Forcing the resulting image not to cache on the user's machine.

Having the same problem.

Moreover, you can notice that when new users are registering, the links in the avatar gallery block turn to be mismatching (avatar pics pointing not to the profile of the corresponding users).

OK, the analysis of the problem is as follows: Avatar Gallery uses a jpeg of the avatars and on top of that coordinates to have the thumbnail pics as links.

While the coordinates layer refreshes when a new user registers, the jpeg, though updated on the server, does not refresh of course unless you hit the refresh button of your browser (as the case with any other image).

To overcome this problem, Avatar Gallery must generate a new different file name for the jpeg each time the avatar gallery changes and thus force the browser to retrieve it from the server. The way to do it is to add some random suffix to the filename and save this current random filename in some variable to be retrieved by the other function that displays the avatar gallery.

Anybody maintaining this module?

I doubt anybody is maintaining this module at all - this, indeed critical, issue is open now for more than 5 months with not even one single tiny response.

With this bug the avatar gallery is pretty much useless in case of busy websites with constant flow of new users. This is sad since the module's functionality is fantastic and is so needed in case of a community website.

Before giving up, I will appreciate if someone deeply familiar with the code of this module will be able, after reading my analysis above, to just enlighten us with general guidelines on where exactly to plant the generation of the random name and where to keep this name (variables?) and retrieve it - and I will write the fix.

Thanks in advance!

Not that this will be satisfying as it does not respond directly to your query but I thought I'd mention that after years of just leaving this module sitting on the shelf and not-providing any support, we have recently decided to re-dedicate ourselves to maintaining this and other modules that we have contributed to the community. In other words, hopefully, we'll be able to get around to answering this question, and others, soon.

Meanwhile, thanks for posting the issue and all of the follow-ups.

Omar

OK, to fix this bug do the following:

Change line 286 from:

$img = theme_image(variable_get('file_directory_path', 'files').'/avatar_gallery.jpg', t('Avatar gallery'), t('Avatar gallery'), array('border' => 0, 'usemap' => '#avatar_gallery_areamap'), FALSE) . _avatar_gallery_areamap_dyn($root);

To:

$avatar_gallery_filename = variable_get('avatar_gallery_filename', 'avatar_gallery.jpg');
$img = theme_image(variable_get('file_directory_path', 'files').'/'. $avatar_gallery_filename, t('Avatar gallery'), t('Avatar gallery'), array('border' => 0, 'usemap' => '#avatar_gallery_areamap', 'onLoad' => 'this.src=\"'. $avatar_gallery_filename. '\"'), FALSE) . _avatar_gallery_areamap_dyn($root);

And change line 446 from:

imagejpeg($dst_img, variable_get('file_directory_path', 'files') .'/avatar_gallery.jpg', $quality);

To:

srand(time());
$avatar_gallery_filename = 'avatar_gallery_ek'. rand(). '.jpg';
variable_set('avatar_gallery_filename', $avatar_gallery_filename);
imagejpeg($dst_img, variable_get('file_directory_path', 'files') .'/' . $avatar_gallery_filename, $quality);

Now, every time the avatar_gallery image is regenerated, the name of the jpeg will change to a new random name and thus the image will be reloaded from the server.

Ooops, forgot to delete the current image file before switching to a new name...

Add before the $avatar_gallery_filename = 'avatar_gallery_ek'. rand(). '.jpg'; the following:

unlink(variable_get('file_directory_path', 'files').'/'. variable_get('avatar_gallery_filename','avatar_gallery.jpg'));

In other words, the replacement of line 446 should be:

srand(time());
unlink(variable_get('file_directory_path', 'files').'/'. variable_get('avatar_gallery_filename','avatar_gallery.jpg'));
$avatar_gallery_filename = 'avatar_gallery_ek'. rand(). '.jpg';
variable_set('avatar_gallery_filename', $avatar_gallery_filename);
imagejpeg($dst_img, variable_get('file_directory_path', 'files') .'/' . $avatar_gallery_filename, $quality);

Latest version of AG (May 10 2008) fixes the need to refresh the browser cache: each newly generated AG has a unique name. Thanks for the patch idea.