Midwich Image Service User Guide
Our image library is updated throughout the day and using our free code missing images can be downloaded overnight, or our image query service allows you to download specific product images.
Using this service you can get images that are missing from your website from us and then store it on your server for future use. Daily limits are in place to prevent over usage.
You should first download the complete image bundle and store them on your server, then overnight check the images available on the data feed against those you have and download those you are missing. This should be less than 30 a night. Then when you display a page if the image does not exist you can make an online check to see if the image has just been uploaded. Don't forget you can enhance our code to display your own "Image Not Available" image if none is returned to you.
A complete collection of product specifications in PDF format is also available for download, please note that this file is very large (> 1.5Gb) and you may only download it once.
This service is designed to allow you to retrieve images for storage on your own site, and not for permanent links from your pages to us.
Free Maintenance Code
In order to expedite the development of your application, we have developed scripts that can be integrated into your application to retrieve files (images & PDFs) as required from our server and save them on your server. These scripts are provided to you free of charge.
Image Maintenance
We have developed a PHP script that can be integrated into your application to retrieve images as required from our server and save them on your server. There is also a script that can be added into your cron to retrieve all required images as a batch process over night or after a new import of our data feed. The scripts are well commented and are available for download below.
Download PHP - Image Library Maintenance Bundle
Product Specifications (PDF) Maintenance
We have developed a PHP script that can be added to your cron to run over night or after a new import of our data feed that will download all missing PDF product specifications to your server. The script is well commented and is available for download below.
Download PHP - PDF Library Maintenance Bundle
How To Retrieve An Image
If the code above does not meet your needs then this is a service designed to allow you to implement your own methods of image retrieval, display and storage. Limits are put in place to prevent more than 100 images being downloaded a day to avoid abuse of this service.
You can have your own forms that retrieve an image from our library and then use it on your own site. The images can be returned sized to your requirements and if you specify both width and height, padded to maintain the correct aspect ratio. You can have borders added and change the size of the "alt text".
Here's an example of how you would make a request for image 92502 with no image customisation.
http://www.midwich.com/web_services/images/nnnnnnnnnn/XXnn%20nXX/92502
where nnnnnnnnnn is your 10 digit Midwich account number, XXnn%20nXX is your postcode. Replace spaces in the post code by %20.
NOTE: All fields are separated by a forward slash /.
By supplying an image id for a part number, which can be supplied in a Stock and Price feed, you can get an image for any one of our parts. The Midwich part number can also be used in place of the image id.
