|
Post by SpyMaster on Jul 21, 2005 18:39:19 GMT
Had a thought about the URL encoding. What if I make it so each video file is in a zip file. That would trigger the download so I could disable right click. If I hide the status and address bar plus encode the source. Would that work?
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Jul 24, 2005 15:37:38 GMT
Putting them into zip files will trigger the dialog box so that's a good idea, but I'm not sure about the rest of it. You will presumably be achieving that via javascript, so you would need to test what happens when javascript is disabled, and then also check for cross-browser compatibility. I check most things using IE and Firefox, but I don't test other browsers. I really couldn't say - I think you would have to try it and see. When you're testing in Firefox, be sure to look at what is revealed by the Tools - Page Info feature because that may uncover items which you thought were concealed. I have been working on this and I even thought I had a solution last week. Everything was running fine until I inadvertently gave it a mis-typed url to work with, and at that point the url, which had been nicely encrypted, appeared unencoded on the page, in an error message - complete with typo but the server was shown plain as day so I gave up on that one. That was routing requests via CGI anonymous proxy servers so if you should come up with that idea then forget it. To be honest, I think this may prove impossible to achieve reliably without some fancy server-side scripting, and I would have to question if it's worth the effort. You might be better off searching for some reasonably high-storage free hosting services, and spreading the site over several hosts. There is just one avenue left which I want to look at, and that is something which I came across by accident when I was looking for redirect services and scripts (I've put a redirect on at Freewebs which leads to the new screencaps server). Here is a Google search for the terms free url redirect cloaking. I particularly wanted to check out the first service on the list, but I didn't get very far because new signups are temporarily disabled while they do some routine maintenance. So I'll look into some of those services and see what they offer, but if that doesn't prove to be of use then I will be out of ideas. I'll try to get back to you on that within a couple of days.
|
|
|
Post by SpyMaster on Jul 25, 2005 16:47:42 GMT
It's ok Steve I gave up. I went through the website and changed any details and the only privacy issue left is a contact me button which will send an e-mail to the POP3 e-mail account that came with the domain. I did have it on a redirect to the address which my grandpa is in charge of (because apparently my mum is to technologically challenged to check her own e-mail. : but because it's better to be safe than sorry I've changed it so the redirect is to my e-mail address and I can forward any legitimate e-mail and delete any unwanted. I know that it's not ideal but my mums happy with it so that's enough I guess. I'm sorry for any work that I put you through. I mean in an ideal world I'd love to have it all encoded and what have you but it doesn't appear to want to work out like that. However, because of the zip file idea which will trigger the save as thing I think my first idea might work. You could try it out here www.top48hours.com/article30.htmlIf you think it'll work that'll be fantastic. I wouldn't have given up but as you know I'm going on vacation on thursday and I wanted to get the site finished and up by then. Thanks and sorry Spy_Master
|
|
|
Post by Flick on Aug 5, 2005 19:22:56 GMT
I've decided to set up a forum like this one, but when i'm filling in the 'Join Up' section and it requires me to pick a website URL, must i put a number after the proboards, or does proboards do that itself? E.g. the URL for this site is stanies.proboards3.com/index.cgiI'm just not sure how much URL to enter, if you know what i mean?
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Aug 5, 2005 21:40:44 GMT
Proboards will allocate the server number automatically, Flick. Whichever server is least populated at the time of signup is the server number which will appear in the url. You have no control over that, so you only need to specify the portion of the url which, in the address for this forum, says stanies
Everything else is allocated automatically.
|
|
|
Post by Flick on Aug 6, 2005 10:56:52 GMT
Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by Flick on Aug 7, 2005 16:23:18 GMT
I know where to change the colours of my forum, but how do i know the numbers for the colour chart? Is there any way in which i can view the colour chart? ETA Sorry, i've now found the colour chart.
|
|
|
Post by SpyMaster on Aug 21, 2005 16:26:34 GMT
Steve I just came across ImageShack which sounds like it could work for both Stanie and I because they have no limits on uploading and bandwith. It's also free.
