Automatic Screenshot

They have: 426 posts

Joined: Feb 2005

I want to build the same functionality as PHPlinkdirectory - when you add a link, the system automatically gets a screenshot of the website?

How is this done. Any pointer are approciated.

Thanks.

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

If you plan to use PHPLD then there is already a plugin for those. Or you can look for developer resources of the auto screen shot. Or look for third-party functionality like websnappr...

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,956 posts

Joined: Jun 2002

We use this functionality on our Projects section. So I have had a good look at the available options, and for our needs Websnapr (despite the daft name) was best for us.

There are ways to set this up yourself, all contained on your own server, but as most Web servers don't have any display capabilities beyond a simple command line it can be quite difficult. It will also require at least a VPS with root access, will take up quite a lot of processor time and increase the security risk to the server (adding any piece of software does this, but a GUI is a big bit of software, with lots of potential holes and attack vectors).

PHPlinkdirectory is available for download by the way, as demonhale pointed out there's a plugin for generating screenshots.

Could you point us to an example of a link with a screenshot? I looked at PHPlinkdirectory, but couldn't see any.

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demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

Here is a link to easily put screenshots/thumbnails in PHPLD and it's quite easy. There are also other links in there for such purpose...

LINK

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Sep 2008

It's quite wrong to think that phpLD generates a thumbnail for each added site. Instead it relies on a 3rd party site that generates thumbnails for the entire web.
So you can simply use the same site services (which are free) - for example http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=http://www.whateverurl.org/

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

Yes as mentioned third-party apps. The Link above on my posts shows you how to plug it in PhpLD...

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