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WebP Coming to a Dnn Near You - 2sxc 13 with ImageFlow

Written By iJungleboy
2021-12-21

2sxc 13 will include the brand-new Image Resizer called imageflow - and will also support automatic WebP conversion.

Why does WebP get Better PageSpeed?

WebP is a image format which is kind of like PNG that it has an alpha-channel, but it's also great at Photos - where PNG was weak. 

This is great for PageSpeed and will give you much better scores in general.

It's crucial to understand that WebP is extra important for 2sxc, because automatic image resizing means that sometimes the original image could be PNG, JPG or GIF, and if we need a one-size-fits-all target format, WebP is the only format as of now which can reliably get it all to work.

Why is ImageFlow better than ImageResizer?

To start with, both are from the same company imazen.io! This is awesome, because the URL-Schema remains the same for both resizing endpoints. Here some links in case you're interested:

ImageResizer has been End-Of-Life for a while, and the core developer Lilith River has been working on ImageFlow for about 5 years now. 2sic and 2sxc were core supporters of the Kickstarter in 2016.

It's cross-platform, so it's the same resizing engine we use on 2sxc for Oqtane.

ImageFlow supports WebP and is also much better/faster than ImageResizer. We ran some quick JPG tests and usually got ca. 20% smaller images 🚀.

Why Now?

ImageFlow requires .net Standard 2 and other .net libraries which we had to sync with 2sxc to be sure it works in Dnn. That was done for 2sxc 13, so we're ready to go!

Breaking Changes?

This is a deep change, and from our tests everything will continue to work. Here's what you need to know:

  1. 2sxc 13 will bundle ImageFlow
  2. 2sxc 13 will not include ImageResizer any more
  3. If you had a previous version of 2sxc or ImageResizer installed, the DLLs will remain in your folder so any custom code using this will continue to work.
  4. The HttpModule (the url-handler) of ImageResizer will be disabled in the web.config
  5. If for any reason you must go "back" you can simply deactivate ImageFlow and activate ImageResizer in your web.config

Big Thanks and When Can You Start?

Big shoutout to Tonci who created the integration with Dnn. Awesome work! Thank you soo much!

2sxc 13 should be out shortly. As you may see, 2sxc.org is already running on 2sxc 13, so we're live-testing it right as you're reading 😉. If you want to just try ImageFlow for Dnn, check out the Github Releases.

Love from Switzerland & Croatia
iJungleboy and Tonci

 

Daniel Mettler grew up in the jungles of Indonesia and is founder and CEO of 2sic internet solutions in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, an 20-head web specialist with over 800 DNN projects since 1999. He is also chief architect of 2sxc (see github), an open source module for creating attractive content and DNN Apps.

Read more posts by Daniel Mettler
Total: 1 Comment(s)
Daniel, this is excellent! I have tried to use ImageFlow in 2sxc 13.00.00, but so far I have not been able to get it to work. I'm sure I am missing something simple, but so far nothing I've tried has worked. Do you have any documentation yet?
Saturday, December 25, 2021 ·

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