Site mod tip...

Ok, I don't remember seeing this and I am sure someone else will have the problem.

I installed the 7.06 update and then went to the shrinktheweb site, created a free account, added the domain name to their system and got the access code and key.

Installed the code and key and could NOT get it to work.

What I finally found is the shrinktheweb signup process is flawed. It never asks you for the IP of the domain name. When I finally went back into my account and checked the settings, I noticed it auto-grabbed the IP of the machine I was using to set the account up with. Of course, that's not the IP to my server.

If you can't get it to work, log into your shrinktheweb account and confirm the IP address matches what your domain name is assigned to.

Hope this helps

Thanx SkyForum, works perfectly except that I needed to re-add all sites that was added, seems Dolphin is not trying to fetch thumbs if they didnet get one when the site was added the first place.

I noticed this as well and changed mine but it still made no difference. Still cant get it to work. Did that do the trick for you?

I had to enable Logging first to see where the requests came from, i have several IPs added on my box. After i knew what ip that made the request i added that ip to my access list of IPs. All teh sites (all i had) without thumb i needed to re-add so dolphin could fetch the thumb, it's only done when you add a site.

Yeah, I noticed that as well. In my case, I just deleted them and re added them. I also noticed that the shrinktheweb site caches the images and if the site changes, it will keep serving the old image.  You can go into your account within STW and force a refresh but it's a pain in the ass.

I noticed there's a CRAPLOAD of posts about this problem. PEOPLE, do a little reading first before you post. Mine works perfectly now....

so....

does your fix .. solves the problem in the case when a thumbnail is NOT available .. will it update the thumbnail after some time?

Just to be clear, are you saying you made this work without doing the most recent upgrades off Trac?   The tip about logging helped - my host had given me a slightly different IP address to use, so I put that one in there also.  Still can't make it work though - might have something to do with my hosts firewall.

Actually scratch that question - it looks like 7.0.6 was released just one day after those code changes for sites, so I assume the changes got into there.

Once I updated to 7.06 and i resolved the IP issue, the mod was able to grab the image immediately. No more waiting. You need to complete your 7.06 upgrade and register successfully with STW. BTW, it is a free service, you don't need to pay for access even though the site tends to lead you down that path.

I've got my firewall locked down tight. To be honest, I don't think the firewall will be an issue as it is just an image being grabbed off the net. The IP you use to setup STW MUST match the one your site is being served from or STW won't provide the image. Like I said earlier, it grabbed the IP for my home PC and this was my issue. Once I changed it, all was well.

I've done all this - upgraded, and entered my IP addresses in shrinktoweb, and put my license key in the module admin.  I also followed the procedure ArgonX came up with and listed the IPs for the sites being logged by shrinktoweb.  The only site I can get it to work with is Google, which leads me to believe that when an image has not already been created, it is doing repeat calls which is somehow tripping up the firewall my host has.  They have whitelisted the shrinktoweb IP but maybe they have another IP they didn't tell us about.

i have 7.06 .. ip is registered at STW

Not all thumbnails are ready, a lot of websites are not fetched. anyway, perhaps you should investigate the problem before shouting you have the solution.

If you read my thread carefully ... you will notice that i pointed out two problems

1) sites doest work at all > this is resolved, indeed IP issue

2) thumbnail doesnt fetch if not ready

and i can add another one.. since yesterday when i want to add a site, the preview of the thumbnail is a grey block out on my site. once submitted, the thumbnail is shown.

If i grab the url which is used to show the preview of a website thumbnail, and paste this url (which is an url from STW) ... it all works

Since this seems to be the 'smartest' thread, i will add my problem inhere ;-)

background-image: url("http://images.shrinktheweb.com/xian.php?stwaccesskeyid=da10ae3881d80ec&stwu=be602&subref=109.70.7.204&stwq=75&stwxmax=200&hash=64d31370458189caa8d0d1e2fcfa0f63-64d31370458189caa8d0d1e2fcfa0f63");

Cache is cleared, browser cache is cleared. all settings are okay.

