CGSmartImage responsive image generation problems

[calguy1000]

To All users of CGSmartImage

As you may or may not know, CGSmartImage optionally uses a remote web service to determine (if possible) the resolution of the connecting device. This resolution is then used to control the maximum width and height of the image generated so that smaller images can be delivered to devices with lower resolutions. This option is enabled by default upon the modules installation. It seems that recently (within the last month or so) that this web service is now down.

This presents various problems to CGSmartImage users. Depending upon the site the symptoms may vary (you should investigate your error logs, and possibly enable debug mode). But typically it can result in timeout errors, or maybe even sql database errors or GCB not found messages.

On my test environments (stock ubuntu virtual machines) I encounter none of these issues. The remote web service instantly returns a 503 status, and a message and CGSI 1.16.2 handles it quickly.

I will be releasing a modified version of CGSmartImage in the next few days which will minimize some of these issues. However I do not know when (or if) the web service will be back. I have not yet found an equivalent free web service to use with CGSI.

For now, I suggest that you disable responsive image support for all calls to CGSmartImage. The first dropdown on the "Responsive Images" tab of the CGSI admin panel is entitled "Enable Responsive Images" You should change this to 'no' and save the options.

Changing this option may result in CGSI being forced to re-generate all images... and for sites where the responsive images stuff was working nicely, you may have more adjusting to do to the parameters used in the CGSI call.

Thank you for your time.