It has been a little bit since I wrote an update here so I thought I would make a quick note to let people know what has been going on. First up an update on a few bug fixes that have been added to the site.
Bug Fixes
Upload Bug
Thanks to PDSVG for letting me know about a bug in the upload form. It had a tendency to fail on files over 5MB. Long story short if you have SVG files over 5MB that you would like to contribute the upload should be working for you now. If it doesn’t drop me a note and let me know. Maybe even share the file you are trying to upload via Google Drive or Dropbox or some other service so I can try some debugging on my local test site.
PNG Preview Bugs
This is a persistent bug, and I knew when I got into this it was going to be a bit of a problem. Some SVG files simply do not convert to PNG’s very well and some need a bit more computing power than is available to do it fast enough. The easy way to fix this is the PNG’s are not created on the fly and are static files. The downside is this takes up more hard drive space on the server, especially if we were to generate PNG’s for all the sizes we need. The compromise is only the largest size is created and the smaller sizes are resized from the largest one on the fly. This is what is slowly happening, it just takes a long time to create PNG’s for 130,000+ SVG files and upload them. I ask for your patience on this, since it just takes time. Of course you are always welcome to download the SVG file and create the PNG or JPG you need at the correct size you need it.
Features
Front End Editing
I have a working copy of front end editing running on my local test site and I hope to move it over to the live site between Christmas and New Years. With it you will be able to edit titles, descriptions and tags on your clipart posts on the actual clipart post no need to use the admin section of the site. As well it will be available for the 20,000+ posts that are missing meta data and contributors so if you are logged in and are browsing the site you can easily help to improve the site as you go.
API Improvements
The front end editing is made possible by including a PUT/PATCH API route on the site. It will be made available at the same time the front end editing comes online. There will also be a POST route added at the same time to offer remote uploading of new SVG files. I am looking forward to seeing what others make from the data that is available. I was pleasantly surprised with this T-shirt creator demo that uses the API to add graphics.
Comments and Favorites
Openclipart used to allow people to comment and save clipart as favorites (collections). I can easily allow this as well but would like to know if people would like these turned on. If you would like to have the ability to comment on clipart and save items as favorites please leave a comment so I know.
Tipping Contributors
I guess many sites that allow user contributors often allow those contributors to provide a link to a tip site. I thought this was a great idea and would like the people who contribute to the site (both the Openclipart files and new) to be able to accept tips. Currently the plan is to allow contributors to save a link to either a buy me a coffee type site or PayPal directly. This will offer users that ability to tip the contributors they regularly download files from. I am open to suggestions on how to implement this. Was thinking a simple “Tip this Creator” link by the creator user name on the clipart posts, but I am open to suggestions. Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts.
Updates
Donations
Just a quick update on the donations here at FreeSVGClipart. If you appreciate the work that has gone into trying to restore what Openclipart was your help is appreciated. You can read more about what the costs are to run the site and buy me a coffee here to help keep the site running. All my time is volunteer so any help people can give is appreciated. My personal preference is to not have ads on the site, since they just slow the site down, add tracking cookies, and just get blocked with ad blockers anyway, so donations are really the only option available. If you cannot or don’t want to donate please consider other forms of donation such as your time to help fix the Openclipart items titles, descriptions and tags when front end editing is available or uploading your new clipart creations.
Backups
For those interested in having all the clipart I backup the files and spreadsheet data to Google Drive weekly. If you would like to download the clipart files and the data is it available. Note: This data has been removed to save on space and $$$.
GDPR
I have done my best to make sure this site complies with the EU GDPR laws. That includes only setting required cookies unless you agree to allowing other cookies. This means that unless you agree to setting cookies only the required cookies should get set. Other sites often have a cookie banner asking you to accept cookies but in reality many of them go ahead and set Analytics and Advertising cookies before you actually agree. If you find that the site set cookies please use the GDPR Complaint form to let me know so I can fix the problem. There are also forms available to export your data, request your data be deleted and to fix your data. All requirements of the GDPR.
Think that is all that is going on. I will post again when things are added to the site.