If module sites grabs a thumbnail, the preview (you know in the screen where you are allowed to add some information, type some text etc etc) i see a grey block, and no picture. I checked grabbing sites such as cnn.com google.com which are available at ShrinkTheWeb, so fetcing the thumbnail is not the problem. Anyways if i check the code of my site, to my amazement i notice it is using

images.shrinktheweb.com/xian.php

and should this not be images.shrinktheweb.com/xino.php  ??

i cant figure this one out. all settings indicate xino.php .. i cannot find xian.php anywhere.. so how come it is using xian? and is this causing my thumbnails during preview to be grey?

You will break that for yourself then, the xino.php does give importent information regarding the status of the thumbnail and the link to xian.php. If they update the information you will have to change the url again, eg they refresh the image / snapshot of the site.

The current code should be executed each time the page are visited IF the thumbnail is not yet fetched, and if it's fetched it should read from the local cache. That way you can have a cron tab cleaning all thumbs based on creation date and erase all thumbs older than say a month and then dolphin will fetch a new version from stw. Don't you think it's an better idea ? That way you are using now will reduce your limit of 167 views as you are allowed to view images. Eg, the count is also within xino.php (the xml document you get upon request of the url)

I hate myself not to read all the messages... i was so quick to read that you changed the bg image to the url mention.. forgive me...

When you query images.stw.com/xino.php your result will be an xml formated page with information about where you can download the image itself, that url is what you see in your background-image. What version are you running, i'm with 7.0.6 and i have mine pointed to a local stored image and not to stw website.

i am running 7.06 as well.

Did you change it yourself? or should it point locally?

xian, xino, poppycock.

<div class="bx_sites_unit_thumb200" style="background-image: url(http://images.shrinktheweb.com/xian.php?stwaccesskeyid=5xxxx8fb287b2d9&stwu=xxxc9&subref=xx.xxx.xxx.xxx&stwq=75&stwxmax=200&hash=b1fb713df3171d81a7a2d707e0c28285-b1fb713df3171d81a7a2d707e0c28285);">

This is the code generated by the completely viewable NEW, NEVER BEEN ADDED TO STW BEFORE site I just submitted to my sites mod.

I will admit that I had to refresh the page a few times to give STW time to grab and produce the image but that's a matter of patience and I am unsre of how you would ever solve that problem locally. It still only took about 10 seconds to generate the image and a couple refreshes of the page loaded the image into the editor.

I made a post about this a long time ago when it took several minutes for the image to be created. Now, once you have an account, that time has been reduced to seconds. I'll make the same recommendation to Boonex that I made before. The edit page load should be held up until the image is ready to display from STW. It is a simple fix that would completely solve the problem. Maybe a little pop up that says "Please wait while the site image is generated" would do the trick nicely.

Y'all need to quit trying to make a very simple issue into a national coding panic.....

@Skyforum  the fact that you can make it work, doesn't mean that everyone can - and it does not necessarily mean that your technique will work for everyone - re: "I will admit that I had to refresh the page a few times to give STW time to grab and produce the image but that's a matter of patience"

That might work for some people - it will work for me maybe on one of my projects - but that obviously is not a good solution - imagine telling your users that.   I am not even at that point yet - apparently one of these calls to shrinktoweb is being blocked by my hosts firewall, and we haven't been able to get it white listed.

@ArgonX - good info - I didn't realize those thumbs were in the local cache.   Does that mean that everytime you clear the cache they have to be regenerated?   That doesn't sound like a great solution either.

Has anyone though of doing a mod that would allow us to use http://www.Thumbshots. org ?  Maybe there would be fewer security issues.    Who is the project manager at Boonex for this module anyway - it would be nice if they weighed in.

