shrinktheweb alternative

I'll like to know what services you guys are using to add sites since shrinktheweb has proven not to be a choice, at least to me. Thanks in advance

Capping the image from a website on the web is not that difficult. I am surprised no one has approached it here as a mod because it would work far better than trying to use an outside source to perform this task. having said that, i think the word is out and someone is probably tinkering with it.

There are also a bunch of other resources on the web for web thumbnail images, just do am google search and drill down a bit to get past the paid crap.

For sure there are a bunch of other resources on the web for web thumbnail images. One of my non-Dolphin websites uses another very effective one. But it is fully integrated in the code. Some of us cannot mess with codes. I have had enough problems tweaking my site to what it is now. I was hoping for a simple addition, and thought some people have already found another solution since working with shrinktheweb has shown to be complex

I know im being stupid here... could someone care to explain to me what shrinktheweb actualy is and why I might need it?

It's a service that has automated the process of taking a screen shot of the homepage of a website. It's only used in Dolphin in the "Sites" module. So if a user (or the admin) adds a website through that module the little thumb nail picture you see of the site was provided by the Shrinktheweb service.

ahhhhh.... cant the user that wants to upload a screen shot of their site just us printscreen and then shrink it and upload it.... oh... i could write a flash app to do that....

Well if you are interested www.shrinktheweb.com has started a contest for developers to create a new plugin to replace the old one.

1st Place Prize: $1,000 USD**
2nd & 3rd Place Prizes: $250 USD each**

http://www.boonex.com/n/attention-dolphin-developers-shrinktheweb-integra-2011-11-09

Andrew Boon has offered to work with the winning developer to achieve required code "quality" for the mod and it will be included into the default Dolphin package.

I just hope the new plugin works better than the current one and wish there were more contests so that other plugins could be improved or even updated.

I could only write it as falsh or java applet... php is outa my league....

 You could always join forces with a developer that knows how to code in php. 1st prize is $1,000 so if you win it's $500 each and if you come 2nd it's $125 each.

A flash applet would be a start.

Here's my issue with the entire idea of an outside source for website thumbnails.

You make a request. That request has to go to another site and be recognized. Once recognized, then that site needs to go to the site you originally requested, cap an image, then transport it back to their site, compress the image to whatever dimension is required, add it to their library then make that image available to you via an outside URL.

I don't care how efficient they are, that's going to take forever.Plus, if the site fails for whatever reason, you're left with a bunch of red x's where the images used to be.

Now, consider this as a better alternative.

You click the link in the sites mod. Your server side application (local) goes to the site and grabs the image you need for the thumbnail. Your site compresses the image into whatever size format you have selected and places it in your photo library for later use. The URL (a local one) is then provided to the sites mod and the image presents itself.

Which do you think will be faster, more reliable, and always there? The business model ShrinkTheWeb and all the other sites are using is a faulty one and will not survive. It will not survive because eventually, everyone will do it the way I just described. Their idea is the same as uploading your image locally to another website do to a resizing of your image, then having to download it back again to your server. Dolphin has already solved that problem by doing the image re-size locally on your server. (They should be taking the lead here as well but I'm not in a Dolphin bashing mood this morning).

There is also the concern about what is happening to your information? You need to create accounts with these outside servers. They aren't doing this service for free, They are after something and usually it's the email addresses or IP information you provide by using their service. The ones that aren't information farming are going to start charging you for the service. I for one would never want to pay for something I can generate myself.

 I agree with you dude ... the problem is we can't afford to start a contest, come up with $1000 USD and toss it at a developer so they can come up with a better alternative. If we did, only then would we have been able to convince Boonex to do it that way.

@skyforum

Unfortunately, you do not realize the process that is currently required to do this nor the on-going support that is involved. So the irony is that the answer to your question is that ShrinkTheWeb will be the faster and more reliable alternative. Performing all of the steps you mentioned for an outside service when using ShrinkTheWeb takes mere milliseconds (or load time for the site if a new capture) AND we offer ways to cache locally so that it loads from your own server for each future request. So that takes care of the red X's issue. We provide the means to never have a red X and optimize the process. That is part of the contest's integration requirements.

