I’ve had a list of changes and updates to apply to the JavaScript Image Cropper for quite a while now and I have been thinking of these in a lot more detail recently. There are lots of changes that I plan to make that would bring the cropper up to V2 level and ensure that it remains a viable cropping solution for the future.
These changes include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Fix as many bugs as possible, if not all.
- Add a couple of new features to the base cropper.
- Core architectural changes to improve flexibility of the cropper, read alternative framework support.
- Improved documentation and support network.
- Improvements to maintenance and updates, read more regular updates.
- Any performance improvements that can be made (a fresh look at the code always seems to reveal areas that can be improved).
Over the past couple of evenings I have documented and investigated my plans and the architectural changes that I would need to implement to take the cropper to the next level and these have provided me with a rough timeframe for completion of V2.
However I am incredibly busy at the moment and other commitments are taking priority, but I also do not want the cropper codebase to stagnate as I understand the popularity of the cropper – it’s the main traffic driver on my site and has had nearly 32,000 downloads so far and is averaging over 1,000 per month.
But as I say my other commitments are taking priority and a lot of my spare time, so I thought I would try an experiment, fund raising.
Why fund raising?
Firstly I must state that this is not about the money, if it were I would not release my code for free (and this will continue for version 2 of the cropper). But it is the only thing I could think of that could give me a clear indication of the desire for an updated version of the cropper. It is all well and good having the odd comments praising the cropper and/or mentioning the desire for feature x or bug fix y, but it is something different to put your money towards achieving that.
So far the cropper donation ratio is about 0.04% of all downloads result in a donation (that’s 14 donations out of around 32,000 downloads), so the fund raising activity should really test the reaction of the version 2 plans – thus the target figure I’ve entered and the timeframe are not as important to me the reaction.
So when will version 2 be released?
That is partly down to the results of the fund raising, I do seriously want to implement all my plans, but whether that’s this month, next month, next June etc. I cannot specify right now due to my current commitments, all I can say is that if the reaction to the fund raising is successful then it will help me prioritise the cropper appropriately and will result in version 2 being released sooner rather than later.
Okay, enough of the sales patter, how do I donate?
I’ve setup a campaign on Pledgie, which you can use your existing PayPal account (or credit card if you don’t have a PayPal account) to make a donation.
I look forward to your help and support and the changes that V2 will bring to the cropper.