It does work. The solution I offered WOULD work for everyone else except you@! Everything in life does not have to have an immediate response! What exactly do you need to tell your users beyond "please wait while the captured image is generated" ????? There is NO WAY that Boonex can write a script that would force STW OR ANY OTHER THUMBNAIL IMAGE GENERATING SITE to work faster than they already do. That is asking them to do the impossible. The entire process takes time!

Don't slam me for telling you and everyone else the obvious. If you don't like that the mod takes a few seconds to complete the task it's been asked to do, then don't use the damned thing. If it isn't working for you at all, I'll bet a dime to a dollar it's because you haven't fully researched your own configuration flaws choosing instead to try and blame someone else.

I did not "slam" you - it was wannabe who said, "perhaps you should investigate the problem before shouting you have the solution".

There was progress and good information being exchanged on two other threads before you made this "see, everything is fine" post, and then even put links on the other threads directing people to here.   I have seen you stop issues from being discussed this way before.

I don't know how to explain it to you any more clearly - I do not have the same issues you do, and several other people have different issues as well.   I an sorry if this is too strongly worded, but I never how how to respond when people make comments that are this dumb.   Specifically,  if I "don't like that the mod takes a few seconds to complete the task it's been asked to do, then don't use the damned thing".   For the people out there who actually read the comments before throwing tantrums, the mod on my site it should have been clear that I don't mind having to wait a few seconds to get results, my mod doesn't work at all.

That's fine that in your mind you have fixed this module for everyone but me with your brilliant insights in this post, but  It is my call whether I want to "use the damn thing" or not, not yours.

I did not change anything, i only updated the IPs on stw's website. What did the trick for me was that all teh sites I have added, i needed to re-add 6 hours later and then stw had fetched the thumbs of the sites and i got a thumbnail from them saved to local, and are now using the local file instead of quering stw each time someone want to watch sites module content eg call upon swt, but it's possible, but you only have 167 views/hour as limit.

I couldn't resist installing the sites module to see what this was all about.  STW does indeed tell you to add your site's IP address to the allowed referrers list.  I'm not really sure why this is required in addition to your domain name.  I don't how it will make anything more secure, since in the case of a shared server, and other hosting environments, there can be hundreds of sites with the same IP.  That's all beside the point though.

The problem I see, is on the Boonex side.  If you complete adding the site before the thumbnail has been generated at STW, you will never have a thumbnail displayed.  If you keep refreshing the page that immediately follows submitting the site url, the thumbnail will eventually appear.  It seems as though the sites module either gets the thumbnail during the site submission process, or not at all.  If the thumbnail isn't ready when the add site form is submitted, the site module script never attempts to fetch it again.

I'd have to call this just plain stupid, if that is indeed how the sites module behaves by design.  At the very least, I'd like to see a 'Update Thumbnail' button available to whoever added the site, and for the dolphin site administrator.  At least then, you would be able to explain to your members how to add the image if it wasn't available when the 'Add Site' form was submitted. 

I can understand, why a thumbnail would not always be available instantly, and no one is going to want to sit there and refresh the page until it's ready.  The sites module really needs to be redesigned to deal with the inevitable eventuality, that thumbnail generation will sometimes take a while.

I don't blame you for uninstalling it - and in many ways it is a POS, however, there are some reasons for wanting it to work.  For one, unlike almost everything else we do, it is "non-opt in" - so you can get to work on your site without hoping people will register.  For example, if you have a niche site - lets say "stamp collecting" it would not be all that hard to build a directory of all major stamp collectors in an area.  Second, this improves your keywords and SEO with your own content effort - and if it is in a specific social or industry area it should attract some search engine traffic.

This is probably why some people say they don't mind having to refresh their screen a half dozen times to get a single listing to work - they are only trying to get enough records in to cover a niche area so it doesn't matter.  In my case, I am not even that far as I don't seem to be able to get through the firewall of two different companies.    The founder of shrinktheweb wrote me tonight saying that he thought Boonex had put most of the fixes in 7.0.6, but they still hadn't gotten back with them to make sure all the changes were implement.

