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Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

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Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#41

Post by HumblyTossed »

_bxg1 wrote: post #3

This is the latest in a string of incidents where critical software systems, facing new pressure due to the pandemic, are catastrophically failing their users. I think what's happened in the past is that most public-facing software systems either a) were not really critical (because people had the alternative of doing things in-person), or b) (as in the case of all the ancient COBOL systems underpinning the US gov) h…

They specify they support PNG and JPEG, the two most common format. Why is it their fault that Apple made HEVC the default?

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#42

Post by oefrha »

gsnedders wrote: post #12
crazygringo wrote: post #4

I thought iOS was supposed to convert HEIC images to JPEG automatically behind-the-scenes in any file transfer situation where HEIC isn't supported. The article itself even says: > iPhones convert HEICs to JPEGs automatically when they’re attached to emails in the Mail app I'm just curious technically why the same didn't happen with the testing portal? If you have a webpage that accepts image uploads, is iOS Safari n…

> If you have a webpage that accepts image uploads, is iOS Safari not smart enough to do the same conversion? AIUI, Mobile Safari always re-encodes the image. However , if you transfer the image to a device that supports HEIC (e.g., recent macOS) then you'll find out that (desktop) Safari never re-encodes an image when uploading a file.

> (desktop) Safari never re-encodes an image when uploading a file.

Not really: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23261216

Images are converted if you select from Photos (instead of the filesystem).

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#44

Post by oefrha »

zhengyi13 wrote: post #30
oefrha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried a standard input tag with the proper accept attribute Selected a HEIC file from Photos in Safari, the selected image was automatically converted to JPEG. Ten bucks says College Board programmer(s) failed to do the most basic and standard filtering. Edit: Like a sibling comment said, the accept attribute actually isn't necessary; even PNG images (e.g. screenshots) from Photos are converted to JPEG automatically.…

"Be strict in what you send; be liberal in what you accept" seems a relevant maxim here, but I wonder if it's reasonable to assume given the utter ubiquity of PNG and JPEG that of course that's what other people would be using?

Sure, and turns out you don't even need the accept attribute (see edit). They're doing something funny.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#45

Post by MattGaiser »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #43

Who doesn't test their upload forms with common flows like uploading an iPhone photo? Sounds to be like the college board contracted this out to the lowest bidder.

The burden of testing is enormous and nobody wants to pay for it. I know plenty of companies that barely test at all. All except the Googles of the world miss stuff regularly.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#46

Post by NikolaNovak »

crazygringo wrote: post #4

I thought iOS was supposed to convert HEIC images to JPEG automatically behind-the-scenes in any file transfer situation where HEIC isn't supported. The article itself even says: > iPhones convert HEICs to JPEGs automatically when they’re attached to emails in the Mail app I'm just curious technically why the same didn't happen with the testing portal? If you have a webpage that accepts image uploads, is iOS Safari n…

FWIW, as is the norm, my experience is that it works brilliantly --as long as you stay within apple defaults.

As soon as I stray from golden path - text using anything but Apple MEssages, email using anything but apple mail, post using anything but safari, use/process with anything but Apple Photos - HEIC has been an absolute positive pain in my keister ;-(

Other people may have more luck; note that my work iPhone is an isolated island - my other devices are either Android, or Windows/Linux - which probably explains my troubles to a large degree. Apple's selling point has always been the well-integrated ecosystem so I understand I'm an outlier.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#47

Post by kristopolous »

polygot wrote: post #26

> Changing a file’s extension does not guarantee that it will be converted, but Spencer was still able to submit the demo test with no problem. In what situations does the file format auto convert when you change the extension?

It's a naive extension filter then passed off to a well implemented image conversion routine that the programmer just invoked in their script.

So you need to do some little dance to get around it. You can probably run full blown postscript programs on their server if you simply name it .jpg.

College board is a $1 billion/year "not for profit" with a million dollar CEO, there's no excuse for this.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#48

Post by prepperpotts »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #41
_bxg1 wrote: post #3

This is the latest in a string of incidents where critical software systems, facing new pressure due to the pandemic, are catastrophically failing their users. I think what's happened in the past is that most public-facing software systems either a) were not really critical (because people had the alternative of doing things in-person), or b) (as in the case of all the ancient COBOL systems underpinning the US gov) h…

They specify they support PNG and JPEG, the two most common format. Why is it their fault that Apple made HEVC the default?

Considering the market share of iPhone in this demographic, it's inexcusable not to correct for this — even if you disagree with Apple's decision on this.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#49

Post by coffeefirst »

"Our system broke, you're screwed now, sorry" is never an acceptable answer. Do they really not have anyone who knows how to get stuff done?

1. Take the files and figure out what to do with them so they can be read. This isn't a hard problem.

2. Ask everyone affected to email you the photo or a new photo of the documents. We'll just take it on trust that you do so honestly because there's no way you would've seen this coming.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#50

Post by dave5104 »

winter_blue wrote: post #29
oefrha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried a standard input tag with the proper accept attribute Selected a HEIC file from Photos in Safari, the selected image was automatically converted to JPEG. Ten bucks says College Board programmer(s) failed to do the most basic and standard filtering. Edit: Like a sibling comment said, the accept attribute actually isn't necessary; even PNG images (e.g. screenshots) from Photos are converted to JPEG automatically.…

Wow, I didn't know browsers even supported automatic image format conversion (this is pretty impressive IMO). Terrible that their programmers didn't specify that tag attribute.

I don't believe that's what's happening here. The accept attribute just filters what files show up in the file picker. And iOS devices will take an extra step, and on the operating system side convert HEIC files to JPEG.
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