Kraken add-on in development

Jake B.

Well-known member
Just a heads up, we're currently working on a replacement for GFN's Kraken add-on. Progress is coming along quite smoothly, support for attachments is nearly done already :)

It also adds a sidebar to the dashboard of your AdminCP:

Screen%20Shot%202016-02-04%20at%203.42.03%20PM.png
 
Just a heads up, we're currently working on a replacement for GFN's Kraken add-on. Progress is coming along quite smoothly, support for attachments is nearly done already :)

It also adds a sidebar to the dashboard of your AdminCP:

Screen%20Shot%202016-02-04%20at%203.42.03%20PM.png

Will it be able to process existing attachments? Can it be flexible to work with other services?
 
@Jake B. if your addon can resize older images that are currently larger than the maximum dimensions I'm currently using, and still support [bd]image, that would be awesome.

I installed jpegoptim and tweaked, but ended up setting 100% of the images to Kraken.io for optimization.

In truth, the biggest gain has been simply resizing new images to a maximum 1600x1600. Sending to Kraken afterward with the GFN addon doesn't always yield in additional filesize reduction but they clean up the unnecessary info and optimize the exceptions.
 
An auto scaling feature would also be nice Jake. I'm developing an adult. The range of users and computer experience is all over the map.

Many user get fustrated and will give up on posting ad's or images if they run into issues.

Let use this example:

If I set my maximum image size to 1920 X 1080. (1080p) in the AdminCP.

An advertiser may upload an image that's 2200 - 1200 pixels. It would be nice if the add-on would auto scale the image to largest pixel size while preserving be aspect ratio of the orginal image without distorting the image. Advertisers get really upset when their images are distorted.

Would be possible to add a auto scaler to the add-on to make it easier for members to post images within the restrictions set in the AdminCP?
 
If I set my maximum image size to 1920 X 1080. (1080p) in the AdminCP.

An advertiser may upload an image that's 2200 - 1200 pixels. It would be nice if the add-on would auto scale the image to largest pixel size while preserving be aspect ratio of the orginal image without distorting the image. Advertisers get really upset when their images are distorted.

Would be possible to add a auto scaler to the add-on to make it easier for members to post images within the restrictions set in the AdminCP?
XenForo already does this automatically.

If maximum dimensions are set then the image is resized, maintaining aspect ratio, so it is within those dimensions when it is uploaded.
 
Just a heads up, we're currently working on a replacement for GFN's Kraken add-on. Progress is coming along quite smoothly, support for attachments is nearly done already :)

It also adds a sidebar to the dashboard of your AdminCP:

Most excellent! A must buy for me.

Will this only support kraken.io or will you also add support for server side compression via JpegOptim or pngquant etc?

There's also a cheaper option to Kraken.io that's called "Optimus" with an API available: https://optimus.io/en/#pricing. Not sure if it's of interest, just thought I should mention it :)
 
XenForo already does this automatically.

If maximum dimensions are set then the image is resized, maintaining aspect ratio, so it is within those dimensions when it is uploaded.

Cool. Thanks for pointing that out Chris. I still have nightmare from my Invision fourm days when you had members hollering at you after they get constant errors trying to load images. It's good that Xenforo is on top of this
 
Most excellent! A must buy for me.

Will this only support kraken.io or will you also add support for server side compression via JpegOptim or pngquant etc?

There's also a cheaper option to Kraken.io that's called "Optimus" with an API available: https://optimus.io/en/#pricing. Not sure if it's of interest, just thought I should mention it :)

Optimus is cheaper but the results are not as good. It's lossy vs lossless compression. You have to decide how important those images are to your forum.
 
Optimus is cheaper but the results are not as good. It's lossy vs lossless compression. You have to decide how important those images are to your forum.
Whats lossy versus lossless? Jpeg is a lossy format period and pngquant is a lossy method of reducing png file sizes.
 
Whats lossy versus lossless? Jpeg is a lossy format period and pngquant is a lossy method of reducing png file sizes.

Yes. Most people are uploading JPEG. Most of the compression is removing redundant info in Kraken.

When they say lossless, they're referring to applying additional compression to a JPEG image without reducing the image quality further.
 
Optimus is cheaper but the results are not as good. It's lossy vs lossless compression. You have to decide how important those images are to your forum.

I do believe both Kraken and Optimus offers lossless compression and as such there shouldn't be any difference between the two services with regard to image quality. The difference is that Kraken also offers lossy compression, which Optimus currently doesn't.

It's 19 USD/year with unlimited bandwidth (Optimus) vs 109 USD/year and 2GB/month (Kraken), so I just thought that it was worth a mention (Also as it was discussed in the other kraken add-on thread).

I'll use whatever service that has the best XF support which is why I'm super glad to hear about this add-on and will buy on day one :) If there's ever Optimus support, I will however switch to that service instead.

(Sorry for OFT)
 
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I do believe both Kraken and Optimus offers lossless compression and as such there shouldn't be any difference between the two services with regard to image quality. The difference is that Kraken also offers lossy compression, which Optimus currently doesn't.

It's 19 USD/year with unlimited bandwidth (Optimus) vs 109 USD/year and 2GB/month (Kraken), so I just thought that it was worth a mention (Also as it was discussed in the other kraken add-on thread).

I'll use whatever service that has the best XF support which is why I'm super glad to hear about this add-on and will buy on day one :) If there's ever Optimus support, I will however switch to that service instead.

(Sorry for OFT)

As long as there's Optimus support, that's fine. In most cases, if you can shave 25% off the images size you'll be fine. Lossy compression on JPEG images can cause banding in higher constrast images.

It would depend on how much the images matter to your site. The Images on my site are critical. I wouldn't use a lossy compressor on JPEG.
 
Any update on this @Jake B. ?

It's something we've already built for the client that needed it. However, I don't think it's at a point currently that it can be released. It's extremely specific to what his needs were and it's currently on the backburner until we have time to expand it a bit
 
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