Trainz Gallery search broken again ?

[FootplatePhil]

Is anyone else experiencing issues with the 'Trainz Gallery' search options (again) ?

 

[Frank_Dean]

I've been having trouble uploading images since the beginning of November. The upload process never finishes, and therefore they don't appear in the Gallery. Since I saw that other users were able to upload images, I assumed it was a problem on my end, and I've already submitted a support ticket explaining the issue.

 

[edh6]

I've been having trouble uploading images since the beginning of November. The upload process never finishes, and therefore they don't appear in the Gallery. Since I saw that other users were able to upload images, I assumed it was a problem on my end, and I've already submitted a support ticket explaining the issue.

I've had this behavior when trying to upload images in format other than jpg. As far as I can tell the gallery only accepts jpgs but doesn't give any helpful error messages if you try to upload other formats...

 

[pware]

Is anyone else experiencing issues with the 'Trainz Gallery' search options (again) ?

Just tried it and, sadly, I can report yes to your question.

 

[FootplatePhil]

Just tried it and, sadly, I can report yes to your question.

OK, thanks. I have submitted a ticket to the Help Desk.

 

[PWeiser]

Agree. Symptoms are different, though: it shows the latest again instead of the Trainz splash page.

 

[FootplatePhil]

The response to my ticket is very disappointing, and definitely not very helpful. A correctly working Gallery does not seem to be a priority to NV3. Considering how popular the many screen shot threads are this surprises me. Since the search function worked up until quite recently ( a couple of weeks ago), the response also seems a bit of a fob off.


N3vgames Pty Ltd
From:support@trainz.zohodesk.com
To:footplatephil@yahoo.com.au


Mon, 10 Nov at 8:52 pm


Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately there are currently some issues relating to the Trainz Gallery due to required server updates last year, our team are aware of this however we don't currently have a timeframe for when it may be resolved due to the nature of these issues.


Please check these helpful (sic) pages:

FAQ
Trainz Forums
Trainz Official Discord Server
TRS2019 FAQ

 

[PWeiser]

Until the problem is corrected, remember - if you want to find an image (to include in a post, for example) you can screen by date, manipulating the command line range start number and noting the date on what comes up. For example,

{ https://www.trainzportal.com/mytrainz/search_media_posts/20 }

gives the second page (at 20 per page) - just edit the command line and zero in on the items you want to reference. It's a weak hack, but at least avoids paging through every image to get there. Go to 400, then 200, etc..

 

[Frank_Dean]

Regarding my current problem of not being able to upload images to the gallery, something I had done dozens of times prior to November of this year, the response I received from N3V support was:

Good Afternoon
Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately some bugs in the gallery have occurred, due to the way the gallery works, and which our team have unfortunately not been able to resolve. We unfortunately cannot guarantee the gallery will work correctly at this time, and cannot give a timeframe for any changes to this. As such we would currently recommend using a different image hosting service.

It seems to be a problem that doesn't affect everyone, since new images can be seen in the gallery every day, especially the repetitive ones about Thomas.

 

[FootplatePhil]

Regarding my current problem of not being able to upload images to the gallery, something I had done dozens of times prior to November of this year, the response I received from N3V support was:



It seems to be a problem that doesn't affect everyone, since new images can be seen in the gallery every day, especially the repetitive ones about Thomas

Maybe I was lucky. For me it has been working up until quite recently. Now I can still upload images, but the search is broken.

As far as NV3's response.... they seem to be abdicating their responsibilities. The ability to upload and search the Trainz Gallery was one of the selling points of an earlier release of Trainz (can't remember which one).

 

[PWeiser]

Update: just checked and the "following" and "favorites" features are working normally - can be turned on and off for a particular image or a username. This was not the case in the previous outage: then, search for favorites and followed worked but you could not add or remove from those categories - they only worked using selections you made before the outage (of parameter search).

 

[wreeder]

The ability to upload and search the Trainz Gallery was one of the selling points of an earlier release of Trainz (can't remember which one

That may be true but a lot has changed it 20 years. Disk space on servers has gotten a lot more expensive and people are uploading much larger images.

Also, the Image Gallery looks like a pre-made script that they got back then. It is possible that server patches are conflicting with the script. And the issues can't be fix easily without replacing the entire system.

 

[zsuda]

.. after several tries past 8 days, i tried some minutes ago again .. it didn't work to "add media" by dragging a pic .. it "only" works when i do a "game-upload" : edit route >> social menu >> screenshot review & upload ..
.. so it's a commercial game-related service now ? .. can't blame them .. still having fun ..

 

[FootplatePhil]

Upload from within game still works, so I don't see that space is the issue. I am just asking that the 20 year old search function be fixed. For me the gallery search function is more fun, and a higher priority than HD, TLR, MP, S20 and whatever other acronym is planned.

 

[PWeiser]

.. after several tries past 8 days, i tried some minutes ago again .. it didn't work to "add media" by dragging a pic .. it "only" works when i do a "game-upload" : edit route >> social menu >> screenshot review & upload ..
.. so it's a commercial game-related service now ? .. can't blame them .. still having fun ..

I've found that selecting in a Windows folder and then clicking (not drag-and-drop) works for uploading. Though I usually edit screenshots a little before uploading, so they're not in the actual Screenshots folder. Could be browser-dependent?

 

[zsuda]

.. selecting in a Windows folder ..

.. thanks for the suggestion, but that doesn't work for me either .. i tried firefox (which normally works outstanding when i couldn't download with any other browser). chrome and edge ..

.. gallery search function ..

also "searching" doesn't work in those browsers ..

 

[smyers]

Not working for me at all. No upload, no search even from in game. I'll stick to imgur, at least it's been reliable for me. Tried different browsers, too. It shouldn't be that difficult to post a simple screenshot. This gallery thing is worthless if it's not reliable. On the other hand, it is working for some. Anyone recommend other free hosting sites?
best,
smyers

 

[Forester1]

Anyone recommend other free hosting sites?

Copying this from KotangaGirl: "People in the UK can't see your images if you use Imgur. Freeimage.host is a better alternative."

 

[Falconix_4]

Each time I try to search for a picture it always send me back all the pictures existing. I don't know if you had this problem but it's really annoying.

 

[PWeiser]

Each time I try to search for a picture it always send me back all the pictures existing. I don't know if you had this problem but it's really annoying.

That describes the problem this thread is about (see above). The previous problem of this nature was different - nothing worked except paging through the Gallery, and any search would cause a large Trainz advertising banner page to pop up instead. This time is different, but still not good.