However, the one problem is havning to upload images one by one. To me that's annoying but not unexpected and the benefits of the no limits uploading outweigh the annoyance particularly as you get to have all your images in one place. Plus I've run out of room in my photobucket account and anglefire overnight have added more adverts to my pictures pages than you see on the TV during a commerical. Also you can't hotlink from anglefire.
If you know of anywhere better please tell me. I thought that this sounded pretty good though.
|
|
|
Post by SpyMaster on Aug 21, 2005 16:59:27 GMT
Actually Steve I take back what I said about ImageShack. It's one of the most annoying places I've ever uploaded. First it changes the filename. Then it does generate the code for you but upside down and also using a kind of photoblog system.
I'll use it to upload my John Michaels caps because I'm desperate but after that I'm staying clear.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Aug 21, 2005 20:20:14 GMT
It's a real problem trying to find image hosting eh Spy_Master. I've spent hours searching but I always meet a stumbling block - not enough storage capacity or not enough bandwidth or only single-file upload or whatever. I gave up eventually and applied my energies to finding a better host, which is when I came across free-webster with 600MB/unlimited bandwidth. That turned into a farce though. The login page disappeared one time for an entire weekend. The support forum was buzzing with users grumbling about it and then when it came back online, loads of users found their accounts had vanished from the database, including Stanie's. The entire site had vanished. We took a chance on re-registering and hoped it wouldn't happen again so we rebuilt the site and guess what? One night it just vanished again - the account had been wiped from the database so we gave up and we're back on Freewebs for the time being. After you mentioned that it was possible to check the used space from the Photobucket Account Options, I discovered that I'm only at something like 40% capacity on mine, so I've asked Alice to make the next few sets of screencaps and then zip them and send them to me and I'll put them into my account for the meantime until we get a permanent solution. Oh yes, and we had to find a new host for the videos in a hurry - easier said than done because they are big files. The place we're using is good enough in the meantime - it stores files for 14 days before deleting (many places are only 7 days) and what's really good is that in the control panel, you can see the last download date for each file. I keep an eye on that and if anything is approaching 14 days without a download, I do a download myself to restart the countdown. That's only happened once though, with one file, because the videos are popular. They're at www.savefile.comI won't be looking for extra-large capacity/high bandwidth hosting again, nor will I be searching for image hosts. I think the best solution is likely to be to spread the site across several hosts, each with 100MB or 150MB storage. The videos may continue to have to be hosted off-site though, because many hosting services have a filesize restriction in place, typically 1MB, and the largest video Alice has created so far is 26MB. Two other things - firstly, I've taken to reading the Terms and Conditions for hosting quite carefully, because some of them specifically prohibit screencap sites, and sometimes there are things like extremely short 'no activity' periods - as little as a week - meaning the site is liable to closure if nobody visits for a seven-day period. So if you see a host that you're keen on, be sure to read the T&Cs through carefully before committing. The other thing is, although it's probably a bit late now, there is a way to do multiple file uploads to Photobucket (i.e. more than 19 at a time). From the Photobucket login page, go to Tutorials, and you will see this:
Getting Images into My Photobucket Account:
Single Image Upload from Computer, Multiple Image Upload from Computer, Uploading with the Photobucket Windows Upload Tool, Uploading with FTP, Uploading with Windows XP PublisherI downloaded the Windows Upload Tool. I haven't used it yet but it should be handy for when I get those zip files and put the next few episodes into my account. I didn't check out Uploading with Windows XP Publisher, because believe it or not, I'm still running Win98 here. Edit: Oops, I forgot to say - thanks for the info. Also, just to clarify - no, I'm afraid I didn't come across a single image hosting service which looked like it would be workable on a large scale. If I had, it would be in use by now, and it would save me the task of searching for hosting services yet again.
|
|
|
Post by SpyMaster on Aug 22, 2005 12:13:34 GMT
I don't care if it's a singe image host Steve or several. I'm just desperate for anything. However, small. I've sworn off freewebs though for image hosting for life. That's how I uploaded all my Royal pictures and then slowly without warning the majority of them were deleted. Plus you can only upload 50 files or 20mb which adds up to a lot of accounts.
I've heard that Megaupload is good for video hosting. I know somebody who hosts all their videos that way and rarely has a problem. Savefile sounds good though so stick with what works.
