazy way. The non-lazy way would be to store the folder specified's images one time, create a .thumbs folder like most cameras or phones deal with it, then if the names match, serve the thumbnail of the /.thumbnail/whatever.jpg instead. Store meta data of when it was last updated. If they don't match, download a new one. Even if the thumb was buggy and outdated, at least it's a clue to what we're dealing with.

[boco]

If I have an /images/ folder with 50 images by what it looks like rather than the name, what's the difference between me downloading it all locally and looking at it?

None. That's why such functionality isn't implemented. Plus, downloading first saves the bandwidth you'd spend re-downloading the file after looking at the thumbnail.

About creating thumbs: FileZilla and FTP are content-agnostic by design, they don't deal with and completely ignore contents. Creating thumbs would require looking at contents, not likely to happen.