Is there a short-cut way to force a project to refresh images in WordPress Media files... when they have been updated? I know I can change the names and physically relink all images to the newer versions, but is there some way to reload newer versions of the images to WordPress Media files, and "force" LayerSlider to refresh it's copies of those images?
Thank you for getting in touch with us. My name is John, and I'm happy to assist you today. I appreciate your patience while we've been working towards your ticket.
I'm not exactly sure what do you mean. When you insert images from the WP Media Library, LayerSlider stores special identifiers from which it can pull the images on-the-fly. It should always reflect changes and respect 3rd party integrations to give you an "up-to-date version" of the image.
Can you please provide more information and examples? How the images were altered? Which tools/plugins did you use?
You said, "When you insert images from the WP Media Library, LayerSlider stores special identifiers from which it can pull the images on-the-fly. It should always reflect changes and respect 3rd party integrations to give you an "up-to-date version" of the image."
My concern is for images that have already been added to the WP Media library, but which need to be modified in Photoshot and then re-imported. I generally "permanently delete" the original image in the Media library, and then re-import the updated image with the same name so that I do not have to change any slides that are using that image.
Maybe the problem is actually with the WP Media library... which doesn't automatically reflect image edits and reimporting those updated images to the Media library. (Although I THINK I opened updated images from the Media library in a new browser window and saw the changes, but didn't seem to see those same changes in LayerSlider.)
This has nothing to do with LayerSlider. The Media Library is just a big folder full of uploaded stuff. How should a plugin or WordPress make sense of randomly appearing and disappearing files without telling them which one they should use? They have no way of knowing if new files are a replacement and for which images.
One way of doing this is directly via LayerSlider. You can delete files in the Media Library when opened from LayerSlider, then immediately add the new one in the appropriate place.
But more likely, what you need is a replacement functionality in the Media Library. WordPress doesn't offer this out of the box, but there are plugins and other ways to achieve it. Quickly searching for this, here's the first Google result: How to Easily Replace Image and Media Files in WordPress
LayerSlider will follow the changes made on images that was replaced this way. Also, LayerSlider has an image editor, so you can consider using it for convenience when you only want simple modifications.
"How should a plugin or WordPress make sense of randomly appearing and disappearing files without telling them which one they should use?" You misunderstood - or didn't carefully read my original question.
I am completely replacing one image with a specific filename for an updated image... with the exact same filename. I'm not expecting some plugin to mystically know which image to use. It already knows which image I've told it to use.
My question was not unreasonable: it's possibly that LayerSlider might have some mechanism to force a refresh on the known image it was loading. Or, there might be some mechnism/process of forcing WordPress to update the image (cache?).
Your suggested Google search totally missed what I have been trying to do. I am not "replacing" one image for a different image. As I stated, before "I generally 'permanently delete' the original image in the Media library, and then re-import the updated image with the same filename so that I do not have to change any slides that are using that image."
I'm going to understand you have no solution to my original question....
Thank you for the clarification, Rick! This really should work.
However, it's still not related to LayerSlider. There is no force refresh method because LayerSlider is doing it at every page load on its own. As mentioned, we aren't storing images or even links to images. We're storing an identifier, from which WordPress sends back the image details on the fly. It's a standard that we're following the way the WordPress Devs intended.
Many things can cause why you see older versions of the images. A CDN network if you're using one. The cache of the web browser. Optimizer plugins. It's also a question of whether you're editing files directly or using the Media Library to delete and re-upload the file. Based on your description, it's the latter. However, I'm not sure how WordPress handles essentially duplicate uploads. A lot is happening in the background, like analyzing and storing image information, generating various uploaded image sizes, etc. While it's not likely, a 3rd party plugin can also disrupt this use case.
I understand that this might not be the response you were looking for, but I don't see how this would depend on LayerSlider. I truly believe it's on something else, and that you should try to empty the browser cache and look through the other options to find a solution.
thanks for your very detailed reply John - especially for the clarification that the only thing LayerSlider is storing is the reference to the image - I'm going to do some Google searches to see if there are any WP tricks to get the Media library to force a refresh on it's images
Is there a short-cut way to force a project to refresh images in WordPress Media files... when they have been updated? I know I can change the names and physically relink all images to the newer versions, but is there some way to reload newer versions of the images to WordPress Media files, and "force" LayerSlider to refresh it's copies of those images?
