Thumbnails, slideshows, and the media player

The Web Client, combined with advanced features in Serv-U, is a perfect platform for sharing photos with friends, family, or clients. Using advanced on-the-fly compression techniques, the Web Client can request a custom sized thumbnail image for virtually any type of image file. This thumbnail image is generated by the server upon receiving the request and sent back to the client. In this way, you can view a smaller version of an image file in a fraction of the time it would take to download the entire file and open it up locally. This also minimizes the amount of bandwidth used by the server to send these image files.

View images

The Web Client supports two image viewing modes: thumbnails and slideshows. Slideshows can be viewed when in either the detailed or thumbnail view mode.

To display thumbnails or slideshow, click on a file and select Preview Image or Slide Show from the More Actions drop-down menu.

Thumbnails

The thumbnail view replaces the detailed directory listing with one that allows a thumbnail image to be displayed for each file. If the file is not of a supported image type, then the appropriate icon for the file type is displayed instead. While in thumbnail view mode, you can use the same toolbar displayed above the directory listing to open folders, transfer files, and rename or delete the currently selected file.

You can customize the size of each image thumbnail by opening the thumbnail size menu next to the Thumbnail View mode button. Three sizes are offered to help you find a balance between the size of the thumbnails and the time it takes to retrieve them. When creating thumbnail images, Serv-U preserves the aspect ratio of the image to avoid distorting the original image.

You can preview images in both the thumbnail and detailed view mode. An image that you preview is displayed in a new dialog as if in a slideshow, however, it is paused on the previewed image. Images are displayed at a maximum width of 600 pixels. If the previewed image is smaller than this size, then the image is shown using its actual dimensions. While previewing an image, you can start a slideshow by clicking Play in the bottom left of the preview dialog.

Slideshows

Slideshows provide a way to automatically preview the images contained in the current directory. While viewing an image in slideshow mode, you can perform standard actions on that file including downloading, renaming, and deleting, by clicking the appropriate button below the image.

You can control the slideshow manually by using the buttons on either side of the current slideshow image. The current position in the slideshow is displayed at the top of the dialog. A >Play Slide Show or Pause Slide Show link is displayed in the top right corner. Next to this is an options button that displays a slider to control the speed at which images advance in the slideshow. Adjusting the slider to the left increases the time each image is displayed while adjusting it to the right decreases the amount of time for each image. On some servers, a loading image may be displayed when advancing to the next image if the current pace is faster than the server is capable of generating and sending the slideshow image.

Along the bottom of the dialog a strip of the next five images in the slideshow is displayed. The arrows to the left and right of these images can be used to browse all images in the slideshow. To jump to a specific image in the slideshow, click that image in the thumbnail strip.

When you are finished viewing the slideshow, press Escape on your keyboard, or click the 'x' in the top right corner of the dialog.

Use the media player

In the media player you can play most common media formats instantly using the Media Player window in the Web Client. By using the media player, you can preview audio and video files before downloading, and you can also build playlists to stream audio straight from the Web Client.

Playlists are dynamically generated by Serv-U to play all audio files located in your current directory. If audio files are detected in the current directory, a Play List option is displayed. Click the button to begin successively streaming all audio files in your current directory to the built-in media player.

You can control the media player manually by using the Previous and Next buttons above the player. Next to these controls is a counter showing the position of the current media file along with the total number of media files in the current directory.

These controls manually change to the previous or next media file in the current directory. After the media file has been played, the media player does not automatically move on to the next media file.

To play multiple audio files in succession, use the Play List option. When you are using this feature, you can use the controls in the appropriate media player plug-in to change the current track. While streaming a playlist from Serv-U, the download, delete, and rename actions are hidden.