ShrinkTheWeb always has been the best way to handle screenshots, but the Dolphin integration has been flawed in key ways and is why Andrew Boon has offered his support in helping to overcome the limitations.

A lot of people are frustrated with the integration and we are stepping up to the challenge with the contest that bengunn mentioned, in an effort to help "de-frustrate" all Dolphin users. This, we do, as a courtesy and a gesture of goodwill for the community.

However, the "do-it-yourself" method is actually a better choice for some technical types who have relatively low volume, lack of funds for a supported service, and the time to setup and maintain their own code.

There is even a post in our forum, explaining step-by-step how to use a google developed piece of code (wkhtmltoimage) that will do all of this for you. Here is a link where you can do-it-yourself and bypass any service: http://www.shrinktheweb.com/content/security-and-compatibility-behind-new-stw-preview-verification-code-js-embedding-scheme.html

But, jeez, whatever you do... stop insinuating that services that require registration are set up to spam or sell email addresses. It's ludicrous and irresponsible to keep stating. None of our customers or free users have ever been spammed by us or by ConstantContact as a result of opting in to our account.

You are pretty good about bouncing around the issue. It still remains.

What is your explanation of an email service that won't accept an email address that contains names like 'admin@'???

Now be careful, I have done a lot of research on this....

Only trying to get you to answer a simple question.

Why won't you answer it?

Afraid the answer will tell all?

Come on, let us have it. Put me in my place...

All you have to do is answer the question.

Would you like me to repeat the question for you?

Maybe you don't even know the answer....???

I thought you were brighter than that.

I'm wondering if someone has tried thumbshots integration?  I just logged into my account there, and here is all that is required for the code

<img src="http://open.thumbshots.org/image.aspx?url=[LINK]" border="1" />

The "link" there needs to be replaced with the link of the site you want the thumbnail for, so some code would be needed to make that.  Also, this would be a smaller image for their free service - I believe you can get larger sizes with a subscription service.  Since the Dolphin system was designed to work with Shrinktheweb the space for the image is larger and I don't know how it will look, but it might be worth a shot.

@SkyForum

I've seen a lot of posts now from you about why we chose to use an email service provider, why we went with Constant Contact, and why they don't accept admin@ and other such role-based email prefixes.  I believe puravida has fully explained this ad nauseum but in case not I will gladly reiterate.  We chose to move to an ESP because the vast majority of our users weren't getting our emails.  This generated a tremendous volume of direct support requests and unhappy customers anytime we had scheduled maintenance, service updates, assorted account issues, etc.  So we decided that in order to deliver the best possible service and support, we needed to be able to communicate efficiently and effectively with our users.  

We chose Constant Contact because they are #1 in their market space and we were looking for reliability, security, and longevity.  As for Constant Contact not accepting role-based email addresses; I know the reason they give, I've read what you believe, and I have few theories of my own, but for all I know you might have the right of it.  We weren't even aware of this policy until after we had spent a considerable amount of developer resources and money integrating their service into our system.  But ultimately why they do what they do, as it pertains to their core business model, has little relevance to us because we aren't using them as a platform for launching an ad campaign but rather as an effective communication tool.  Honestly their role-based email restrictions have been a major headache for us and an inconvenience to our users, and had we known about it early on in the project we would have likely moved in another direction.  As it is, from a business continuity perspective, we are not in a position to write off the effort and expense we put into that project.  Not to mention the fact that it seems to be working pretty well thus far.

I do not believe that Constant Contact would use or sell any of their customer's email lists as it is paramount to the reputation of Constant Contact to respect their customer's privacy.  If suddenly their emails were blacklisted by all the spam filters then they would go out of business.  If we, or any of their other customers, were to discover that they were using or selling our email lists we would move swiftly to cut ties with them.  

