Update Missing Cover Image

[crhallberg]

I propose switching to a new cover image for development ease. An image with a light gray background will make the spacing and alignment of elements easier than the current white on white. I was hoping to reduce the file size but it's hard to beat a 368 byte GIF! I can do better if this is a concern.

TODO

• Fix tests

Preview

The new image was adapted from this image listed under the permissive Pixabay Content License - which allows for adaptation and intergrated commercial use without attribution. That being said, thank you Memed_Nurrohmad for your image!

[demiankatz]

Thanks, @crhallberg. A few questions/comments:

1.) You need to run composer fix to tweak some style issues.

2.) There's at least one hard-coded reference to the old cover image here, which we might want to update to match:

vufind/themes/bootstrap5/templates/Recommend/OpenLibrarySubjects.phtml

Line 14 in 9eed9bf

<img src="<?=$this->imageLink('noCover2.gif')?>" class="olSubjectImage" alt="<?=$this->escapeHtmlAttr($work['title'])?>">

3.) There are likely some tests that need tweaking too.

4.) Why webp format? I don't mind adding support for the format, but I wonder if it would be wiser to use a less exotic format for this particular image in the interest of broad compatibility. (At least, GitHub itself seems to be really struggling to deal with this file in its own files tab, which makes me wonder if that's indicative of broader support elsewhere).

[crhallberg]

I picked webp to make the image as small as possible. It is a modern format but is widely supported.

[crhallberg]

I checked the tests and they are all setting the config for the test, so they are all good.

[demiankatz]

Thanks, @crhallberg. It occurred to me that the hard-coded no-cover image in OpenLibrarySubjects is not really a good idea, which led me to open #4926 to straighten it out. Do you mind taking a look at that? I think it might be a good idea to get that merged first, and then we can revisit this issue with one fewer file in the PR.

[EreMaijala]

I believe that at this point it should be safe to use webp. The size won't make much difference though, since it's only loaded once and cached, right? And the new image looks much better than the old one.

I realize that this is configurable, but there are still a couple of things that worry me a bit:

1. Compared to the old one, this is much more book-like (well, a stack of books, which doesn't necessarily represent a single item that well). The old one is more abstract and could represent many types of printed material.
2. The darker lines and added complexity make the image more imposing and difficult to tell apart from actual covers. This isn't obvious when looking at the image alone, but when you look at it in search results, I get the feeling that it's sort of making the list heavier and grabbing attention. Again, this is very minor detail, but I wonder if it would make sense e.g. to have also a lighter option. And maybe refresh the old one with a higher resolution version?