alternatively do not use ImageMagick (trade module)

[Fett]

ImageMagick drains CPU power like nothing else. Especially because SCJ processes thumbs only for 1 trader per cron cycle, this means that ImageMagick jobs can run for hours and hours and worst of all they overlap too.

In the same time its completely not necessary to use its when grabbing thumbs from traders, you could just simply get thumbs by php, without using ImageMagick at all.

That would save tons of CPU, imagine especially if you have lots of SCJs on same server.

So it would be extremely good to have option "do not use ImageMagick for thumbs grabbing" - simply get them "as is".

I used to use (an otherways very primitive) trade script that at least got this one thing right: it was possible to not use ImageMagick for grabbing.

What can I say, since I use SCJ, server load tripled !!! Now the only thing I can do is to run grabbing much less often - but that of course throws off accuracy of my thumb toplists!

Sorry to say but its a complete waste of CPU power.

Its is clear that ImageMagick is causing this.

Please make that option, to not use ImageMagick for grabbing thumbs, just use simplest php to get them as they are without any modification - except resize clearly.

Also it would be very necessary to have "stop words" and image dimensions limiting for grabber. Right now its grabbing design elements from sites instead of thumbs in many cases...not good.

This is probably the weakest point of SCJ now (I only use trade module), please consider this.

All in all I still think this is the best trade software ever. But I would be happy if I did not have to migrate to a much much stronger CPU server just because of this. With some logistics it could be fixed to push down server load.

Thanks!

[admin]

1. IM isn't used to grab images\thumbs - it is used to process images (crop)
2. if IM consumes a lot of CPU at your box there are 2 options:
- either the box is VERY weak
- or your installation of IM is corrupted
3. i've never heard of IM being a bottle neck for creating traders' thumbs

basically SCJ process 1 thumb \ minute if we are talking about trader's thumbs and it takes like 0.01 sec to process an image so in 99.9999% of cases you won't even notice IM in top , not to mention overlapping

so

1. make sure it's IM , not something else
2. that IM processes SCJ's tasks
3. your box isn't overloaded already and IM processes are slow because of the loaded box
4. try to run IM command (time convert -thumbnail ... ) in SSH and check the speed , usually it takes like 0.1 - 0.2 second to crop an image