How do you search for image hosts? I've tried trawling through google and you just end up going to the same ones.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Aug 22, 2005 19:35:39 GMT
I just trawled through Google too, Spy_Master, so I can't help much there. Here's a place I found a couple of months ago: www.photojerk.com/It just so happened that a few hours before I registered, they'd had a major hardware failure at the server. I could login but I kept getting an error message when I uploaded a file, so no pics were uploading. After trying a few more times over a couple of days I gave up and forgot all about them. I came across the link last night and tried again - still no uploads. Well I just clicked to change my e-mail address, and that forced a new activation code and it's now working! I think the free account might be jpeg format only but that's still useful eh, and the really good feature (if it works) is that they support Zip uploads with server-side unzip, just like Freewebs, but I think the unzip process might be automatic as soon as it receives the file - not sure on that. Take a look, and if you come across the failed upload error message, try clicking to change your e-mail address to get a new validation code - you can always change it back again.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Aug 23, 2005 2:46:20 GMT
I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd do something useful while I'm having a cup of tea, and I've been looking at Photojerk. I uploaded a zip file no problem; server-side unzipping is automatic as the upload completes, and then the page refreshes and lists the UBB and html codes for the new files. You can also navigate at any time to any of your images and click to obtain the links for an image individually, and you can create folders, just like on Photobucket. I don't see any thumbnail function, such as the Photobucket one which you made us aware of recently, whereby you precede the image with th_I uploaded 10 thumbs (I made them myself) and the 10 corresponding full-size images, with the intention of putting 10 clickable thumbs in here but I just remembered that since the Proboards version 4 upgrade I think that's no longer possible. Here are the 10 thumbs then, with 9 hyperlinks, and one full-size image, all hosted at Photojerk. It looks like a good deal to me, Spy_Master, so if you look into it yourself, would you let me know if you see any hidden snags, because I can't see any. The situation regarding bandwidth usage is a bit vague, but that's highly unlikely to be an issue for Stanie's site. Hopefully you will find it useable too. files.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/001.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/002.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/003.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/004.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/005.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/006.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/007.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/008.jpgfiles.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/009.jpg
|
|
|
Post by SpyMaster on Aug 23, 2005 12:18:04 GMT
I don't see any thumbnail function, such as the Photobucket one which you made us aware of recently, whereby you precede the image with th_I uploaded 10 thumbs (I made them myself) and the 10 corresponding full-size images, with the intention of putting 10 clickable thumbs in here but I just remembered that since the Proboards version 4 upgrade I think that's no longer possible. It is still possible Steve. I don't know how you did it before but this is how I do it. It's just like HTML only with different tags. Using one of your examples. [url=http://files.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/001.jpg][img]http://files.photojerk.com/Steve/test01/th001.jpg[/img][/url] which makes this It looks like a good deal to me, Spy_Master, so if you look into it yourself, would you let me know if you see any hidden snags, because I can't see any. The situation regarding bandwidth usage is a bit vague, but that's highly unlikely to be an issue for Stanie's site. Hopefully you will find it useable too. It says that the bandwith is unmetered so doesn't that mean you can use as much as you like? Although if you were using GB a day then they might complain. I'll look into it. I did 126 images or two pages of my John Michaels caps with Imageshack and then found one site with good bandwith but only 10mb space. That last night was better than nothing so I've got another page there. If this photojerk pans out it'll be a whole lot better than pictures all over the place. Thanks Steve ;D
|
|
|
Post by SpyMaster on Aug 23, 2005 13:56:17 GMT
I've uploaded all my John Michaels caps there and it was really easy. It didn't seem to like zip files very much and didn't unzip the file but it was ok with rar files. They load quickly, quicker than photobucket I believe. John Michaels capsI looked under the FAQ's about bandwith and this is what it said I don't know if that answers your question. Anyway I managed to swap my hosting from photobucket to photojerk in about twenty minutes. That includes upload time and changing the html files (easy because it doesn't alter the filenames just find/replace.) Last word. Stay away from ImageShack. Not only does it not allow you to upload more than one image at a time, alter the filenames and screw up the code it provides it also doesn't allow you to delete more than one image at a time.
|
|