I agree this is a terrible design, and like the idea of a "generate thumbnail" button that separates out the functions.  I'm not there yet but I also don't like that "image" function - where after getting the thumbnail, you still have to upload another pic - seems like overkill to me.

houstonlivly,

indeed, a simple way would be to simple call stw until you get the thumbnail so then if someone visit your sites and a thumb is not there it wil try call on swt and get the thumb and display it. That way - again, you can delete your thumbs on your host and dolphin will re-fetch them.

A cleaner way imho.

So just trying to understand this. In the 7.0.6 release this has been fixed? Is the fix something that we can update just the module from 7.0.5 and not the whole site? 7.0.6 being so new a lot of mods might not be compatable with it yet is my concern.

ScottDB - Shrinktheweb is saying that Boonex says they think it is fixed with 7.0.6 - see the second page of this thread: http://goo.gl/Yr7ub but since Boonex isn't talking to us we don't know for sure.  Is still doesn't work at all for some of us, and very poorly for others.   I would imaging just the 7.0.6 module upgrade would work, but since that is a small upgrade you might as well do the whole thing.

just wondering ..

if i add a site .. www.cnn.com or www.google.com ..

The preview thumbnail is grey ... it used to show a thumbnail, but not anylonger ..

if i just go ahead .. and give a description and so on, the thumbnail is shown.

anyone has some idea what might be wrong ... this time ... ?

Workaround for Boonex Dolphin 7.0.x

The following is from Shrink The Web:

First is to install the following line of code into the header* of your page(s):
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.shrinktheweb.com/scripts/pagepix.js"></script>
Then in the body of the page (wherever you want to show a screenshot), you just put:
<script type="text/javascript">stw_pagepix('domain.tld', 'stwaccesskey', 'stwsize', 'language', 'stwargs');</script>
*The header of your page is between the <head> and </head> tags

Legend:

    * domain.tld = the domain you want to show
    * stwaccesskey = your STW Access Key (found in the HOME/LOBBY area)
    * stwsize = the output size you want to show (tny, mcr, xsm, sm, lg, xlg)
    * [OPTIONAL] language = English (EN) is the only language currently supported
    * [OPTIONAL] stwargs = the pro features in a single string (i.e. &stwfull=1&stwxmax=400)
          o If &stwxmax is specified, it will override the stwsize value

End of Shrink The Web

Start Sites Mod Workaround for Dolphin 7.0.x.

Change Dolphin Default Files.

First Open File:

Dolphin_Root/templates/base/_header.html

Add <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.shrinktheweb.com/scripts/pagepix.js"></script> right before the </head> tag.

So it looks like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.shrinktheweb.com/scripts/pagepix.js"></script>    

</head>

Second Change These Files:

1) Dolphin_Root/modules/boonex/sites/templates/base/unit.html

New unit.html:

<div class="bx_sites_unit">
    <div class="bx_sites_unit_thumb110" style="background-image: url(__image__);">
<!-- Start Cut
        <a href="__site_url__"><img src="__spacer__"/></a>
End Cut -->
<!-- Start New STW Code -->
        <script type="text/javascript">stw_pagepix('__url_title__', 'your_stwaccesskey', 'sm');</script><img src="__spacer__"/>
<!-- End New STW Code -->
    </div>
    <div class="bx_sites_unit_content">
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row">
            <div class="bx_sites_unit_title">
                <a class="bx_sites_unit_title_link" href="__site_url__">__title__</a>
            </div>
            __rate__
        </div>
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row bx_sites_unit_info">
            <span>__date__</span>
            <span>__comments__</span>
            <span>__owner_str__<a href="__owner_url__">__owner__</a></span>
            <span>__cats_str__&nbsp;__cats__</span>
            <span>__tags_str__&nbsp;__tags__</span>
        </div>
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row bx_sites_unit_description">
            <a href="__url__" class="link_site" target="_blank">__url_title__</a>&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;__description__
        </div>
    </div>
</div>



