Java has computer security issues. Java is going away. Many of you already are well acquainted with both facts. In the past, MileSplit used a Java-based photo uploader. That dinosaur is even now being laid to rest.
But, a lot of you like to add your photos from a meet to the site, and we still want to encourage that. So, allow me to give you a tutorial on how to use our new HTML-based photo uploader.
You still access the uploader page through the meet page itself. If results have been posted for a meet, there will be a link to the meet page in the right-hand Meet Coverage column of the front page. If results are not yet posted, you can access the meet page through the Calendar item on the main navigation bar.
But, before you click on Add Your Photos on the meet page, you want to have your photos to upload in order. The ideal size for images uploaded to the site is 960 pixels wide. Using Photoshop, or some other photo editing package, resize all of your photos that you want to upload into a separate directory of their own at 960 pixels width. If you do not first resize your photos, they will take forever to upload--if they upload at all.
Next, make folders for all of the different events you shot (you can make a single directory for both boys and girls photos of the same event, if you like, but it's a lot easier for viewers to find photos if you separate them by event). Select and drag the photos of each event into their respective folders. You are done when you have a directory of event folders with no extra photos hanging around. If you don't separate your photos by event, few people will take the time to wade through your album. It's just too much work to do that unless yours is a very small album.
Next, go up a level and zip the entire directory (in Windows, this is done by right clicking on the directory and sending to a compressed (zipped) folder. Once this is done, you are ready to upload. Click on the Add Your Photos link. Unfortunately, for the time being, this creates a Java permission-to-run dialogue because the old Java uploader is still there for a few diehards. For your purposes, just close it. You don't need it.
At the top of the page you'll see a very simple HTML 5 photo uploader. Click on the Add Photos button and select your zipped directory. Click on Upload, wait a few seconds, and your photos will start to upload, creating subalbums for each of your different events as they go. You will get a dialog window when all photos have finished uploading. Do not close or move out of this window until photo uploading is complete, or you will have to start all over again.
If your album is too large--this happens to me sometimes, but not to too many other folks--you may have to split your directory of resized photos into two or three directories. Male and female events, track event and field events, morning events and afternoon events are all logical ways to split up the directories. Generally speaking, it takes a few hundred photos before your album is too large to be uploaded all in one zipped file.
If there is a photo or two in your album you'd really like me to see, please send me (or your own state webmaster, if you're reading this outside of Colorado or New Mexico) an e-mail and direct my attention to that photo or photos. I really do like to use user-submitted photos. And we occasionally get the idea we'd like to hire a person to shoot a meet from time to time. This is generally where we get that idea. I can't make promises, but that is how the system works.
Thanks!!