This blog has been a nice source of motivation to continue improving my code and development processes. In my previous post, I discussed the process of writing a Bash script to resize and optimize images for publishing to our family’s recipe blog. I mentioned that one improvement I could make is to automate the process of identifying which files needed to be resized.

The original script

I place large images into the “optimize” directory which are then backed up and processed when I run the following script. I have to do this every time new images are added to the blog (2-5 times a week)

# This script optimizes and resizes any images in the optimize directory 
# backup images
cp *.jpg ../../backup/
# remove file data, optimize file to reduce space
jpegoptim *.jpg --strip-all
# reduce size
mogrify -resize 20% *.jpg
# move back to images dir
mv *.jpg ../
# push changes
echo "------Pushing changes----------------"
# navigate out to root directory
cd ../../..
git add *
git commit -m "optimized images"
git push

Automate

In my experience, process automation has looked something like the following

  1. Identify the manual process
  2. Write down the rules
  3. Automate the process based on the rules from step 2
  4. Compare the input(s) and output(s) from the original process to those from the automated process
  5. If there is a difference found in step 4, go back to step 2

We followed this process when automating price quoting for a global shipping company. We were going to replace a large call center with a web service. It was tough to nail down because people and relationships were involved. Certain vendors had longstanding relationships with call centers. Prices didn’t always follow a mathematical equation.

Automation required that we had to draw a line somewhere, come up with that equation and stick to it. Custom discounts could be coded in, as well. The process led to more transparency and higher sales.

The improvement

For my script, the rule was any JPG greater than 1 MB in the images directory. Instead of me moving the files, the script would identify files that match these criteria and move them for me.

I added the following code to automate the moving process. I no longer have to take any steps apart from running the script. This means that the script can now be run periodically (cron job) or be triggered as part of continuous integration.

# move any JPG files larger than 1 MB to optimize dir
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -size +1M -name '*.jpg' -exec mv {} optimize/ \;