The Volusion Thumbnail Generation is a free software tool provided by Volusion that can help merchants automate the creation of thumbnail images for their store's product images. The Volusion Thumbnail Generator works by reading CSV (Comma Separated Value) files containing the list of products from a merchant's Volusion store and automatically resizing and creating thumbnails for each of the products' main images.
Note on Requirements:
The Volusion Thumbnail Generator is compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000 and Xp. The Volusion Thumbnail Generator requires the Microsoft .Net Library version 2.0 or greater to be installed in order for it to work.
Getting Started:
Follow these steps to begin using the Volusion Thumbnail Generator:
Download the Volusion Thumbnail Generator by clicking on this link.
Install the Volusion Thumbnail Generator. (If using Windows 2000, you may be asked to install an extra component. You MUST install this for the Generator to work)
Configuring your thumbnail generator
-
Create two folders on your computer. For example: VolusionPhotos and VolusionThumbnails.
-
You can use the sample template CSV file, or use the sample shown in the photos below (as a simple two-column Excel-readable CSV spreadsheet file).
- Note that by default, when the archive file containing the Thumbnail Generator is extracted, it should create a directory on your Windows desktop. This sample CSV file will be contained in that directory.
-
Save all the product photos in the folder named VolusionPhotos. Leave the folder named VolusionThumbnails empty. The thumbnail generator will create and save all thumbnail photos for your products in this folder.
Next, look for the CSV file in the uncompressed folder labeled "VolusionTG_Example." Choose a location on your computer and save this file. Edit the VolusionTG_Example.csv file. - (see image shown below for an example)
-
Column A - A List of all your product codes
-
Column B - A List of corresponding image file names associated with product code.
Click on the icon labeled "Volusion TG" to open Thumbnail Generator (as show below in the first picture). Next, you will need to setup the directories for the thumbnail generator as follows:
-
CSV File - The path on your computer to the VolutionTG_Example CSV file
-
Photos Directory - The path to the folder that all the photos for your products are stored in
-
Thumbnails Directory - The path to the folder where the generator will create the four image files (for each photo size)
Transfer your newly created image files to your Volusion site via FTP client. For more information regarding FTP access within our system, you can review the following links:
Notes on Using the Volusion Thumbnail Generator:
-
When creating the CSV file, you need to match the product code with the photo name that is in your Photos Directory folder. For example, if your product code is "sonydvdplayer" in Column A, Row 1, and you have a picture of a Sony DVD Player titled "sonydvd.jpg", then in Column B, Row 1, you would enter "sonydvd.jpg".
-
Users must set a width value for all thumbnail types. Not setting the size dimensions for all of the thumbnail types will create an error where no thumbnail images will be created. For any image size that will not be used, simply enter zero for the width.
-
By default, the Thumbnail Generator will be configured to maintain the aspect ratio of any thumbnail image it creates. If this option is unchecked, users will need to set both a width and height value for at least one of the thumbnail types.
-
Thumbnail dimensions cannot exceed the dimensions of the original source image the thumbnails will be generated from. Doing so will cause an error and no thumbnail images will be generated.
-
Please note that the Volusion Thumbnail Generator was designed to quickly create thumbnails for the primary product images for each product hosted within the Volusion store. The Thumbnail Generator does not provide the ability to create thumbnails for alternate product images.
-
Finally, if the CSV file being used in conjunction with the Thumbnail Generator is open, be sure to close the file before attempting to resize photos using this software. Having the CSV file remain open in Excel or another program will cause the Thumbnail Generator to error.
Summary:
The Volusion Thumbnail Generator is a useful tool for Volusion merchants to quickly create and upload thumbnail images for a vast number of products. Please note the system requirements above and users should be familiar with the basic concepts of using their store's FTP access as well as importing and exporting their store's data to CSV files using Volusion's import/export functions.
