For this functionality to work correctly, the following steps must be followed:
- Install ImageMagick to the webserver where your website will be located. If BirdDog is hosting your site, this is already handled.
- Unless you are using a newer version of IIS (Internet Information Services) on your webserver, you will need to pull it up and double-click MIME Types to either enable or create a .webp extension with image/webp as the MIME Type. More recent versions of IIS will already have this MIME Type present, though you may need to enable it. If BirdDog is hosting your site, this is already handled.
- On the website, navigate to your Global Settings and click on Applications. This is where you will plugin the file name of the magick.exe. If the ImageMagick path containing this executable is not in the path, then you can set this to a fully qualified path and file name like C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.1.1-Q16-HDRI\magick.exe. If BirdDog is hosting your site, this should already be handled.
- On the website, navigate to the Look & Feel section of your site Settings. There you will find a spot to set the height and width of you small, medium and large images. We recommend the following standards, though will want to consult your web developer:
At this point, the system uses the following logic for any images:
- If a Small/Medium/Large image already exists on either a web page or item, the system will not replace that image with the newer .webp image.
- If a cached version of the image is available at the appropriate width from Global Settings, then the system will return that image.
- If a new Small/Medium/Large/Original image is added to a web page or item, the system will then take the largest available (working backward from Original), convert it to WebP, size it to the appropriate width, cache it, and return it.
- If Place Holder Images are enabled in Site Settings, then the system returns the appropriate Place Holder.
NOTE: Your original images are unchanged. These .webp files are merely copies of the existing images and have been appropriately resized for use across the site. Note also that the .webp files will also be resized to a square using the smallest dimension on the existing image; it does not crop the image or pad anything out, so a review of your existing images, before you begin the process, might be in order.