2) Dolphin_Root/modules/boonex/sites/templates/base/unit_admin.html

New unit_admin.html:

<div class="bx_sites_unit">
    <div class="bx_sites_unit_checkbox">
        <input type="checkbox" name="entry[]" value="__id__" />
    </div>
    <div class="bx_sites_unit_thumb110" style="background-image: url(__image__);">
<!-- Start Default Cut
        <a href="__site_url__"><img src="__spacer__"/></a>
End Default Cut -->
<!-- Start New STW Code -->
<script type="text/javascript">stw_pagepix('__url_title__', 'your_stwaccesskey', 'sm');</script>
<!-- End New STW Code -->
    </div>
    <div class="bx_sites_unit_content">
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row">
            <div class="bx_sites_unit_title">
                <a class="bx_sites_unit_title_link" href="__site_url__">__title__</a>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row bx_sites_unit_info">
            <span>__date__</span>
            <span>__comments__</span>
            <span>__owner_str__<a href="__owner_url__">__owner__</a></span>
            <span>__cats_str__&nbsp;__cats__</span>
            <span>__tags_str__&nbsp;__tags__</span>
        </div>
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row bx_sites_unit_description">
            <a href="__url__" class="link_site" target="_blank">__url_title__</a>&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;__description__
        </div>
    </div>
</div>



3) Dolphin_Root/modules/boonex/sites/templates/base/view_image.html

New view_image.html:

<div class="bx_sites_block_view" style="margin: 10px; overflow: hidden;">
    <a href="__site_url__" class="title" target="_blank">__site_url_view__</a>
    <div class="show_image">
<!-- Start Default Cut
        <img src="__image__" />
End Default Cut -->
<!-- Start New STW Code -->
<script type="text/javascript">stw_pagepix('__site_url__', 'your_stwaccesskey', 'xlg');</script><img src="__spacer__"/>
<!-- End New STW Code -->
    </div>
    <div class="bx_sites_block_rate">
        <div class="bx_sites_vote">__vote__</div>
        <div class="bx_sites_count">
            <div class="bx_sites_val" style="background: url('__image_view__') 8px center no-repeat;">
                <span>__view_count__</span>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>



4) Dolphin_Root/modules/boonex/sites/templates/base/block_percent.html

New block_percent.html:

<div class="bx_sites_block_percent" style="margin: 10px; overflow: hidden;">
    <div class="image">
<!-- Start Default Cut
        <a href="__site_url__"><img src="__image__" /></a>
End Default Cut -->
<!-- Start New STW Code -->
<script type="text/javascript">stw_pagepix('__url_title__', 'your_stwaccesskey', 'sm');</script>
<!-- Start New STW Code -->
    </div>
    <div class="bx_sites_unit_content bx_sites_content">
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row">
            <div class="bx_sites_unit_title">
                <a class="bx_sites_unit_title_link" href="__site_url__">__title__</a>
            </div>
            <div class="votes_small">__rate__</div>
        </div>
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row bx_sites_unit_info">
            <span>__date__</span>
            <span>__comments__</span>
            <span>__owner_str__<a href="__owner_url__">__owner__</a></span>
            <span>__cats_str__&nbsp;__cats__</span>
            <span>__tags_str__&nbsp;__tags__</span>
        </div>
        <div class="bx_sites_unit_row">
            <a href="__url__" class="link_site" target="_blank">__url_title__</a>&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;__description__
        </div>
    </div>
</div>



5) Dolphin_Root/modules/boonex/sites/templates/base/css/main.css

New main.css:

.bx_sites_default_padding {
    margin: 10px;
}

.bx_sites_unit {
    padding: 0px;
    margin: 10px;
    overflow: hidden;
    position: relative;
}

.bx_sites_unit_thumb110, .bx_sites_unit_thumb200 {
    background-position: center;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
    background-color:#EDEDED;
    float: left;
    margin-right: 10px;
}