Hi Rick,
Thank you for getting in touch with us. My name is John, and I'm happy to assist you today. I appreciate your patience while we've been working towards your ticket.
I'm not exactly sure what do you mean. When you insert images from the WP Media Library, LayerSlider stores special identifiers from which it can pull the images on-the-fly. It should always reflect changes and respect 3rd party integrations to give you an "up-to-date version" of the image.
Can you please provide more information and examples? How the images were altered? Which tools/plugins did you use?
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team
Hi John,
You said, "When you insert images from the WP Media Library, LayerSlider stores special identifiers from which it can pull the images on-the-fly. It should always reflect changes and respect 3rd party integrations to give you an "up-to-date version" of the image."
My concern is for images that have already been added to the WP Media library, but which need to be modified in Photoshot and then re-imported. I generally "permanently delete" the original image in the Media library, and then re-import the updated image with the same name so that I do not have to change any slides that are using that image.
Maybe the problem is actually with the WP Media library... which doesn't automatically reflect image edits and reimporting those updated images to the Media library. (Although I THINK I opened updated images from the Media library in a new browser window and saw the changes, but didn't seem to see those same changes in LayerSlider.)
Rick
This has nothing to do with LayerSlider. The Media Library is just a big folder full of uploaded stuff. How should a plugin or WordPress make sense of randomly appearing and disappearing files without telling them which one they should use? They have no way of knowing if new files are a replacement and for which images.
One way of doing this is directly via LayerSlider. You can delete files in the Media Library when opened from LayerSlider, then immediately add the new one in the appropriate place.
But more likely, what you need is a replacement functionality in the Media Library. WordPress doesn't offer this out of the box, but there are plugins and other ways to achieve it. Quickly searching for this, here's the first Google result: How to Easily Replace Image and Media Files in WordPress
LayerSlider will follow the changes made on images that was replaced this way. Also, LayerSlider has an image editor, so you can consider using it for convenience when you only want simple modifications.
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team
"How should a plugin or WordPress make sense of randomly appearing and disappearing files without telling them which one they should use?" You misunderstood - or didn't carefully read my original question.
I am completely replacing one image with a specific filename for an updated image... with the exact same filename. I'm not expecting some plugin to mystically know which image to use. It already knows which image I've told it to use.
My question was not unreasonable: it's possibly that LayerSlider might have some mechanism to force a refresh on the known image it was loading. Or, there might be some mechnism/process of forcing WordPress to update the image (cache?).
Your suggested Google search totally missed what I have been trying to do. I am not "replacing" one image for a different image. As I stated, before "I generally 'permanently delete' the original image in the Media library, and then re-import the updated image with the same filename so that I do not have to change any slides that are using that image."
I'm going to understand you have no solution to my original question....
Thank you for the clarification, Rick! This really should work.
However, it's still not related to LayerSlider. There is no force refresh method because LayerSlider is doing it at every page load on its own. As mentioned, we aren't storing images or even links to images. We're storing an identifier, from which WordPress sends back the image details on the fly. It's a standard that we're following the way the WordPress Devs intended.
Many things can cause why you see older versions of the images. A CDN network if you're using one. The cache of the web browser. Optimizer plugins. It's also a question of whether you're editing files directly or using the Media Library to delete and re-upload the file. Based on your description, it's the latter. However, I'm not sure how WordPress handles essentially duplicate uploads. A lot is happening in the background, like analyzing and storing image information, generating various uploaded image sizes, etc. While it's not likely, a 3rd party plugin can also disrupt this use case.
I understand that this might not be the response you were looking for, but I don't see how this would depend on LayerSlider. I truly believe it's on something else, and that you should try to empty the browser cache and look through the other options to find a solution.
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team
thanks for your very detailed reply John - especially for the clarification that the only thing LayerSlider is storing is the reference to the image - I'm going to do some Google searches to see if there are any WP tricks to get the Media library to force a refresh on it's images
thanks again,
Rick
PS - you can mark this ticket closed