Hopefully this has adequately answered your question / spoken to your concerns.  Please feel free to address any additional comments to me and I will gladly reply as time permits.

Best Regards,

Frank Grogan

Co-Founder of ShrinkTheWeb

Not sure I understand the complexity here. If STW does not fit our requirements, why is it so difficult for us to move in a different direction? Just cant get to grips of name calling and criticizing each other. By pointing fingers we are not resolving a very old issue (which should have been dealt with a long time ago).

Lets be professionals about this and move on.

Perhaps it is not economically viable for STW to have us as clients or potential ones at least.

Is there a solution to this situation? I have seen other sites the have their clients business websites show theie thumbnails immediately upon entering their business info and website URL.

@CALTRADE

I'm very sorry to hear that you have had continued difficulty using our service and that your account was among those that got banned due to the new email requirements.  I wanted to let you know that I have reviewed and reinstated your account.  Unfortunately the reinstatement  process is manual, and we did not receive a reply or update to your ticket advising that you had completed the opt-in process.  I know you and I spoke earlier this year and that we were unable to resolve the issues you were having at that time.  The contest we are currently holding to improve the STW integration in the sites module is actually a direct result of our conversations.  Once you brought to our attention the issues BoonEx users were having with the existing integration we started talking to the BoonEx developers, and now that we can finally afford some bandwidth to prioritize 3rd party integration development we decided to start with BoonEx.

I hope that once we have this all sorted out you will give us another chance.  I can certainly understand your frustration and welcome you to contact me directly should you be so inclined. 

Best Regards,

Frank

Ok, Frank, thank you.  I did get your letter, and as I said in my reply, I thought I was careful to respond to every letter you sent, but never mind.  I was just now able to access your service, and I added my new site to the sites that are supposed to be allowed access there.  I decided to give it another shot, and added the access codes to my sites module.

Just prior to this, I had the brief joy of being able to add sites to this directory - though without getting any thumbnail images, which have never worked.  As soon as I added your codes, however, and tried to enter a site, I got a "invalid url" error message, and it wouldn't let me go any further.  The url was completely valid, so I tried again with Yahoo, just to make sure, but that wouldn't let me go any further either.  That is what is infuriating about this integration - when your site doesn't work, it stops you from being able to enter a listing at all.  On this version, at least, it seemed that it didn't require shrinktheweb - if there were no codes in there, you could enter a listing - though without getting a thumbnail, but at least it didn't block you anymore.

Ok, so I go back and remove your access codes so I can at least have my directory again, and guess what - not it won't work again.  Every url is now invalid.  Does your code change something in the software?  I would like to maybe get it to work someday, or find some alternative, but how can I get back to what I had just a few minutes ago before I added your codes - a working directory?

 Wow!

Ok, does anyone know just how to remove it?  Once you try it, it is apparently a one-way street, and if it doesn't work, you are screwed.  I even removed the shrinktoweb url in the sites module control panel, but just from trying it I have broken what I finally had working.  That is why that other member who was attacking me here saying I was "bitching" about an optional service was so clueless.   This is pretty much what happened before.  Do I have to replace all the files, uninstall and reinstall, and lose the work I have done? 

This thread is supposed to be about alternatives to shrinktheweb, and I do wish one of the coders here would take a look at that code snippet for Thumbshots I posted above.  If there was a way to get the replacement code for "link" in that, then it would just be a matter of finding the correct placement for it I think.  The large thumbshots from shrinktheweb might be nice if it could ever be made to work, but I have a really critical project that needs this, and I am just trying to get to work on it. 

I inadvertently hijacked this thread myself by talking about shrinktheweb, but even if that is the main way many people use that mod here, I think there should be an alternative, and that is what this thread was intended to discuss. 

 you did see this right?

http://www.boonex.com/forums/?action=goto&my_threads=1#topic/Site-Thumbnails-made-EASY-.htm