.bx_sites_unit_thumb110 {
    width: 120px;
    height: 90px;
}

.bx_sites_unit_thumb200 {
    width: 208px;
    height: 208px;
}
    
.bx_sites_unit_thumb110 img {
    width: 120px;
    height: 90px;
/*    border: 4px solid white; */
}

.bx_sites_unit_thumb200 img {
    width: 200px;
    height: 200px;
    border: 4px solid white;
}

.bx_sites_content
{
    margin-top: 10px;
}

.bx_sites_unit_content {
    overflow: hidden;
    /*padding-left: 10px;*/
}

.bx_sites_unit_row {
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 1px;
}

.bx_sites_unit_description {
    overflow: hidden;
    height: 64px;
}

.bx_sites_unit_row .link_site {
    color: green;
}

.bx_sites_unit_info {
    color: gray;
}

.bx_sites_unit_info span {
    margin-right: 10px;
    font-size: 9px;
    float: left;
}

.bx_sites_unit_title {
    float: left;
    width: 85%;
}

.bx_sites_unit_title_link {
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #3333cc;
}

.boxContent .bx_sites_unit_row .votes_small {
    float: right;
    width: auto;
}

.bx_sites_unit_checkbox {
    position: absolute;
    top: 1px;
    left: 1px;
    width: 20px;
    height: 20px;    
    background-color: #ffcccc;
}

.dbContent {
    margin: 0px;
}

.bx_sites_block_view {
    margin: 10px;
    overflow: hidden;
}

.bx_sites_block_view .image {
    text-align: center;
}

.image img {
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    border: 1px solid #CCC;
    padding: 2px;
}

.bx_sites_block_view .title {
    margin: 10px 0 5px 0;
}

#bx_sites_share_popup {
    position: absolute;
    background-image: url(../images/op40.png);
    z-index: 999;
}
/*
.bx_sites_share_popup {
    width: 300px;
}
*/

End of Dolphin Change Default Files.



Go to STW and Lock to Account your IP address and your web URL into the Allowed Referrers Field.

Example:

xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
yoursite.com

End of Lock to Account



In the DolphIn Admin Back End go to Modules Sites And Make sure it looks like the following:

Url: http://images.shrinktheweb.com/xino.php    
Name of service: Leave Blank    
Name of action: Leave Blank    
Access Key: Your STW Access Key    
Secret Key: Your STW Secret Key

End of Mod Setup


Clear All Cache's


NOTE THIS IS JUST A START THE ADMIN BACK END HAS NOT BEEN DONE YET AND I MAY HAVE MISSED A FEW VIEWS IF ANY THING COMES UP I WILL ADD IT AT A LATER DATE.

How To get Sites to work with Thumbshots thumbnails.

Look for my earlier post for the directory and files to change.

In all of the template files look for the following line:

<a href="__site_url__"><img src="__spacer__"/></a>

Replace the above line with:

<a href="__site_url__"><img src="http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=__url__/"></a>

Except for the view_image.html file look for the following line:

<div class="show_image">

Replace the above line with:

<a href="__site_url__"><img src="http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=__site_url__/"></a>

Last thing that you need to do is to make sure that you have a link back to Thumbshots thumbnails

<a href="http://www.thumbshots.com/" target="_blank">Thumbshots thumbnails</a>

That is it everything should work as it does here:

http://eventsonlongisland.com

@rdonovan

I checked your site a few times over the last 2 hours and everytime saw "Account Problem" images instead of site thumbnails. Apparently there must be a connection to open.thumbshots.org for your suggested code change to work. 

Switch to the UNI template. I had only made the changes to the base template set.

Sorry, I made the above post  before changing all of the templates.

CORRECTION:

*** Except for the view_image.html file look for the following line: ***

<div class="show_image">

Replace the above line with:

<a href="__site_url__"><img src="http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=__site_url__/"></a>

Should be:

Except for the view_image.html file look for the following line:

<img src="__image__" />

Replace the above line with:
<a href="__site_url__"><img src="http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=__site_url__/"></a>