Can I replace an image but keep its WikiTree URL?

+9 votes
190 views

Four months ago, I uploaded an image of very low quality (338 x 480 pixels) containing a list of over 100 names of members of my family, made by an anonymous person in the 1970s. It's quite hard to read, unless you know the names already and are only using the list for its implied family tree, but it was all I had.

In the meantime, I have cited the URL on numerous newly-created profiles since it often is my only source for connecting people for whom I can get well-sourced individual information.

I have now acquired another copy of the same image at double the resolution and would like to replace the previous one, but retaining the same URL so that the references remain valid.

Is this possible?

If not, I shall upload the better version as a new image, use it from now on, and change the editable parts of the other one so that the new version is well advertised.

in WikiTree Tech by Dirk Laurie G2G6 Mach 3 (38.8k points)
I don't know the answer.  But you could put the link to the better image in the comment section of the original image w/explanation.  Or maybe there is some way to link the new WikiTree page to the old one.

Just a thought.

I'm sorry.  That is basically what you said in the last paragraph....so never mind. 

2 Answers

+7 votes

The absolute definitive answer is:  MAYBE.

WikiTree does not provide capability to overwrite a file by upload and does not permit you to choose the name a file will be stored on the server.  For these reasons, you have no control of the name that will be assigned to the file when you upload it.

Where the "maybe" comes in is that if you delete a file ... oops, this is another capability you don't have!  The only way a file gets deleted is to remove all page attachments to it and wait a day or two ... or maybe more ... until the system detects that the file is not attached to any pages and then the system deletes the file.

When a name is assigned to an uploaded file, it will be the first available name using the convention of pagename-#.jpgpagename-#.gif, or pagename-#.png, or pagename-#.pdf where pagename is the WikiTree ID or name of a freespace page and the extension indicates the file type.  The first file you upload of any file type does not have the "-#" in its name.  After that, the # starts with 1 (for the second file of that type) and the numbers increase with each additional file.

Here's where the "maybe" comes in -

  1. Remove all the page connections for an image
  2. Do not upload anything else to that page for a few days
  3. Upload the replacement file
  4. You have a good chance that the replacement file will have the same name as the one that was deleted.

​Please do not ask my opinion of how the system works.

by Gaile Connolly G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
edited by Gaile Connolly
The only other way would be to have a tech or admin somehow force the deletion of the image (so that it would allow a new one to be created) or replace the image behind the scenes. At least to my understanding.
+5 votes
The URLs of the images I have uploaded to profiles consist of the WikiTree ID of the host profile and then a -1, -2, -3 etc.suffix in the order I uploaded.  If you were to delete the original poor quality image and replace it with the better one at the same place in the order, that may end up giving it the same URL.  If it's the last image in the order, that might work fine, but if it's somewhere in the middle, I think you would probably have to delete the one to be replaced and all subsequent ones to make that happen.  Just a theory, I haven't tried it.  And yeah, it could make a time consuming mess if I'm wrong.  Good luck!
by Dennis Barton G2G6 Pilot (549k points)

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