On this week we are running the Aurigma Blogging Contest. It is designed to encourage developers to share their experiences using Aurigma software. The person who submits the best blog post, as determined by our judges, will be awarded the grand prize of one free uploader of their choice. The winner may choose between:

• Image Uploader 7 Professional ($599 value)
• Image Uploader 7 Flash Professional ($499 value)

To apply:

• You must have a blog, related to software development, where you post on a regular basis.
• Your entry post must link to Aurigma website.
• Best entries will describe how you have integrated Aurigma software into your website (e.g. using code examples, linking to a tutorial, or more - be creative!

To enter shoot us an email at info@aurigma.com, make sure it includes a link to your post, domain name of the website where you are going to use the product, and of course which uploader you will receive if you win.

Learn more about Aurigma blogging contest

Today we released new Image Uploader Flash 7.2.0. This new version contains significant changes making the product more reliable and faster. New approaches to development under Adobe Flash allowed us to improve uploader speed and responsiveness of user interface. New version comes with support of most recent browser versions: Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4. Just download and give it a try, this version is really worth to upgrade to.

I am pleased to announce new Image Uploader Flash which will be available for download in several weeks.

Our past experience with Adobe Flash showed that the platform has much more limitations than ActiveX controls and Java applets, some of them do not have any logic at all. Unfortunately the platform still has problems with quality under different operating systems and browsers: sometimes the same API calls return different results on different platforms. Nevertheless, Adobe Flash is extremely popular platform which is presented on various systems. The most attractive thing about this platform is easiness of deployment of controls on client machines not requiring from users any special actions.

Planning this new version we made accent to features that are the most noticeable to end-users: responsiveness and overall speed of user interface, ability to handle large amount of photos, overcoming Adobe Flash limitations concerning working with files, etc. We had to modify the product significantly, some portions of code were re-implemented from the ground, and we even had to use external implementation of Jpeg encoder/decoder. Of course, new version will contain bunch of new features and bug fixes, I will write about them in “what’s new” article which will come with the product. I hope you will like new version and you will find it worth to upgrade to.

Today we released Image Uploader Flash 7.0.1. Starting from this version Image Uploader Flash has the same API as Image Uploader 7 Dual.

Hi there,

I got some great news for Image Uploader 6 customers. 

As I wrote in the previous post, recently we have released Image Uploader Flash - new upload product based on Flash technology. Today, I am happy to announce that we have a special offer for all customers of Image Uploader 6 (Dual, ActiveX, and Java). Within 3 months after release (i.e. September 28, 2010) you can order a license for Image Uploader Flash with 50% discount! 

If you are interested to get Image Uploader Flash with this discount, drop us an email at sales@aurigma.com.

Hi there,

Last months (and especially last days) we had a lot of work: we prepared a major website update. Old website structure was pretty inconvenient, and some texts are inaccurate and outdated. It was caused with legacy reasons - we maintained that website structure for years, and it was not flexible enough to reflect changes.

That's why we made a decision to create the website from a scratch. We did our best to make it modern, convenient, and of course, informative.

Now we completely separated it into two websites:

• http://www.aurigma.com - Image Uploader related website
• http://imaging.aurigma.com - Graphics Mill related website

All changes are too global to describe it in this blog, so just Feel free to visit it and take a look. :-) 

The second news is that we released Image Uploader Flash - Flash-based sibling of our Image Uploader ActiveX/Java product. Of course, Flash does not allow to implement the upload component with all those features that make Image Uploader Dual so great and unique. But we did our best, and at my opinion this product is still great. 

As its old Dual sibling, it is able to upload multiple files at a single click and resize photos before upload. As any Flash-based app, its look-and-feel is much more customizable, and it is much easier to fit it to any website design.

Check out Aurigma Image Uploader Flash

And last but not least: we have released a number of Image Uploader based plugins for different CMS and e-commerce system - Drupal, Joomla!, VirtueMart, Zen Cart. To tell the truth, we had these plugins earlier, but now we have released them as full-fledged products. 

Check out Aurigma CMS plugins

Any feedback is highly appreciated. Feel free to drop your impressions or thoughts to info@aurigma.com.

A little bit later I will post more details about new releases. So, stay tuned! 

Aurigma has more than 7 years experience on the market of Web upload solutions. You can find our products on many web sites all over the Internet. Today I would like to introduce our new product based on Flash technology.

Currently there are 4 widespread technologies allowing uploading files from client machines to web sites: ActiveX, Java, Flash, and Silverlight. Each of these technologies has its own pros and cons:

• ActiveX allows using native C/C++ code to get best performance and access to low-level OS functionality. However, ActiveX controls are supported in IE only. Of course, it still holds more than 50% of the browsers market but it is obviously not sufficient for publically available web site. Also there are security aspects with ActiveX components – some companies do not allow ActiveX controls in browsers on client machines by network security policies.
• Java - powerful, mature and widespread cross-platform technology. Google says that more that 80% of Internet-enabled computers have Java installed. Java Uploader - it is a solution working on Windows, Mac, and sometimes - on *nix, supported by the major browsers: Opera (win/mac), Firefox (win/mac/linux), Chrome (win), IE (win). Which contras does it have? It is slower than ActiveX. Most browsers restrict memory available for applets to 60-90Mb, so it is rather tricky to process large amounts of data. There are several Java implementations provided by different vendors, each potentially may have its own features and restrictions.
• Flash - absolute winner in popularity, at least on Windows/Mac. It is installed on more than 90% of Internet-enabled computers (thanks to YouTube) and very-very popular. Flash has reputation of "safe" client-side technology. But, "safe" always means "restricted" - and you can notice that Image Uploader Flash has fewer features in comparison to its “big brothers” – Java and ActiveX.
• Silverlight – in terms of upload functionality this Microsoft technology is very similar to Adobe Flash.

Historically Aurigma utilizes two of these technologies in its flagship product Image Uploader Dual: ActiveX and Java. This trick allows covering major currently used browsers. Sometime ago we started to think about third component for a perfect upload solution - Flash Image Uploader. The main strength of which is that it works almost on every client computer. It may be used as fallback solution in cases when Image Uploader Dual cannot be started on client machine. Flash still will be much better solution, than silly "browse" button. This product will meet requirement of our clients who do not need “heavy” functionality, like processing large images client-side or sophisticated user interface. Or it may be an additional option for sites, which want to provide their visitors with really rich choice.

During years of work on the market of upload solutions we accumulated experience in the field of file and image transfer. While working on new our product we used it to create flexible and simple solution. You should not implement any HTML-controls to make Image Uploader Flash work on your site. You should not write additional JavaScript code to embed Adobe Flash Player and so on. We have already done it for you. New generation of client scripts, ASP.NET and PHP controls allow you to save your time. The product will come with samples and we encourage you to use them as starting point for your code. Our goal is to provide you with solution that just works. And we hope that you will like it.

Here is how Image Uploader Flash looks:

If you would like to see Image Uploader Flash in action, it is available on our site: http://demo.aurigma.com/imageuploaderflash.